Movie Nation

Writer-director-star Shawn Christensen’s “Curfew” was a minor miracle of a short film. This 2012 Oscar nominee was cynical and bitter, sad and uplifting — and deeply, darkly hilarious — a lot to manage in 19 magical minutes.
“Curfew” earns a feature film treatment titled “Before I Disappear,” with Christensen, his precocious co-star Fatima Ptacek, and a supporting cast that now includes Emmy Rossum, Ron Perlman and Richard Schiff. Expanded and fleshed-out, the short film becomes a somewhat more showy and melodramatic movie, just as moving, just as funny and almost as magical.
We meet Richie (Christensen) in the tub. He’s narrating a letter to Vista, his girfriend.
“I hope this note finds you well. But as these things go, that won’t be the case.”
Richie has a razor blade. Vista is dead. Richie’s planning on joining her. The bathwater turns crimson.
He’s about 30, a junky, and a janitor. Richie’s seen something — a young woman, dead of an overdose, in the toilets he cleans at a club run by Bill (Perlman). Bill tells Richie to forget what he saw, and slips him some “Flora,” a nickname for heroin. Richie lied to his other employer, Gideon (Paul Wesley), who was in love with the dead woman. So Richie figures that’s about enough.
But the phone rings. And rings. And rings. It’s his estranged sister, Maggie (Rossum), who asks a favor in the most profane, judgmental and hateful way. Can you, you worthless, unreliable lout, pick up my daughter from school and get her home?
Richie bandages his wrist, figures he can put off suicide for an hour or two, and staggers, smoking, into young Sophia’s school. She is reciting Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” — first in English, then in Mandarin. She is a uniformed sixth grader, organized, uptight, an overachiever in school and in gymnastics. She is impatient with this stoned stranger picking her up. “There will be hell to pay,” she threatens, if he cannot get her home to do her homework, study for a test and continue over-achieving. And there will be.
The chemistry between these two is electric. Christensen’s eyebrow arches at Sophia’s every insult, as if he is not sure she’s just another of his many hallucinations. He makes Richie soulful and sweet, but given to righteous rages when he feels others are being wronged. Ptacek’s Sophia is the adult, assertive in every situation. They storm into a dinner at Bill’s place, and she sits herself down and digs in with his henchmen. They stagger over to a hipster bowling alley, and she dances to her favorite electronica pop right down the lanes.
OK, maybe it’s whatever drug Richie has popped that has him seeing that.
Through a long, comically tragic New York night, these two bond, we hear the story of how Richie and Maggie grew up and grew apart, and they avoid people who want to collect from him or kill him, or grab her as a way of getting at her mother.
We can guess where this is going, but as with his short film, Christensen fills the sure-to-be-redemptive story arc with surprises. Ptacek, as she was in the short, makes a great foil.
And the addition of Rossum and Perlman to the cast adds pathos and paranoia, guilt and menace.
Christensen may have won the best short dramatic feature Academy Award, but his real prize was the chance to turn some marvelous characters and gripping, gritty situations into a feature length film. “Before I Disappear” was his prize, and as it turns out, our prize, too.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with violence, drug use, adult themes, profanity

Cast: Shawn Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Ron Perlman, Paul Wesley, Richard Schiff

Credits: Written and directed by Shawn Chistensen. An IFC release.

