Basterds, the IRA and the real Mad Men

This week in theaters, Quentin's back, the Irish Troubles rear their head and Ben Stiller gets dumped.

“Inglourious Basterds”
Unveiled at Cannes earlier this year, where co-star Christoph Waltz marched away with the best actor prize for his villainous portrayal of “Jew Hunter” Hans Landa, Quentin Tarantino’s ten-year labor of love split audiences between those praising the film’s swaggering panache and those bemoaning languid pacing and a miserly quota of scalps. Delivering a swift boot heel to historical accuracy, QT oversees Brad Pitt and his ruthless squadron of mercenaries as they team up with a vengeful Jewish survivor (Mélanie Laurent) during World War II to assassinate members of the German high command as they gather to attend — what else? — a movie premiere. Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, and Mike Myers are amongst the many supporting players.
Opens wide.

“The Marc Pease Experience”
The latest casualty of Paramount’s decision to amputate its indie production label Paramount Vantage, this whimsical comedy from actor/director Todd Louiso finds itself dropped into a handful of middle America markets with next to no advance publicity (there isn’t even a trailer) despite the heavyweight presence of both Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman in the leads. Billed as something of a “Rushmore: The Wilderness Years,” the film stars Schwartzman as the eponymous overachiever still living off his extra-curricular glory days as a high school musical star well into adulthood, with Stiller as his former teacher/mentor who tries to steer him onto something approaching the right path.
Opens in limited release.

“My One and Only”
Despite a string of prestigious award nominations out the wazoo (BAFTA, DGA) and one bona fide Emmy on his mantle, Brit director Richard Loncraine’s most commercially successful project remains the shockingly lackluster Harrison Ford vehicle “Firewall.” So he’s taking another crack at it with thesp George Hamilton’s remembrance of his (forcibly) misspent youth under the whim of his trailblazing mother, here given the name Anne Devereaux (Renée Zellweger). Abandoning her philandering husband (Kevin Bacon) and absconding across country with their boys (Mark Rendall and Logan Lerman), spirited southern belle Anne clings to her self-belief while all else slips away as she moves from town to town searching seemingly in vain for a replacement husband.
Opens in limited release.

“Passing Strange”
Tacking on a little backstage action here and there, director Spike Lee delivers an otherwise straight-up multi-camera document of Mark Stewart’s (aka Stew) Tony Award- winning, semi-autobiographical stage musical about an African-American teen (Daniel Breaker) called Youth, who escapes his suffocating inner-city L.A. existence and his overbearing mother (Eisa Davis) to tour the bohemian subcultures of Europe in a quest for “the real.”
Opens in New York.

“Post Grad”
With more than 20 years experience in animation, having cut her teeth as co-director on such high-profile fare as “Shrek” and “Shark Tale,” Vicky Jenson strides out on her own with this live-action debut, find-your-way teen rom-com. “Gilmore Girls”‘ Alexis Bledel lives out every twenty-something’s worst nightmare as an overeducated, under-skilled and gainfully unemployed college graduate back under mom and dad’s roof with zero job opportunities, but two potential suitors in childhood pal (Zach Gilford) and her older exotic neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro). Michael Keaton and Jane Lynch provide support as Bledel’s world-weary parents.
Opens wide.

“Shorts”
When he isn’t skulking around the dark and blood-splattered alleyways of the Mexican underworld or Sin City, director Robert Rodriguez runs a nice, profitable sideline in garish, high-energy kid flicks. The latest embodiment of the “one for them, one for me” school of filmmaking has the “Spy Kids” helmer offering up another high-concept pre-teen wish-fulfillment fantasy that finds the corporate-controlled suburb of Black Falls thrown into colorful CGI chaos when boyhood pals Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) and Nose Noseworthy (Jake Short) discover a rainbow rock that grants the wishes of anyone holding it. Cue the giant robots, the tiny space aliens and the man-eating boogers.
Opens wide.

“World’s Greatest Dad”
Having briefly flirted with reinventing himself at the beginning of the aughts, Robin Williams has seemed to have migrated back to the center of comedic fare so middle-of-the-road (“RV”, “License to Wed”) it’s a wonder he hasn’t been hit by a truck. Good news then as word from the festival circuit proclaims this role as failed writer and general doormat Lance Clayton, a father whose efforts to reconnect with his obnoxious son (Daryl Sabara) lead to some devilishly tragicomic results, to be his best turn in years. Fellow comedian Bobcat Goldthwait scripts and directs this none-more-black follow-up to the really dark 2006 comedy “Sleeping Dogs Lie.”
Opens in New York and Los Angeles and available on VOD.

“X Games 3D: The Movie”
Extreme sports and cinematic spectaculars go together as naturally as “Aliens Vs. Predator,” and so Sports Emmy Award-winning director Steve Lawrence pairs the action of the X Games with vibrant 3-D. Offering up a highlight reel pulled from this extreme sport event’s 14-year history, Lawrence covers every grind, air, flip and bail on the big screen for a one week only run.
Opens wide.

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