Movie Nation

Yeah, she was Sharpay in “High School Musical,” and was good at it. She’s in “Scary Movie 5,” because, well, eventually everyone ends up in a “Scary Movie.”
Ashley Tisdale will be 28 this summer, and I’m curious about what the future holds, her hopes and fears.
How about you? I’m looking for suggestions — lines of questioning that might yield paydirt.
Post any questions for Ashley as comments and I’ll ask them. And thanks for the help.

The heist picture gets a few Danny Boyle head-game twists with “Trance,” a movie about memory, the mind and manipulating both to find some “lost” stolen art.
James McAvoy is Simon, trusted employee of a London auction house. On the day they put Goya’s “Witches in the Air” under the gavel, thieves attack, but Simon is on the case – following company protocol as he safeguards the priceless ($25-50 million) painting.
Only he didn’t. And when he took a conk to the head as the robbery went down, he lost his memory of where he stashed it.
That has the gang led by Franck (Vincent Cassel) in a tizzy. They’re tearing up his apartment, tracking him down. And when enhanced interrogation methods don’t help, they turn to a hypno-therapist.
“Whatever’s in his head, she can find it,” they say. “She” is Elizabeth, who usually helps people forgot to smoke or remember where they put their car keys. Here, without knowing Simon’s real purpose, she sets to work – quietly, mesmerizingly putting him in a trance.
The toughest secrets we keep, she purrs, are those “we’re keeping from ourselves.”
“Trance” has a pulsing energy to it during the heist and its aftermath, switching to something more serene and meditative as Elizabeth tries to unlock Simon’s secrets, and figure out what those secrets really are, for herself.
Boyle, working from a script by “Doctor Who” vet Joe Ahearne and regular Boyle collaborate John Hodge (“Trainspotting,” “The Beach”), teases out the mystery and stages vivid flashbacks which we have to reason out because some are clues, are some aren’t – how Simon came to be involved in the caper, connections between the various characters, shifting motives and allegiances.
Cassell, a villain’s villain in the French films about the bank robber Mesrine, turns up the menace and the charm, making Franck a not-unreasonable guy who can be the very height of unreasonable when he’s crossed.
McAvoy is not at his best here. I had a hard time believing anything he did or said, mainly because of his blasé reactions to the finger-nail pulling torture the character endures early on. Seriously, that smarts and you get little sense of that from him.
But Dawson (“Sin City,” “Unstoppable”) has her best role in years as Elizabeth, despite having the water-carrying job of explaining hypnosis, the mind and her methods to the mobsters (and the audience), adds an exotic mystery to this plainly damaged woman caught up in a dangerous game.
For all its plot trickery, mind science and relationship square dancing, “Trance” doesn’t have the emotional tug or technical pizzaz of Boyle’s best films – “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting” or “127 Hours.” It feels more like a technical stunt, but one he pulls off with his usual panache, if not his usual heart.

(Roger Moore’s revealing interview with Danny Boyle and Rosario Dawson is here.)

MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, some grisly images, and language
Cast: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassell
Credits: Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Joe Aherne and John Hodge. A Fox Searchlight release.
Running time: 1:41

The universally poor reviews didn’t help Stephenie Meyer’s “The Host.” Word of mouth must have been weak, the novel wasn’t nearly as popular as “Twilight” and the cast lacked that pre-release K-Stew/R. Patts sizzle.

So “The Host” will be lucky to clear $10 million this weekend, picking up a little more than that by the time Monday night is paid off.

“Tyler Perry’s Temptation” was irresistable to his fans. Terrible reviews for this one, but it’s pulling in over $22 million this weekend, mid-20s by Monday night. That exceeds the high-teens expectations built into this non-Madea sermonette.

But “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is truly review-proof, pulling in $41 million+ over the weekend, a bracing payback for Paramount pulling it from last summer’s schedule and re-shooting it. Not a bomb, though whether it will break even after US/and International numbers (over $100 million abroad) are tallied isstill up in the air.

“The Croods” lost 40% of its opening weekend audience and did over $26, though Easter Sunday tallies could improve that.

We had a hint of what might come in “Tropic Thunder.” But Matthew McConaughey’s “run” didn’t kick off until “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

Since then, there was “Bernie,” solid work in support of Jack Black, and “Killer Joe,” an under-appreciated performance that could have found an Oscar nomination.

And “Magic Mike,” where he took all his shirt-doffing baggage and made it pay off, another scene-stealing supporting turn that should have delivered an Oscar nomination.

You can’t even hold “The Paperboy” against him, as he was the least embarrassing thing in it.

Now, there’s “Mud,” about a man on the run, the woman he’s running to and the river-wise country boys who give him a helping hand. He’s dangerous, needy, lovelorn and a down home philosopher, to boot. A great part and he’s great in it.

Got questions for Matthew M.? Post them as comments below, please. I have a few in mind, but I could always use the help.

Equal parts dark and comically disturbing, “The Brass Teapot” is a fantasy parable for our times, a film that literally equates pain with greed.
A car wreck is how it begins. Alice (Juno Temple) is forever job hunting, that degree in art history being a $40,000 dollar waste. And John (Michael Angarano) was just laid off. A fender-bender next to an antique store has Alice doing something she oughtn’t – swiping an ornate, baroque brass teapot.
“Stealing? We’re like two steps above white trash as it is!”
But there’s something about this kettle. The “pain” of the car crash has led to a wad of money popping out of it. Alice makes the connection in a flash. Pinch, punch or cut yourself, or sock John in the kisser, and money comes out.
Thus do the impoverished lives of these small-town folk change forever – just so long as they’re willing to suffer for the cash. “No anesthesia” dentistry, elaborate tattoos, fights picked in bars, you name it – they suffer it.
And get paid.
“It’s not going to get out of hand,” she says. So of course it does, starting with the Hassidic thugs who show up, rough them up and try to swipe back the teapot. Yeah, it’s got history. Dr. Ling (Steve Park) knows it and tries to warn them. This “Antiques Road Show” curiosity is going to get them killed.
“Brass Teapot” rides a very thin premise – pain for financial gain – a long way, rather like that 2009 film that was first a “Twilight Zone” episode, “The Box.” First John is the pragmatist, with Alice addicted to the cash. And then things change.
For the first time, they’re keeping up with all those rich 20somethings (Alexis Bledel is their old nemesis, and new rich neighbor once they buy a McMansion). Their trashy landlord (Billy Magnussen) used to hit on Alice when they were late on the rent. Now, he’s got his eye on their money source.
Director Ramaa Mosley, making her feature film debut, makes the self-violence squirm inducing and the dilemma intriguing enough to hold our interest.
But as the ideas run out and the film takes its predictable turn towards doom, “The Brass Teapot” stumbles into tedium, a parable that never quite resolves itself into the moral lesson it so desperately wants to convey. Perhaps a few more visits by the Hassidic thugs would have helped.

MPAA Rating: R for violence, some sexual content, language and drug use
Cast: Juno Temple, Michael Angarano, Alexis Bledel, Steve Park
Credits: Directed by Ramaa Mosely, written by Tim Macy. A Magnet release.
Running time: 1:41