Film Shorts: November 2007

Quick takes on new releases

By D.K. Holm

Film critic D.K. Holm offers up witty (and pithy) analyses on a handful of this month's new theater releases...

Bee Movie The most over-hyped movie of the year, starring everyone from Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock to Larry King and Oprah Winfrey...

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten A celebration of the late Clash frontman... (read related VV blog post)

P2 A business executive (Rachel Nichols) gets stuck in her office building after hours and is stalked by the psychopathic security guard (Wes Bentley) who has always loved her...

Lions for Lambs The screen powers of Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise combine to examine America’s new role in the world... (read related VV blog post)

Southland Tales Richard Kelly’s follow up to Donnie Darko, an Altman-esque survey of life in Southern California (which is to say America)... (read related VV blog post)

Martian Child The latest film pairing John Cusack and a tear-jerking child...

Fred Claus Vince Vaughn plays Santa’s irascible younger sibling... (read related VV blog post)

Redacted Brian De Palma’s unofficial updated remake of his earlier Casualties of War...

Grace Is Gone Yet another pairing of John Cusack and a sob-sucking child...

Love in the Time of Cholera An adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez novel, with Javier Bardem...

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium A poor man’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...

Margot at the Wedding Ice queen Nicole Kidman bespoils another quiet indie tale...

Margaret The ramifications of a bus accident are explored in this film by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me)...

Teeth A typical teen comedy about the difficulty of dealing with vagina dentata...

Beowulf Robert Zemeckis! Angelina Jolie! Anthony Hopkins! John Malkovich! Ray Winstone! Crispin Glover as Grendel! All in the service of an 11th century epic poem the producers have deemed too boring to adapt accurately!...

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Painter and movie-dabbler Julian Schnabel’s account of a French magazine editor paralyzed but for his left eyelid...

Tenderness Russell Crowe stars in this novel adaptation as a cop investigating a troubled kid...

Oswald’s Ghost Effective documentary about the alleged assassin of JFK…