Weekend Movie Guide: April 22

By Andrew Nogay
Assistant Web Content Manager

Interested in movies? No? Well that’s too bad, because pretty much every week there are movies coming out in theaters. Some of these are wide releases, meaning they’ll play in just about every theater, others are limited, meaning they’ll only play in select theaters or something of that sort. The only wide release this week is The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman. All the others are limited releases, but don’t write them off. A few of them look very interesting, especially Tale of Tales, which would be my pick of the week, with Elvis & Nixon close behind that. If you haven’t seen Green Room yet, that was my pick of the week last week and that is highly recommended. Anyways…

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

Did you know that Snow White and the Huntsman made $400 million worldwide? I think that is more deserving of a dramatic Inception sound than whenever that was used in this trailer. As an aside, that sound is abused more nowadays than the owl in this trailer. District 9 used it first, and it was dope; then Inception used it and it became an internet joke, and now every mediocre blockbuster uses it in their trailers. Speaking of mediocre blockbusters, back to The Huntsman: Winter’s War.

It cost $115 million to make and considering how popular the first one was overseas, it’ll probably end up recouping that. This is about the story before Snow White, but I don’t really see how that connection is made. This seems more like a standalone story within the same universe, and I can’t figure how this leads to Snow White. Oh well, how could they market this movie as familiar to people without that?

Elvis & Nixon

The releasing behind this movie is interesting, because it is an Amazon Studios film that is getting released in theaters. It’s like the new media is backtracking to the ways of the old media. As for the movie itself, it looks pretty funny. The way it’s presented, it won’t hold to being historically accurate, but that’ll probably make it more entertaining. This was an odd trailer, very non traditional. It nearly seemed like a standalone piece. I will say that having Kevin Spacey playing Nixon does a lot more service for Nixon than Michael Shannon for Elvis as far as looks go.

Tale of Tales

This is director Matteo Garrone’s first English film after his last two films, the award-winning Gomorrah and Reality, were both Cannes submissions. It’s basically adaptations of primordial fairy tales by Giambattista Basile, with three different stories that all seem dark and twisted, just like how the original tales were.

It has a rock solid cast, as it stars John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones. This movie looks abstract, lavish and bloody and will certainly be something original. Gomorrah took the gangster film and turned it on its head with its realism. Now it looks like Tale of Tales is turning the fantasy genre on its head with its grotesqueness.

City of Gold

This is a documentary about food critic Jonathan Gold, which seems like a nice little television featurette idea, but it seems like this film explores much more than just his life and his work. Many times in the trailer, the focus about the macro is present, mostly about how the food of Los Angeles is reflective of the city itself. That sounds like an interesting documentary and Gold himself seems like a character enough to carry the film. It’s gotten good reviews, so this seems like a movie to keep an eye on, especially if you’re into food. And I mean, who isn’t?

Hello, My Name Is Doris

Sally Field doesn’t do many films these days so Michael Showalter getting her for this role is quite a boon as this is a perfect role for her. She tries to get with her younger co-worker, and it’s a very specific role. Field’s character is weird, sweet and very believable. Field’s co-star, Max Greenfield, is pretty good on New Girl and most things he does.

This is Michael Showalter’s first big venture after the Wet Hot American Summer series, which was amazing, and he is the writer and director here. It is also one of the few projects done by ex-State people that doesn’t involve a good portion of them, so this looks to be a serious sort of movie despite the funny parts. It’s good that this movie is treating Sally Field’s character seriously, despite this being a comedy.

A Hologram for the King

Any trailer that begins with a Talking Heads song grabs my attention, but there was another thing about the trailer for A Hologram for the King that grabbed my attention. That would be how at the beginning of the trailer, you think the movie is a fish out of water comedy, with crazy Tom Hanks hanging out with middle east stereotypes. Then, in the last half, it’s like some sort of existential drama, which apparently is what the book this is based off of is like. So why were the comedy bits added? It was a confusing all around. Also, this was directed by the guy who made Run Lola Run, so there’s some prestige behind the camera as well as in front with Tom Hanks.