Home Media Magazine - June 15, 2008 - (Page 22) REVIEWS www.homemediamagazine.com I CHARLIE BARTLETT Street 6/24 Fox/MGM, Comedy, B.O. $4 million, $27.98 DVD, ‘R’ for language, drug content and brief nudity. Stars Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings, Tyler Hilton. C harlie Bartlett grossed only about $4 million when it was released in January, but sometimes quirky high-school movies take a while to find their audience. Witness Dazed and Confused and Donnie Darko. Those movies, however, brimmed with original- ity. The same cannot be said of Charlie Bartlett. After he’s thrown out of another prep school, scheming teen Charlie (Yelchin of Alpha Dog and the upcoming Star Trek revival film) heads to public high school. Starved for popularity, he achieves it by giving advice and drugs as a makeshift psychiatrist, using the boys bathroom as his office and the school bully (Hilton of Walk the Line) as his pharmacist. Charlie makes a difference while making the moves on his principal’s daughter (Dennings of The 40-Year-Old Virgin). Despite the presence of pros Davis (Charlie’s loopy mom) and Downey Jr. (Charlie’s boozy principal nemesis), Charlie Bartlett is a lazy compilation of teen movie greatest hits, from the clique smashing of The Breakfast Club to the scheming entrepreneurship of Risky Business. The movie features an annoying lead character who solves problems by doling out pop psychology and treats adults as short-sighted buffoons. It is crammed with contrived problems and easy solutions. Teens should relate to the movie’s positive attitude and adult hijinks, if they haven’t seen any teen comedies released in the past 25 years. The DVD extras add little to the experience. The commentary with first-time director Jon Poll and writer Gustin Nash contains some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits: Nash’s script was originally darker; Poll got to select Dennings’ nail polish from 35 colors. The other pointless commentary featuring Poll, Yelchin, and Dennings consists primarily of the young actors swooning over their co-stars and giggling. The DVD also has a music video from Spiral Beach and lame “Bathroom Confessionals” from the cast and crew. – Pete Croatto I THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION Prebook 6/17; Street 7/15 City Lights, Drama, B.O. $0.7 million, $26.98 DVD, ‘PG’ for thematic material, mild language, brief suggestive content, some violence and smoking. In Spanish with English subtitles. Stars Michel Joelsas, Germano Haiut, Simone Spoladore, Caio Blat, Eduardo Moreira. et in 1970s Brazil, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is the story of how a nation’s sports and politics complicate the everyday life of a young boy. The film centers on Mauro, a 12-yearold boy whose parents must leave him with his grandfather as they flee a politically unstable Brazil. In a melodramatic turn of events, Mauro never goes to his grandfather. Instead, he is left to fend for himself in his grandfather’s S orthodox Jewish neighborhood. As with the young boy in 2003’s Monsieur Ibrahim, Mauro soon befriends an older neighborhood man despite their differences in age, religion and culture. Their relationship doesn’t fully form until the end of the film, and until then, you are just as disheartened as the abandoned son, wallowing in the unknown and feeling deserted. The lone spark in Mauro’s life is soccer, and we watch him go from loving the sport to finding it a symbol of his parent’s failure to return (his parents promised they’d return before the World Cup). In general, the pace of the film is too slow and the plot devices — soccer, politics and sexuality — are those that have been employed better in many foreign films before this. Highlights of the film include per- I ROOM 314 Prebook 6/20; Street 7/22 Vanguard, Drama, $19.95 DVD, NR. Stars Joelle Carter, Matthew Del Negro, Todd Swenson. F formances by Daniela Piepszyk, who plays a sassy neighborhood friend, and by Michel Joelsas, who plays Mauro well, with a delicate balance of burgeoning independence and childhood fear. In the end, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation leaves the taste of heartbreak on your tongue along with the notion that the world is neither a fair nor friendly place. – Amanda McCorquodale ive different couples find themselves and their lives changed when they check, one after the other, into one hotel room. In one segment, a couple wakes up together and then has to begin to get to know each other. In another, a man bent on self-destruction discovers his actions have effects that will linger longer than he thought. All five segments showcase an intense intimacy, almost palpable, that reveals the characters in their most naked moments. Room 314 is interesting both for the stories that it tells and the way in which it tells them. The conceit of a hotel room whose walls have “ears” exposes the couples in their most unguarded, private moments. And from those moments, entire lives can be gleaned. Sometimes the stories are joyful and romantic; sometimes they are dark and disturbing. Sometimes characters find reason for optimism; sometimes they are trapped by their own neuroses. Room 314 has much in common with 2005’s Nine Lives, another series of short dramas that, unlike Love, Actually and Closer, are not related to each other, but stand alone. Like short stories, as opposed to novels, the storytelling is compact and economical. Much is implied and suggested, rather than spelled out. Although a couple of the stories are more compelling than others, all five touch on recognizable life experiences. Those with an interest in non-traditional storytelling and small, independent dramas will be interested in Room 314. – Anne Sherber 22 Home Media Magazine June 15–21, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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