Blue Skies and Black Metal

Clooney goes "Up in the Air," Meg Ryan basks in "Moonlight" and metal reigns in "Until the Light Takes Us."

“The Last Station”
Thrust into the Oscar race with a one-week run on the coasts after a favorable premiere in Telluride and Venice, Michael Hoffman’s handsome adaptation of Jay Parini’s fictionalized account of the turbulent final year in the life of Leo Tolstoy boasts an already decorated ensemble. The great Christopher Plummer takes on the role of the revered Russian author who finds himself at the center of a vicious tug-of-war over the custody of his literary estate. At one end of the rope is his dutiful wife, Sofya (Helen Mirren), and at the other is devoted naif Valentin (James McAvoy), a pawn of the dastardly proto-communist Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) who wants the author’s works to be declared the property of the Russian people.
Opens in New York and Los Angeles for a one-week engagement; reopens in limited release on January 15th.

“Made For Each Other”
A world away from his freakish horror debut “Unholy,” this sophomore feature from Daryl Goldberg takes the form of a farcical romantic comedy trading on that old comic staple, a nerdy man’s raging libido. Christopher Masterson plays the poor chap who’s ready to burst, so to speak, three months into his sexless marriage to Marcy (Bijou Phillips) and succumbs to a moment of weakness by bedding her sister and his boss (Lauren German). Wracked by guilt, Dan decides the only solution is to trick his wife into sleeping with someone — specifically, the spectacularly unappealing lothario actor Mack Mackenzie (Patrick Warburton) — to even the score.
Opens in New York and will be available on VOD.

“Serious Moonlight”
“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Cheryl Hines makes her directorial debut on one of the final screenplays from her late “Waitress” co-star and director Adrienne Shelly with this darkly comic romance/hostage movie. Meg Ryan stars as a high-strung attorney who resolves to duct tape her husband (Timothy Hutton) to a toilet when she discovers his mistress (Kristen Bell) at their summer home and refuses to release him until they work on their marriage. Justin Long co-stars as an opportunistic burglar who takes advantage of the domestic drama going on upstairs.
Opens in New York and Los Angeles and available on VOD.

“The Strip”
First-time writer/producer/director Jameel Khan delivers this workplace slacker comedy that follows an ensemble of proud underachievers whose lofty dreams of working their way out of retail proves to be a step beyond them. When their own aspirations are stunted by selling TVs at a low-end electronics store, the motley crew of salesmen, including daddy’s boy Kyle (Rodney Scott), disillusioned immigrant Avi (Federico Dordei), former high school basketball star Rick (Cory Christmas) and disheveled loser Jeff (Billy Aaron Brown), conspire to help their buttoned-down boss Glenn (Dave Foley) win the affection of the new manager of a nearby fabrics store.
Opens in limited release.

“Transylmania”

It’s perhaps the final irony of the putrid walking corpse that is the spoof subgenre that someone has followed this summer’s stillborn “Stan Helsing” with this send-up of vampires and the undead to drive a stake further into the once-robust brand of cinematic satire. But for those who have followed the National Lampoon’s “Dorm Daze” series, David and Scott Hillenbrand are on hand to orchestrate the pratfalls in this pseudo-threequel that sees the carefree students of Billingsley University study abroad in Eastern Europe where the drinking isn’t limited to the nearest keg, but the nearest neck.
Opens wide.

“Until The Light Takes Us”
The product of several years of exhaustive preparation and living in Norway, Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell’s documentary about black metal pierces the shroud of secrecy that’s long been associated with the heavy metal subgenre. Collecting testimony from prominent guardians of the scene, Aites and Ewell explore the oft-misunderstood underground music movement from its Pagan-inspired origins through its notorious “Second Wave,” where it was suggested to be the inspiration for a series of church burnings during the mid-‘90s. If nothing else, this insightful doc will allow you impress family and friends with your newfound knowledge of the difference between blackened doom metal and blackened death metal.
Opens in New York, Providence and Grand Rapids; opens in Los Angeles on December 11th.

“Up in The Air”
Jason Reitman cements his status as Hollywood’s hippest young director by resuming the search for conscience and humanity in today’s increasingly depersonalized corporate culture. His adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel of the same name mines similar territory as his breakout debut, “Thank You for Smoking,” this time, with one of the world’s biggest film stars in tow. Reitman follows corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man whose dream of ten million frequent flier miles is complicated by the arrival of Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), an up-and-comer who proposes the cost-cutting measure of firing people by videophone. Vera Farmiga co-stars as Bingham’s fellow traveler who makes Bingham’s life tolerable as he’s forced to shuttle Keener around the country to show her the ropes.
Opens in limited release; expands wide on December 25th.

[Additional photos: "Brothers," Lionsgate, 2009; "Transylmania," Full Circle Releasing, 2009]

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