REVIEW: La Belle Personne (2009)

In this wistful reimagining of Madame de Lafayette’s La Princesse de Clèves, director Christophe Honoré’s La Belle Personne transplants forbidden love and courtly intrigue from 17^th century France to a modern, high school setting. After her mother dies, Junie (Léa Seydoux) transfers schools and captures the hearts of the introverted Otto (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) and the fickle lothario, Professor Nemours (Louis Garrel). When an anonymous love letter rumored to have been written by Nemours surfaces, scandal ensues leading to unexpectedly dire consequences. Like his acclaimed Les Chansons d’Amour (2007) starring Garrel and Ludvine Sagnier, Honoré excels at using music and poetry to capture the existential malaise of young adulthood. However, once Nemours enters the scene, the focus unfortunately shifts to his unrequited, overblown passion for Junie as the promising interplay between the close-knit circle of friends takes a backseat. While Honoré’s romantic film eventually becomes mired in melodrama, the enigmatic Seydoux — a Anna Karina for the 21^st century set — stands out as a refreshingly thoughtful French heroine whose mother’s death inadvertently causes ripples in her life. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Friday, September 4th.

REVIEW: Extract (2009)

As Cindy (Mila Kunis), a charming con artist, pilfers a guitar out from under two love-struck chumps in a music store in the opening of Extract, you may hope that this charged momentum will last throughout Mike Judge’s latest. Unfortunately, the film lags as he shifts the perspective from Kunis’ wild child to Joel (Jason Bateman), a sexually frustrated factory owner. When an idiotic employee gets into a debilitating accident, sticky-fingered Cindy sees a hefty settlement deal in her future and joins the factory as a temp, catching the eye of Joel. Struggling with feuding employees and his new workplace crush, Joel turns to his friend, Dean ­­­­(Ben Affleck), who doles out pills as quick as he does advice on how to pimp out Joel’s wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), so that he can score with Cindy. While Extract might make you crack a smile with its goofball supporting cast, including Dustin Milligan as Brad, the dimwitted gigolo, the film never reaches its full potential and the impressive pool of comedic talent is ultimately left high and dry. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide Friday, September 4th.

REVIEW: Somer's Town (2008)

Black and white photography born out of technical necessity transforms Somers Town into a stark and poignant portrait of the drudgery and displacement of two wayward youths in modern-day England. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a cheeky runaway who perhaps in a past life was a Dickensian street urchin, flees Nottingham and hops aboard a train bound for London, seeking refuge from the banality of life in the Midlands. Cornered in an alleyway, robbed, and beaten, Tomo finally finds a reluctant and unlikely friend in Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a Polish immigrant who just moved to the U.K.

Unbeknownst to his father, Marek begins hiding his homeless friend in his flat. Joining forces, the two boys bond by working odd jobs for their cockney landlord, stealing clothes from a local launderette, and fighting for the affections of a charming French waitress. Director Shane Meadows (2006's This is England) instills Somers Town with humanity and humor mined from class and culture shock, with his subtle comedic stylings springing from simple interchanges like when Marek's landlord insists that he remove his Manchester United jersey to avoid getting roughed up by soccer hooligans.

Despite these comedic moments, Meadows does not shy away from the pain of feeling adrift in a new city or country and beautifully captures the melting pot mentality that is London. From their low-rent apartment overlooking a train station that holds the promise of Paris and love and friendship, Tomo and Marek slowly but surely build a brotherly camaraderie, awakening a dreamlike, limitless world that, in the end, is a little less black and white. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Landmark Theatres Friday, August 28th.

REVIEW: Daytime Drinking (2008)

Hyuk-jin (Sam-dong Song), the lead of Daytime Drinking, must have a liver made of steel. During the first of many late-night drinking binges, complete with soju, the traditional Korean alcohol of choice, Hyuk-jin’s buddies persuade him to take a trip with them to Jeongseong to help him recover from his recent break up. Once out of Seoul, Hyuk-jin discovers that his friends, all nursing hangovers, have forgotten him and left him to contend with the harsh climate, his loneliness, and a slew of eccentric travelers along the way. Veering into a heightened reality in the same vein as Jim Jarmusch, Daytime Drinking finds its leading man toyed with by a temperamental girl, force-fed drinks, drugged, robbed, hit on by a trucker, and verbally abused by a plethora of tourists. Despite this exercise in emotional sadism, director Young-Seok Noh (who also wrote, edited, and produced) has clearly invested a lot even if his contrived film’s initial jolt of energy inevitably peters out, drained like the myriad bottles of soju. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Four Star on Friday, August 21st.

REVIEW: CoCo Avant Chanel (2009)

Like her designs, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was elegant, très chic, and utterly original. Director Anne Fontaine’s French biopic traces Coco (Audrey Tautou) from her childhood as a struggling orphan to one of the most influential designers of the 20^th century. You’ll be disappointed if you expect a fashionista’s up close and personal look at the House of Chanel as Fontaine keeps her story firmly rooted in Coco’s past, including her destructive relationship with French playboy, Etienne Balsar (Benoît Poelvoorde) and her ill-fated love affair with the dashing Englishman, Arthur “Boy” Capel (Alessandro Nivola).

