Out This Friday: Post Grad
It was just a matter of time before we got a movie less than discreetly depicting today’s economic situation and how it affects, specifically here, the college graduate. Gone are the days of graduating from college and moving on to your own place. Competing with laid-off experienced executives for a vastly reduced number of jobs, college grads are left with no choice but to return home until a prospect comes along. After four years of freedom, it’s back to Mom, Dad, and maybe even a curfew.
Movies are supposed to be able to simultaneously provide an escape from our mundane problems as such and show these very problems, albeit involving prettier people, so we can relate. Friday, August 21, recent grads will relate to Alexis Bledel in Post Grad, when the considerably under-promoted comedy hits movie theaters. The trailer makes it look like a sweet, hokey little film, one that they’ll replay on ABC Family for years to come. But reviews from insiders who have seen the film imply the film is more and is delightfully quirky and offbeat. It’s only fitting since in order for a film on this topic to be successful, it must be funny enough to cheer us commiserations up, while honest and dark enough to be realistic and convince us, Alexis, well, Ryden, is actually going through this. So, maybe this film will accomplish the feat of accurately portraying the nerves of interviews, the despair, and frustration of seemingly endless unemployment, and the anxiety of moving back home, all why allow us to see the humor in it all.
The film also stars Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett – haven’t seen them in a while. Burnett especially should be a treat. So, let’s be surprised together and let this film show us it’s not the fluff from the trailers!
Movie Buzz
On October 23, movie theaters will see the release of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, starring John C. Reilly, Willem Dafoe, Salma Hayek, and a bunch of other random people. Another vampire movie. We can’t have enough.
Robert Redford will direct The Conspirators, a film on the assassination of Lincoln, focusing on the story of Mary Surratt and her role in the goings-on. James McAvoy is rumored to star. This film has my blessing.
Speaking of the cute blue-eyed Scot, McAvoy will also (definitely) star in the upcoming untitled comedy about cancer, based on the true story of screenwriter Will Reiser, who battles (successfully) cancer in his mid-twenties. Seth Rogen will produce and have a role, as well, since he seems to love acting in movies about cancer now.
The legend of the Fockers lives on. If you thought we were done with their marriage, you would be wrong. July 30, 2010, will see the premiere of Little Fockers, starring our regular cast of Robert DeNiro, Blythe Danner, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Teri Polo. It will, presumably, focus on the kids.
This is weird…Little Murder is in the works. It’s the story of a “disgraced detective” in the wake of Hurricane Katrina who is then haunted by the ghost of a beautiful cellist as she helps him find her killer, saving his career. It stars Josh Lucas, Terrence Howard, and Lake Bell, and it sounds dumb.
Speaking of dumb and weird, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt will star in the sci-fi thriller, Adjustment Bureau, about a politician who is sabotaged by a mysterious ballerina. What? Just, what.