NORAH JONES’S “…FEATURING NORAH JONES” (EMI)

√ Bob Recommended

If there is anything this gifted country-pop-jazz singer enjoys as much in the studio as singing an exquisite new tune, it’s collaborating with friends and heroes, especially on vintage numbers. The lure of this collection is it brings together 18 of Jones’ collaborations over the past decade. The remarkable range of performers (OutKast, Herbie Hancock, Ryan Adams and the Foo Fighters) and songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt and the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) drawn upon is a tribute to Jones’ taste and wide musical vision. Among the highlights: the sensual, blues-rock feel of Norah’s teaming with her sideband, the Little Willies, on the early Elvis Presley hit, “Love Me,” and the alluring, Grammy winning duet with Ray Charles on the country ballad, “Here We Go Again.” Also noteworthy: Jones and Willie Nelson on the pop charmer, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and Jones and M.Ward redoing the lovely Joe Melson-Roy Orbison composition, “Blue Bayou.”  
 

MOVIES

“THE TOURIST”

Deceptively entertaining

This film has gotten some of the worst reviews of any major studio release of the year—a 38 (out of 100) in the www.metacritic.com survey. There are repeated charges of no wit or tension in the plot and no chemistry between box-office superstars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. And, the film is loaded with problems. But the movie’s final twist helps us make sense of some of the earlier trouble spots and links the movie to the good-natured, romantic drama-comedy tradition of “North by Northwest,” “To Catch a Thief” and “Charade.” You can almost imagine Cary Grant on the screen as Depp—who is presented to us as an ordinary American tourist caught up in international intrigue—runs across Venice rooftops in his pajamas as he tries to elude some killers. There’s no question, however, that Depp and Jolie fail to bring to “The Tourist” the kind of disarming charisma and charm of such teams as Grant and Eva Marie Saint or Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. That’s the film’s main stumbling block—and it is puzzling. The lingering question is whether Depp, especially, is simply dull in the role or whether he is doing a remarkable job of portraying a dull man—as called for in the script. Don’t be surprised if people won’t still be debating the Jolie/Depp matter years from now.  “The Tourist” might even become a cult classic along the lines of John Houston’s “Beat the Devil”—a film whose merits are hotly debated after half a century.

 

“FASTER”

Even the title is forgettable

The only thing I came away from this mediocre action-revenge film was two questions: Why doesn’t Hollywood give Billy Bob Thornton, a fine actor, more parts and why does Hollywood give Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson so many parts?

 

BOOKS

  JANE LEAVY’S “THE LAST BOY: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood” (Harper)

√ Bob Recommended

Though this book feels more like a series of exhaustingly researched and lively written magazine articles than a formal biography, it is entertaining and frequently touching. Leavy, who also wrote the well-received biography “Sandy Koufax,” covers the Yankee great’s career mostly by simply focusing on key events or days in his life, such as the 1953 day in Washington, D.C. that Mantle supposedly hit a ball 565 feet. In writing about those key moments, she reports extensively on the impact of Mantle’s notorious, party boy lifestyle and his early injuries--leaving us to wonder how much greater his stats might have been if he had taken better care of himself. The most moving parts of the book are when she speaks about his post-baseball career and his life-long difficulty in relating to his family. 

ALBUMS

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S “THE PROMISE: THE DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN STORY” (Columbia)

√ Bob Recommended

          This marvelously designed retrospective is almost as thoughtful and inspiring as one of Springsteen’s best albums because it speaks to the heart of what makes rock ‘n’ roll great. The remastered version of “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” two discs of extra material recorded during the “Darkness” sessions and a DVD documentary of the making of “Darkness” all stress that it takes much more than craft and desire to make landmark music. An artist also needs a sense of vision and purpose. “Darkness” is a great album because you feel that vision and purpose in virtually every note. In the documentary, we hear Bruce tell us he wasn’t looking for “hits,” but songs that would define his goals as a songwriter and musician. If, for instance, he had put “Fire” or “Because the Night” on the album, he knew they had a chance to become huge hits, but he didn’t want to be represented by them; they weren’t building the bond he wanted with the audience. While several of the left-over songs are fun (and a few are close to the ambition of “Darkness”) , it’s clear listening to them now that Bruce made the right choices in assembling “Darkness” as the follow-up to “Born to Run.” He had moved way beyond most of the other material he recorded at the time. That said, a few of the tracks on the two new discs are noteworthy, including “Breakaway,” “Because the Night,” “Come on (Let’s Go Tonight)” and “Save My Love. And there is one great song: “The Promise.” The imaginative album packaging allows us to look through Bruce’s old notebooks as he searches, song by song, for the music that will prove that he wasn’t just lucky with “Born to Run.” Another thrilling chapter in a monumental rock ‘n’ roll legacy.   

