NYC Film Critic

No Strings Attached
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Written by Elizabeth Meriwether
Starring Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Greta Gerwig, Kevin Kline
**1/2

The Other Woman
Written and Directed by Don Roos
Starring Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Charlie Tahan, Lisa Kudrow
**

Now that Black Swan has become her highest-grossing non-Star Wars film to date and appears poised to win her a Best Actress trophy on Oscar night, it seems the right time to ask: Who the heck is Natalie Portman, anyway?  It’s certainly hard to think of another prominent young actress out there right now with a less defined screen persona.  On the one hand, she doesn’t possess the natural charisma of a movie star like Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon or even Anne Hathaway.  At the same time, she doesn’t vanish into her roles in the way the best character actresses do—think Tilda Swinton, Carey Mulligan or Portman’s fellow Oscar nominee, Michelle Williams.  Whenever she’s onscreen (including in Black Swan), you’re always aware that you’re watching someone named Natalie Portman playing a character, but neither that character, nor Portman herself, completely registers as a believable presence.

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Kaboom
Written and Directed by Gregg Araki
Starring Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Juno Temple, Chris Zylka
***1/2

I came to writer/director Gregg Araki’s work relatively late in his career.  This wasn’t a deliberate choice, mind you.  I was living overseas when his first three features—The Living End, Totally F***ed Up and The Doom Generation—become cult favorites in the early ‘90s and while those films were successful on the indie circuit stateside, there wasn’t much demand for them internationally.  I had returned to American soil by the time he released Nowhere and Splendor in 1997 and 1999 but neither film registered on my radar, perhaps because they were granted the most limited of theatrical releases.

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Blockbuster season stars earlier and earlier every year.  For example, 2011’s first big-budget sci-fi action/adventure franchise adventure I Am Number Four arrives on President’s Day weekend.  I interview the director of the movie, D.J. Caruso, over at Film Journal.

Also, if there are still tickets available, Brooklyn residents should try making their way to BAM tonight for a special screening of Gregg Araki’s new film Kaboom, a silly, winning comedy about a couple of college kids that may or may not be able to prevent the end of the world.  I spoke with Araki for this short piece in The Brooklyn Paper. A full review of Kaboom will be coming later today.

The Way Back
Directed by Peter Weir
Screenplay by Keith R. Clarke and Peter Weir
Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell Saoirse Ronan
***

If there’s one thing that unites director Peter Weir’s recent (and, with only four movies in the last eighteen years, sadly small) filmography it’s that each entry is, at its core, the story of a one man’s attempt to survive in the face of extreme circumstances.   Obviously that description can apply to any number of films, but Weir picks circumstances that are particularly extreme.  1993’s Fearless featured Jeff Bridges as the survivor of an airplane crash, 1998’s The Truman Show cast Jim Carrey as the unwitting star of a reality TV series with a cast and crew of hundreds and 2003’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World found Russell Crowe (in his last great screen performance) as a 19^th century sea captain leading his frigate into battle against a bigger, faster opponent.

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I’m Dangerous with Love
Directed by Michael Negroponte
**

As several of the addicts profiled in the new documentary I’m Dangerous with Love tell director Michael Negroponte, detoxing from drug abuse is such a difficult, deliberating process, it’s no wonder that there’s an underground market for get-clean-quick miracle cures.  According to the film, one such “cure” is ibogaine, a West African hallucinogen that’s widely used in shaman rituals, but resides on the list of banned substances stateside.

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Plastic Planet
Directed by Werner Boote
**1/2

Ever since An Inconvenient Truth lit up the box office back in 2006, we’ve been treated to a slew of independently financed environmental documentaries that investigate specific problems facing the natural world.  Want to learn more about our depleted supplies of fresh drinking water?  Check out 2008’s Flow.  Concerned about the oil industry’s less-than-noble business practices overseas?  Track down 2009’s Crude.  And how about the dangers posed by natural gas drilling?  Try Josh Fox’s Gasland from last year.  One warning: avoid watching these films back to back, lest you come away convinced that we’re all doomed and devote the next few months of your life to constructing a bunker to house stockpiles of fresh water, canned foodstuffs and battery-powered electronics.

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After a down week, 2011 finally begins with my review of the Seth Rogen/Michel Gondry action comedy The Green Hornet, based on the vintage vigilante hero that’s been largely out of the public eye since his mid-60s TV series ended.  Will a new generation embrace the misadventures of the Hornet and his right-hand man Kato?  Read my review over at Film Journal to find out.