"Cyrus" is an eerie Oscars contender

From left, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and John C. Reilly in “Cyrus,” a weird comedy that stands out from the pack so far this year. (Chuck Zlotnick/Fox Searchlight Pictures)

By Scott Beveridge

It's been a stretch to take young actor Jonah Hill serious in his bevy of films where he typically plays a hilarious nerd or born loser.

But, the Judd Appatow-favorite has landed himself a breakout man-boy role in this summer's odd little movie, "Cyrus," co-starring the forever-hot Marisa Tomei as his "roll-your-eyes" kind of freaky mom.

Hill, 26, deserves to show up in the 2011 Oscars best-supporting actor category for this chilling performance of Cyrus, who one would expect to be a serial killer in training and take out his mom's new boyfriend at any bloody moment to break them up.

Tomei and her costar, John C. Reilly, both deliver Oscar worthy performances, too, in the strangely funny and sweet movie about two lonely, love starved people who meet, fall in love and break up only to reunite once more. That story has been told thousands of times before, but never quite like this. The two come together at a party when Tomei's character, Molly, catches Reilly portraying John and drunk and peeing in a bush. Upon startling him, she says, "Nice penis."

John eventually follows Molly home when she disappears after their second love-making scene, only to discover she has a bizarre 21-year-old son with apparently no friends beside his mom, a personality disorder and an obsession with making strange synthesizer music. It's no wonder John becomes concerned when he finds a photo on Molly's dresser of her breast feeding Cyrus well beyond the breast-feeding years.

The film directed by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass plays out like a jerky home movie with rich dialogue dubbed over many shots, including those where Cyrus comes to grips with it being high time to share his mom, grow up and find a life. Yes, letting go of Tomei, who remains a goddess at 45, would be tough for most guys - even that creep.

Whether or not he can break from her apron strings isn't revealed until just before the movie's abrupt ending, after Cyrus and John go at each other for one final battle. And, then it almost seems as if the joke is on the audience.

This movie is definitely the best contender of year as Hollywood prepares to leave the summer blockbuster season and bring out its best shots for the awards season.

Freaky Swedish flick is winning U.S. audiences

By Scott Beveridge

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – It was refreshing earlier today to see long lines form outside a movie theater for something other than the latest 3-D Hollywood blockbuster.

Those moviegoers turned out for showings of a Swedish thriller, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," at an obscure art house in Pittsburgh's Edgewood section, a theater where Saturday matinees have typically been lucky to draw a dozen people.

The 2009 film based on a European best-selling novel by Stieg Larsson makes its United States debut this month and took the screen this weekend at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Regent Square Theater.

It's a crazy story involving a disgraced journalist, freaky Goth computer hacker, rich and powerful family, corrupt corporate giant, dangerous probation officer with a passion for bondage, serial killer and few Nazis. The rest of the story centers on the 40-year-old disappearance of a rich heiress.

Despite the complex plot and subtitles, director Niels Arden Oplev has delivered an easy-to-follow and suspense-packed movie that was capped here with rousing applause.

Expect this sleeper starring Michale Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace  to show up at the 2011 Oscars. 

Rude airheads break up this way

Anna Kendrick stars as Natalie and George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham in Paramount Pictures' "Up in the Air." Photo: Dale Robinette.

By Scott Beveridge

Halfway into the hit movie, “Up in the Air,” actress Anna Kendrick’s anal, uptight character unloads tears over a text message she receives from her boyfriend.

She breaks down after he uses their cell phones to end the relationship in this movie revolving around her employer with a cold heart that specializes in firing people in other companies that do not have the gonads to do it themselves.

The movie starring George Clooney comes at the most-appropriate time when America’s economy is in a backwards mode, and its addiction with text messaging has taken rudeness to a new level.

Kendrick’s youthful character is a rising star in her company who has the bright idea to fire people via video computer linkups to avoid the costs of airfare, hotel and meals to send a live body to do the bitter job. Breaking up that way just seems to be especially cold and cowardly.

“I followed a boy,” Kendrick later explains after she resigns and interviews for a new job.

It was her response to a question about why such a young, intelligent college grad as herself would move to Omaha to take a job firing people.

The answer humanizers her in a era when thank you cards for such things as thoughtful birthday or wedding gifts have been replaced by fleeting, meaningless cell phone text messages.

Staying connected with the people who care just takes too much work.

A funny, witty little movie

It was a strange low-budget vacation last week because I only went to see one movie.

I have been known to see as many as two movies a day while loafing for long stretches. It’s an addiction that I picked up early from my movieholic parents who knew every actor’s name in every Hollywood movie during the 1940s and well into the 1970s.

