Saturday Night Movie Recommendations with Abe

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I'm going to be providing a handy guide to a few choice movies currently playing in NYC as well as several films newly released on DVD. I’ll also aim to comment on those films I have not yet had the chance to see, and I invite you to add in your thoughts on any films I haven’t seen in the comments below. Understandably, some weeks will have considerably fewer releases to address than others.

Now Playing in NYC

Take Shelter (highly recommended): This dramatic thriller features a spectacular lead performance from Michael Shannon as a man warring with his own sanity as he hallucinates visions of terrible storms. Both the script and the visual representations of his imagination are equally strong, and the film is unsettling, highly stressful, and extremely effective. Now playing at the Angelika and Lincoln Plaza. Read my review from yesterday.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (recommended): This horror comedy is extremely funny, featuring Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as best friends who end up with a slew of college kids determined to put themselves in danger thinking that they’re deranged murderers. It’s not for the faint of heart in terms of gore, but for everyone else, it’s absolutely hilarious. Now playing at the Village East Cinema. My review will be up tomorrow.

My Joy (mixed bag): I saw this film just over a year ago at last year’s New York Film Festival, and I remember it as an impossibly bleak, meandering film that just gets more and more demoralizing as it goes on through its two-hour-plus runtime. The production values are better than the film itself, and otherwise this is better saved for truly patient foreign film buffs. Now playing at the Cinema Village. Check out my capsule review from NYFF last year.

I really want to see the new dramedy 50/50 with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, and though it’s likely good, Dream House looks downright terrifying.

New to DVD

The Ledge (mixed bag): This movie would be more effective as a metaphor or a full-length book about the debate between evolution and creationism, and what it is instead is an uneven thriller with a ticking clock and underdeveloped characters whose lives, presented in some other vein, might be far more interesting and compelling.

Now on Netflix Instant Streaming

Biutiful (recommended): This devastating Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film features an outstanding lead performance from Javier Bardem. If you’re not in the mood to be depressed, don’t watch this one, but otherwise, see it as soon as you can. It’s nearly two and a half hours of heart-wrenching drama.