Photo: pinterest.com/antiqueimages

If ever I had the choice to be born in any era passed, present, or future, I would like be born an English fille in the Victorian Era. Women were classy, sophisticated, appreciative of their roles in their household, yet there was the option for women to to become scientists, explorers, etc. (Like Isabella Bird, Mary Kingsley, Gertrude Bell). Men approached you to ask for permission to court you openly. Chivalry was an inherent quality and women reveled in knowing they mastered the art of strength and femininity. Also, Queen Victoria was an inspiring lady if the movie with Emily Blunt is anything to go by.

via collider.com

There’s a prevailing wisdom that independent films have to adopt a mannered, self-consciously oddball hipster style to be truly indie. It’s not true at all, but good movies can still be made with it (“Juno”). Yet whatever one thinks of “cinema du quirk,” its sheer prevalence makes its followers that much more annoying. Unfortunately, “Arthur Newman,” the directorial debut of commercials director Dante Ariola, falls under this category–but it’s not that easy to leave it there. There’s something underneath struggling to be heard that makes you reluctant to dismiss it, even as the rest of the movie practically begs you to.

It doesn’t help that the basic storyline see-saws from the unlikely to the flat-out unbelievable. Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) is a failed golf pro who now works as a doctor, with an ex-wife and estranged son who both hate him. He encounters the owner of a golf course up north and impresses the man enough to get a job offer. One problem–he accidentally gave him the wrong name. So instead of correcting that mistake, Wallace buys the identity of Arthur Newman, fakes his own death, and sets off to Terre Haute for a new life. On the way, he picks up a woman (Emily Blunt) who is also trying to live as someone else, and they become a couple.

In the broad strokes, this idea is decidedly, determinedly odd (and full of logistical holes). But the wider world of comedic quirk that Ariola and writer Becky Johnston conjure up is alienating–and worse, unfunny. This is the kind of movie where everyone talks in a flat, affectless monotone that straddles the line between underplaying and woodenness. This is the kind of movie in which the two protagonists bond by breaking into people’s homes and have sex while role-playing as the inhabitants. This is the kind of movie where a convenience store in the middle of nowhere only has tofu dogs left, and where a hotel clerk has porn playing in his office that all the customers can see. These kinds of movies try so hard to create unique, unconventional situations and characters that it becomes hard to find a human trait that we can recognize.

And yet, some kernel of real heart keeps trying to surface. The film’s basic emotional focus–of people who don’t like who they are and trying to be someone else–is real and human, if handled too literally. Firth’s put-upon, vulnerable persona is put to good use as the unhappy Newman, and he shares an easy chemistry with the no-nonsense Blunt. And as the final twenty minutes strip bare the illusions and assumptions of both characters and film, the emotional dilemmas become weirdly touching. Beneath the quirky superficialities, “Arthur Newman” wants to be a gentle, strangely affectionate romantic dramedy.

But if this kind of emotional power is on reserve, why can’t it be gripping right off the bat? Why does it hide behind the flat, the monotone, and the self-consciously hip? Why does it wait to put effort into itself? It’s one thing for a movie to just be uninteresting and off-putting. When it does so to hide its true abilities, then it’s really sad.

J.R. Hammerer is a staff writer. Email him at film@nyunews.com.

PAIN & GAIN

(Paramount) Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Rob Corddry, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong. Directed by Michael Bay

Three somewhat dense bodybuilders engage on a campaign of kidnapping, extortion and murder in Miami in the 1990s. Based on a true story, Michael Bay brings his Bad Boys sensibility to the story which love him or hate him, a movie like this sorely needs.

See the trailer, clips and promos here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Action

Rating: R (for bloody violence, crude sexual content, nudity, language throughout and drug use)

Arthur Newman

(Cinedigm/Flatiron) Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Anne Heche, Peter Jurasik. A middle-aged divorced man, tired of a life that is going nowhere, decides to disappear. He buys himself a new identity and drives in the general direction of Terra Haute, Indiana where he hopes to reinvent himself as a golf pro at a small country club there. However he picks up a girl who’s got problems of her own and on the road to Indiana the two find something more than they were expecting.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Comedy

Rating: R  (for sexual content, language and brief drug use)

The Big Wedding

(Lionsgate) Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton. When their adopted son gets married, a divorced couple is forced to pretend to still be together in order to placate his ultraconservative biological mom, who is showing up unexpectedly to the wedding. The family is then forced to confront all the sins of their past – in front of everyone invited to a big wedding.

