THE SCENESTER: Don't block The Box, staring at Goats and more

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THE SCENESTER: Don't block The Box, staring at Goats and more

POSTED: Friday, November 6, 2009, 10:23 PM

Filed Under: Movies Scenester

Admit it, you want more from this week's Movies section.

The Box ' B

The Box didn't screen in time for print but Drew Lazor went anyway. Here's what he had to say:

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's latest expands a remarkably short, short story by sci-fi icon Richard Matheson into a peculiar, campy, frustrating but undeniably original two-hour creepfest. Matheson's tale, one of those ones so well-suited for middle-school English class discussions, takes the classic morality play setup and repackages it into what's basically a Staples "Easy" button. An odd stranger presents a struggling couple with a proposition: If they choose to push a weird button on a weird box, a stranger will die ' but not before they're awarded a large chunk of money. Kelly's version has the male lead (James Marsden) employed by NASA, the wifey (Cameron Diaz) as a repressed schoolteacher and the odd stranger (a frightening Frank Langella) touting natty suits and extreme facial disfigurement. Kelly is a gifted weaver of suspense, and The Box score ' constructed brilliantly by members of Arcade Fire ' trumps up the screenplay's many moments of Hitchcockian paranoia. The movie's shortcomings are not based in implausibility (all in the game), but rather in the occasional stiffness of Marsden and Diaz's performances. We can all agree that pretty people can't always sell middle-class ' but this film's built like a nesting doll, so we expect our leads to get sharper as the answers starting rolling in.

Disney's A Christmas Carol ' C-

Related: Kaleidoscope ' Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Men Who Stare at Goats ' C+

As I say in my my review, the true story of Skin protagonist Sandra Laing ' a South African born to white parents who appeared black, and was therefore classified as such during the Apartheid-era ' is harrowing enough as it is without cheap, tearjerk-y moves. You can see for yourself in this documentary about Ms. Laing and her life.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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