Even more odd, I went to see “Fanboys” rather than seek out my typical favorite, a movie with a gripping plot, heavy acting and a hard life’s lesson to be learned.

This movie directed by Kyle Newman is all about a group of “Star Wars” nerds. It's short on intellect but brilliant in how Newman picked kooky actors in bit parts to deliver subtle one-liners. Carrie Fisher, who shot to fame as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, is a hoot when she briefly appears as a hospital nurse while the main characters take a road trip to the home of their favorite director, George Lucas.

Take a break from the routine, seek out this movie, laugh a lot and forget about this miserable economy, at least until the theater lights come up.

The hottest new actress on the planet

Freida Pinto is reason enough to drop everything and see the new movie, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

The Indian actress is gorgeous in her starring role as Latika, the love interest of the main character in the Danny Boyle movie that is showing on just two screens in this corner of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Take the drive because this is the smartest movie of the year, one that is sure to be among those with Oscar nominations in 2009.

The movie is brilliantly shot and has a great soundtrack, as well. Its story touches on many of the problems facing India’s orphans who face anti-Muslim terrorism and grow up in garbage dumps, as does Jamal Malik, the story's hero.

As a young man, he is arrested after being one question shy of winning the Hindi television game show version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The authorities are suspicious because he correctly answers so many questions as someone who is lacking a formal education.

In his defense, Malik explains to the police chief how his life’s experiences ironically provided him with the answers to the questions. The story unfolds after he survives extreme police brutality in an effort to force him to confess to cheating.

As it turns out, Malik had rescued Latika after she was kidnapped into life of prostitution. During their escape, Malik’s brother shoots her keeper with a Colt revolver. As fate would have it, that gun tips off Malik to the clue he needs to answer a question on the show seeking the identity of the inventor of the revolver. Pinto then disappears into another mysterious life as a kept woman. She is a goddess. She doesn't need a strong story line to steal her scenes.

She is central, though, to this amazing and riveting story built around the traditional theme of boy meets girl, boy loses girl and boy gets girl in the end. What could be a better ending for this mild-mannered hero? He dances off with a relatively unknown journalist (in real life) who, because of this gem of a movie, is now worth a million bucks as the world's newest sex symbol.



(Photo: Reuters)

"Young @ Heart" is a song for the soul

An old lady with long white hair and a cane in her hand leads off the rockumentary, “Young @ Heart,” singing a punk song.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh," Eileen Hall, 92, shouts in a craggy voice while introducing the Clash’s signature number to the audience. The camera zooms close to her wrinkled face and lips, and then down into her wide-open mouth.

"Darling, you gotta let me know," she continues in a lovely British accent as the shot backs away to reveal an aged chorus dressed alike in white dress shirts. “Should I stay or should I go?”

Hall’s part of an ensemble of New England senior citizens with the average age of 80 who are behaving badly in a hot chorus, the subject of the new flick directed by Stephen Walker.

Hall is a former stripper who normally listens to Broadway show tunes, but like her friends, she is trying to expand her horizons rather than knit scarves or piece together jigsaw puzzles.

The chorus performs to sold-out crowds around the world. Deemed the “oldest cover band in the world," the group is choreographed by Bob Cilman, who doesn’t always have the patience to work with people who have 30 years on him.

In the documentary, he assigned them a handful of new songs to learn in seven weeks for a performance at the Academy Theater in Northampton, Mass., including "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones.

At first, the singers hate the new songs. They stumble over the words, forgetting them often. Then, they warm up to the music.

"There is something wonderful about that process," Cilman says.

Of all things, he has even assigned them to learn Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can,” a tongue twister that requires the memorization of lyrics containing the word, "can," more than 70 times.

“We used to sing songs like, “Yes, we have no bananas”,” Hall quips.

Yes, this is a movie that will make you laugh out loud. And it also will leave you with a lump in your throat if you are human, especially after watching Fred Knittle steal the show with Coldplay’s “Fix You.”

He’s an overweight baritone who was invited back for a command performance after leaving the chorus because he became too weak to stand for long, dependent on oxygen and slowed by congestive heart failure.

Two members died before the big show, and they were rehearsing their tunes up until the time they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. At least two others rejoined the chorus after having been that close to death. “I was afraid to look,” one woman said after being asked if she saw that bright light before recovering.

Thank goodness for survival in show business. This is shock rock that delivers a song for the soul about keeping the adventure going during retirement.

(Caption: That's Eileen Hall in the photo. She died a year before the documentary was released in early 2008 at select theaters.)