With box office returns lighter than expected this summer, studio executives around town are hoping this weekend will find the box office returning back to a healthier state. You have to feel for Warner Bros. who are hoping that audiences ignore the reviews and terrible buzz around “Jonah Hex,” meanwhile over on the Disney lot, the question remains just how big the opening for “Toy Story 3” will be. If multiplexes aren’t your thing, a trio of very good arthouse picks will give you plenty of options with “I Am Love,” “Cyrus” and “The Killer Inside Me” beginning their limited rollouts this weekend.
In Wide Release: Everyone (including us) is raving about “Toy Story 3,” and really, what more is there to say? The third and presumably final chapter in the beloved Pixar franchise (though, we wonder how much pressure there will be to continue the story once this one brings in the haul it should), “Toy Story 3” is the kind of pure, genuine filmgoing joy that has become all to rare at the movies. Picking up 11 years after the events of the second film with Andy going off to college and the fate of the toys up in the air, “Toy Story 3” fires on all cylinders, giving us the biggest adventure for Buzz and Woody yet and delivering on all counts. Kids and parents will be thrilled, so chalk up another one in the “win” column for Pixar. RT: 100% Metacritic: 90
Plagued with production troubles, reshoots, bad buzz and then gruesomely hacked into a measly 80-minute cut, the only joy derived from watching “Jonah Hex” will be in trying to figure what parts will eventually be put back into what will surely be a “Jonah Hexier” cut when it hits DVD. Somehow the film managed to trap a pretty decent cast, with Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender and Will Arnett among others all cashing paychecks in the ludicrous film that isn’t worth the space trying to explain what it’s all about. We saw the film, calling it “a series of terrible creative decisions stuck together with masking tape and low ambitions.” And the rest of the critical world pretty much felt same. RT: 9% Metacritic: 32
In Limited Release: With a buzzworthy trailer and starring Tilda Swinton, “I Am Love” offers viewers an opulent melodrama wrapped up in some stunning visuals. The story revolves around the matriarch of an Italian family who begins a passionate affair with a chef who is set to open a business with her son. “First and foremost, “I Am Love” is something that you watch. It’s too gorgeous not to and the storytelling is too visual. It’s a very deliberate looker. But through some completely wonderful filmmaking and technical virtuosity, “I Am Love” often becomes something more, something you feel, something downright, well, sensual,” we said in our review and we hope that gets you into the theater. RT: 81% Metacritic: 85
Mark and Jay Duplass graduate from mumblecore to mini-major indie status with their Fox Searchlight dramedy, “Cyrus.” Don’t be fooled by the broadly comedic edge of the trailers; starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill this film, about a couple in middle-age embarking on a new relationship, and the complications that arise from a college age kid who still lives at home is darker and more complex than you might guess, but yes, it’s also hella entertaining. We called it “heartbreaking, laugh out loud funny, emotionally textured” and we think this one will be pleasant surprise for audiences. RT: 81% Metacritic: 72
For a movie called “The Killer Inside Me,” it should be no surprise then that it’s violent, but some in the audience at Sundance were positively horrified by Michael Winterbottom’s cold, neo-noir that makes pulp out of Jessica Alba’s face. The film stars Casey Affleck as a cop whose also happens to be a murderer, but when the bodies start stacking up, he has to go to some extreme measures to keep the suspicion from reaching him. While it’s not perfect, we noted in our review that while its “rough around the edges at times, [Winterbottom] has made a film that, like it or not, will certainly stick with you for days after you see it.” RT: 51% Metacritic: 52
For those of you looking for some a foreign film, Agnes Jaoui’s “Let It Rain” might fit the bill. The multiple narrative story didn’t connect with our reviewer who said “the film is a relatively enjoyable passage of time, but it doesn’t hold enough weight to really stick in your head, and upon thinking of it, its inadequacies only become more apparent.” RT: 83% Metacritic: 73
Also out in limited release: “8: The Mormon Proposition” is a documentary chronicling the Mormon Church’s involvement and support in the passage of Proposition 8 RT: 40% Metacritic: 48; “Stonewall Uprising” is a documentary about the 1969 police raid on The Stonewall Bar that served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement. RT: 79% Metacritic: 77
