Fay Grim
directed by Hal Hartley
Fay Grim has been playing all the prominent film festivals
for the past year and now it’s getting a limited release in anticipation of the
DVD premiere on May 22nd. Hartley writes, directs, scores and produces the
sequel to his own Henry Fool (1997). Set 10 years after the first film,
Parker Posey reprises her role as the titular character on a race across
continents to find her ex-husband’s notebooks (and the sensitive material
contained within them). Posey has proven her comedic chops in the
Christopher Guest movies and it’s good to see a real moviemaker like Hal
Hartley continuing to do his thing.
Once
directed by John Carney
Winner of this year’s Audience Award at Sundance, Once is a modern day
Irish musical set in Dublin. Expect a winsome little movie with a heart. I
could come at it with my usual arsenal of snark, but I’m an Irish-American
with an inexplicable zeal for a little of that deedle-weedle. Chances are
you can catch me slouched in the theater this weekend in a woolen sweater
with my green derby pulled down tight.
Severance
directed by Christopher Smith
In the tradition of Shaun of the Dead, here is a horror-comedy about a
group of co-workers on an office retreat who are assailed by a bunch of
crazed killers. If it’s playing at a theater near you this weekend, we ask, “why not?”
This is the type of stuff that makes your DVD collection cooler than your best friend’s. There’s really no missing with this one–honestly, the tagline is “Another bloody office outing”–and that’s gold right there. Like the other limited releases this week, Severance has been making the festival rounds since last year at Cannes.
Shrek the Third
directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui
Two DreamWorks vets step up to co-direct another Shrek film. Justin
Timberlake as spoiled prince Artie is just one of many marquee names to join this third installment and, with all the previous voice talent back, there’s no reason to believe this won’t be a lot of fun. Whoever noticed that Mike Myers’ humor is based pretty much on him doing voices and decided to get him involved in an animated feature was a genius. Nothing else is opening wide this weekend, so it’s safe to say Shrek the Third is going to generate more green than Princess Fiona’s uterus.
The Wendell Baker Story
directed by Andrew Wilson and Luke Wilson
Originally premiering at SXSW in 2005, this little Wilson family project
has been kicking around for a while and finally sees a limited release
this weekend. Luke Wilson writes, co-stars and co-directs the picture.
His brothers Andrew and Owen co-direct and co-star, respectively. The
Wilsons have done some incredible work under Wes Anderson but word is The
Wendell Baker Story isn’t on par. Still, this serves as interesting
counter-programming to The Ogre. Plus there’s a rumored Frat Pack cameo,
which is decidedly the best variety of cameo.
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