Later This Year: Heath Ledgers Final Film

The title of Heath Ledger's final film: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Check out the trailer. Looks like its going to be a fun ride.

Here's a synopsis from David Stratton for At the Movies: The aged Dr Parnassus, CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, is an immortal showman whose ancient caravan, set up by the Thames in London, contains a magic mirror leading to amazing worlds beyond. The sage-like doctor, who is accompanied by his assistants Anton, ANDREW GARFIELD, and the diminutive Percy, VERNE TROYER, is devoted to his beautiful daughter, Valentina, LILY COLE; but in a centuries old pact with the Devil, TOM WAITS, Parnassus must deliver the girl to him when she turns 16, which she’s about to do, unless he can deliver five new souls.

Avoid: Amelia

There had been some early talk that Hilary Swank could nab her third Oscar nod -- if not win -- from the biopic Amelia. But the reviews have begun trickling in, and if The New York Times has its finger on the pulse of a serious movie-watching public, this film is a dud not worth the $10 admission ticket.

Manohla Dargis writes:

Alas, excesses of any pleasurable kind are absent from this exasperatingly dull production. ... I don’t recall a single dented automobile or a fissure of real feeling etched into a face.

...

The actors (Swank and Richard Gere) don’t make a persuasive fit, despite all their long stares and infernal smiling. (The movie is a more effective testament to the triumphs of American dentistry than to Earhart or aviation.) It’s hard to imagine anyone, other than satirists, doing anything with the puerile, sometimes risible dialogue. The screenwriters, Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan, give Earhart a voice-over even as they forget her voice.

Harsh.

In Two Weeks: Precious

Precious, the film adaptation of Saphirre's 1996 novel PUSH, will hit theater's Nov. 6. Industry insiders say the film -- directed by Lee Daniels and starring Mo'Nique and Mariah Carey in critically-acclaimed dramatic roles -- promises to pack the same emotional punch as last-year's Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaires. Unlike Slumdog, however, Precious tells a decidedly American story of class, race and sexual struggle. It's central character is an overweight black girl from the ghetto who endures horrific physical and sexual violence from both of her parents. It's a tough story. Though I read through the work in a single sitting more than a month ago, the power of the piece rests with me still. Saphirre's prose is unrelenting. And the film, critics say, is an equally visceral experience.

The New York Times Magazine published an insightful feature titled "The Audacity of Precious." It's an interesting piece, offering the director's vision but also presenting a context in which the film should be viewed. “Precious is so not Obama,” Daniels said. “Precious is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I’m prejudiced. I’m prejudiced against people who are darker than me. When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar. Anybody that’s heavy like Precious — I thought they were dirty and not very smart. Making this movie changed my heart. I’ll never look at a fat girl walking down the street the same way again.”

Read the entire piece at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/magazine/25precious-t.html?ref=movies