This week's cinematic selection was a gloomy one, indeed.
From Charlize Theron's depressive, alcoholic writer of youth novels in "Young Adult" and Gary Oldman's emotionally reserved spy in Tomas Alfredson's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" to Tilda Swinton's distraught mother of a psychopath in Lynne Ramsay's "We Need to Talk About Kevin," the films I caught last weekend featured some heavy performances. Which is a good thing.
Reitman's latest challenges expectations, especially for those moviegoers expecting to see some sort of redemption story. No such luck. "Young Adult" is scathingly funny and happy ending free. It's a solid picture, if not quite as good as "Up in the Air," the director's previous film.
"Tinker" was also good but, alas, not as compelling as Alfredson's breakthrough, "Let the Right One In." That being said, it's a well-shot and directed entry into the spy genre.
My favorite of the week was "Kevin," a disturbing and provocative film that questions parental culpability. Swinton is marvelous as the mother of a young man who carries out a school shooting. But the film is more concerned with the lead-up to the tragedy, rather the incident itself. An interesting movie, to be sure.
Here are my Patch reviews.
This coming weekend, I'll check out Roman Polanski's "Carnage" and two potential blockbusters: "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows."
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