 

CEE LO GREEN’S “The Lady Killer” (Elektra)

√ Bob Recommended

“F—k You” is one of the most irresistible singles since “Crazy,” but it’s far from all that this Georgia mix of hip-hop, neo soul and dance fever has going for him in this album.  If anyone wanted to do a remake of “Saturday Night Fever,” the opening track here—“BrightLightsBiggerCity”—would be the ideal centerpiece for the soundtrack. It comes complete with the boastful swagger of “Billie Jean.” But there’s also the early Motown silkiness of “It’s OK,” the funky, Stax edge of “”Satisfied” and the disarming regret of “Cry Baby.” In trying for variety, Green sometimes wanders too far from his strengths, but the heart of the album is surprisingly tender and, even, humble for a man who calls himself a lady killer. The production, too, is nicely tailored. Contemporary, yet classic in a winning, mainstream way.

LORETTA LYNN’S “COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER: A TRIBUTE TO LORETTA LYNN” (Columbia)

√ Bob Recommended

Six years after “Van Lear Rose,” the great comeback album she made with producer Jack White, Lynn returns—at least in spirit—in this tribute collection featuring versions of her songs by various contemporary artists. Among country music artists, Gretchen Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson and Martina McBride stand out. But the real highlights are the contributions by the “non-country” forces: the White Stripes, Paramore and, especially, Lucinda Williams who turns in a show-stopping version of “Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missing Tonight).” At the end, Lynn joins Sheryl Crow and Miranda Lambert on her signature tune, “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

FILMS

“WHITE MATERIAL”

√ Bob Recommended

There are so many life-defining social, political, racial and cultural issues circulating in this story of a West African nation’s struggle to deal with its bloody past and uncertain future that most directors would quickly succumb to melodrama. But Claire Denis and actress Isabelle Huppert never even come close—and their restraint is at the heart of the French film’s brilliance. Ignoring all advice to leave her family’s coffee plantation as anarchy sweeps across the country, Huppert clings to what she has been taught—people are basically decent and the land belongs to her and her family. But rules no longer apply and she is caught between a clash between corrupt government officials and a rebel army filled with drug-taking child soldiers. The result is a madness that is horrifying in its unrelenting savagery and detail. One of the best films of the year.

 

“LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS”

Nice touches, but flawed.

“Love…” is much more “serious” in theme than the trailers or even the first two-thirds of the movie would have you believe, and the transition from silly, romantic comedy to complex drama is frequently jarring. While there are some funny moments in the first two-thirds of the movie (though not as many as you’d probably like) and some touching ones in the final third, the juxtaposition between the serious and light leaves you feeling manipulated. Even the chemistry feels off. Anne Hathaway is effective as a troubled, free-spirit, but Jake Gyllenhaalnever really achieves the shift in tone his character demands.

BOOKS

KEITH RICHARDS’ “LIFE” (with James Fox)

√ Bob Recommended

This book is everything you hoped for and more. Keith has not only produced some of the most sensual and exciting music of the rock ‘n’ roll era, but he has been a symbol for everything that was enticing and alarming about the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. In more than 550 pages, he strives to tell us the things about his colorful life that we want to know—both the tabloid-ish things and the moments of musical invention.  The 60s and 70s decades were such a dangerous time for Richards that it’s amazing how he survived the drug-fueled, renegade path he took. We hear about the good and dark times with Brian Jones, Anita Pallenberg and the rest of the celebrated Stones extended family. Crucially, he speaks candidly about his up and down relationship with Mick Jagger—how he felt Jagger would feel threatened and try to sabotage any friendships Keith tried to build apart from him. But he also keeps reminding us of his passion for music, and shares the creation of such Stones landmarks as “Satisfaction,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Start Me Up” and more. Ultimately, Richards emerges from the years of self-destruction and he discovers it’s a pretty good place to be. He finds saneness and love (with model Patti Hansen) and delights in being a family man. By the end of the book, he’s so relaxed and down to earth that he’s even sharing his recipe for bangers and mash. This isn’t, however, just the tale of a survivor. It’s the story of a man who realizes all that he has to be thankful for and, in the final pages of the book; he comes across as a sensible, humble and loyal. Richards moves beyond the image to share a piece of himself.  “Life” is revealing, intimate, engaging and most surprising, even a bit sweet.

