Flick Picks: Enough Said is a smart rom-com that will tug at your heart strings
LAUGH and love James Gandolfini's final movie Enough Said says film guru Leigh Paatsch, as he offers up his weekend movie guide.
Leigh Paatsch
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WHAT movies to spend your money on this weekend with film guru Leigh Paatsch.
THE SWANSONG OF A SOPRANO
All rom-coms great and small - and the ones that star Katherine Heigl - are guilty of wearing their hearts out on their sleeve. Nothing wrong with that. However, too few are prepared to carry on as if they have an actual head on their shoulders. Playing dumb is playing safe. Therefore a rom-com like Enough Said - a rom-com that be can be both clever and cute, yet never cloying - deserves to be looked at, laughed along with, and loved. Compounding the connection for lovers of fine acting is the sad fact Enough Said marks one of the final screen performances of the late, great James Gandolfini of TV's The Sopranos. He plays Albert, a burly divorcee in his early fifties who has all but opted out of the dating game. That is until he meets Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), also divorced, at a pool party. Writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money), a skilled practitioner when it comes to depicting modern relationships, does a wonderful job of calibrating the mutual attraction that gradually builds between Albert and Eva.
PICTURES: JAMES GANDOLFINI IS DEAD
ENOUGH SAID: LEIGH PAATSCH'S MOVIE REVIEW IN FULL
BEWARE THE OLD DOG WITH NEW TRICKS
That "Jackass Presents" tag frontloaded to the title of Bad Grandpa is either a call to arms, or a cinematic health warning. All depends on where you stand on all things Jackass. You should know by now whether you've had your fill of the franchise's relentless stunt-prankery. If you haven't, well, Bad Grandpa's familiar combo of the lewd, the crude and the (sometimes) disarmingly imaginative will deliver upon expectations. Johnny Knoxville plays - no, make that poses as - a newly-widowed 86-year-old named Irving Zisman. With his 8-year-old grandson riding shotgun, Knoxville just keeps on punking the real world with carefully constructed shonky shenanigans. Do not try this at home. Do feel free to laugh.
JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA: LEIGH PAATSCH'S FULL MOVIE REVIEW
PUBLIC PRANKS MORE SCARY THAN STUNTS - JOHNNY KNOXVILLE
THIS WIKI LACKS
Earlier this year there was We Steal Secrets, a very compelling documentary about controversial Australian info-warrior Julian Assange and the Wikileaks saga. Now here comes The Fifth Estate, a not-so-compelling feature film telling the exact same story. A better title might have been We Stare at Screens. An unwieldy proportion of the running time is chewed up by people anxiously staring at laptops and PCs. All they can see is scrolling text, progress bars, login windows and instant message updates. All they can say is a rehash of what they have just read. The experience is about as exciting as being locked inside an internet cafe on a long weekend. Worth checking out only for a razor-sharp portrayal of Julian Assange by Benedict Cumberbatch. The British actor just doesn't miss a tic, twitch or trait. Co-stars Daniel Bruhl.
FIFTH ESTATE: LEIGH PAATSCH'S MOVIE REVIEW IN FULL
JULIAN ASSANGE'S STORY FIFTH ESTATE PREMIERES IN TORONTO
Why Keaton is only saving (dis)grace for average sequel
Despite Michael Keaton having the time of his afterlife, there’s not enough of his coffin-tipping high-jinks to carry Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to greatness, writes Leigh Paatsch.
Why The Crow reboot is an insult to original
With neither the damaging energy nor the distinctive look of its predecessor, The Crow reboot has little chance of any afterlife sequel-wise, writes Leigh Paatsch.