The film functions best in scenes that display Coco’s imagination and aesthetic magnetism like when she dances with Capel in her now famous “little black dress” amidst a sea of stiff, white meringues. Tautou imparts a quiet courage and quick wit as the trailblazing designer, and Nivola is unmistakably charming and compassionate as Boy. Nevertheless, Fontaine rushes the ending and never truly seizes the opportunity to explore how Coco’s personal life seeped into her timeless designs that were, in the end, an extension of herself. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Landmark Theatres on Friday, August 21st

REVIEW: Flammen & Citronen (2008)

They were celebrated members of the Danish Occupation Resistance. But were "the Flame" (Thure Lindhardt) and "Citron" (Mads Mikkelsen) — who conducted an underground campaign to execute Nazi sympathizers and traitors — terrorists or freedom fighters? This moral ambiguity drives Ole Christian Madsen's based-on-true-events film in which something is rotten in the state of Denmark, where informants and the innocent mingle side by side. As the fatalistic Citron says, "There is no justice or injustice. Just war." The pair's clandestine lifestyle begins to take a toll on both men's personal lives — Citron struggles to support his family while the Flame strives to trust Ketty (Stine Stengade), a beguilingly beautiful courier. As the duo close in on Hoffman (Christian Berkel), the head of the Gestapo, self-doubt looms over them as the Nazi plays on their greatest fear of being used as pawns. Though the film's voice-over narration borders on heavy-handed, Lindhardt and Mikkelsen's vulnerable and intensely visceral performances set Flame and Citron apart from some of the more gratuitous and emotionally exploitative Nazi films released this year. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at Landmark Theatres on Wednesday, August 19th

REVIEW: Ponyo (2009)

Drawing on classical fairytales like Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest Japanimated creation follows the adventures of Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), the girl-faced goldfish daughter of Guranmamare (Cate Blanchett), a sea goddess, and Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), a human-hating, embittered wizard who resembles an androgynous eighties glam rocker. Tired of life under the sea and under the watchful eye of her father, Ponyo escapes and befriends a young boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas). After she transforms into a human using Fujimoto’s magical potions, she reunites with her new friend, inadvertently causing a flood incited by her father’s wrath. Not nearly as multi-faceted as Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997) or Spirited Away (2001), Ponyo still manages to enchant with its rich color palette, painstakingly hand-drawn animation, and beautiful original score by Joe Hisaishi. Nevertheless, despite the imaginative world where goldfish-turned-girls can run on the crests of waves and toy boats transform into real-life seafaring vessels, some of the magic is inevitably lost in translation due to the talented yet overwhelmingly Westernized cast. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide Friday, August 14th

REVIEW: Kassim the Dream (2008)

How does a former child soldier from Uganda end up a world-class boxer? Snatched from his school at six years old, Kassim “the Dream” Ouma was drafted into the National Resistance Army and forced to commit many atrocities. After joining the boxing team and defecting to the U.S., Kassim quickly rose through the ranks to win the junior middleweight boxing championship, adopting a hip-hop lifestyle and many supporters along the way. However, he still raises controversy due to his violent past and his shockingly apolitical attitude toward Museveni, the Ugandan president and NRA leader, who eventually grants him a pardon. When Kassim returns home, you finally catch a glimpse of his humanity and begin to fathom the reservoir of grief beneath his cocky boxer exterior. As he reunites with his grandmother and visits his father’s grave, you suddenly understand that boxing has provided a two-fold outlet — allowing him to release his pent-up anger and absorb others’, dulling the pain, blow by crushing blow. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at The Roxie Monday, August 10th

REVIEW: Lorna's Silence (2008)

The Dardenne brothers have done it again. This smart and exquisite film launches you into the middle of a manic world fueled by drugs, desperation, and lies in which Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) contrives a marriage with a junkie named Claudy (Jérémie Rénier) to become a Belgian citizen. The diabolical plan consists not only of Lorna receiving her papers, but also of snagging a quickie divorce and marrying a Russian Mafioso, also in need of citizenship. In exchange, the mobster agrees to compensate Lorna so she and her boyfriend can open up a shop together. But their seemingly meticulous plan gets muddled when the Russian resorts to violence after the divorce takes too long to process and Claudy unexpectedly kicks his habit. Delivering a powerhouse performance, Dobroshi is a revelation, exuding equal parts cruelty and compassion in this transformative role. Meanwhile, the Dardennes refuse to condescend to their audience, plumbing the depths of human betrayal, psychosomatic trauma, and the dangers of silence. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at The Landmark Theatres Friday, August 7th.

REVIEW: Julie and Julia (2009)

As Julie Powell, disillusioned secretary by day and culinary novice by night, Amy Adams stars as a woman who decides to cook and blog her way through 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in 365 days. Director Nora Ephron oscillates between Julie’s drab existence in modern-day New York and the exciting life of culinary icon and expatriate, Julia Child (Meryl Streep), in 1950s Paris. As Julia gains confidence in the kitchen by besting all the men at the Cordon Bleu, Julie follows suit, despite strains on both her marriage and job. While Streep’s Julia borders on caricature at first, her performance eventually becomes more nuanced as the character’s insecurities about cooking, conceiving, and getting published slowly emerge. Although a feast for the eyes and a rare portrait of a female over 40, Ephron’s cinematic concoction leaves you longing for less Julie with her predictable empowerment storyline and more of Julia and Streep’s exuberance and infectious joie de vivre. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide on Friday, August 7th.