Movie Nation

He’s got that Mike Myers’ sized animation franchise to lean on — “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is due out the 13th.

But Jay Baruchel is avoiding the Myers trap by acting-acting-acting, turning up in indie films like “The Trotsky” and “I’m Reed Fish,” ensemble comedies from “Tropic Thunder” to “This is the End,” and in action pics such as “Robocop” and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

Lots of variety, though he gets cast typically as a nebbish, the nerdy guy who realizes “She’s Out of My League.”

Questions for Mr. Baruchel, who has a Cameron Crowe picture due out, and “Don Peyote” and a few other projects in the works in between “Dragon” training sequels?

Whatever the thriller “Cold in July” sets out to be, it becomes something significantly different the moment Don Johnson shows up.

What started out as a grim survive-a-criminal’s-vengeance tale, a slice of early ’80s Texas Gothic, develops a swagger the moment Ol’ Don strolls in — all cowboy books, ragtop Cadillac and southern fried private eye. He’s the kind of gunslinger who shows up in the middle of the Western, figures he makes the odds more even, bit but sure as shootin’ isn’t suicidal.

“Lotta cowboys down there,” he drawls as the “good” guys steel themselves for the big showdown with the bad guys. “You wanna rethink your math?”

“Cold in July” opens with a home invasion in which a timid framing shop owner (Michael C. Hall) shoots and kills a hooded intruder in small-town 1980s Texas. But there’s something a little off in the way the town and the cops respond. And not all of this can be attributed to “Well, it’s Texas.”

Even the postman is all back slaps and bravado.

“I hear you GOTCHA one last night.”

The cops “didn’t think you had it in you.”

Richard (Hall) is bugged by all this, rattled by every sudden noise. He knows the dude the cops said he shot has a daddy, a mean one with a prison record. And stumbling into old man Russell (Sam Shepard) as the county summarily puts the dead intruder in the ground just sets Russell off. He is all vague suggestions of this, veiled threats about that.

Next thing you know, Richard, his wife (Vinessa Shaw) and young son are under police protection, which promises to be no protection at all from a cunning killer with blood feud tendencies.

It’s along about here that Richard starts to wonder just who it was he shot in his house, just what Russell knows or doesn’t know and just what the cops are up to in luring Russell into stalking him. Something more sinister is afoot, and meek Richard is drawn into an ugly underworld where Russell knows his way around, but not nearly as well as his old pal, the private eye/pig farmer who lightens the mood and gives the coming violence a righteous, almost comical bent.

Indie filmmaker Jim Mickle, whose credits are mostly genre horror, has a hard time with tone here, jolting us from weak suspense to harrowing action to comic interlude and bloodbath finale. He basically stops the movie with each tone shift, fatal to any thriller.

Hall is a passable lead, but easily overshadowed by the grizzled Shepard and one-liner loving Johnson.

“Cold in July” is another of those seemingly pointless period pieces. Setting it 30 years ago lets the older guys pass themselves off as fellow Korean War vets and gives the production the excuse to use VCRs and lots of rattletrap late ’70s cars. Otherwise, Texas is Texas.

This is Southern Gothic that harks more to “Walking Tall” than William Faulkner, and it turns out that is alternately too ambitious and not nearly ambitious enough.

MPAA Rating: R for disturbing bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity

Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw

Credits: Directed by Jim Mickle, scripted by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle based on a Joe R. Lansdale novel. An IFC release.

Running time: 1:46

“Maleficent” did well Thursday night and quite well on Friday. So barring a rash of critics’ warnings heeded and bad word of mouth, millions of tykes will be scared by the violence and the Jolie of this Disney misfire on Saturday and Sunday.

It should clear $60, with Deadline.com going so far as to think $70 is within reach. I doubt it, but we’ll see. As I say, reviews were poor and parents tend to be persuaded and dissuaded more than others. UPDATED — Saturday’s bump suggests this will be close to $70 million by midnight Sunday. Women made this one a hit. (Final estimate, $70 on the nose)

Seth MacFarlane’s fanboys read reviews and are staying away from “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” The trailers aren’t funny, he’s particularly dull in them. And reviews have been harsh, if not brutal. It might manage $18 $17 $16. Those are “Blended” numbers, far below the $26-28 projected. Helloooooo “Ted 2.” ($17, almost to the cent).

