The Descendants

FOX SEARCHLIGHT FILMS, MERIE WALLACE
George Clooney, left, and Shailene Woodley are shown in a scene from "The Descendants."

"The Descendants," director Alexander Payne's fifth feature, is all about taking things that could be salacious and sensational, and paring them down to a realistic, deeply affecting, human level.

The setting is Hawaii, and though there is beauty here, it comes from a love ingrained in its inhabitants through generations, not the luxurious images used to attract tourists.

Matt King (George Clooney) is a real estate lawyer descended from one of the first land-owning white families in Hawaii. He's now the sole trustee of 25,000 acres of unspoiled land owned by his extended family. A new law will dissolve the trust in seven years, so the family must sell the land, their choice of buyer coming down to a Hawaiian developer or one from the mainland.

Jack and Jill

AP PHOTO/SONY-COLUMBIA PICTURES, TRACY BENNETT
Adam Sandler portrays both Jill, left, and Jack in a scene from "Jack & Jill."

Why, Al Pacino, why?

I know it's been a while since you were truly great on the big screen, but have you really fallen this far?

Is this the best we can get today from Michael Corleone, Serpico, Tony Montana?

Did you owe Adam Sandler money? Does he have embarrassing, incriminating photos of you?

Please, give me something. Help me make some sense out of your involvement in the cinematic atrocity that is "Jack and Jill," a movie not content simply to be horrifically awful; it seems intent on retroactively tarnishing your entire career.

Tower Heist

AP PHOTO/UNIVERSAL PICTURES, DAVID LEE
Ben Stiller, left, and Eddie Murphy are shown in a scene from "Tower Heist."

"Tower Heist" feels like it got a green light based on the timeliness of its premise alone.

Because once you look past that, aside from Eddie Murphy's best comedic performance in many years, there is nothing there.

The movie clearly aims to be a more relevant "Ocean's Eleven," but the scenario—a high-powered Wall Street trader (Alan Alda) is arrested on fraud charges, inspiring a group of employees of the luxury high-rise where he lives to plan a robbery of his condo to pay back him back for losing their pensions—is too grim for the kind of breezy fun that came from knocking off a Vegas casino.

And remember that Steven Soderbergh directed the heck out of "Ocean's Eleven," giving it a jaunty rhythm that carried it through some of the contrivances and plot holes. "Tower Heist" has Brett Ratner at the controls, he of the "Rush Hour" series and the much-maligned "X-Men: The Last Stand."

Shaun of the Dead

UNIVERSAL PICTURES
From left, Nick Frost, Penelope Wilton, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Kate Ashfield and Simon Pegg are shown in a scene from "Shaun of the Dead."

There are many signs "Shaun of the Dead" (2004) is a step—or two or three or four steps—ahead of its zombie movie counterparts: the wit of its screenplay, the performances, the filmmakers' reverence for classic zombie movie tropes.

But the real reason? It's flat-out better made, with its filmmakers' technical skill on full display, and real thoughts and ideas behind its undead hordes.

The movie, directed by Edgar Wright, who also co-wrote with star Simon Pegg, reaches its pinnacle with a pair of long Steadicam shots following Shaun (Pegg) on his morning walk from his London flat to the market across the street.

The first shot follows Shaun, a 29-year-old electronics salesman, through his normal, brain-dead routine, buying a can of Coke and returning home.

The Ides of March

COLUMBIA PICTURES/SONY, SAEED ADYANI
Ryan Gosling is shown in a scene from "The Ides of March."

"The Ides of March" is a political thriller that concerns itself more with issues of loyalty and trust than advancing a particular agenda. That's a surprise considering the presence of George Clooney, known for being a liberal political activist, as director, producer, co-screenwriter and co-star.

With this movie, which is based on a play by Beau Willimon (who also shares the screenplay credit with Clooney and Grant Heslov), Clooney keeps his politics mostly in check, shying away from making any grand, new statements. The thought he leaves us with is politics is a dirty game, which you probably know even if you have never watched a minute of CNN or Fox News.

Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) is a hotshot press secretary for the presidential campaign of Gov. Mike Morris (Clooney). It is the eve of the Ohio Democratic primary, though winning the support of an influential North Carolina senator (Jeffrey Wright) virtually will ensure the nomination for Morris. That support, however, will not come without a price—a price the rival candidate appears willing to pay.

Interview: Trick 'r Treat writer-director Michael Dougherty

I conducted this interview about a year ago. You can find the feature story I wrote then on this blog, but this seems an appropriate time to post the entire interview.

I know your birthday is very close to Halloween, so how much did that influence your interest in the holiday, growing up?

