Weekly Roundup: Redford, Boyle, Potter, Carruth, Campos and 'Evil Dead'

Not such a hot weekend for movies, I gotta say, despite some very high potential. In fact, the best thing I saw this weekend was on TV - the "Mad Men" Season 6 debut, of course.

In theaters, my pick of the week was Robert Redford's "The Company You Keep," which was not among the director's best films, but better than recent efforts "The Conspirator" and "Lions for Lambs." All in all, a thoughtful and entertaining political thriller.

I only reviewed two other movies - Danny Boyle's stylish and occasionally interesting, but mostly disappointing, "Trance" and the pretty awful remake of "Evil Dead."

Here are my Patch reviews.

The films I didn't get around to reviewing included Sally Potter's "Ginger and Rosa" and Antonio Campo's "Simon Killer." The former was an ethereal - and just almost recommendable - tale of two young women growing up in 1960s Britain and their eventual drifting apart. Elle Fanning is very solid in the movie and the supporting cast was also noteworthy. It's one of those films that just nearly makes it, but doesn't quite. Not bad overall, though.

Campos' picture was also interesting in spurts. Brady Corbett certainly gives it his all as the titular sociopath. But I didn't find the picture as involving as the director's debut, "Afterschool."

Then, there's Shane Carruth's "Upstream Color," which as been pretty widely acclaimed by almost, well, everyone.

I wasn't a huge fan of his debut, "Primer," but it was a film I'd label as "of interest." His latest, however, left me scratching my head. As you probably know, I have no problem recommending a movie that I don't necessarily get, you could say. And I'm a big fan of some truly weird cinema - including Jodorowsky, Lynch, Weerasethakul, etc.

The problem with "Upstream Color" was not just that it was completely impossible to follow narratively or thematically, but also that I quickly became bored and lost interest in being able to follow it. It has some nice visuals, but that's about it. I know I'm in the minority here.

Next week, I'll be reviewing Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder" and "42."