Your guide to what's hot and what's not on the silver screen

Young Adam
Dir. David Mackenzie

Despite what the advertisements and the general hype will make you believe, “Young Adam” is not about sex, nor is it or about Ewan McGregor’s bare ass. It’s about a coward. A coward who knows he’s full of shit, but can’t quite come to terms with it. So he hides behind sex, drifting from one married woman to another and seducing them with his hypnotic eyes. But even so, the erotic encounters only serve as fillers, background information and as a symbol of guilt, leaving the rest of the story to unravel in a series of curious flashbacks. Ewan McGregor stars as Joe the drifter. He’s trying to come to terms with the death of ex-girlfriend Cathie (Emily Mortinson). She was found dead by Joe and his boss in the river. Resembling a painting of Ophelia, they drag the lifeless body out of the water. Joe, who seems to know the details of her death, is elusive and nervous, and this builds much of the tension in film. The other strain of course is the sex, which is cold and devoid of love. There is one scene in particular that utilizes catsup as a prop. It was so amazingly bizarre; I still don’t know what to make of it. Visually “Young Adam” has many of the same qualities of a painting. So much, that he dark, inky water takes on a life of it’s own. And since the film takes place on a barge that drifts through the canals of Ireland, the camera is able to capture the stark feeling of the land, the water and the laborious transient life style. As a story, it’s real and human and cohesively brings up some very important moral issues. —Karla Esquivel

The ‘David and Daryl Show’
Dir. Quentin Tarantino

Isn’t it great when a film is like a ‘Tootsie Pop?’ The gratifying ‘crunch’ through the candy shell exposing the chewy center elicits a measure of glee, doesn’t it? But not necessarily the orange ones; those are just gross. “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” Quentin Tarantino’s latest sonnet to pop-culture, transcends his usual hackiness and delivers a multi-layered narrative with genuinely interesting characters. Most notably, ‘Elle Driver’ and ‘Bill’ —the Man, himself —build the unexpected love triangle distracting the viewer from thinking, ‘Hey, that’s the guy from “Kung-Fu,” and “Man, that chick was hot in “Blade Runner.” The duo overcomes the obstacle of never sharing a scene with engaging, independent performances. David Carradine’s Bill grabs you by the stick whenever appears on the screen. Bill exudes charm and menace simultaneously like smoke. It is one Hell of a trick. Late in the film, watching Bill make a sandwich, he is such a sweet guy as the alarm in your head sounds, “Shit, what’s he going to do with that knife!” Who is the baddest bad ass in Asstown? Daryl Hannah (Elle). Elle, the queen-viper-bitch, slithers into view and will not let go of your eye. Hannah’s Elle is a beautiful, deadly monster, which crashes an elegant dinner party. It would be polite to not to stare, but you can’t help it. And, let’s face it; the eye-patch is sexy. Screw the severed limbs and blood of “Vol. 1” and crunch-on through to “Vol.2.” It only takes three licks. —Ty Garfield

Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Dir. George Hickenlooper

This documentary examines the life and times of scenester, tastemaker and DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. His story should give hope to sweet-hearted dweebs the world over. Despite his miniscule size (which got him kicked around during his schooldays), and nerdish appearance (even when his haircut and fashion sense is with the times, he still ends up looking decidedly out of place), Bingenheimer came of age on the Sunset Strip scene of the '60s and wormed his way into the center of things; serving as Davy Jones' double, popping up in the audience of seemingly every '60s TV pop show, meeting everyone from Elvis to the Beatles to David Bowie to Iggy Pop to Cher to Brooke Shields. Eventually he ran the celebrated Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco and ended up as "Rodney on the Roq"—KROQ in LA. But Bingenheimer's high times are mixed with a number of lows. He was essentially abandoned by his parents (his stepmother explains they couldn't take him in because she and Bingenheimer's father had children of their own), Bingenheimer found a second home in the realm of celebrity, but the admiration and fondness expressed by the many stars interviewed here haven't kept his radio show from being marginalised to the point where it airs once a week from midnight to three. Bingenheimer never opens up much for the filmmakers (and in fact seems reluctant at participating), making him something of an enigma—not a good role for the central figure of a documentary. Still, “Mayor” is a fascinating look at America's obsession with celebrity, its junk culture, and how one man's endearing celebration of it. —Gillian G. Gaar

I’m Not Scared
Dir. Gabrielle Salvatores

Luscious but sparse cinematography dominates the screen in this bittersweet film about a young boy in a small Italian village who discovers a terrified kidnapped child stowed away in a hole in the grassy fields. At first he feeds him, dropping him scraps of bread, imagining he is his illegitimate twin. But soon he starts to piece together the gritty details about how the urchin got there. The trapped boy wallowing in his own filth believes he is already dead, while his new friend tries to convince him otherwise. The result of this awkward relationship is sure to bring tears to your eyes. —Karla Esquivel

The Argonomist
Dir. Jonathan Demme

Between 1990 and 2000, Jonathan Demme befriended Jean Dominique, an influential Haitian journalist and activist, whose career and influence in Haiti stretches back to the early ‘60s. Exiled to the United States in the 1980s, Dominique returned to Port-au-Prince following the removal of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Dominique’s Radio Haiti was instrumental in former president Jean-Paul Aristide’s 1990 election, but after Aristide’s 1993 return to power, Radio Haiti took a critical perspective on the new administration and the accommodations to Haiti’s entrenched powers, a perspective that would ultimately lead to Dominque’s 2000 assassination.
Demme’s film conveys the remarkable life of Dominique, but Haiti’s labyrinthine politics necessarily dominate the film. This arrives at the expense of developing a fully-rounded portrait of Dominique, who comes across as someone so monumentally gifted that the film endangers its credibility with worshipfulness, an attitude that Dominique himself clearly had no use for. Despite this, it’s hard to resist seeing the slain man through Demme’s lens, and I came away from the film curious about the man and his life. —Mike Whybark

The Punisher
Dir. Jonathan Hensleigh

It doesn’t take long to see that the movie “The Punisher” isn’t planning on straying too far from convention. There is a bad guy (John Travolta) whose son is killed by the good guy (Tom Jane). The bad guy kills the good guy’s family and the good guy fucks up the bad guy’s life in revenge. Believe me, I didn’t give away anything that won’t be obvious before it happens. This movie is one of the stupidest, most unoriginal films ever made. —Mark Bowden

Ella Enchanted
Dir. Tommy O’Haver

I love a good fairytale every now and then. Unfortunately, “Ella Enchanted” falls short. The story centers on a princess, played by Anne Hathaway, who is given the gift of obedience by a surly pixie at birth. When her mother dies, her father marries Dame Olga (performed wickedly by “Ab Fab’s” Joanna Lumley), who brings her equally dreadful daughters into the family. My question: Why didn’t the director take more advantage of this absurd situation? While Hathaway is cute enough for the teenybopper set, she is certainly no comedienne. And that my friends, is just what the director should’ve ordered. —KE