Kind of a slow weekend coming up, unless you’re going through Tom Hardy withdrawal and The Dark Knight Rises is no longer playing in your area. If you’re sick of all-things Dark Knight, you could check out a few thrillers: one based on exorcism, the other on a strange urban legend.
The Possession: I know that our attention spans have dwindled in the past twenty years, but this title – much like last week’s Apparition – is truly aiming for the obvious. And, in a way, it’s slightly insulting. I’m not against noun-based titles, but this one leaves little to the imagination. Even movies like The Exorcist had a bit of mystery in the title. Friedkin’s film is centered on twelve-year-old Regan, but the title shifts us to the septuagenarian von Sydow and his past trials and tribulations. Here, the young girl is possessed, and it comes via the old brown box – her possession. Let’s hope that this “based on true events” film is a bit more clever in its narrative than its punny title.
For a Good Time, Call…: What are two women with opposite personalities supposed to do when one of them is stuck with financial troubles? Become tag-teaming phone sex operators obviously. The premise here is interesting in that it desublimates the female libido and champions sex and socially-constructed deviance as normalcy. However, I fear the jokes will be transparent and often devolve to miscommunications and haphazard circumstances.
The Tall Man: I really have no interest in seeing this, but I find it sadly fascinating how precipitously Jessica Biel has fallen. She didn’t delve into a pile of cocaine like a Lindsay Lohan. Rather, she just doesn’t act well. Despite this, it’s surprising that she doesn’t get offered roles in films that focus on eye candy and visual masturbation. Also, this film is another perfect examples of titles spelling out the narratives.
Lawless: Can a film with bootleggers, guns, people above the law, and Tom Hardy go wrong? Probably not. Right now, Hardy is on pace to have a Fassbender-type year in 2012 – appearing in virtually every movie. He’s already been in a superhero movie like Fassbender; I guess all we’re waiting for now is full-frontal nudity in a movie about sex addiction that no one has seen.