Running time: 1:33

Blame it on lowered expectations for the umpteenth cartoon starring those commando penguins from “Madagascar,” over-exposed little darlings who stole all those movies and went on to star in their own spin off TV series.
Or lay it at the feet of the Dreamworks Animation trademark style — slapstick for the kids, and a boatload of wisecracks aimed at the parents who also sit through these farces aimed at the under-eight crowd.
But “Penguins of Madagascar” is as “cute and cuddly” as ever, and often downright hilarious.
Kids will giggle at the plucky impertinence, the pratfalls and the sheer breakneck speed of the gags, and the occasional gas-passing joke.
And their parents? The puns, movie references and impersonations are for grownups. Hip ones will grin at the witty touch of having iconoclastic German director and “Encounters at the End of the World” documentarian Werner Herzog play a comically callous documentary filmmaker in the opening scene. Here, on “Earth’s frozen bottom,” he captures the beginnings of the penguin team.
Even as chicks, Skipper is in charge, impulsive and riffing in that Tom-McGrath-does-William Shatner-as-Kirk voice, leading tiny Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and the newly-hatched Private (Christopher Knights) into “adventure and glory like no penguin has seen before.”
That flashback prologue sets up the dynamic that has played out for this cute and cuddly quartet ever since.
“Kowalski! Analysis! Rico! Status report!”
“Penguins of Madagascar” is about dopey and adorable Private’s efforts to become “a meaningful and valued member of the team.” He will have his chance when an octopus supervillain named Dave (John Malkovich) sets out to rid the world of penguin-kind. But the Madagascar boys have competition in the heroics department. The well-financed, gadget-equipped North Wind inter-species commando team has a seal (Ken Jeong), a polar bear (Peter Stormare), an exotic, sexy owl (Annet Mahendru) and is led by a confident, oh-so-competent wolf (Benedict Cumberbatch).
“No one breaks The Wind!”
Director-turned voice actor Tom McGrath’s Skipper has always been what makes the penguins funny. Skipper refuses to be humbled, contradicted or corrected. His version of profanity is a hoot.
“Parker Posey! Flippin’ Frozen Tundra!” And, since they chase Dave the octopus to Venice, “Venetian BLINDED again!”
Every word out of that animated penguin’s 3D beak (you can even see the fine penguin feathers now) is funny. They pop up in Shanghai, which Skipper mistakes for Dublin.
“All right boys, River Dance!”
It doesn’t matter that the plot and characters seem like a mishmash of other recent animated offerings, as long as McGrath is cracking wise. And the team of writers spare no pun in giving the villain just as many zingers, most of which will zing over the heads of the younger viewers.
“Drew, Barry,” Dave orders his minions, “More power!”
“William! Hurt them!”
“Nicolas! Cage them!”
“Halle! Bury them!”
Whatever this little nothing of a cartoon comedy lacks — decent female characters, an original villain — the bottom line from this bottom-heavy brotherhood from the bottom of the world? They’re still cute, still cuddly, still as funny as a ninja penguin could ever be.

MPAA Rating: PG for mild action and some rude humor
Cast: The voices of Tom McGrath, John Malkovich, Chris Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Stormare, Werner Herzog
Credits: Directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith, screenplay by John Aboud,
Michael Colton and Brandon Sawyer. A Fox/Dreamworks Animation release.
Running time: 1:32

Your enjoyment of “Horrible Bosses 2” is almost wholly dependent on your tolerance for clusters of funny actors, babbling, riffing — and in the case of Charlie Day, screeching — all at once.
That’s how they communicate. And if we get headaches listening to them, imagine how they’re suffering for their art.
Because it isn’t about bosses at all this time. But those poor working schlubs Nick, Kurt and Dale are still getting stiffed. As bad at it as they were at the last time around, these clowns still think revenge will taste sweet.
We catch up with the trio as they’re pitching their new gadget, the “Shower Buddy,” a showerhead that dispenses soap and shampoo and conditioner, etc., on local L.A. TV. The two goobers, Dale and Kurk (Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis) are all about how to “be ourselves” on “Good Morning, L.A.” Nick is still the deadpan voice of sanity.
“Let’s NOT be ourselves. ‘Ourselves’ is a dumpster fire.”
They proceed to prove it when they’re pursued by a home shopping mogul — Chris Pine — and then that mogul’s dad (Christoph Waltz). They are out-maneuvered and stand to lose their start-up company, their dream of “never having to work for anybody ever again,” forced to realize they will “always be (just) cogs in the machine.”
So naturally the two dummies start talking revenge, with the more-sane Nick trying to talk them out of it. They’ll kidnap the son, ransom him to the dad and collect enough cash to save their company from the very guy trying to steal it.
“Name one kidnapping movie where the kidnappers aren’t dead or in jail at the end.”
“Nine to Five!”
“OK, name TWO…”
All this is set-up is handled in a rush, just enough time for Pine to come off as a preening punk and Waltz as a smiler with a knife.
“I make new enemies every day,” he purrs, Teutonically. “It’s called BUSINESS.”
The guys have to cross paths with the survivors of “Horrible Bosses.” Start with Kevin Spacey’s hilarious ex-boss/now-inmate, hissing profane tirades of “advice” over a prison-visitation phone, then check in with the colorfully-named thug Jamie Foxx brought to life. He is still insulted by the stereotypes they lay on him.
“You’ve got the N-word in your eyes!”
And then there’s the sex-crazed dentist played by Jennifer Aniston, her eyes sparkling at the filthy words she gets to let out of her mouth — or is that the too-obvious key lighting engineered to create sparkling eyes?
There are plans to be made, intrigues, betrayals, cops to fool and a caper to carry out. Some of the laughs come from the infuriating ineptitude of the trio and the ways they get outflanked and out thought at every turn. Other giggles spin from the colorful profanity of one and all.
And then there’s all that headache-inducing cacophony of babble. You can’t catch it all, which is just as well. The many improvisations are rarely much more than passably funny. The plot — packed with coincidences both explained and glossed over — doesn’t withstand any scrutiny.
But the original cast — both heroes and villains — are still funny, with Spacey and Foxx flirting with hilarious.
And as the film itself is thin on themes and gags, there’s a big car chase finale and an indifferently amusing collection of outtakes over the closing credits, where Bateman finally breaks his deadpan and Sudeikis finally comes off as clever.

