DVD THE WARMTH OF `LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE'.Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor For Alan Arkin, making ``Little Miss Sunshine'' was ``very freeing.'' The two-time Oscar nominee plays a heroin-snorting, foul-mouthed eccentric simply known as Grandpa in the small dramedy about a dysfunctional family dysfunctional family Psychology A family with multiple 'internal'–eg sibling rivalries, parent-child– conflicts, domestic violence, mental illness, single parenthood, or 'external'–eg alcohol or drug abuse, extramarital affairs, gambling, , the Hoovers, traveling across the Southwest in a beat-up bright yellow Volkswagen van in order to take their 7-year-old daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), to California to compete in a kids' beauty contest called Little Miss Sunshine. Not what you think of as blockbuster material, but ``Little Miss Sunshine became the little film that could, a surprise summer hit that is now piling up a host of awards and nominations. Arkin, who garnered a best supporting actor supporting actor n → attore m non protagonista nomination from the Independent Spirit awards, says that ``the entire script drew me to the film. I love the character, but I love the whole script.'' ``LMS'' was written by Michael Arndt and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris, who were making their feature-film debut. Arkin's cantankerous can·tan·ker·ous adj. 1. Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable: disliked her cantankerous landlord. 2. Grandpa has been kicked out of a seniors home because of his drug habit and now must live with his son, Richard (Greg Kinnear Gregory Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and television personality, who rose to stardom as the first host of E!'s Talk Soup. ); crazed daughter-in-law Sheryl (Toni Collette); her suicidal brother, Frank (Steve Carell); and grandson, Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has been keeping a vow of silence for nine months. That makes Grandpa, who is liable to launch into a string of expletives any moment (``I can say what I want -- I still got Nazi bullets in my ass'') almost normal. Well, at least he seems to be the only one in the family who isn't clinging to some kind of fantasy. Richard plots his get-rich-quick schemes. Dwayne dreams of being a pilot. Sheryl hopes for some kind of normalcy nor·mal·cy n. Normality. Noun 1. normalcy - being within certain limits that define the range of normal functioning normality . Frank yearns to return to his status as America's premier Proust scholar, and Olive is wide-eyed about winning the beauty pageant. Actually, corrects Arkin, Grandpa has one, too -- ``Go back to the old folks home and plank a lot of women.'' Though Arkin says he doesn't spend a lot of time when he accepts a role thinking about whether a film is going to be successful or not, he was surprised by the ``extraordinary'' reaction to the film, including standing ovations at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. So why does he think ``LMS'' has done so well? ``It talks about families -- that no matter what their divergency is on the surface, that no matter what problems they have with each other, they are capable of pulling together when the chips are down. Certainly, this family does, and I think that this is one of the things that audiences respond to.'' NEW FILMS There is a host of movies that have as much to recommend them as not. Jet Li's ``Fearless'' has a rather dreary plot of a martial-arts master who is brought down by his pride but saves his soul and then the nation's pride. While the story is forgettable for·get·ta·ble adj. Fit or apt to be forgotten: a movie with very forgettable characters. Adj. 1. forgettable - easily forgotten unforgettable - impossible to forget , it's fun to watch Li in what he says is his last true martial-arts role. There is dance -- ballet, hip-hop -- in ``Step Up,'' the story of a teen (Channing Tatum) from the tough Baltimore streets who, during a stint of community service at an arts school, is smitten by a classically trained dancer (Jenna Dewan) and becomes her partner. Yes, the arc is familiar, but the steps are filled with energy. ``Invincible'' is a feel-good movie about the true story of Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a 30-year-old substitute teacher and bartender who in 1976 beat the odds and made the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. And though it's been Disney-fied, with a few facts changed, optimism triumphs over despair in a winning and entertaining fashion. ``My Super Ex-Girlfriend'' was a funny, clever concept about breaking up with a superhero su·per·he·ro n. pl. su·per·he·roes A figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime. , but, unfortunately, it doesn't really fly. It's hard not to love Uma Thurman. She plays super-neurotic NYC NYC abbr. New York City NYC New York City girl Jenny Johnson and her alter-ego G-Girl, who soars around saving people and thwarting crime but really just wants a relationship. ``The Office's'' Rainn Wilson is perfect as Luke Wilson's (the boyfriend) licentious li·cen·tious adj. 1. Lacking moral discipline or ignoring legal restraint, especially in sexual conduct. 2. Having no regard for accepted rules or standards. pal, and you have to appreciate Eddie Izzard as the villain, Professor Bedlam Bedlam: see Bethlem Royal Hospital. bedlam from Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, former English insane asylum. [Br. Folklore: Jobes, 193] See : Confusion Bedlam (Hospital of St. . Too bad the Ivan Reitman film, like its heroine, is torn between two identities and never finds itself. The latest ``All the King's Men,'' the second film version of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1946 novel about the rise and fall of a demagogic dem·a·gog·ic also dem·a·gog·i·cal adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a demagogue. dem Southern governor, boasts a pedigreed cast -- Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins and Patricia Clarkson -- but is for the most part lifeless. An air of this-is-serious stuff overwhelms the film, stifling even the best performances. M. Night Shyamalan's ``Lady in the Water'' is, well -- let's say train wreck train wreck Medtalk A popular term for a multiproblem Pt in critical condition doesn't quite describe it. This attempt at modern myth-making is so ludicrous it's almost watchable watch·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being watched; viewable: watchable wildlife. 