SPRING GUIDE 2008

Poehler opposites: Amy (right) and Tina Fey in Baby Mama.

Spring Film Roundup

With warmer temperatures come better movies—or so we hope.

by Sean Burns

Well, thank goodness that’s over. The first couple months of any year are a dreadful time for moviegoers, as Hollywood doesn’t want to detract any media attention from its precious Oscar hopefuls. So until those little gold statues are handed out, we’re forced to endure throwaway releases along the lines of Paris Hilton vanity products, Hannah Montana concert films, the now-obligatory Will Ferrell sports spoof and usually something in which Matthew McConaughey takes his shirt off a whole lot.

But in case you were wondering how many times you had to go see There Will Be Blood just to get out of the house (I’m up to four viewings, myself), rejoice in the knowledge that springtime is finally here, the Academy Awards have already been forgotten and a whole crop of new movies just might be worth your while.

Something of a breezy victory lap for Martin Scorsese, Shine a Light (April 4) finds the fidgety filmmaker taking an up-close-and-personal look at the Rolling Stones during a 2006 benefit concert at New York’s Beacon Theater. Recruiting a who’s-who of brilliant cinematographers (including Robert Richardson, Emmanuel Lubezki, Robert Elswit and even Gimme Shelter helmer Albert Maysles), Marty has a blast working through his hero worship of Mick and Keith.

Alas, there’s not much even Scorsese and his all-star team can do with uninspired performances of tired warhorses like “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” but the band finds its groove when tackling some lesser-known tracks from Exile on Main St. and Some Girls. There’s life in these old boys yet.

Proving the new comedy rule that anybody who has ever worked with Judd Apatow will one day get his own movie, former Freaks and Geeks star Jason Segel headlines Forgetting Sarah Marshall (April 18). The endearingly goofy 6-foot-4 dancing machine (who also penned the screenplay) stars as a lovable lummox heading to Hawaii to mend a broken heart. Too bad his ex-girlfriend happens to be staying at the same resort, with her newest squeeze. As expected, Apatow stock company members Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Carla Gallo and Paul Rudd round out the cast.

Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights (April 4) premiered almost a year ago at the Cannes Film Festival, and has played just about everywhere else in the world save for this sleepy little burg called America. Norah Jones stars as a swoony romantic—as this is a Wong Kar-Wai movie, undoubtedly everybody is a swoony romantic—taking a cross-country road trip that involves a dream kiss with Jude Law and also has something to do with a special kind of pie.

It’ll be interesting to see if Wong’s heightened poetic dialogue works as well in English as it does in subtitles. It’ll be more interesting to see if the cash-strapped distributors at the Weinstein Company are serious about the film’s umpteenth release date.

Unofficial president of Hollywood George Clooney lightens up a bit and dusts off his Clark Gable routine for Leatherheads (April 4), a fast-talking farce about the early days of football, way back before all those pesky nuisances like pads and rules and championship teams that steal signals by videotaping practices. The Office’s John Krasinski co-stars, making this a multigenerational summit of NBC’s Thursday-night heartthrobs past and present, as he and the former Dr. Ross vie for the affections of Renée Zellweger’s lady sportswriter. Clooney sits in the director’s chair as well this time, and if the antic preview footage is any indication, his oft-noted affection for the golden age of screwball comedy comes through loud and clear.

Of course these days it’s impossible to go more than a couple months without a pregnancy comedy, so hot on the trail of Waitress, Knocked Up and Juno comes Baby Mama (April 25), which stars Tina Fey as a single gal pushing 40 and determined to have a child. Unfortunately for her (and perhaps for the audience as well, judging from the film’s abysmal trailer), Fey’s old “Weekend Update” sidekick Amy Poehler stars as the loudmouth South Philly lout chosen to serve as a surrogate mother. This directorial debut of former SNL writer Michael McCullers co-stars Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear and Maura Tierney.

We always love when tabloid staples try to get serious about their art and do an indie movie, especially when they get all de-glammed for one that’s based on a real-life tragedy. Jared Leto gained a lot of weight (which passes for acting quite frequently these days) to star as Mark David Chapman in Chapter 27 (March 28), a desperately necessary retelling, I’m sure, of the events surrounding John Lennon’s murder. Lindsay Lohan co-stars, so you know this script has to be quality.

What if they made an Iraq War drama people actually went to see? That’s at least the idea behind MTV Films’ aggressive promotional efforts for Stop/Loss (March 28). Director Kimberly Peirce’s long-awaited follow-up to 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry stars Ryan Phillippe as a decorated sergeant who finds himself trapped in our insidious back-door draft policy, after his celebratory Texas homecoming is shortened by orders to ship back out for another tour. The screenplay (written by Peirce and Mark Richard) becomes predictable and prone to speechifying, but that can’t detract from the shockingly fine performances from Phillippe, playing a patriot at the breaking point, and Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as his shell-shocked comrades in arms. Maybe folks might actually watch this one.

On a similar note, while not even an Academy Award could get Americans to sit still for Taxi to the Dark Side, our current penchant for detainee torture looks like it’s going to get an unexpected needling from Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay (April 25). Yes, those burger-loving stoners are back, this time classified as enemy combatants en route to Amsterdam, after their bong is mistaken for a bomb. Daily Show vet Rob Corddry heads up Homeland Security, Neil Patrick Harris resumes his self-skewering cameo, and even Howard Stern Show regular Richard Christy turns up as a naked Ku Klux Klansman. The premise alone is so audacious, here’s hoping the movie packs the satirical punch we so desperately deserve right now.