To further elaborate — Adam Sandler’s “Blended” opened at $18, signalling the end of his comic brand name status. So MacFarlane is managing at the beginning of his big budget/all star comedy career what it took Sandler 20 years to fade into.

“X-Men: Days of Future Past” has lost almost all its steam, suggesting this franchise is close to exhausted, despite the healthy opening weekend numbers. A 60-70% falloff the second weekend? People are over it. UPDATED — the drop is 66%, pretty bad, but it still managed another $31 $32 million thanks to a Saturday boost.

“Blended” plunged down the charts on its second weekend, “Neighbors” continues to pay off. “Godzilla” sputters toward $185 domestic when all’s in. “Neighbors” may actually be ranked higher on the charts when all is said and done Sunday midnight — both are in the $7.5-$8 million range.

“The Other Woman” cleared $80 million on its way to @$85, all in. “Chef” is clinging to the top ten, not doing huge numbers despite adding screens, week by week.
It is still not over $10 million.

“Million Dollar Arm” had legs, is sticking around the top ten and has done better than expected — $35-40, by the end of its run, $28 by midnight Sunday.

“Spider Man 2” should hit $200 million in a week or two, and won’t make much more than that, domestically. A Good long run for an indifferent film.

“Grand Budapest” is finishing its run under $60 million. “The Immigrant” added screens and lost audience. It won’t do $10.

The spring’s run of religious films are slowly fading from the top 20. “Heaven is for Real” will not quite hit $90 million, which is a HUGE deal. If “Moms Night Out” had been a better movie, it might have earned more than $9.

The reviews are in, and the big studio releases this weekend won’t be boosted at the box office by the critics, myself included.

The joyless “Maleficent” earned weak to poor notices — kind of “Oz the Great and Powerful” but a lot less fun. The experts still figure Disney will clean up with this technical exercise in post-feminist villainous motivation — in 3D.

Box Office Guru thinks “Alice in Wonderland” numbers are out of reach, but the lows $60s are.

Box Office Mojo believes — it truly believes — that $55 is the high end of expectations.

Not bad for a bad movie. It will strain to reach “Godzilla” territory, and then plummet second week onward. My prediction. $60+.

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” will call out Seth MacFarlane’s legions of fanboys. “Ted” was a smash. “Family Guy” is still on TV. MacFarlane can be funny, sort of a low comedy heir to the throne that Mel Brooks built and the Farrellys owned for years. I didn’t mind his OScar stint. He can sing, too. None of which makes him an on-camera movie star. Zero presence, just a pasty-faced nebbish who might have directed a snappier comedy than the one he co-wrote, produced, directed and stars in. He’s not funny enough to spread himself that thin.

And his movie will earn bucks — but not huge ones — mainly from those “Ted” fans. Because the reviews have been brutal. Not Adam Sandler brutal, but close enough for MacFarlane to have to stop making Adam Sandler sucks jokes. They both do.

Box Office Mojo figures this worst Western will manage $25-26 million. And the Guru thinks $28. I am thinking it could better that, but those “legions” had better not be “legion.” MacFarlane’s leading man career ends right here.

“X-Men” figures to come in second with a take in the $25-30 range. “Godzilla” fades to the bottom to the top five.

There are better movies opening this weekend, none of which have a prayer of cracking the box office top ten.

James McAvoy’s non-X-Men movie, “Filth,” is a daring, nasty “Trainspotting” turn in “Filth,” playing a dirty dirty Scottish cop with issues like you wouldn’t believe. Terrific performance.

The eco-terrorism thriller “Night Moves” is by the director of “Meek’s Cutoff, and has many of the virtues and shortcomings of that Western. Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard and James LeGros star in this limited release.

“Lucky Them” is a Seattle rock dramedy that benefits from a top drawer cast — Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church, Oliver Platt — and a grungy setting. Not a great story, but the performances and the milieu make it.

I really liked “We are the Best!” –– Swedish punk teens in 1982 — girls — coming of age and trying to form a punk band in the ABBA era. Worth tracking down this weekend.