MPAA Rating: R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout
Cast: Jason Bateman, Chris Pine, Jason Sudeikis, Jamie Fox, Jennifer Aniston, Charlie Day, Christoph Waltz
Credits: Directed by Sean Anders, written by Sean Anders, John Morris, Jonathan M. Goldstein, John Francis Daley. A Warner Brothers release.
Running time: 1:48

“The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” is a great name for a documentary about Hayao Miyazaki and his animation house, Japan’s Studio Ghibli.
His Oscar winning “Spirited Away” and fantasies such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Ponyo” established him as the greatest practitioner of Japanimation — and-drawn anime rendered in bright shades of watercolor.
And Steampunkish titles such as “Howl’s Moving Castle” and other works, including “Spirited Away,” have a hint of madness about them.
Even he admits, on camera here, that he doesn’t know what “Spirited Away” was about.
Then there’s the very idea of preserving so much of the hand-crafted way of making movies in an age of computer-generated slickness. Madness.
“I am a man of the 20th century,” the septuagenarian grins, “I don’t want to deal with the 21st!”
But six days a week, he showed up at the animation company he built, storyboarding his pictures, rewarding himself with champagne and a cigarette when they were done. He and the staff of 400 would take their mid-day calisthenics break at their drawing boards or computer animation work stations. And every day, at dusk, they’d gather on the peaceful, lush roof garden and look at the sunset.
Now he’s retired. Mami Sunada’s languorous documentary takes us inside his work and his life for a glimpse of the pacifist whose final film was about the designer of the Japanese Zero warplane, the visionary who didn’t write his own scripts, but whose poetic films capture a worldview that is animated, through and through.
Sunada scampers after Miya-san with her camera, a tireless, playful man in a work apron presiding over an empire that includes movies, TV series, “museums,” product tie-ins and a worldwide brand. The name may just be “a random name I got from an airplane,” he admits (in Japanese, with English subtitles), but Studio Ghibli is almost as famous to animation fans as Disney.
Sunada documents Miya-san’s career as a director and shows him working on that final “Zero” film, “The Wind Rises.” He ponders its message, changes the ending, fusses over storyboards and frets over the film’s reception. The last thing he wants is a militaristic rabble rouser coming out in the middle of a Japanese election year. Miyazaki has no use for nuclear power or right wing “Zero fanatics,” who fetishize the warplane and Japan’s days of imperial glory.

Sunada’s unhurried film has time for moments of Miyazaki looking at the flowers, testing the strength of tree limbs, teaching his staff how people in Japan bowed pre-World War II, voice-casting “The Wind Rises” and explaining himself to his longtime producer, Toshiro Suzuki. Artistic freedom is dying, they worry, partly because their last film together is so freighted with meanings that the director never intended.
Sunada, who narrates the film (also in Japanese) shows Miyazaki timing his scenes with a stopwatch. The scenes are only on a storyboard at this point and only exist in animated form in his mind.
Flashback footage shows the director starting Studio Ghibli, and part of what is happening as “The Wind Rises” wraps up is him paying back his animation mentor, Isao Takahata, whose Ghibli-released “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” was to come out at the same time as “Wind Rises.” It only opened in the U.S. early in November.
“Kingdom’s” slow pace won’t be to every taste. There are a lot of scenes that seem superfluous, and the only footage from the director’s extensive animation resume is glimpsed briefly in the finale. But if you ever wondered at the world Miyazaki was trying to honor and recreate and why the films of that one studio have such a consistent beauty and civilized playfulness, “Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” will show you.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with smoking

Cast: Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Hideaki Anno, Toshiro Suzuki

Credits: Written and directed by Mami Sunada. A gKids release.

