4 films to see on the week of Jan. 15-22, 2012:
Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin
ANDOY RANAY, Chris Martinez, and Mark Meily direct the three tales that make up this anthology of twisted takes on popular entertainment genres based on Bob Ong’s 2011 book of the same name. The Viva Pictures release stars Maricel Soriano, Herbert Bautista, and Cristine Reyes.
MTRCB Rating: PG
Miss You Already
POPULAR with the critics (Rotten Toamtoes gave it a 68% “fresh” rating), this comedy/drama/romance follows two best friends, Milly and Jess, who have been inseparable since they were young girls. But nothing prepares them for the day Milly is hit with life-altering news. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, it stars Toni Collette, Drew Barrymore, and Dominic Cooper. “Unflinching yet unburdened, Miss You Already is like the best kind of hug: warm, reassuring, cathartic, and a fleeting but vital reminder that there’s at least as much good in the world as there is bad,” writes TheWrap’s Inkoo Kang. “The film belongs to Barrymore and Collette, who generate a palpable BFF chemistry that will defy you not to be choked up by the time the credits roll,” writes Sara Stewart of the New York Post. Not everyone is so happy with the film though: Newsday’s John Anderson says it is “a soulless parade of movie conventions and rote acting.”
MTRCB Rating: PG
Macbeth
THE latest version of Shakespeare’s tragedy about ambition, murder and guilt, is very popular among critics, with Rotten Tomatoes review aggregate site giving it a 79% “fresh” rating: “Faithful to the source material without sacrificing its own cinematic flair, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth rises on the strength of a mesmerizing Michael Fassbender performance to join the upper echelon of big-screen Shakespeare adaptations.” Fassbender plays Macbeth, Marion Cotillard is Lady Macbeth, David Thewlis plays Duncan, Jack Reynor as Malcolm, Sean Harris as Macduff, and Paddy Considine as Banquo. Michael O’Sullivan of the Washington Post writes that “Macbeth possesses a terrible beauty, evoking fear, sadness, awe and confusion. Presented with the aesthetic of a dark comic book, it’s also a mournful masterpiece.” Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Rainer says that “Marion Cotillard’s Lady Macbeth, however, is a triumph. She seems transfixed by her own capacity for evil, and her mad scene is one of the most unhistrionic, and therefore spookiest, ever filmed.” On Fassbender, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times writes: “[he] gives you a reason to see this Macbeth, although the writing isn’t bad, either.” As Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times puts it: “Even less initiated viewers will find themselves immersed in this classic medieval tragedy, a kind of Macbeth for the Game of Thrones crowd.”
MTRCB Rating: R-13
The Snow Queen
THIS RUSSIAN animated feature is set in a world of eternal winter created by The Snow Queen where the polar wind cools human souls and clearness of lines obscure emotions. A girl named Gerda, her pet ferret Luta, and Orm the troll must venture there to save her brother Kai and the world. Directed by Vlad Barbe and Maxim Sveshnikov. “This movie is such a mess, and is clearly a cash grab because Frozen is coming out from Disney this winter… The only good thing in this movie is that the final message in the movie is a good one for people. That violence doesn’t really solve problems, but it would just be great if it were in a better-made movie,” writes Julian Lyttle on the Punch Drunk Critics Web site.
MTRCB Rating: PG