 

ALBUMS

ELVIS COSTELLO’S “NATIONAL RANSOM” (Hear Music)

√ Bob Recommended

Rock ‘n’ roll’s second great man named Elvis has made a couple dozen albums since the classic “My Aim Is True” in the late 1970s.  It sometimes feels like he’s made twice that many because he has packed so many images and ideas into every collection. Not everything has worked in recent years, but this time he’s again in top form. There’s such fury in the opening track that you could picture him listening to his old, high-energy gem “Pump It Up” before stepping into the studio to record it. Besides a solid, thoughtful body of songs, some of which speak to the national psyche, the album benefits from employing several of the musical styles that have interested the Englishman over the years, including music hall. Another inspired piece in producer T Bone Burnett’s remarkable, growing legacy.

 

MUMFORD & SONS’ “SIGH NO MORE” (Glassnote)

√ Bob Recommended

If you like the Avett Brothers (and you should) or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (and you should), this English quartet is mining much of the same musical soil. There’s a rustic, country, folk, even bluegrass spirit flowing through the tracks, along with a winning youthful optimism that is underscored in the title track, when they declare, “Love, it will not betray, dismay or enslave you / It will set you free.” But, rest assured, the band touches on enough dark or melancholy moments to keep the music rooted in reality. The good news here is the album has found an audience in the U.S. “Sign No More” has been on the Billboard charts for more than half the year.

 

MOVIES

“MORNING GLORY”

Slight, but Rachel McAdams is terrific

This charming, but light tale of an ambitious young TV executive’s attempts to try to pump life into a stale morning TV show (and her own workaholic existence) is much more entertaining than its 57 score on www.metacritic.com would suggest. The story itself has the stale aura of week-old bread, but Rachel McAdams is winning in every scene, whether she’s asked to do slapstick or to touch us with tenderness. It’s an example of perfect casting and an actress finding her voice on the screen. Diane Keaton, Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum also respond well in supporting roles. For those expecting something daring and or revolutionary, “Morning Glory” may be annoying. For its quiet pleasures, however, the film is a warm, unexpected treat.

 

“UNSTOPPABLE”

Clichés collide with furious action

This action-drama comes roaring down the tracks with such speed and force that the first hour just sweeps you away even though you know director Tony Scott is going to eventually run out of energy and dynamic shots. And sure enough things sputter for a while until Scott regains his touch and things start roaring again in the film’s final minutes. The runway train is such a menacing force that it could be a nominee for best villain if there was an Oscar category. There are too many clichés in the story (starting with the pairing of a grizzly railroad veteran with a new kid on the job) to make the film more than a simple popcorn diversion, but on the action scenes are sometimes stunning.

REFLECTIONS


    BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S “DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN” (Columbia)

    The release of the spectacular “Darkness on the Edge of Town” boxed set retrospective is being greeted with the same kind of excitement that the original album generated in 1978—which is remarkable on several levels. How few times in pop music history has an album had the feel of a landmark the day it was released and to still demonstrate the same brilliance more than a quarter century later when it is being heard in a vastly different social and cultural climate.

    In my 2009 memoir “Corn Flakes with John Lennon,” I describe in detail the thrill of hearing the album for the first time in the late spring of 1978 and recall an interview a few years later with Bruce where he described what he felt was an obsession with music in the 1970s that was so extreme that he virtually cut himself off from other things that eventually proved important in his own search for happiness. The following graphs appeared in slightly different for in the book.—Robert Hilburn

 

HEARING “DARKNESS” FOR THE FIRST TIME.

