The Sunday Drive: 4/4/10

It's Easter sunday, which for most folks is some sort of deeply religious holiday. For me it just means Cadbury creme eggs and hard boiled eggs galore. For a second, I considered a relgious themed Sunday Drive, until I realized I'm about as qualified to talk about those movies as Jesse James is about monogomy.

3. Greenberg
Noah Baumbach's latest film drags Ben Stiller kicking and screaming into the mumblecore genre, starring as a deeply self centered intellectual looking for some sort of meaning in his life. He finds love, or something close to it, with Florence, a beautiful but flighty college grad looking for a direction of her own. This one almost made the list last week, but lost out to Atom Egoyan's Chloe. With no real stand out films this week, I think Greenberg is one that is insightful and often very funny, propped up by a charming performance by Greta Gerwig.

2. Mother
Kim Hye Ja brings pure intensity to director Bong Joon-Ho's(The Host) unorthodox mystery, surrounding a mother's devotion to proving her slow-witted son's innocence from a murder charge. Standing in her way are the cops who just want to see the case closed; her son's best friend who might be more involved than he's letting on; and even her own son, who's poor memory and violent outbursts cast a fog over the truth.

1. How to Train Your Dragon
Dreamworks' superb animated feature is a visual feast, capturing the awe-inspiring feel of flight discovery. Jay Baruchel voices Hiccup, a runt of a Viking who wishes to impress his dragon-killing father, but once Hiccup becomes friends with the dragons he realizes that they are not the evil monsters he's been led to believe. HTTYD is perfect for both kids and adults, not too deep emotionally but packed with tons of light-hearted humor and even an exciting action packed finale that looks like it was ripped straight from Star Wars.

DVD Pick of the Week: An Education
More than your typical coming of age story, An Education is a well refined, elegant story about an intelligent girl named Jenny(Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan), on the cusp of womanhood with plans that stretch far beyond the expectations society has laid upon her gender. Those goals are thrown into question, however, when she meets the slick and mysterious David(Peter Sarsgaard), who introduces her to the shady side of high society. Full of remarkable performances by all involved, it's Mulligan who stands out, providing a maturity and depth that goes well beyond her years.  One of the best films of 2009 and a must see.