4th & Short: 1/3/09

No new movies came out this weekend thanks to the New Year holiday...although I don't know why that matters. A holiday has never slowed down Hollywood before, but my guess is that there are simply too many new year's parties and nobody was sober enough to remember to greenlight anything. Must be fun.

3. A Single Man

Colin Firth shines as George Falconer, a homosexual man living in the 1960s. George is struggling to find a reason to live after the love of his life was killed in a freak accident. Shot in a moody, dreamy style that emphasizes George's sleepwalking through a life without meaning, it carries the same visual flair that you'd expect from the people behind AMC's Mad Men series. The story itself is a little compact, but it's themes of loneliness and heartbreak are universal, and Firth and Julianne Moore are worth of Oscar consideration for two brilliantly observed performances.

2. Broken Embraces

Penelope Cruz doesn't get enough credit for just how much of a chameleon she can be on screen, melding into many different roles and fitting seamlessly into any style. Pedro Almadovar knows her better than any other director, this being their fourth film together. Here she plays a wannabe actress who falls in love with a film director, much to the chagrin of her dangerous, voyeuristic lover who does anything in his power to ruin them both. Almadovar combines film noir with his trademark telenovella style to produce one of the most unique films of the year.

1. Avatar

What else is there to say? If you haven't seen Avatar yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

DVD Pick: A Perfect Getaway

Every now and then it's good to walk into a movie cold. I had no idea what A Perfect Getaway was about when I went to see it, and to say it punched me in the gut with it's twisty, foggy plot is an understatement. It stars Milla Jojovich and Steve Zahn as a newly married couple escaping to an island paradise for their honeymoon, only to discover that a brutal serial killer is on the loose and it might just be someone in their midst. Timothy Olyphant steals the show as a movie quoting ex-Marine with a God complex who just might be more than he's letting on.