The current cinema

One could pick nits, and from what I gather many have already done so, but I found that Woody Allen's new To Rome With Love, featuring, among others, Ms. Penelope Cruz as pictured above, went down pretty easy and was reasonably clever in terms of mixing up the standard Allen tropes. Also the jokes were pretty funny, I felt. For more, my review at MSN Movies. 

I was also pretty taken with Brave, the most Disney-like of all Pixar movies so far, but one that takes the feisty-princess tale into a realm that could best be called eccentric. As an experiment in critical and social engineering, my review does not discuss the odd turn its story takes in detail. I'm sure we'll be hearing all about it over the weekend though. 

Comments

[Petey]

"You see this kind of unstuck-in-time technique a lot in late Buñuel, and while Allen is deft, he's not that deft, and some obtuse viewers might take his freedom for license. I wasn't bothered by it myself, and found "To Rome With Love" a refreshing summer entertainment, not too sweet but not terribly bitter, and very picturesque besides."

Sounds like Melinda and Melinda.

(Which was very good, but some obtuse viewers took his freedom as license.)

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And while we're talking Woody, I'll note that I disagree with Richard Brody about Clint's late work. I think Clint fell off a cliff in the 21st century, (though he was a quite good director in the 20th century.)

But, in stark contrast, I'm always amazed at how Woody and Polanski have managed to make a series of amazing films at late ages.

[Glenn Kenny]

I was fond of "Melinda and Melinda" too, as it happens.

[Shawn Stone]

I very much enjoyed not knowing where BRAVE was going. And after that unexpected plot turn, and the ensuing shock, the pleasure of realizing how well it all fit together. "Eccentric" is a great description of the mother-daughter bonding-over-fishing sequence. Audacious works, too.