    Bruce’s “Born to Run” album in 1975 was such a bold, inspiring work that it made you believe once again in rock ‘n’ roll and rock ‘n’ roll heroes at a time when so many early rock stars had either self-destructed or compromised their art and new rock bands were sterile. As a relatively new pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times, I was especially thrilled because I just loved the music and I felt Bruce had such ambition and passion that he could set a leadership tone in rock for years.

      In the three years before “Darkness,” however, I began to worry about him. Two dangerous career traps face anyone gifted and lucky enough to deliver an album as transformational as “Born to Run.” First, you may want to hold on to the newfound popularity so badly that you end up repeating yourself the next time out. The second danger stems in part from becoming preoccupied with avoiding the first: You are so determined to ‘grow’ that you end up moving too far from your strengths.

    Bruce also faced a third challenge in the lengthy period leading up to “Darkness”—a fierce legal battle for control of his career. Even though he won the lawsuit against his former manager, he could have come away from the experience so battered emotionally that he lost touch with the uplifting message that fueled his creative impulses. Creativity is delicate—more than the result of someone’s emotional makeup than sheer craftsmanship.

      I thought about these dangers the day my advance copy of “Darkness” arrived. My teenage so, Rob, loved “Born to Run” as much as I did and he wanted to listen to the new record with me, but I wanted to listen to it alone. I didn’t want anything coloring my judgment. Once I closed the door in my office at home, I waited several minutes before putting the LP on the turntable. I felt that so much was riding on Bruce that I was afraid of being disappointed. I had to go all the way back to Elvis Presley’s early singles to remember being so apprehensive about hearing a new record. In the 1950s, I was such a big fan that I wanted every new Elvis record to be exciting enough to go to No. 1—to prove that Elvis was still the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

     In Bruce’s case, I loved the way he lifted the sights and spirits of the rock audience. Selfishly, I wanted Bruce to deliver a great album because it meant I could look forward to several years of writing about someone who mattered.  I didn’t want to spend that time writing about disco, heavy metal or the Captain & Tennille, and I’m not joking. Though there seem to be lots of appealing acts in rock at any given time, the gap between the good and the very best is enormous, and no one was spreading the rock ‘n’ roll gospel with the conviction and punch of Springsteen.

    When I finally played the album, I picked up right away on the traces of optimism, a holdover from “Born to Run.” As the album progressed, however, I became more intrigued by the expressions of hardship. This was new, ambitious territory for Bruce. He pointed to what stood between people on the edges of society and their dreams. In the title track, he rejected one of rock’s underlying themes by saying that the victories of youth may not—probably will not—be permanent. This made Bruce’s mythical darkness on the edge of town even more threatening than the backstreets of “Born to Run.”

    I listened to the album twice and I had my answer, but I was in my early 30s. I wondered what teenage fans might think. Would they resist moving from the romanticism of “Born to Run” to the somberness of “Darkness”? I asked Rob to listen to it, and then left him alone so I wouldn’t give away my feelings. I paced around until the office door opened.  When he appeared, I could see the answer in his face. He, too, was enthralled.

     I spoke with Bruce in Minneapolis at the opening of the “Darkness” tour and he was much more secure when talking about himself and his music than he had been in the days before “Born to Run.”  Sitting in an arena dressing room minutes after the concert, he said he was grateful for the loyalty of his audience during the three years between albums. “When I was off, I never felt lost about what I was trying to do,” he said. “The great thing now is to go out there every night and see those kids and get that kind of response. It’s like something special with that crowd. In a way, I like to think I was off three years and they were off three years. It’s like they were rooting for you. There’s a little extra thing that’s there now. It’s just a little more satisfying.”

    There were still dozens of fans waiting outside the arena when Bruce later stepped through the backstage door and headed for the tour bus. One kid called out to him. When Bruce turned his way, the boy said he was also from New Jersey, and he asked for Bruce’s autograph. “From Jersey, eh?’ Bruce said as he signed the fan’s concert ticket. “Hey,” the youngster said, “you talk just like you sing.” Bruce looked at him and gave his nervous, but disarming laugh. “Well, it is me up there, you know.”

