Lars and the Real Girl

Screenwriter Nancy Oliver has crafted a surprisingly touching and, yes, romantic story about a lonely introvert who discovers an ad hoc method of self-therapy in the guise of an anatomically correct silicone love doll. Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) lives in the garage of the Midwest home he grew up in, where his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) inhabit the main house. An office mate at Lars's nondescript day job introduces Lars to a love doll website from which he orders "Bianca" and transforms her into a delicate wheelchair-ridden girlfriend. Unable to tolerate human contact, Lars can finally interact, through Bianca, with his family and people in his community in ways never before possible. Patricia Clarkson gives a reliably understated performance as Dr. Dagmar, the psychiatrist who monitors Bianca's health on a weekly basis and who guides Lars on a journey of self-discovery. Eloquent performances from its entire cast support the rhythmically timed movie to render surprising emotional rewards. "Lars and the Real Girl" is the best independent film of the year.

Rated PG-13, 106 mins. (A-) (Four Stars)

Delirious

Eccentric New York paparazzi Les Galantine (Steve Buscemi) befriends homeless kid Toby Grace (Michael Pitt) and shelters the young dreamer in his small apartment in return for cheap labor. The awkward relationship gets stickier when Les ruins Toby’s chances with his latest love, pop diva K’Harma Leeds (Alison Lohman) at her celebrity-attended birthday party. Toby stumbles into success with his own reality TV show, that involves paying special service to his oversexed agent (Gina Gershon), while Les struggles alone with his sanity. There’s enough retro modern social satire here to support the comical efforts of a talented cast adding layers of emotional nuance. Alison Lohman ("White Oleander") remains a rising star with yet another inspired performance that surprises and charms.

Not Rated, 107 mins. (B-) (Three Stars)

Dedication

Actor Justin Theroux makes an auspicious directorial debut with a disarmingly funny romantic comedy full of emotional life and witty filmic textures. Henry Roth (Bill Crudup) is a children’s book writer whose illustrator and collaborator Rudy (Tom Wilkinson) is about the only person in the world patient enough to tolerate Henry’s nervous tics and angry outbursts. Rudy’s death forces Henry to attempt working with a publisher-assigned collaborator in the guise of Lucy Riley (Mandy Moore). Once Henry stops insulting Lucy long enough to apologize, he realizes the flame burning between them but battles with his grip on reality—he’s scared of driving and superstitious about everything. Billy Crudup makes us root for his confused character, and Mandy Moore is convincing and funny as the best that thing ever happened to Henry.

Rated R, 93 mins. (B) (Four Stars)

Descent

Daring sex scenes are an obvious way for young filmmakers to prove to the world that they are capable of shocking society. Witness Steven Soderbergh’s "sex, lies and videotape." So it is that upstart filmmaker Talia Lugacy crafts a revenge drama--ala "Ms. 45" or "Irreversible"--where college student (Rosario Dawson) becomes a date-rape victim before setting a revenge trap that culminates in one of the most over-the-top sex scenes in recent memory. Chad Faust ("Saved") plays Jared, the sociopath rapist, with an appropriately menacing and warped romantic air that reflects well off of Rosario Dawson's compact performance. "Descent" is the worst date movie of the year, and the sucker punch that it packs will definitely twist the guts of most viewers into lasting knots. Apart from its obvious exploitation element and disjointed second act, the movie achieves a cool momentum by sheer force of the intimate power play that takes place over the course of a slow build-up. It’s a modern "art film," and there aren’t many of those around anymore.

Rated PG-13, 100 mins. (C+) (Two Stars)

Rocket Science

Positively winning coming-of-age drama/comedy stacks the deck with newcomer Reece Daniel Thompson as Hal Hefner, a stuttering New Jersey High School student. Thompson plays the part with an innocence and ingenuity akin to a very young Dustin Hoffman. Hal’s low self-esteem gets an unexpected boost from debate-team star Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) who "sees something in Hal that others don’t," and encourages him to join her on the school’s debate team. But Ginny has ulterior motives that sink Hal’s smitten spirit as he attempts to overcome his stuttering problem during timed debates. It’s obvious that writer/director Jeffrey Blitz ("Spellbound") works well with his actors, but it’s his fresh approach to storytelling, and naturalistic sense of humor, that creates a soulful cushion for the charming narrative to unfold.

