New Line head honcho Robert Shaye returned to the director's chair to helm The Last Mimzy (New Line), an ingratiatingly trippy science-fiction kid flick about a bridge to outer space, geometric shapes, Lewis Carroll, dolls from other planets, the Department of Homeland Security, and all sorts of New Age-y weirdness…
The first season of Extras extracted all the laughs it could out of the slight premise of two background players clamoring desperately for the spotlight. Extras: The Complete Second Season (HBO) wisely expands into richer territory, as professional fringe-dweller Ricky Gervais finally gets a chance to write and star in his own BBC comedy, and loses his soul in the bargain. Every time Gervais appears in a funny wig and oversized glasses, spouting the catchphrase "Are you having a laugh?", it's simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking…
The Polish brothers, Mark and Michael, made a name for themselves as writer-directors of peculiar indie projects like Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot, and Northfork, but they've thrown perhaps their biggest curveball to date with The Astronaut Farmer (Warner Bros.), a studio film that's odd just for trying to play a crazy premise straight. Though it doesn't quite work, the story of a disgruntled NASA engineer (Billy Bob Thornton) who builds a homemade space rocket in his barn has moments of cornpone inspiration…
James Longley's deeply embedded documentary Iraq In Fragments (Typecast) considers life in post-liberation Iraq through three stories, each showing a nation-in-progress with divided needs and divided goals. After the brilliant first story—about a fatherless Sunni struggling to forge a familial relationship with his violent, opinionated boss—viewers may not have much emotion left for the rest of the film, but those with the determination to forge ahead will find an impressionistic portrait of a country on the brink either of a glorious new dawn, or an ignominious collapse…
The title of Denis Dercourt's The Page Turner (Tartan) refers in part to the way the movie keeps viewers jangled, anxious to see what happens next. It also refers to an actual page-turner: young go-getter Déborah François, who takes a job assisting famed concert pianist Catherine Frot, who doesn't realize she once inadvertently sabotaged François' fledgling career. Like a lot of French thrillers, The Page Turner is a little too neat, and self-consciously vague at the end. But it's fascinating to observe and try to interpret François' mysterious smile as she eyes her boss, delaying her revenge until just the right moment.