     That bond was at the heart of Bruce’s music and passion; it’s what made fans want to follow him from city to city to see the shows, knowing that each night would be different. This wasn’t a case of someone figuring out the most effective set list and then repeating the songs in the same order and with the same arrangements night after night. This was a living exchange, highlighted by Bruce’s stories between songs. I though inspiration was rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest quality, and one reason Bruce fascinated me was that he made that inspiration the central theme of his music. He saw himself, his band and his audience as part of a community; a brotherhood of true believers—and he vowed to hold that community together.

AND ON BRUCE’S FINDING FAMILY

          One of the most striking things about the “Darkness” documentary included in the new boxed set is Bruce’s single-minded focus on his music—a dedication which seemed to leave little room for anything else.  Thinking about that now, it reminded me of why “Living Proof,” a song on the “Lucky Town” album, is for me the single most powerful song Bruce ever wrote because it marks the day he moved fully in his personal life from the isolation of the “Darkness” years to the day when he fulfilled his search for the love of his own family. Here’s another section from “Corn Flakes” that addresses that remarkable change in Bruce.

 

      Bruce’s retreat from the front lines of rock ‘n’ roll following his divorce and the breakup of the E Street Band was as dramatic—and as necessary—as John Lennon’s house-husband period and Bob Dylan’s disappearance after his motorcycle accident in the 1960s. It was a time for mending and renewal. Above all, he wanted the relationship with Patti Scialfa to work. The first of their three children, Evan James, was born in the summer of 1990, and the couple was married the following June.

      Bruce eventually began to work on what would be a two-album project, and we got the first glimpse of the new music at two benefit concerts for the Christic Institute, a public-interest law firm, in late 1990 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was a key moment for Bruce because his fans were demanding to know how all the changes in his personal life had affected his music. A lesser artist might have retreated into the safety of his best-known numbers, but Bruce respected his audience and his art too much. He knew he had to address the issue of change in the show. I saw the first signal of Bruce’s intent in his dress—he had his shirttail hanging over his faded jeans rather than sporting the suits he had favored on the “Tunnel of Love” tour. I sensed that the old Bruce was back.

        When I sat down with him for his first print interview in four years, I asked him to comment on the emotions behind “Living Proof,” which was about his joy of becoming a father and finally filling that long-aching void of family. He replied, “I tried Patti’s patience pretty regularly. I think I was just trying to re-find myself and dig up the guts to try to move ahead, and I was having a hard time doing that. “Living Proof” is about the birth of our first son. It was just this unbelievable feeling of conditional sort of love for Patti and the baby.

      “It was probably the single most powerful thing I ever felt, and I understood why I ran from it for so long, because along with it came this enormous fear, probably the fear of loss, the fear of showing your cards, admitting something is that important to you and that you can’t have it unless you show yourself,” he continued. “Part of it is you are with somebody who makes you feel safe enough to do that, and Patti just gave me that particular confidence.”

     Bruce often used interviews to clarify his feelings about himself and his music. But I never sensed it more than I did on this June, 1992 afternoon in Hollywood, as he spoke in his slow, thoughtful way during breaks in rehearsal with his new band. As he leaned forward on a lounge sofa, he wanted to explain why something had gone wrong in his life, which was hard for someone who was obsessed with doing things right.

      “When I was young, I truly didn’t think music had any limitations,” he said. “I thought it could give you everything you wanted in life, and music did that for me—more than I had ever dreamed of. But you eventually get to a point where you realize there are other things you need…things that music can’t give you. That’s when you have to put down the guitar and step into the real world.”

        Some artists find it difficult to speak about moments of doubt and insecurity, but Bruce felt that being open and honest was part of his bond with his fans. “I just kind of felt lost for a while after the ‘Tunnel of Love’ tour,” he said. “I went through the divorce, and anybody who has been through that knows it is tough. You lose a lot of faith in yourself and your ability to connect with people.”

       Bruce frequently stopped and tugged at his shirt or rubbed his hands together.

      “The point is, everything about you doesn’t grow at the same pace,” he continued. “You can become very capable in a certain area, even to the point of doing something so well that you are heavily rewarded and everybody applauds and tells you that you are great. But you can be completely unable at the same time to function in almost every other way. In my case, I wrote a lot about community and relationships, yet personally I lived very internally. But eventually you notice that your friends are started to get married and you even see some of the fans at the shows have kids on their shoulders, and you feel you are missing something important in your life. That’s when you have to see if you can live up to the words in some of your own songs. For me, that step took almost ten years.”       

