Fighting the Movie Blahs Part II

It's been a long dry spell for good movies. But I'm ever optimistic, and these upcoming movies have got my attention.

Top Picks

• My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Luke Wilson and Uma Thurman, hilarious preview
  
• Lady in the Water - new M. Night Shyamalan
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - I know that whenever they film parts 2 and 3 simeultaneously, the results are usually terrible (Back to the Future, The Matrix), but I can't wait for this sequel!
  
• Heading South--Charlotte Rampling in a new film by Laurent Cantet (Time Out, Human Resources
  
• A Scanner Darkly - raves from Cannes for Linklater's PK Dick adaptation (not so much love for his Fast Food Nation adaptation, but there's honor in that failure)
  
• Volver - new Almodover: early reviews make it sound much safer and accessible than his previous queer grenade, Bad Education
  
• Other Cannes films that the smart critics liked: Babel (new one from Inarritu), Colossal Youth, and Climates (from the director of Distant).
  
• Southland Tales - I know it's going to be bad, I believe Donnie Darko was a fluke (because the director's cut ruined it), I don't care if a few people booed it at Cannes, I still want to see it because it sounds bizarre
  
• Quinceanera - A Sundance success about a gentrifying L.A. neighborhood
  
• Snakes on a Plane - why the hell not?

Wait for the Reviews

• Twelve and Holding - actually this one's already opened to very mixed reviews, more neg.
  
• Time to Leave by Francois Ozon, second in a trilogy about mourning and death, following Under the Sand. Ozon often disappoints, but he's prolific, has great concepts and casts top actors. And look, he's got his own web site.
  
• Lower City
  
• The Great New Wonderful - the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal in a post 9/11 movie
  
• Strangers with Candy
  
• Road to Guantanamo - another Michael Winterbottom film (the most versatile, prolific, hit-or-miss director in the world?)
  
• Wassup Rockers - new Larry Clark
  
• Queens - Spanish queer film with some Almodovar alumni
  
• Pulse - Kristen Bell continues to follow in Sarah Michelle Gellar's career path, this time into the realm of Japanese Horror remakes
  
• House of Sand - new Brazilian film with Fernanda Montenegro
  
• Little Miss Sunshine - funny comic premise ft. Toni Colette, Greg Kinnear and Steve Carrell
  
• Is It Really So Strange? - documentary on the puzzling trend of Latino fans of Morrissey - Moz in the culture of machismo
  
• Odete - Portuguese queer film
  
• The King - new Gael Garcia Bernal film
  
• House of Adam - clash between gay recluse and religious zealots--is there any way this could be good?
  
• The Reaping - new Joel Silver thriller starring Hillary Swank, directed by a 24 vet
  
• Invincible - Sports biopic starring Mark Wahlberg, a surprisingly great actor whose looks have probably hurt as well as helped his career
  
• 3 Needles - Thom Fitzgerald's (Beefcake, ) has gotten labeled as "too ambitious," but I want to see it--a globe-spanning AIDS drama, it has a killer cast (Sevigny, Oh, Lu, Dukakis, Channing, Asmore) with several performances being singled out for praise - if this one shows up in Chicago, it'll probably be for a couple shows only
  

Outlook Not So Good

• Another Gay Movie
  
• Say Uncle

Song: "Starts Off With a Bang" by Mobius Band