Leatherheads
April 1st, 2008
Pleasantly old-fashioned comedy about the world of mid-twenties pro-football featuring George Clooney and Renée Zellweger trading snappy dialogue like movie stars of yore. Speakeasy fisticuffs, big guys who knock the umpire into the mud, and a bogus war hero (John Krasinski) who also falls for the dame provide good-natured slapstick. Includes a bona fide newspaper headline montage, the judge from The Wire as first football commissoner, and Clooney/Zellweger riding an ancient motorbike with sidecar. One could do worse with an April studio movie. Opens Friday.
Leatherheads. George Clooney, 2008. ***
Smiley Face
December 30th, 2007
Gregg Araki’s stoned follow-up to Mysterious Skin, playing now at the IFC Center and out on DVD in January, deserves a proper review on About.com. For now, a few screenshots to prove that Anna Faris’s fearless performance owns this movie the way Luisa Williams owned Day Night Day Night — only funnier. One girl’s buzzed screwball odyssey through L.A., Smiley Face had me laughing hard for the entire duration… until the most unforgivable ending since Yella ruins it all.
Smiley Face. Gregg Araki, 2007. ***
The trailer:
