Film fans have strong options
Things were looking pretty bleak.
Most of those late summer/September film releases – the crime drama “Prisoners” and Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” the notable exceptions – were released to reviews that ranged from the ho-hum to the scathing. That changes this week with three quality releases.
Obviously, fans of the band Metallica will flock to see the 3-D spectacular “Metallica: Through the Never.” Despite a subplot that left some critics cold, the film was praised almost across the board. My favorite blurb came from Dennis Harvey in Variety: “A definitive document for anyone who’s ever hoisted the devil-horn fingers in metalhead solidarity.” Which is pretty much everyone under 50.
Then there’s “Rush,” which Boston Globe reviewer Ty Burr praised this way: “In a way, ‘Rush’ is a philosophical drama about the varying ways men move through the world. It’s just a really fast drama.” From director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan, the team behind the Oscar-winning “Nixon/Frost,” “Rush” tells the tale of two rival Formula One race car drivers played by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl.
Finally we have “Don Jon,” the directorial debut of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an actor and critical favorite in such movies as “Looper,” “50/50” and “(500) Days of Summer.” Gordon-Levitt plays a New Jersey gym rat addicted to porn who begins dating a girl (Scarlett Johansson) who is addicted to romantic comedies. As Andrew O’Hehir noted on Salon.com: “This is a sweet, lively and funny movie rather than a fully realized one, but it makes clear that Gordon-Levitt has a natural feeling for cinema and should do more of it.”
So there you have it. The weather’s beginning to turn. Settling in before a big movie screen seems pretty appealing.
Carolyn Lamberson
Features editor
On Twitter: @clamberson