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Premium Rush

by George Sax
David Koepp’s Premium Rush, a propulsively amped urban actioneer, could just turn out to be more than a highly proficient and tense entertainment. One can envision it becoming something of a social menace. The bicycle daredeviltry it depicts could, one supposes, inspire overconfident jackass attempts at replication, despite the movie’s coy warning during the end credits. It scarcely bears remarking that there are already ample numbers of bike riders on the public byways defying traffic regs and ordinary sense. And the movie’s technical craft and art may make the virtually impossible seem within the scope of foolhardy amateurs. On the other hand, motorists who are already vexed by bicyclists’ more ill-advised riding habits may be even less accommodating after this picture.

Hit and Run

by M. Faust
If you’ve been meaning to spend a night at the drive-in but haven’t found an appropriate movie playing (those dark special-effects spectaculars often seem mucky when viewed al fresco), here’s your chance. An independent film written and co-directed (with David Palmer) by comic actor Dax Shepard, Hit and Run is an updated version of one of those Burt Reynolds movies that seem to have been filmed largely to give Burt a chance to hang around with his friends and get paid for it.

The Queen of Versailles

by M. Faust
How many people do you know who were talked into buying time-shares that they wish they could get rid of them? They’re probably the perfect audience for this documentary, which may also be seen by a lot of people who thought they were buying a ticket for Farewell My Queen. (And vice-versa.) The subjects here are not Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, but an American couple who, at least as the film begins, don’t mind being compared to them: When we first see them, they’re posing for a portrait on what appears to be a gold throne.

Take This Waltz

by M. Faust
When actress Sarah Polley, who spent her youth as “Canada’s sweetheart” for her roles in popular television series like Road to Avonlea, moved into directing, the results surprised many of her fans: Away With Her, a moving but clear-eyed drama that won Julie Christie an Oscar nomination for her performance as a woman adjusting to life in an Alzheimer’s facility. Polley was also nominated, for her script (adapted from an Alice Munro story.)

One Day on Earth

by M. Faust
You would have to be a terribly dull and incurious person not to be fascinated by at least some of this movie, which boasts some astonishing statistics. Sponsored by an arm of the United Nations, which helped distribute 1,000 high-definition cameras provided by the producers, it was filmed in every country on the planet, all on the same day, October 10, 2010. (Which is to say, 10/10/10.) The final product took 16 months to edit down from 3,000 hours fo footage contributed by 19,000 amateur and professional filmmakers. (One of those photographers, and a co-producer of the project, was Buffalo native Daniel Lichtblau.)



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