Michael Dougherty: I think it played a massive part in my interest in Halloween. October just kind of became a magical month. A lot of times my birthday party and Halloween pretty much merged. They still do today. I've been having a Halloween party for the last 10 years, and it kind of doubles as a birthday party for my friends who know. But even as a kid, it was, “Let's go trick-or-treating and then come back and have birthday cake.” So the importance of the holiday kind of doubled for me as a kid.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my Member ID/password if I am a print subscriber?

[DESCRIPTION]

How do I get my Member ID/password if I am an online-only subscriber?

Once you have registered and subscribed, your registered Screen Name and Password will grant you access to all of the content your subscription package includes. Forgot your password?

I'm logged in. Why am I unable to view the content on this page?

You have likely registered an account (allowing you to log in), but not signed up for a service package.
Select a package from the service list above to gain access.

What was Halloween like growing up in the Dougherty household?

It was really traditional. One of my earliest memories was carving a jack-o-lantern with my dad, which is partially where the Dylan Baker story comes from. It was very much a father-son tradition. I remember seeing my dad carve it and thinking it was the neatest thing in the world but not understanding it or understanding what he was doing. And then you put the jack-o-lantern in the window and you light it, you step back from the sidewalk and you look at it, and it's magic. You just look at it and go, "Wow, we made that." Yeah, it was as simple as carve a jack-o-lantern, hand out some candy and then hit the streets with the parents and my sister. I think it was great to have a very traditional Halloween upbringing. Charlie Brown found his way into the mix. It evolved as I got older, but it just got better.

Drive

FILM DISTRICT, RICHARD FOREMAN
Ryan Gosling is shown in a scene from "Drive."

 "Drive" is proof action movies need not be a deafening assault on the senses nor a nonstop barrage of explosions and feats that defy the laws of physics. "Drive" is an action movie with a brain, that allows its characters to use theirs, that spends more time focusing on its characters than the action around them.

The Driver (Ryan Gosling) is at the movie's center. He's a taciturn protagonist in the tradition of Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name; one even wonders if his employer ("Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston), who owns an auto repair shop, knows his name. He also works as a stunt driver for Hollywood movies and moonlights as a wheelman.

He doesn't carry a gun or go inside to take an active role in his clients' heists. He drives. He gives his clients a five-minute window to get the job done while he waits in the car, his watching ticking away.

Moneyball

COLUMBIA PICTURES-SONY, MELINDA SUE GORDON
Brad Pitt, left, and Jonah Hill are shown in a scene from "Moneyball."

Baseball long has been a popular subject in the movies, but "Moneyball" is not about the drama on the field. Its concern is the behind-the-scenes action that, in 2001-2002, revolutionized how talent is evaluated and teams are built.

And it just might be the best movie I have seen so far this year.

The subject of Bennett Miller's ("Capote") film, which is based on a book by "Blind Side" writer Michael Lewis, is Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Following a 2001 playoff loss to the New York Yankees, a team with a payroll nearly three times that of the small-market A's, and the offseason defections of several star players to clubs with deeper pockets, Beane realizes a change in philosophy is in order.

Contagion

AP PHOTO/WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Jennifer Ehle is shown in a scene from "Contagion."

The disease/pandemic movie has grown up. And with "Contagion" in the hands of Steven Soderbergh, we should expect nothing less.

During the past two decades, the director has swung wildly from populist fare (the "Ocean's" series) to award-winners ("Traffic," "Erin Brockovich") to obscure indie pictures ("Bubble," "The Girlfriend Experience") to everywhere in between and back again.

"Contagion" falls into the between category. Soderbergh employs a cast of Hollywood stars, but this is no "Outbreak." Rather, it is a clinical, procedural telling of how a disease spreads from a bat to a pig to one woman to virtually the entire world.

Starting on "Day 2," Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (Soderbergh's "The Informant!") mark the passage of time by counting the days and measure the threat by identifying on screen the population of each new location.

Our Idiot Brother

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY, NICOLE RIVELLI
Adam Scott, left, and Paul Rudd are shown in a scene from "Our Idiot Brother."

"Our Idiot Brother" is a misleading title.

Ned, brought to life by the great Paul Rudd, isn't an idiot at all. He merely is naïve, possessed of an innocence stemming from a good-natured, well-meaning manner that completely overwhelms him at times.

Take the event at the movie's start. A uniformed police officer (Bob Stephenson) approaches Ned at his organic vegetable booth and asks to buy marijuana. Ned refuses and laughs it off until the officer appeals to his senses of compassion and trust. "It's been a really rough week," he says. Ned offers to give him what he wants, but the officer talks him into letting him buy it for $20—then arrests him after the money changes hands.

At the end of his jail term (which is shortened due to good behavior, naturally), Ned returns to the organic farm where he had lived with his girlfriend, Janet (Kathryn Hahn), for the previous three years. But Janet has a new man (T.J. Miller) and won't even let Ned take his beloved dog, Willie Nelson, when she kicks him out.