Running time: 1:57

Mike Leigh’s bio-pic of Britain’s “greatest artist,” J.M. W. Turner, gives his muse, Timothy Spall, a great star vehicle. A lovely looking period piece performed in almost indecipherable Cockney, or so we’ve been told. Dying to see it, maybe a Mr. Spall interview afterwards? One can hope and ask.

Looking forward to this documentary about Hiyao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli and the magical hand-drawn animated empire that was born there.

Anime fairytales, Japanese folk tales, Japanese history and Steam Punk, all came off the pens of this animation innovator.

“The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” goes into limited release Nov. 28. Yeah, this is the Japanese trailer. What, you don’t speak Japanese?

Lily James has the title role. But Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother and Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother? Digging that.

It’s lovely to look at — period costumes, lust forests, over-saturated Technicolor palette. In 3D? I wonder.

Look for “Cinderella” TNG in March.

“Reach Me” is an indie comedy whose primary virtue is its cast, well-known actors who took small roles on a lark — a chance to play against “type.”
So here’s Sylvester Stallone as a rich, ruthless gossip website operator, a sometime painter who is all about “flow,” and being endlessly quotable.
“Promises are written on water. They sink!”
Then there’s Kyra “The Closer” Sedgwick, a pyromaniac fresh out of prison, ready to be redeemed.
Tom Berenger is the homeless savant and reluctant, reclusive guru whose book,”Reach Me,” is turning Southern California’s lost souls into self-helped successes.
“It’s never too late to grow up and be special,” he preaches on the page.”This is between you…and you!”
Funny tough guy Terry Crews is his agent, his “inspiration,” according to him.
And then there are the players cast on-the-nose.
Nelly plays an ex-con rapper who sings the praises of “Reach Me” to one and all — mostly nearby El Segundo and Redondo Beach, where the film is set and was shot.
Thomas Jane is an undercover cop who wears a new-fangled six-shooter in an Old West holster. He shoots people and then seeks forgiveness from an increasingly repelled priest (Danny Aiello).
“I’m startin’ to feel like an ACCOMPLICE!”
And Kevin Connolly (“Entourage”) is the would-be novelist, working as a hack investigative gossip for Stallone’s “Daily Contact” website. He’s the guy charged with finding this Teddy Raymond (Berenger), going through the guru’s cured stutterer intermediary (Lauren Cohan).
The trouble with all-star comedies like this is how much the process of writing attractive bit parts for big names works against the central story and characters. Writer-director John Herzfeld keeps introducing new players — Tom Sizemore, Kesley Grammer, Danny Trejo — when we’d much rather hang with Jane’s cracked avenging angel cop or Stallone’s paint-slinging muckraker or Cary Elwes’ creepy Brit actor prone to groping his female co-stars. Instead, we sort of follow Connolly’s Roger King as he tracks down his quarry, whom we can guess is going to try and redeem the jerk.
Connolly and Sedgwick are still cable show leading players. The big screen overwhelms them. Berenger comes off convincingly earnest, damaged and shy, and the Aiello/Jane trips to the confessional deliver consistent laughs. I love it when Jane sits opposite Aiello, leans toward the priest and says “You wanna go first?”
Stallone has never had more lines in a smaller role, and it’s entertaining to hear him strain through speeches he’s been smart enough to avoid in his decades of action pictures.
“You’re either toothless, or ruthless…You’re a finger-painter. Be a masterpiece!”
Listening to him, you wonder why trend-chewing So-Cal hasn’t gone cult-crazy for him and not the homeless guy wandering beaches and living in parks.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language, drug use, and smoking
Cast: Kevin Connolly, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Berenger, Nelly, Sylvester Stallone, Lauren Cohan, Terry Crews, Thomas Jane
Credits: Written and directed by John Herzfeld. A Millennium Entertainment release.
Running time: 1:35