See the trailer and a featurette here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Comedy

Rating: NR  

The Company You Keep

(Sony Classics) Shia LaBeouf, Robert Redford, Julie Christie, Richard Jenkins. A lawyer’s true identity as a former radical wanted for murder is exposed by a reporter, forcing the lawyer to go on the run with his young daughter to find the one person who can clear his name. Redford also directed this.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Drama

Rating: R (for language)

Disconnect

(LD Entertainment) Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard. An ensemble piece with a theme of connection (or lack thereof) in the modern digital world. The stories include a lawyer who can’t put down his cell phone nor communicate with his own family, a couple whose darkest secrets are exposed online, a single dad and cop struggling to raise a son who is cyber-bullying classmates, and an ambitious journalist discovers a story about a teen masquerading as an adult on an adult website.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Comedy

Rating: R (for sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, violence and drug use – some involving teens)

Filly Brown

(Pantelion) Gina Rodriguez, Jenn Rivera, Lou Diamond Phillips, Edward James Olmos. A young girl with an incarcerated mom and a dad struggling to provide for his family finds self-expression through hip-hop. When a record producer offers to sign her to a contract, she thinks at first that it’s the answer to all her prayers – but she soon realizes the cost might be more than she could have ever thought it would be.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Drama

Rating: R (for disturbing violent and sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some drug use) 

Mud

(Roadside Attractions) Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sam Shepard, Michael Shannon. A couple of young boys discover a man living on an island in the Mississippi River. Calling himself Mud, he describes a fairly lurid tale of murder, love, a beautiful woman and bounty hunters. The boys agree to help him, until the tale turns out to be true – and a little more than he told them to begin with. This is another entry from the Florida Film Festival now playing a regular run at the Enzian.

See the trailer and clips here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13 (for some violence, sexual references, language, thematic elements and smoking)  

Marc Schiller, a wealthy businessman who survived a month of torture at the hands of the thugs, has loudly protested about being characterized as an unscrupulous scammer, somehow deserving of his fate. “I don’t understand why they want to make me look like a bad guy,” he told the Miami New Times, the newspaper that drew attention for its coverage of the mid-’90s crimes. The sister of Frank Griga, who was beaten to death by gang members, has expressed her disgust with the Hollywood-style trivialization of the events. “To show these killers as a couple of funny, nice guys who made a couple of blunders is indecent.”

Meanwhile, Wahlberg and Johnson are defending their involvement. “We made the movie … for selfish reasons, to play characters that are so outrageous that you really get to go crazy with your performance and push the envelope a lot,” Wahlberg told the Tampa Bay Times. Said Johnson: “Keep in mind, too, that at the end of the day the individuals who committed these crimes paid for what they did, and they’re paying now. They got what they deserved.”

Also opening:

• “The Big Wedding” — Nuptials-themed romantic comedy with a cast of stars (including some big ones); a “surprisingly hard” R, some have said; rotten, according to Rotten Tomatoes
• “Mud” — Southern-fried indie drama starring Matthew McConaughey as a mysterious, maybe dangerous character befriended by two young boys; getting good buzz
• “The Company You Keep” — Robert Redford-directed thriller that may or may not glamorize an aging domestic terrorist (Redford) — you know, like Weather Underground anarchist Bill Ayers, long-ago associate of Obama. Crackerjack cast: Nick Nolte, Stanley Tucci, Chris Cooper, Richard Jenkins, Sam Elliott, Julie Christie)
• “Arthur Newman” — Oddly shaped, largely underwhelming drama with Colin Firth as the title character, a sad guy who shucks his old life for a new identity, along the way finding something like love with a damaged woman played by Emily Blunt; partly set in Florida, with some sequences apparently shot there
• “The Numbers Station” — Thriller starring the usually reliable John Cusack as a federal government killer tasked with the safety of a sexy cryptologist (Malin Akerman)

Tom Cruise in the confession box on Tonight with Jay Leno. (Photo by: Stacie McChesney/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

Tom Cruise has revealed women ask him to sign their breasts everywhere he goes.

