Hurray! The fall season is off to a grand start with three big feature films opening this week and there’s something for everyone. “You Again” looks like a hoot. It’s a “frenemy” movie. Kristen Bell plays a woman whose brother is marrying the “mean girl” from her high school. She may be capable and confident in her grown-up life, but having to welcome her former nemesis into the family has her feeling as though she is 14 years old and no one wants to sit with her in the lunchroom. This becomes a multi-generational problem when it turns out the two mothers (played by the magnificent Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis) were also high school rivals. With Betty White in the mix, it could be one of the year’s best comedies.
It’s been 23 years since Gordon Gekko went to prison at the end of “Wall Street.” And the real-life Wall Street has never been as vital a topic as it is following the subprime meltdown. Put those two together, with “An Education’s” Carey Mulligan as Gekko’s daughter and Shia LeBoeuf as the young man who loves her and wants to prove himself to both members of the Gekko family, and it might be a “Wall Street” for the millennial generation.
“Never Let Me Go” is a quietly disturbing story of three children at a boarding school whose mysteries are only gradually revealed to them and to us. Kiera Knightly, “An Education’s” Carey Mulligan and future Spider-Man Andrew Garfield (who also appears in the upcoming Facebook movie, “The Social Network”) play the school’s graduates who struggle to accept their fate.
How well do you know your Facebook “friends?” New York photographer Nev Schulman friended a group of family members in Michigan after a little girl sent him a painting inspired by one of his photos. As he became romantically involved with her older sister, even though they had never met, his film-maker brother started making a documentary called “Catfish” about what was happening. The movie’s tag line is: “Don’t let anyone tell you what it is,” so I will just say that the end of my review will be available by email only!
The Guardians of Ga’hoole is a popular series of books about groups of heroic owls. “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” is the animated 3D film, directed by “300′s” Zach Snyder, known for his striking images. It features the voices of Sam Neill, Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, and Hugo Weaving of “The Matrix” and “Lord of the Rings.” The title may be a mouthful, but this could be an adventure film for the whole family.
Stay tuned! Reviews will be up on Friday.