’American Teen’ is uncanny, familiar
Documentary looks at stereotypes
“American Teen” is a close-to-the-bone documentary that shows how easily a group of Indiana high-schoolers fall into stereotypical categories.
How we ache for Hannah Bailey, the driven “rebel” of the movie, who’s determined to leave the conservative Christian town of Warsaw for the glory of Hollywood but spends most of her time suffering one romantic heartbreak after another.
We are drawn into the sad matter of Jake Tusing, a self-described “geek” who seeks that one girl who’ll respond to the beating heart behind all that acne and social ineptitude.
What makes Nanette Burstein’s movie so powerful is its uncanny sense of familiarity. Watching these characters, we are transported into a humming, philosophical reverie about ourselves.
– By Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
“Bottle Shock”
Perhaps “Bottle Shock” should have been called “The Grapes of Froth” because it tells such a happy story: How the vintners of Napa Valley won the blind tasting known as the “Judgment of Paris” in 1976 and put their little piece of California paradise on the world wine stage for all time.
What a movie: booze, unhappy French people, Alan Rickman and really cool pickup trucks.
– By Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
“Henry Poole Is Here”
Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) has moved back to the neighborhood in which he grew up. He has little interest in his neighbors – attractive single mom Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her young daughter Millie on one side, and nosy Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) on the other.
Everything changes when Esperanza discovers what she thinks is the face of Christ in a water stain on Henry’s outside wall. Much to his dismay, Henry is soon dealing with a parade of miracle-seekers through his back yard – and to his further dismay, the stain seems to be working.
It’s hard to know quite what to make of “Henry Poole.” Director Mark Pellington deserves some credit for establishing a palpable sense of melancholy in the early going. But Pellington shares the blame with first-time screenwriter Albert Torres for an uncertain tone of downbeat whimsy.
– By Scott Von Doviak, McClatchy News
“The Longshots”
This Ice Cube vehicle is a certifiable crowd pleaser, an agreeable variation on the kid sports movie formula whose family-friendly messages outweigh its corny over-familiarity.
It’s set in the world of Pop Warner (pre-high school) football and the first girl to play in the Pop Warner version of the Super Bowl.
Of course it’s fictionalized. Of course, it hits the usual sports formula. But this kid-friendly dramedy from the musician-turned-filmmaker Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) hits its marks and tugs its strings. It works.
– By Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel