Ugly People and Dangerous Men

Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston and Charlize Theron take the lead in this week's new releases.

“The Informant!”
Director Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Kurt Eichenwald’s nonfiction corporate exposé is the kind of darkly comic blend of absurdity and banality one would normally expect to see from the Coen brothers. Centered on agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland’s involvement in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy during the mid-‘90s, the film finds Matt Damon flexing his comic muscle as the bipolar whistleblower whose three-year globe-trotting undercover assignment for the FBI went hand-in-hand with his own corporate embezzlement, despite a series of personal meltdowns that threatened to bring the investigation crashing down.
Opens wide.

“Jennifer’s Body”
Listen carefully — that’s the sound of knives being collectively sharpened by critics the world over, ready to eviscerate whatever stripper-turned-memoirist-turned-screenwriting sensation Diablo Cody offers up next. Naturally, Cody is responding with a horror film, fanging up Megan Fox’s teeth to play a sultry cheerleader who begins to devour young boys when she falls under a curse. Amanda Seyfried co-stars as her plain Jane best friend who takes it upon herself to stop her in this high school-set chiller from “Æon Flux” director Karyn Kusama.
Opens wide.

“Love Happens”
We’re unable to decide if “Love Happens” is a catchy title or simply one of the laziest labels for a romantic comedy in some time. Regardless, the heavyweight presence of Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart is a major coup for first-time director Brandon Camp, even if his somber script, co-written with Mike Thompson, does cry out for a pairing a pay grade above Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Here Hollywood’s most luxuriant bonnet plays a florist who catches the eye of Eckhart’s widowed self-help guru at a seminar, forcing him to come to terms with his terrible loss.
Opens wide.

“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
With more and more disturbing truths about the Bush administration’s obsession with secrets in the name of security coming to light, there’s an extra air of poignancy surrounding this retrospective documentary from Judith Ehrlich and Oscar-nominated director Rick Goldsmith (“Tell the Truth and Run”). Centering on former U.S. military analyst-turned-whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, this historical overview revisits the so-called Pentagon Papers scandal that crippled public support for the Vietnam War and forever tarnished the image of the White House in the eyes of the American people.
Opens in New York.

“Paris”
Celebrated French director Cédric Klapisch (“L’auberge espagnole”) returns to the City of Lights for another of his trademark pretzel-plotted serenades to love and life, with longtime muse Romain Duris again serving as his director’s go-to guy for this, their sixth collaboration. Duris stars as Pierre, an ailing dancer anxiously awaiting a heart transplant whose mind wanders towards the minutia of his neighborhood’s daily hustle and bustle as he reconnects with his sister Elise (Juliette Binoche), who is shaken by the news of her brother’s condition and begins to take stock of her own unsatisfied situation. “Inglourious Basterds” star Mélanie Laurent, Fabrice Luchini and François Cluzet co-star. In French with subtitles.
Opens in limited release.

“Pretty Ugly People”
With his baby blue eyes, chiseled cheekbones and a chin you could land a helicopter on, it’s somewhat surprising to find actor-turned-writer-director Tate Taylor ribbing on our appearance-obsessed culture with this his directorial debut. He gifts a rare leading role to chameleonic bit-parter Missi Pyle for a comedy about one woman’s dying wish to reunite her college friends. Pyle stars as a one-time heffalump who gathers together her scattered circle together to celebrate her miraculous weight loss with a weekend’s hiking, only for them to discover they don’t much like the person she’s become. Jack Noseworthy, Octavia Spencer, Allison Janney and William Sanderson co-star.
Opens in Los Angeles.

“The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry”
Faith-based filmmakers Rich and Dave Christiano return to the big screen with the coming-of-age tale of three young friends (Frankie Ryan Manriquez, Allen Isaacson and Jansen Panettiere) whose lazy days of fishing off bridges and innocent mischief during the summer of 1970 give way to life lessons when they are taken under the wing of their elderly neighbor Mr. Sperry (Gavin McLeod), who teaches the trio how to conquer a bully and negotiate the trials of first love.
Opens in limited release.

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