ALBUMS

TAYLOR SWIFT’S “SPEAK NOW” (Big Machine)

Not a fan.

    Measured against Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and other teen favorites of the last decade, Swift is a major advance. For one thing, she tries to actually say something in her songs. Plus, she’s got a fabulous touch for big, sweeping, hit-bound choruses. But she starts running into trouble when higher standards are applied. The strength of the songs, until now, is that they have been built around stories that are easy for young hearts to embrace. In trying to show she’s almost 21, she attempts to give the stories a bit more edge, but they still seem juvenile. There are lots of complaints in the songs, but precious little insight. Is there a respected songwriter in America who would begin a song with these lines, “Words can break someone into a million pieces, but they can also put them back together”? In the end, we are just left with the swooping choruses.  The big X factor here is her youth. Maybe she can begin showing depth as she gets older, but I think the odds are against her. I’d love to hear someone with the promise of a young Patsy Cline or Dolly Parton or Emmylou Harris. At this point, Swift seems little more than the country-pop daughter of the relatively soulless Shania Twain.

 

THE AVETT BROTHERS’ “Live, Volume 3” (American)

√ Bob Recommended

    This rootsy Americana-based band from North Carolina’s major label debut, “I and Love and You,” was one of the most memorable  albums of 2009 and this follow-up gives us a chance to hear some of that music live (including the exquisite title tune) as well as catch up with some of the band’s inviting earlier tunes. They come with the weighty stamp of approval of producer Rick Rubin and it’s easy to see why he signed the Avetts to his American label. There is a fresh, endearing spirit to the music that makes it seem both comforting and inspiring. “Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise” is the title of one of the group’s older tunes, but it conveys nicely the sense of youthful optimism and awakening that is at the heart of the Avetts’ musical vision.

 

ELVIS PRESLEY’s “VIVA ELVIS: THE ALBUM” (RCA/Legacy)

Beware.

     Yes, it’s Elvis voice on this album, but that’s about the only thing that it has going for it. “Viva ELVIS” was put together by Legacy Recordings and the folks behind “Viva ELVIS by Cirque du Soleil,” the stage show at ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The idea was to have some record producers (including Brendan O’Brien) and contemporary musicians surround Elvis’s vocals with aggressive new arrangements to give the music a more pulsating, modern sound. The problem isn’t the goal. It would be great to hear Elvis’ music in a re-imagined setting. But these remakes—with touches of everything from punk rock to hip-hop thrown in the mix—are plodding and hollow. The guy sure can sing, though.

 

BOOKS

SEAN WILENTZ’S “BOB DYLAN IN AMERICA” (Doubleday)

√ Bob Recommended

    This history professor and author was practically born to write about Dylan. His family owned a bookstore in Greenwich Village in the 1960s and Wilentz grew up amidst the emerging folk music and beat literature scenes.  He devotes the first 16 pages of the book to growing up in that environment and how seeing Dylan perform at Philharmonic Hall in 1964 kindled an interest in the singer-songwriter that has only intensified over the years.  He has even served as historian-in-residence for Dylan’s official website. He sometimes get a little diffuse in trying to document some of the forces in American culture that influenced Dylan, but the book’s most compelling sections represent showcase the most stimulating and insightful writing ever about rock’s greatest songwriter. The sections devoted to Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind”-“Love and Theft” period are almost breathtaking in the level of imagination and discovery. A must for Dylan admirers.

 

MOVIES

“DUE DATE”

Has its moments

  O.K., O.K., “Due Date” isn’t as good as “The Hangover” or “Planes, Trains and Automobiles," and it’s not as consistently funny as the trailer suggests, but cut the film some slack. Despite the uneventful interludes in the script, Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis  struggle gallantly to inject some humor and some pathos into the story of two ill-suited (or so we think) characters pushed together by unlikely circumstance. It’s easy to see how they could have just given up half way through the film and phoned in their parts. But they work in every scene to find a connection to each other and to us—and they frequently succeed. Kudos, too, to the French bulldog.