The 50 year-old, whose character Stacee Jaxx autographs women up top in Rock of Ages, admitted it’s not just on screen female fans try out the cheeky request.

Cruise revealed the nuisance during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with his All You Need Is Kill co-star Emily Blunt.

Asked by Jay where women asked to get inked, Blunt leapt in for Cruise and blurted: ‘Their boobs!’

Tom could only agree embarrassingly confirming: ‘Boobs’.

Tom Cruise gets sweary with Jay Leno (Photo by: Stacie McChesney/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

The couch jumping star then descended into another bizarre chat show moment when he and Blunt entered a swear-athon by remembering some of most famous quotes from his films.

Remembering Risky Business, Cruise yelped: ‘Sometimes you gotta say what the f***!’

As he and Blunt rattled off naughty words, Cruise said: ‘Can we say that on TV?’

The 30-year-old English actress assured him: ‘They’ll bleep it out.’

So, being a film that ISN’T about delving into dreams to manipulate thoughts, this one is about bureaucracy, fate, free will and maybe God, but they never say that explicitly.

Matt Damon is a congressman on the up, he’s the youngest politician ever to become a congressman and is looking to represent New York in the Senate. However, a few days before election night, photos of a college prank come out from the woodwork and he is guaranteed to lose. During election night Damon goes to the bathroom where, while running through his concession speech, he meets Emily Blunt who has been hiding from security in the mens bathroom after crashing a wedding in the same building.

This is meant to be Damon’s catalyst to make an inspiring speech, meeting this strange woman in the mens bathroom, and put him back on track to become a Senator. And he was meant to never see Blunt again. But something went wrong.

Specifically Damon’s caseworker falls asleep while waiting for him in the park where he is supposed to make the ‘adjustment’ to Damon’s timeline by forcing him to return home after having coffee spilled on his shirt. Instead the caseworker misses his chance, Damon meets Blunt on the bus, and sees a whole lotta weird when he gets to the office.

Now this weird is the Adjustment Bureau, basically a lot of guys in some rather snazzy hats who have frozen time and are ‘adjusting’ Damon’s campaign manager’s thought processes so that Damon’s fate can continue on certain path.

The film then follows Damon battling his obvious love for Blunt while being slowly tortured with mind tricks that the Adjustment Bureau can do anything, ruin her dancing career or stop him becoming President. But this, this is a love story at the end of the day. You root for Damon and Blunt finding a way and curse the suited and hatted men (the hats are important and not just for the aesthetics) for getting in their way.

It is actually a very good concept, with the let down that it tried to bring ‘God’ into it, but then again it would be hard not to allude to God when your film is about a higher power manipulating your path.

I really enjoyed Damon and Blunt’s performance, they didn’t have crackling chemistry but there was some there to get you behind them as a couple. I liked the Adjustment Bureau hat guys, Mad Men’s John Slattery put in a good performance playing a mob-like bureaucrat.

The film bears little resemblence to Inception, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a go. If like me you have a LoveFilm subscription then try it, its on Instant now. If you get bored just stop, but you might be engaged enough and enjoy the scenery and door sequences enough to keep going to the slightly flat end. In all honesty, if the end had been a bit more exciting and less ‘God’ centric, I probably would have given this half a star more.

The older actor nevertheless gets merely what amounts to a cameo in the film. Walsh, playing the part of a man who supplies false identification papers to the title character (Firth), appears only for a couple of minutes in a scene near the beginning of the film, Dante Ariola’s debut feature.

Were his scenes chopped back? If not, why hire the actor and waste him on one tiny sequence?

He wuz robbed.

Walsh, 78, has a much larger role in the bizarre thriller “Love Sick Love.” He also plays a significant role in the forthcoming “Boiling Pot,” a tense drama set on a college campus during the 2008 election.

Source: Cinedigm

On Friday April 26th “Arthur Newman” opens in a theatre near you in Atlanta. “Arthur Newman” is a film about an unusual couple that go on a road trip, starring the delighful Emily Blunt and Oscar winner Colin Firth. I had the good fortune to interview the director of the film, Dante Ariola.