“Lucky Them” is an indie rock’n roll romance that had a good enough script to attract decent talent, just not good enough to develop any one of its many promising threads. File it under “slight, but worth checking out,” mainly for the performances.

Toni Collette is Ellie Klug, heroine and narrator, ageing Seattle rock journalist. Closing in on 40, she’s never outgrown the habit of falling into bed with the promising young musicians she profiles for Stax Magazine. She’s a veteran of the scene who can spot talent in a street busker (Ryan Eggold). If she could only talk her boss (Oliver Platt) into letting her write about him.

All of this might be forgivable, if she’d stayed relevant. She’s still trapped in the alt-rock era she came up in. And she’s never gotten over the most promising lover-rocker of them all, Matthew Smith, who hopped in his car, drove to a waterfall and…disappeared years and years before.

“There is no WAY he would’ve jumped,” she has insisted all along, especially to her bestie bartender (Nina Arianda, sparkling in the part).

That’s the very story her embattled editor needs her to do, “pick at the scab” of her great, lost love. Find out what happened to him.

“Reclaim your place at this magazine,” Giles (Platt) charges her. So she will.

Stumbling into a onetime flirtation, Charlie( Thomas Haden Church, always funny) could be a boon. He’s a rich dabbler who longs to dabble in documentary filmmaking. He’ll assist in her quest.

An online tip — surreptitious footage of a singer who “might be” their quarry — sends them on their way, a road trip into the heart of post-Grunge Seattle and the ever-overcast Pacific Northwest.

Complicating this is Ellie’s dalliance with that street busker, Lucas (Eggold), who is either smitten or determined to get publicized in print. And Charlie is more than hoping he still has a shot with her as they revisit the scenes of Ellie’s romance with the long-missing Matthew, including where she lost her virginity to the missing singer.

“I was 14,” Charlie counters, helpfully. “She was our 46 year-old Jamaican housekeeper. Had a lot of MOLES.”

While director Megan Griffiths (“Eden,” “The Off Hours”) can be commended for avoiding turning this into something utterly predictable, the story elements and arc here are wearily over familiar. The film is part “Almost Famous,” part “Eddie and the Cruisers,” with elements of the Kurt Cobain, Tim Buckley and Jim Morrison stories wrapped up in the fiction.

But Collette always delivers fair value. Her Ellie is hard-drinking, high-mileage, slimmed down and flirting with Cougar-hood, a woman living in the trap of her world, her work and the love she lost. Platt and Arianda are on the nose.

And Thomas Haden Church makes his dyed-hair 40something bachelor a comical cliche, a bore with more money than luck when it comes to love.

Still, “Lucky Them” is rarely deep, rarely more than anything other than a pleasant enough picture you’d find at your average film festival, Netflix bound and worth downloading when it is.

MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexual content and drug use

Cast: Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church, Oliver Platt

Credits: Directed by Megan Griffiths, screenplay by Huck Botko and Emily Wachtel. An IFC release.

Running

Movie There’s something to be said for giving even tiny tykes a good, old fashioned fright all in the name of good clean fun. But Disney’s “Maleficent” still feels like a sour miscalculation on somebody’s part.

A dark, gloomy and quite violent riff on the “Sleeping Beauty” fairytale, this time seen through the eyes of the evil fairy who put this Beauty under a curse, it’s a lovely-looking thing with most of the joy left out.

In short, it’s the sort of movie we often get when somebody decides to promote a filmmaker from the visual effects ranks into the director’s chair. The 3D wonderland created here has the texture and tone of time-worn three strip Technicolor films from Hollywood’s Golden Age — think “The Wizard of Oz” or “Gone With the Wind.” But effects guru turned director Robert Stromberg rarely breathes life into the dazzling visuals he conjures up.

Angelina Jolie and her prosthetically augmented cheekbones have the title role, a fairy who grew up in The Moors amongst assorted pixies, trolls and sprites, only to have her heart broken by the human boy who, to win the right to claim the throne, avenges a malevolent king who has battled Maleficent by whacking off her fairy wings.

The gruesome surgery takes place off-camera, for the most part.

That gives the fairy queen a grudge like no other. So when young Stefan (Sharlto Copley of “District 9”) becomes king, marries and his queen has a daughter, Maleficent storms her ex’s baby’s christening. And she lays on a curse. Young Princess Aurora will, when she turns 16, have an accident and “fall into a sleep like death.”