MY DOG TULIP

Disappointing dog story

   My wife and I are serious dog lovers (we have an English bulldog named Oliver Hardy and a boxer named Katharine Hepburn), so we couldn’t resist seeing this adult-aimed animated feature based on a book by English man of letters J.R. Ackerley. After about 20 minutes, however, I realized that while there must be 1,000 great dog stories, this is one I don’t care about.  I admired the animation and some of the philosophical asides in the tale about a man and his 15-year devotion to his equally devoted German shepherd. Mostly, however, I was eager for the film—with its emphasis on the dog’s bowel and mating attempts—to end so we could get home to our own four-leggeds.

 

SECRETARIAT

Great horse, conventional film

    Some people—including the film-makers—feel that Secretariat was the greatest race horse ever and you can’t resist pulling for Big Red as he goes after racing’s celebrated triple crown.  Beyond the basic lure of the Secretariat legend, however, the film itself is corny and conventional. To give the audience someone to root against (it’s hard to make a rival horse a villain), the film-makers devote far too much footage to the rival horse’s arrogant, obnoxious owner. The film does come alive when John Malkovich steps in as a colorful, eccentric horse trainer, but neither he nor the Secretariat story is enough get the film even close to the winner’s circle.

 

HEREAFTER

Eastwood disappoints--again

   Going against the odds by moving successfully from TV to films and from acting to direction, Clint Eastwood has had a remarkable career, but he is on a losing streak. Except for showcasing the exquisite Cecile De France and a spectacular opening tsunami scene, there is little to recommend this dreary effort. It is the latest step in the “un-doing” of his credibility. “Hereafter” is unfocused, “Invictus” was undramatic and “Changeling” was unwatchable.

IT’S A FUNNY KIND OF STORY

√ BOB CERTIFIED

There is much to like and admire about this feel-good story about a teen-ager who is so alarmed by his lingering depression that he checks himself into a Brooklyn hospital psych ward. This isn’t a “big” film and it’s all the better for it. First, the writing-direction team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck never let the temperature of the comedy/drama get much beyond a simmer; by wisely avoiding dramatic or comedic explosions, they keep the movie intimate, sweet and engaging. As the troubled teen, Keir Gilchrist maneuvers the entire 90 or so minutes with a convincing reserve.  But the marvel of the film is Zach Galifianakis, whose film-stealing performance was as memorable as Jack Black’s splash in “High Fidelity.” While Black, however, soon became so self-conscious on the screen that he lost his early charm, Zach keeps getting better. He was sensational in his small role in the under-rated comedy “Dinner for Schmucks” and here he tops everything he’s done by far in a role that combines both low-key comedy (not the over the top style of the earlier films) and dramatic moments that require considerable vulnerability and depth. If he can avoid Black’s tendency to constantly repeat himself, Zach may turn out to be one of the cinematic wonders of the new decade.

 

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

Promising start turns lazy

Watching the latest Woody Allen movie (he just writes and directs, doesn’t act) feels a lot like having lunch with an old friend who is a wonderful storyteller. The characters are universal, yet eccentric (from Anthony Hopkins in late-life crisis to Naomi Watts in mid-life crisis) and it’s fun as Allen introduces us to them in moments of turmoil. But gradually you realize that this is all too easy; Allen probably made the whole thing up on the way to the lunch. The characters end up on such familiar paths that they almost seem to have been abandoned by the film-maker. The visit with the old friend turns out to be pleasant, but nothing even remotely memorable. You look forward to the next lunch, but hope he has something a little revealing to say.

THE TOWN

Good, but very familiar

    There have probably been 30,000 movie westerns, so Ben Affleck probably thought there was room left for the 8,000^th or so heist film. While he makes does a first-rate job as an actor and director in this gritty tale of love and loyalty and self-destruction in a gritty Boston neighborhood, the familiarity of the plot points limit this to a minor, but entertaining work. One problem at the heart of the film is when  Affleck, as the familiar criminal with a heart, not only sweeps an unlikely subject off her feet (as part of a plot to make sure the bank heist didn’t have one big loose end) but then loses his heart to her. And someone should have told Affleck that one of the film’s shoot-out scenes (with the loudest assault rifles you can imagine) is simply over the top. Nice, nice, nice touches--but well short of being great.