Hi, Dante.

Hi, Mike.

Can you tell us a little about the film?

It’s a film that’s very much about identity and taking on someone else’s identity, about the limits of escapism. It’s a story about trying to figure out who you are in a way that we haven’t seen before.

Can you please tell us how you got involved with this project, especially considering that the script was written 20 years ago? What was it that drew you to the script?

It’s the kind of story that just resonates with you, not necessarily at any particular or specific time in your life. I had read the script and really liked it but didn’t pursue it. Then I read it again a couple of years later. I don’t know, I think that the second time I read it, this weird story of self-discovery by going on a trip with someone that couldn’t be more opposite of you. And having that person, in a round about way, giving you an insight into who you are. I just hadn’t seen this type of script before. It had been in a drawer for twenty-years, so it wasn’t like this was a script that couldn’t be made for twenty-years. One of the things I like about it is it has sort of a timeless quality about it.

Yeah, I agree this is a film that could have been set in the 70′s, 80′s or as with your film, set it in present day because it does have that timeless quality to it.

Yeah it’s a road trip, but with that being said it could be anywhere, it could be nowhere, set in just about any time period. It does kind of feel like a seventies film. You know the way those stories developed with the pacing of the film and how the characters are very slowly reveled. The audience is slowly let in on the characters secrets, on kind of like a slow burn; which is a little different from a lot of contemporary films.

What I loved about this film was the chemistry between Colin Firth and Emily Blunt and how naturally it showed on the screen in their scenes; how were you able to manipulate the situations in order to get that outcome from your cast?

I hired Colin first because he came to mind when I thought of the character. The guy is Arthur “slash” Wallace, a man that is so flawed. He is a man that has some not so admirable qualities that make him almost unlikeable. So, I needed an actor that just inherently has a sense of empathy. An actor that the audience is going to instantly like and willing to go on a ride with, despite his flaws. That’s how Colin came to mind, there never was a list of actors, I just offered him the role and he loved the script and agreed to do it. With Emily, I love that as an actor she is very much the chameleon. We knew each other through the actor, Stanley Tucci, but only slightly. What was great was Colin and Emily had never worked together, so they were feeling each other out as the production went along. But that being said, because they knew each other personally through Stanley, there was an inherent trust. From the first day on, you could see these two characters in the story feeling each other out, and the two actors feeling each other out, but because they already had that trust built in. You could see the chemistry between the two, both on and off the screen.

The score in this film is outstanding and really helps set the mood. Is that something you learned with your background in commercial work or was that a new experience with the production?

I don’t think I learned it from my commercials. I’m just more of a kind of depressive weirdo and so is the composer. It was refreshing to find someone more melancholy than me. There were times that I had to pull it back from the abyss. But the film is set in these really banal locations, motel hells and places off turnpikes and with these two people experiencing these places. I never want the score to tell audiences what to feel, but I want the score to give gravitas to certain moments and wanted to give beauty to the bland normalcy that you see on a road-trip through anywhere America.

How important to the characters and story development was it to film the movie in North Carolina verses a soundstage in L.A. or New York?

We went to North Carolina for tax reasons initially, but that being said even if I had twice the budget it was never a road-trip in the sense of seeing landmarks. Like a postcard type of adventure where we show them now in the Grand Canyon and now there here. It always was a film that was kind of lost in America. But in North Carolina, where we had a sessional change during shooting, it could be anywhere and nowhere and I think that fit the bill perfectly. And we shot in real hotels and motels, off real turnpikes, on sets that had very little dressing. It was hard on the crew but we never had to ask the question “does this really look like a motel room off the highway?”

What genera would you label this film?

If you had to give it a genera, I think it would fall to self-discovery. Which is a genera that I sort of detest but this film does it in a way that I had never seen before. It kind of shares the love story but not in a love story genera, kind of like “Lost in Translation.” What I like about the film is that it’s hard to really say what kind of film it is.

What is the message of the film that you hope is conveyed to the audience?

The end of the film is open ended. Which I really want for the audience is a to be a mirror; kind of how a painting means different things to different people. For me, the film is about how it’s great to try and escape life for a little while, but it only goes so far. And reality is taking a stab at living an authentic life and embracing who you are, flaws and all. Ultimately, that has more value than the stuff of who we want to be or who we think we are.

