This Week’s Movies in L.A., 7/21/07
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
(This is a weekly one-stop resource for movies screening in L.A., with Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic averages, showtimes and more. Almost all of these movies are also either currently screening outside of L.A., or are going to be in the near future.)
Can anybody explain the use of ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” in the opening scene of Knocked Up? I love the song, and mostly liked the movie, but it was a surreal kind of moment to start things off on. (For those who haven’t seen the movie, the music plays, and then you have a montage of some bros hanging out by the pool. I’m really not spoiling anything with that). Here you have a film that tries to address many of the issues surrounding sex/relationships/parenthood in 2007, and has in fact been hailed by some as speaking specifically to “this” generation, but “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” hearkens back to an entirely different age, the pre-Lewinsky and (for most) pre-Internet early/mid ’90s. ODB isn’t even alive anymore. It’s also distinctly a New York song, while the movie takes place in sunny L.A., which during that time period was incidentally booming with all kinds of rap music dedicated specifically to smoking out and hanging with your bros and whatnot.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”: mp3
The week’s big opening is Hairspray, doing phenomenally with critics. But the polar opposite responses to Travolta’s performance recall the similarly split response to Nicholson in The Departed last year. In the long run, I think time thankfully vindicated the Nicholson-haters as right all along; I get the gut feeling I’ll be siding with the Travolta-haters as well.
And before we get to this week’s screenings, any adventurous filmgoers out there should consider catching Australian Aboriginal film Ten Canoes, which is getting raved up and down. I also blurbed it this week for CityBeat.
Note: RT and MC scores frequently change. Click on the movie titles for showtimes.
HIGHEST RATED FILMS SCREENING (7/20-7/26)
Avg. – RT – MC
96.0 – 96 – 96 – Ratatouille
92.5 – 97 – 88 – Once
92.0 – 95 – 89 – The Lives of Others
89.5 – 96 – 83 – Ten Canoes
88.5 – 91 – 85 – Knocked Up
87.5 – 94 – 81 – Hairspray
84.0 – 90 – 78 – Rescue Dawn
82.5 – 91 – 74 – Sicko
82.0 – 83 – 81 – Paprika
81.5 – 89 – 74 – Waitress
79.0 – 76 – 82 – Lady Chatterley
This week’s openings, music-related films, and special screening picks after the jump.[Continue reading…]
OPENING IN L.A. THIS WEEK
Avg – RT – MC
89.5 – 96 – 83 – Ten Canoes — LAT ‘beautiful’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘eye-opening’
87.5 – 94 – 81 – Hairspray — LAT ‘buoyant’ – LAW ‘flat’ – CB ‘joyous’
69.5 – 74 – 65 – Sunshine — LAT ‘tense’ – LAW ‘conventional’ – CB ‘straightforward’
51.5 – 46 – 57 – Cashback — LAT ‘charming’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘pointless’
50.0 – 50 – xx – David and Layla — LAT ‘broad’ – LAW ‘cartoonish’ – CB ‘appealing’
37.0 – 24 – 50 – Goya’s Ghosts — LAT ‘rambling’ – LAW ‘Go’
26.0 – 14 – 38 – I Now Pronounce You Chuck… — LAT ‘pathetic’ – LAW ‘beguiling’ – CB ‘heavy-handed’
(LAT = L.A. Times; LAW = L.A. Weekly; CB = L.A. CityBeat)
LAST WEEK’S OPENINGS, STILL SCREENING
Avg – RT – MC
79.0 – 76 – 82 – Lady Chatterley — LAT ‘enraptured’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘unremarkable’
75.5 – 83 – 68 – My Best Friend — LAT ‘doesn’t shy’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘tour-de-force’
74.0 – 77 – 71 – Harry Potter and the Order… — LAT ‘muddier’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘complex’
73.5 – 79 – 68 – Talk to Me — LAT ‘revelatory’ – LAW ‘predictable’ – CB ‘insightful’
70.0 – 70 – 70 – Interview — LAT ‘less believable’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘absorbing’
16.0 – 08 – 24 – Captivity — LAT ‘spirit-sapping’ – LAW ‘Go’ – CB ‘bizarre’
MUSIC-RELATED
92.5 – 97 – 88 – Once — ChiTrib ‘my favorite music film since Stop Making Sense’
87.5 – 94 – 81 – Hairspray — ChiReader ‘period-perfect pop score’
73.5 – 80 – 67 – Talk to Me — Var ‘A blow-out soundtrack of great tunes from the era’
70.0 – 74 – 66 – La Vie en Rose — NYDN ‘killer finale with Cotillard perfectly lip-synching’
SPECIAL SCREENINGS:
The passing away of New Beverly Cinema owner Sherman Torgan last Wednesday is a huge loss to Los Angeles and its film community. That he managed to keep that darn revival house going as long as he did is so much appreciated by this cinephile. Its fate is still up in the air, although for now the next few screenings there are “cancelled until further notice.”
The New Beverly had on tap for Friday and Saturday the much-anticipated David Lynch double feature of Mullholland Drive (the best film of this decade?) and 1997’s Lost Highway. It’ll be a Lynch weekend nonetheless, as screenings of Inland Empire, which might be just as good as Mullholland but in a completely different and thoroughly more screwed-up way, continue through Sunday at the Aero.
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