Movie Nation

Greta Gerwig makes “hapless” a happening thing in “Frances Ha.” Which is no surprise, because she’s spent her brief career mastering variations on a hapless theme.
Gerwig (“Lola Versus,” “Greenberg”) and director Noah Baumbach (“Greenberg,” “The Squid and the Whale”) team up to give us the quintessential Greta time capsule picture, a movie that sums up the navel gazing of Generation Y and summons up every Gerwig character from the era in one giddy yet wistful package.
Frances Haladay (Gerwig) is an exemplar of a sort of age-specific form of denial. A Sacramento native, she’s settled in New York to become a modern dancer. She’s gawky and a little awkward, so that isn’t really working out. She can’t commit to her boyfriend because she won’t leave behind her “same person with different hair” best friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner), her true other half. But Sophie moves out on her.
Frances is 27, under-employed, and hasn’t come close to mastering life.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she explains, trying to treat a friend to dinner, but lacking room on her credit card or ready cash to pay. “I’m not a real person yet.”
“Frances Ha” follows us through a turbulent year in her life — Sophie drifting away, the rich hipsters (Adam Driver, Michael Zegen) Frances moves in with, the “You don’t have it” hints from her choreographer (Charlotte D’Amboise), the too-brief trip to Paris she takes on “a credit card I got in the mail,” just to impress others at a dinner party where she sticks her foot in it, time and again.
The always charming Gerwig, sort of a ungainly girl next door (“I can’t account for my bruises.”), turns Frances into a tour de force — impulsive and needy, chatty and unread, hopeful but regressive. Random bits of her dialogue capture a childish woman on the cusp of realizing just what she hasn’t hasn’t realized.
“Sometimes, it’s good to do something when you’re supposed to do it.”
“I should read the news more.”
“I’m trying to be pro-active about my life.”
“I don’t know…if I believe anything I’m saying.”
Baumbach shot the film in black and white, and he amusingly (and portentiously) gives exact street addresses for every setting — Brooklyn, Washington Heights, Poughkeepsie, Sacramento, Paris. He sets a lovely sprint through the city sequence to David Bowie’s “Modern Love,” a 1983 tune that encapsulates the bouncy desperation of the citybound and the single.
“Frances Ha” turns melancholy and almost painful to watch in its last act as she and we see the dead end dead ahead. And the film doesn’t seem to earn the finale the two of them cooked up for us.
But Frances, in Gerwig’s hands, is never less than unforgettable, even at her most “undateable” and unteachable. That credit card? Nothing but trouble.
“I KNOW that. I watch…documentaries.”

(My interview with Greta Gerwig about writing and starring in “Frances Ha” is here)

MPAA Rating: R for sexual references and language
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Charlotte D’Amboise, Michael Zegen
Credits: Directed by Noah Baumbach, written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. An IFC release.
Running time: 1:26

Say some super villain like Lex Luthor or Donald Trump has taken you prisoner and forced you to play a doubles match to save your life. The one person you’d pick to go into battle with would have to be one of the Williams sisters, Venus or Serena. True warriors of the court, they have dominated the game for a decade and a half and you’d bet your life on their competitive edge.
And you’d need one of them, because chances are, the other has agreed to partner up up with the villain.
“Venus and Serena” is an intimate, mostly glowing portrait of these two closer-than-close tennis champions, siblings who have battled the best players the rest of the world has to offer, the tennis establishment and each other, courting controversy almost every step of the way.
Filmmakers Maiken Baird and Michelle Major followed the sisters through a trying year — 2011 — when injuries and age pointed toward the end of their dominance of the game. The thesis here, after they’re gone, people are really going to appreciate what they did to the game and for the game. And that we’ll miss them.
Old TV profiles capture their budding prowess on the courts of Compton, California and the surprisingly gentle coaching of their father, Richard. It takes a while before we’re reminded of a what a hustling, self-promoting boor their father can be, the single most alienating aspect of their tennis lives.
Chris Rock marvels at how two girls from a rough neighborhood, “REALLY black, not ‘country club black,'” broke through. Vogue fashion maven Anna Wintour calls them “tennis gladiators, and fashion gladiators.” John McEnroe and Bill Clinton speak glowingly of their rivalry and closeness, of the sheer excitement of their play.
And the sisters themselves — the older Venus, Dad’s “guinea pig” in his quest to create a champion, and “copycat sister” Serena — come off as affectionate, close, poised and appreciative of what these lives they were groomed for have given them.
They struggle with injuries, and Venus, the eldest, seems accepting of the toll the years of play have taken and ready to step back. They admit to jealousy and the odd personal failing. Serena giggles in describing her many personas, at least one of whom, “TaKwanda,” has delivered some of the more memorable tantrums in the history of the women’s game.
It’s an overwhelmingly flattering biography, but one that at least hints at the reasons these two — physically bigger than virtually anyone they have ever had to face on the court — have been so polarizing.
The movie visits, then brushes over charges that the sisters — or their manipulative father — “fixed” matches against each other, feigning injury or giving less than their best so that the surviving sister would have a better chance in the finals. No filmmaker asks them directly if they did it.
Nor are there any blunt questions aimed at Richard Williams, who wouldn’t have answered anyway. Conspicuous by their absence are both their various hated foes over the years, none of whom spoke on camera, or more skeptical journalists and analysts. “Venus and Serena” — the film and the sisters — refuse to acknowledge that any of the criticism aimed at their sportsmanship or their manners could not be about race or class.
But the results — 52 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles — capture their dominance in a number. And the fact that Serena, ranked number one again this year — the oldest woman (31) ever so ranked — means that their story isn’t over, and that if a skeptic wants to finally appreciate their historic impact on the game, he or she still has time to come around.

