NYC Film Critic

The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film On Stranger Tides is intended to launch a new series of high-seas adventures with Captain Jack Sparrow at its center.  But mostly this leaden blockbuster just shows why the franchise has run its course.  Read my review over at Film Journal and try to resist the lure of Johnny Depp’s pirate mascara if you can.  Your wallet will thank you.

Bridesmaids
Directed by Paul Feig
Written by Kristen Wiig and Anne Mumolo
Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy
***1/2

There’s no way to say this without sounding hyperbolic, but the new Judd Apatow-produced, Paul Feig-directed comedy Bridesmaids is the closest I’ve seen a studio comedy come to channeling the Marx Brothers in some time.  Now mind you, I don’t mean to place Bridesmaids in rarefied company of such classics as Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera or Animal Crackers.  But what this movie has in common with those classics is the skillful way it escalates its comic set-pieces, upping the ante as the scene unfolds.  Take the immortal stateroom sequence from A Night at the Opera, which opens in a perfectly ordinary way, with Groucho, Chico and Harpo crammed into a tiny cabin aboard a big ocean liner.  Gradually, more and more people start entering the space (maids, janitors, manicurists) and attempt to go about their tasks despite the lack of room.  The energy and choreographed chaos of the scene continues to build until it reaches its final punchline—Margaret Dumont opening the door—and the audience erupts in laughter.

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Thor
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins
**

As a feature-length preview for The Avengers—the all-star superhero team-up picture that Marvel Studios is unleashing next summer—Thor offers a number of moments that will make comic-book fans extremely happy.

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The creator of Star Wars is placed on trial by the franchise’s many fans in the new documentary The People Vs. George Lucas.  Sadly, the film doesn’t make its case, but it does provide a fun look at the many faces of contemporary fandom.  Read my full review over at Film Journal International.

POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Directed by Morgan Spurlock
**1/2

Perhaps befitting Morgan Spurlock’s self-stated desire to make “the blockbuster of documentaries,” POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is the Super Size Me director’s most high-concept film to date.  As he regularly reminds us during the course of the movie, Spurlock has made a film about advertising that’s been paid for entirely by advertisers.

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The Princess of Montpensier
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
Screenplay by Jean Cosmos, Francois-Olivier Rousseau, Bertrand Tavernier
Starring Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gregorie Leprince-Ringuet, Gaspard Ulliel
***1/2

With its agreeable mixture of petty scheming, bedroom intrigue, and self-absorbed alpha males and the naive temptresses that love them, the French costume drama The Princess of Montpensier is perhaps best described as medieval pulp fiction.  Co-written and directed by veteran Gallic filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, the film is based on an almost 350-year-old story by Madame de la Fayette, the penname of a 17^th century countess that published much of her work anonymously during her lifetime.

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I filed a brief reaction to Kelly Reichardt’s terrific Western Meek’s Cutoff when I first saw the film at the New York Film Festival last October.  Now that the movie is finally opening in theaters for the rest of you to see (as well you should) I’ve expanded on those thoughts in a review for Film Journal.  Keep checking the film’s official website to learn when its opening in your area and make plans to see it as soon as it arrives.

Silliness reigns in David Gordon Green’s foul-mouthed fantasy spoof Your Highness, co-written by and starring Danny McBride, one of the more unique comic personalities working today.  It’s an almost deliberately messy and imperfect movie, but I laughed quite a bit, perhaps because I have a soft spot in my heart for the vintage ’80s fantasies its riffing on.  Read my mild defense of this proudly dumb comedy over at Film Journal.

Blank City
Directed by Céline Danhier
***
New York City had it rough all over during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s but the hardest hit neighborhood—apart from virtually the entire Bronx, of course—had to be Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Visitors to that part of town would have been treated to such unwelcoming sights as derelict buildings, rampant crime and drug abuse.  On the other hand, the sheer ugliness of the surroundings meant that rents were either dirt cheap or non-existent.  That made the area a prime location for the waves of young artists that were still moving into New York even as the rest of the city’s population seemed to be looking for a way out.

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After a fairly lethargic March, April kicks off with a weekend full of fresh releases.  Read capsule reviews of six of the new movies that can be found in theaters tomorrow (including the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Source Code, pictured above) after the jump.

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