It’s a big release day — scratch that, it’s a huge release day — so let’s get right to it so I can get back to watching documentaries all frickin’ weekend …
42: L.A. Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland dramatizes the story of Jackie Robinson, and Rad says it’s pretty much exactly what I feared it would be.
Like Someone in Love: Abbas Kiarostami follows the triumphant Certified Copy with a less successful Tokyo variation.
Men at Lunch: That iconic photograph of construction workers eating lunch high over Manhattan? There’s a story behind it! Rad explains.
Paris-Manhattan: Writer-director Sophie Lellouche’s comedy about a French woman who wants her life to be more like a Woody Allen movie arrives fresh from premiering at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Susan is on it.
The Place Beyond the Pines: Blue Valentine’s Ryan Gosling and Derek Cianfrance reunite for another moody American story, but this one’s dragged down by its ambitions.
Renoir: Glenn falls under the spell of Gilles Bourdos’ biopic about the father and son who would become two of France’s most revered artists. I wish I had the time to see it this weekend …
Revolution: Rob Stewart turns his Sharkwater world tour into his next documentary, following himself around the world as he promotes … himself. You know, there’s a reason The Big One is not Michael Moore’s best-remembered project.
Scary Movie 5: OH GOD THEY MADE ANOTHER ONE RUN AWAY RUN AWAAAAAAAY. Not screened for press, obviously.
Trance: If you thought Inception needed more fingernail-pulling, Danny Boyle’s heist-and-hypnosis thriller is totally your jam. Although it piles on a few convolutions too many, by the end.
Upstream Color: Shane Carruth’s slippery, seductive romance is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. I don’t know if you’ll feel the same way, but why not give it a chance?
And that is everything. Oh, except that I should point out that Shane Carruth is doing a Skype Q&A after the 7:40 pm screening of Upstream Color Saturday night. You’ll want to be there for that.