2. Good enough to watch: "The fastest modem ... . Shyamalan is a talented filmmaker, so there are some interesting moments, but in the end, you're likely to go, ``What the ....'' And speaking of ``What the ....'' Richard Linklater's ``A Scanner Darkly,'' based on Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel, deals with drug abuse and sifting realities. Very talky talk·y adj. talk·i·er, talk·i·est 1. Talkative; loquacious. 2. Containing or given to too much talk: a talky, boring play. and done in an animation technique called rotoscoping Creating animated characters by tracing an action movie with real actors frame by frame. Performed via the computer today, rotoscoping was originally accomplished in the early 1900s by projecting each movie frame onto a frosted glass easel, from which the illustrator traced and redrew the , which gives it a painterly paint·er·ly adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a painter; artistic. 2. a. Having qualities unique to the art of painting. b. look, ``A Scanner Darkly'' is really only for fans of this type of speculative fiction. TELEVISION At this date, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina may seem muted, but Spike Lee's remarkable documentary ``When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts'' can evoke new outrage and sorrow. The four-hour documentary first aired in August on HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy on the first anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Katrina, as we now know, had one overriding feature: If something could go wrong, it did. The storm hit in the worst place and with maximum force. (It was the flooding more than the storm that caused damage.) Add in human error, bureaucratic ineptitude Ineptitude See also Awkwardness. Brown, Charlie meek hero unable to kick a football, fly a kite, or win a baseball game. [Comics: “Peanuts” in Horn, 543] Capt. Queeg incompetent commander of the minesweeper Caine. and socioeconomic inequity, and the worst that could happen happened. Lee's documentary brings all this home vividly, by letting the victims tell their stories, like the one of a man having to leave the body of his dead mother behind as National Guardsmen herded him onto a bus, or of those by the many Katrina survivors who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident. . There are many aspects to this tragedy -- even the one that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen, which Lee doesn't really address in the film -- but ``When the Levees Broke'' reminds us that we all could have done better. ``The Simpsons'' has never been bad, but season nine is among the best. It includes ``Trash of the Titans "Trash of the Titans" is the Emmy Award-winning twenty-second episode of The Simpsons' ninth season and the 200th overall. It originally aired on the FOX network on April 26, 1998.[] It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, and directed by Jim Reardon. ,'' the series' 200th episode. U2 played themselves, and Steve Martin was the commissioner of the sanitation department who Homer runs against, mounting a dirty campaign. The episode won an Emmy in 1998. There are four more ``Walt Disney Treasures The "Walt Disney Treasures" are two-disc DVD sets of classic Disney works, covering work from the studio's earliest days to more recent work. There have been seven waves of the DVDs, each comprising three or four different sets (for a total of 25 different titles). ,'' always worth a look, including Pluto cartoons and ``More Silly Symphonies.'' Rob Lowman, (818) 713-3687 robert.lowman@dailynews.com NEW FILMS ``Little Miss Sunshine'' (Fox; $29.99) ``Step Up'' (Touchstone/Disney; $29.99) ``Invincible'' Disney; $29.99 ``Lady in the Water'' (Warner; $28.98) ``A Scanner Darkly'' (Warner; $28.98) ``My Super Ex-Girlfriend'' (Fox; $29.99) ``The Celestine cel·es·tine n. See celestite. [German Zölestin, from Latin caelestis, celestial; see celestial.] Prophecy'' (Columbia; $24.96) ``Jet Li's Fearless'' (Universal; $29.98) ``American Pie Presents -- The Naked Mile'' (Universal; $29.98) ``The Wicker Man'' (Warner; $28.98) ``All the King's Men'' (Columbia; $28.95) ``The Beauty Academy of Kabul'' (Docurama; $26.95) OLDER FILMS ``The Illustrated Man'' (Warner; $19.97) ``Presenting Lily Mars'' (Warner; $19.97) ``Operation Crossbow'' (Warner; $19.97) ``Up Periscope'' (Warner; $19.97) ``There Was a Crooked Man ...'' (Warner; $19.97) ``The Wicker Man'' (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1975) (Anchor Bay; $19.98) ``Jackie Chan's Police Story'' (Special Collector's Edition) (Dragon; $19.98) TELEVISION ``When the Levees Broke'' (HBO; $29.98) ``The Simpsons -- The Complete Ninth Season'' (Fox; $49.98) ``Hogan's Heroes -- The Complete Fifth Season'' (Paramount; $38.99) ``The Librarian 2 -- Return to King Solomon's Mines'' (Turner Home Entertainment; $19.98) ``ER -- The Complete Sixth Season'' (Warner; $49.98) ``Walt Disney Treasures -- More Silly Symphonies (1929-1938)'' (Disney; $32.99) ``Walt Disney Treasures -- The Complete Pluto, Volume Two'' (Disney; $32.99) ``Walt Disney Treasures -- Your Host, Walt Disney'' (Disney; $32.99) ``Walt Disney Treasures -- The Mickey Mouse Club Featuring the Hardy Boys'' (Disney; $32.99) ``Married ... With Children -- The Complete Sixth Season'' (Columbia; $39.95) ``Criss Angel -- Mindfreak: The Complete Season Two'' (A&E; $34.95) ``Gene Simmons -- Family Jewels: Season One'' (A&E; $24.95) CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1) Greg Kinnear, left, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Paul Dano and Toni Collette in the dysfunctional-family dramedy ``Little Miss Sunshine.'' (2) ARKIN (3) no caption (``All the King's Men'') (4) no caption (``Lady in the Water'') |
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