This Month in Movies - June 11
June 7: Middle-aged couple Tom and Gerri live through Another Year, more blissful and in love than ever. Trouble is, the other people in their lives haven’t been quite as lucky. Some struggle with loneliness, some with alcohol, some with both. While it’s easy to fall into British writer-director Mike Leigh’s films, they are not what you would call “escapism.” He gets so close to his characters, relying on them more than pure plot, that you usually feel like you’ve known them for longer than the length of the film, and—just like real life—some you love, some you don’t. Some you hold on to, some you let drift away. In this year-long snapshot of some ordinary lives, Leigh asks what it is that makes one person’s life a success and another’s a flop. This film is about aging gracefully, about identifying the stuff that really matters. It’s about knowing that happiness is more of a hope than something to bank on—even in the pursuit of it, there are no guarantees happiness will be apprehended.
Other releases: Other Woman, Rubber, True Grit
June 14: Kill the Irishman fills the role of pure escapism. It tells the true-ish story of Danny Green, who rose to major player in the Cleveland mob scene during the bomb-happy ‘70s, and who would survive a number of attempts on his life. While it doesn’t come close to breaking mould of the genre, it does have all of the right ingredients of the gangster movie. It has lots of things that go boom and the familiar gangster faces of Paul Sorvino and Christopher Walken.
Other releases: Hall Pass, Battle: Lost Angeles. Red Riding Hood
June 21: When you think of a place to really let loose, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is probably not the first one that comes to mind. That is unless you’re Tim Lippe and you’re leaving your small-town Wisconsin home for the first time in your middle-aged life. An insurance salesman, Tim is sent to an annual insurance convention saddled with the task to bring home the coveted Two Diamonds award. There the naïve man-child learns that some conventions are just excuses to go to a strange city and be very, very naughty. Starring Ed Helms (The Hangover) and John C. Reilly (Stepbrothers), this fish-out-of-water comedy is as raunchy as they come, but it still delivers a positive, feel-good vibe.
Other releases: Adjustment Bureau, Happythankyoumoreplease, Unknown
June 28: Barney Panofsky is a difficult, abrasive man. Aging and lonely, he revisits the many mistakes he’s made, the drinking and the three failed marriages. He wants to tell Barney’s Version. Trouble is, oftentimes it is hard to realize the biggest mistakes in life until it is far too late, when even an apology is impossible. Based on Mordechai Richler’s final novel, the film is both tragic and funny. As crabby as Barney is, it’s hard not to grow attached to him—there had to be something endearing for him to manage to marry three beautiful women. Paul Giamatti plays the irascible Barney, and his performance is just as fearless and unselfconscious as he was in Cold Souls or Sideways. There are a number of famous Canadian cameos from Paul Gross to David Cronenberg, and Montreal also plays a significant role in the film—it’s nice to see the city play itself, rather than New York.
Other releases: Season of the Witch, White Irish Drinkers, 3 Backyards