Aurora will some day doze off and require a — wait for it — “True love’s kiss” — something the cynically wingless Maleficent doubts will ever happen.

The Disney spin on the story is that Aurora, played by assorted adorable babies and toddlers, is sent to be raised by three incompetent pixies (Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville) to keep her from harm. Maleficent looks over her, gets mistaken by the child (Elle Fanning plays her as she reaches her teens) for her “fairy godmother” and develops feelings for the rugrat, whom she nicknames “Beastie.”

That situation is ripe for comedy, which this Linda Woolverton (“Alice in Wonderland”) script rarely delivers. Jolie can handle a withering put down and a convincing Mistress of Mayhem, but rarely gets the chance to do either.

“I like you begging,” she hisses. “Do it AGAIN.”

The pixies have their moments. Which are few. And the humorless humans have none.

Stromberg instead treats us to pretty little mudfights amongst Aurora and the froglike trolls of the swamp and big set-piece brawls between human soldiers and a forest turned into tree demons battling to save the magic.

Impressive. And violent. Just not a lot of fun.

Rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple

Credits: Directed Robert Stromberg, script by Linda Woolverton, based on the Grimm fairytale and Disney film “Sleeping Beauty.” A Walt Disney release.

Running time

If America hadn’t produced Gore Vidal, we’d probably have had to import him.
Novelist and playwright, wit and patrician-voiced politician, gadfly and scold, we might have been able to buy him at a British sale of surplus public intellectuals from the U.K. when they were selling off the rest of Britain after the war.
But as the delightfully flattering new documentary “Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia” reminds us, the late author of “Burr,” “The Best Man” and “Myra Breckinridge” was home-grown to the core, as passionately American as any public figure the republic has yet produced.
Nicholas Wrathall interviewed Vidal, traveled with him as he gave a few last talks, visited his cemetery plot in Washington, D.C. and closed up his Italian villa, winding down his life to his death in the summer of 2012. And thanks to a generous helping of archival footage, we’re treated to a nearly complete life, from his privileged Washington childhood to his emergence as a writer and his scandalous status as one of the first public homosexuals in American history. It’s almost a hagiography, and Vidal would have demanded no less.
He famously quipped, “I never miss the chance to have sex, or appear on television,” a line that says as much about American culture today as any prophesy in our history.
He cracked that “The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country, and we haven’t seen them since.”
Wrathall’s film is both a Vidal’s Greatest Hits — his political campaigns, his memorable political debates with the equally patrician William F. Buckley Jr., his put-downs of Jerry Brown and Reagan, Nixon, Carter and “Junior” (George W. Bush). It captures a hint of the feuds, the pettiness and the contradictions of the man, as well, but only hints.
Yes, he subscribed to “the Conspiracy Theory” of American history, which made him a cynic. His ready command of facts was daunting. Did anybody ever fact-check him? His self-mocking demeanor — “Greed and vanity,” he said, “drives my character.” — masked the way every anecdote or impersonation ended with him, in some way, coming out on top.
An expert witness interviewed here who positions Vidal midway between the humorist/novelist Mark Twain and the literary stylist Henry James might have been right. But there’s a lot of self-promotion, the fabulist about him, a touch of the showman. He was literature’s Orson Welles, a Hollywood peer who also never missed the chance to appear on television during that era.

His books may live on, or be forgotten. But the “Gore Vidal” focuses more on the bright star he was in the culture at large. Friends with Newman and Woodward, the Kennedys, Tim Robbins (in the film) and Gorbachev (likewise), Vidal lived a long life as a bon vivant and a Jeremiah, warning Americans about the National Security State we have built and the threats, from within, to our freedoms from “the ruling class,” which he was born into but rejected.
That he managed so much of this during decades of living abroad — in Italy — should come as little surprise. We didn’t have to import him. He turned out to be our cleverest export.
　
MPAA Rating: unrated, with profanity
Cast: Gore Vidal, Dick Cavett, Joanne Woodward, Christopher Hitchens, Tim Robbins
Credits: Written and directed by Nicholas Wrathall. A Sundance/IFC Release.
Running time: 1:24