Rated R, 98 mins. (B+) (Four Stars)

Around the Bend

Michael Caine and Christopher Walken breath spirited life into debut writer/director Jordan Roberts’ road trip of family bonding in this independent movie with a big heart. The 85-year-old Henry Lair (Caine) lives in Los Angeles with his 32-year-old grandson Jason (Josh Lucas – "Wonderland") and 6-year-old great grandson Zach (Jonah Bobo) before Jason’s long lost father Turner (Walken) unexpectedly materializes for the first time in 30 years. Turner’s sudden appearance is especially surprising to Zach who has only ever been told that his outlaw grandfather is deceased. The four generations of men do soon drop in number however when the ailing Henry dies immediately after writing his final requests on post-its in the comfort of a local Kentucky Fried Chicken. Henry’s circuitous instructions send his three descendents on family history soul searching road trip from Los Angeles to Albuquerque that culminates in a cathartic admission by Walken’s character that marks one of the actor’s finer cinematic moments in recent years. "Around The Bend" may be a ‘small’ movie, but it’s still better than Hollywood’s average fare.

Rated R, 83 mins. (B) (Three Stars)

Half Nelson

A "half nelson" is an effective wrestling hold that relates to debut director Ryan Fleck’s overhyped clinker inasmuch as its Brooklyn junior high teaching protagonist Dan Dunne (stoically played by Ryan Gosling) remains emotionally knotted up. Terminal malcontent Dunne gets caught smoking crack in a locker room by his 13-year-old student Drey (Shareeka Epps) after a basketball game and the two develop a dysfunctional interdependent relationship that is squirm inducing for its manifest levels of impropriety. The movie hits a stream of false notes when Dunne’s students deliver oral reports on Civil Rights struggles that could only have been plagiarized. The film’s ending isn’t only meager it’s utterly listless.

Rated R, 107 mins. (C-)

Lonesome Jim

Steve Buscemi ("Animal Factory") brings his unique dry wit to bear on a pedestrian story by James C. Strouse about Jim (Casey Affleck – "Ocean’s Twelve"), a 27-year-old melancholy loser who returns from trying to make it as a writer in Manhattan to his parent’s home in Indiana. Jim strikes up a wobbly romantic relationship with local nurse Anika (Liv Tyler) while his brother Tim (Kevin Corrigan) recoups from a near-fatal car accident. "Lonesome Jim" is an earnest and modest ‘little independent’ movie that charms by way of its understated underachieving characters. Mary Kay Place is quietly sympathetic as Jim’s put upon mother.

Rated R, 91 mins. (C+)

Brick

This glorified student film is only barely elevated by the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye a noir-speaking California high school misfit caught in the violent middle of a drug gang responsible for the death of his ex-girlfriend (Emilie de Ravin). Joseph Gordon-Levitt very nearly makes sense of writer/director Rian Johnson’s knee-jerk Dashiell Hammett barbs of spiky repartee that serve as a narrative one-note samba. "Maybe I'll just sit here and bleed at you" is one of Brendan’s snappy retorts that coincidentally speaks volumes about the writer’s approach at this off-beat and unsatisfying movie. Inferior cinematography strains the already trifling movie. Rated R, 110 mins. (D+)

Hard Candy

Strikingly filmed and exquisitely performed by its principally two-person cast (Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson), "Hard Candy" is an intense reversal on the Little Red Riding Hood story. Hayley Stark (Page) is a 14-year-old proto-feminist rebel who ensnares 32-year-old fashion photographer/potential child molester Jeff Kohiver (Wilson – "The Alamo") in an online chat room before working Jeff over in a furious castration revenge scenario in the comfort of his California luxury house. Ellen Page is a divine manifestation of intelligent female fury that ups the high watermark set by Abel Ferrara’s exterminating angel revenge fantasy "Ms. 45." British director David Slade announces himself as a master of economy and discrimination by leaving the horror to the audience’s imagination. This movie will make you squirm like you’ve never squirmed before.

Rated R, 99 mins. (A-)

Thank You For Smoking

Writer/director Jason Reitman tries to step outside of his father Ivan Reitman’s ("Ghostbusters") footsteps with a soft peddled send up of Big Tobacco based on the novel by Christopher Buckley. Alternately infuriating and charming Aaron Eckhart ("In The Company of Men") does the contemptible honors as tobacco lobbyist and spin-doctor Nick Naylor. When Nick isn’t teaching his son the ins and outs of winning debates, or comparing death statistics over lunch with fellow "Merchants of Death," Nick is busy battling against an anti-smoking campaign to put a skull-and-crossbones on every cigarette pack. Snappy pacing and carefully sculpted set pieces don’t disguise the satire’s lack of teeth. Reitman’s inability to pay off on any of the film’s skeletal sub-plots leaves Aaron Eckhart holding the narrative bag.

Rated R, 92 mins. (C)