MPAA Rating:PG-13 for some strong language
Cast: Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Richard Williams, Oracene Price, Billie Jean King, John MacEnroe, Bill Clinton
Credits: Directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major. A Magnolia release.
Running time: 1:39

Bringing in established actors (some of them, anyway) who already had wide-ranging careers before ever donning Star Fleet uniforms, Simon Pegg figures there will never come a day when he and his ‘Enterprise’ mates will be trapped in their roles, doing conventions and video games and sequels and little else.

“We, all of us, have enough of our own careers that it’s in no danger of utterly taking over our lives. I love the character and these films and I hope to do it as long as I can. It’s incredibly gratifying work, hanging out with these diamonds. But I have a lot of other things going on.

Pegg has ‘The World’s End’ due out this summer, another Edgar Wright collaboration. He’s shooting ‘Hector and the Search for Happiness’ right now. He has an Australian film and roles in two Brit films to shoot before year’s end. And next year, Pegg dives back into ‘Mission: Impossible,’ as the fifth film in that series goes before cameras.

“We, all of us, have enough of our own careers that it’s in no danger of utterly taking over our lives. I love the character and these films and I hope to do it as long as I can. It’s incredibly gratifying work, hanging out with these diamonds. But I have a lot of other things going on.

The original series was created by actors who performed the roles a long time — years on TV, years more in the films. People knew them mostly for that work, and that hurt them.

“Zoe has ‘Avatar,’ Chris has made hits outside of ‘Star rek,’ Zach is producing his own films. Everybody has other strings to their bow.”

But that also goes for The Boss — J.J. Abrams. He has had to hand over “Mission: Impossible” duties to others. Pegg figures he has to do that with “Star Trek” as well.That could speed up the process of putting a third film in theaters. It took four years for this sequel to come about and fit in with Abrams’ schedule.

“With J.J. doing ‘Star Wars,’ that might mean we’d do another ‘Star Trek’ sooner rather than later because he could hand that off to another director while he produces it. Just speculation on my part, but he does seem to have a lot on his plate
As do we all.”

So who might take on “Trek” next time out? If you don’t think Abrams will have his hands full with “Star Wars,” you don’t know Lucas. Or Disney.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” is now number three in the all-time opening weekends for movies opening in the US.

“The Avengers,” at over $200 million, is still number 1. But “Iron Man 3” will have passed Potter’s finale ($168 and change) by the time Sunday is done. Just under $70 million Friday, just over $64 Sat., and a still-big Sunday in the $35-40 range and it’ll be there.

No other movie sold many tickets at all this weekend. “Pain & Gain” plunged — $8-9, maybe?

“42” cleared the $75 million mark, or will sometime today. Nice.

“Oblivion” will be right at $75 today.

“Oz the Great and Powerful” is close to $230 million.

“Mud” is nearing the $5 million mark, not bad for an indie drama.

A huge — not as huge as “Avengers” — opening midnight and day for “Iron Man 3” has put the film on track to do $170 million in North America this weekend.

Add that to the global receipts — $350+ BEFORE the weekend, and Disney/Marvel (Paramount, too) will be rolling in some $650 million in cash by midnight Sunday.

The movie will be very close to covering production and marketing costs, after the studios get their cut from theaters, after the opening weekend. 

Wow,

If this holds, it will pass “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” as the second biggest box office opening of all time.

For the sixth time, Christopher Nolan has found a place in a film of his for the venerable Mc. Michael Caine.

The “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Prestige” and “Inception”   director cast Caine in his space travel drama, “Interstellar.” It promises to have “Inception-“like ponderings attached to a tale of space travel to infinity and beyond.

Or at least to the limit of man’s knowledge.