Thank you so much for your time and good luck with the film.

Thank you.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE at the GLAAD Media Awards
dress by David Koma, shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood

Photo: Try CW/Splash News

Katniss got a haircut and it’s the only thing we need to be talking about this week. Honestly, there’s nothing more hilarious than the entire blogosphere exploding over her “long bob” (um, hello, I think that’s just called medium-length hair), but I do love it. Her eyeliner is fantastic, and this dress is all kinds of cool, and her body is unstoppable in it. It’s going to be a LONG six months for me until Catching Fire hits theaters, but if those six months are filled with J.Law being fabulous all over the red carpet, well, that’s more than worth it for me. Let’s get another angle so we can see the fabulous shoes a little better:

Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

BAM. Killing it with a mother-fucking bow and arrow.

CAREY MULLIGAN in New York City
tuxedo by Victoria Beckham, jewelry by Tiffany & Co., shoes by Saint Laurent

Photo: Gregory Pace/BEImages

A touch more makeup would have been very welcome – I think blonde girls in particular need mascara so that their eyelashes don’t look invisible – but I love this look from the neck-down. I like that she’s not dressed in 1920s drag – not that I don’t love the flapper thing, I just think that if she were only going to wear Gatsby-like looks over the next few weeks, we’d get bored REAL fast. Anyway, this Le Smoking tux is all kinds of delicious. But I think she could have added a bracelet or a slightly more glittery pair of shoes.

JULIANNE MOORE and CHLOË MORETZ in Cancun
Julianne’s dress by Dolce & Gabbana, shoes by Tabitha Simmons
Chloë’s dress by Marni, shoes by Christian Louboutin

Photo: tomandlorenzo.com

The stars of the Carrie remake hit the red carpet looking way, way happier and more beautiful than their characters should ever look. Julianne’s Dolce LWD is perfect, and I’m kind of obsessed with her shoes – usually I hate clunky, distracting black shoes with light-colored dresses, but something about this just works. And Chloë’s all kinds of adorable – I like this darker hair color on her, and her dress is super-cute. The orange bracelet is kind of out of left field, but it’s a very sharp look otherwise.

HAILEE STEINFELD in Las Vegas
jumpsuit by Valentino, purse by Jimmy Choo, shoes by Brian Atwood

Photo: tomandlorenzo.com

Scrape off half the makeup and put a little de-frizzer in the hair, and this would be one of my favorite looks ever. I’m absolutely obsessed with this jumpsuit on her – and you know that’s a difficult thing for me to say, since I’ve been lamenting the rise of jumpsuits for what feels like a hundred years. But the oversized sleeves and the pockets make this all kinds of adorable. I think I’d quibble with the matchy-matchy gold accessories on someone older, but I think they’re very cute on Hailee.

KATE HUDSON in New York City
gown by Reem Acra, jewelry by Tiffany & Co.

Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

I think I want to dislike this just by nature of it being Kate Hudson, but you know what? This is kind of nice. I think if you’re ever going to wear that Tiffany blue, it might as well be at a Tiffany event, right? And she does absolutely glow in that color, even if it is a touch on the bridesmaid side. But the purse and jewelry are lovely, so overall, I think it’s a pretty good look.

KAROLINA KURKOVA at the Tribeca Film Festival
jacket and skirt by Blumarine

Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty

Lose one of the bracelets and have more fun with the shoes. Otherwise, I love this.

EVAN RACHEL WOOD at the Tribeca Film Festival
gown and shoes by Dolce & Gabbana

Photo: Thelonius/Splash News

Evan Rachel Wood: looks better six months pregnant than she did pre-pregnancy. How the hell does she do that?

JESSICA BIEL in New York City
gown by Elie Saab, jewelry by Tiffany & Co.

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty

This was my Fall 2013 red carpet prediction for Fan Bingbing, who would have rocked this infinitely harder than Jessica Biel. It’s still a beautiful gown, but it’s too long, and I think the belt should have been navy instead of that distracting lighter blue. Also, girlfriend needs to lay off on the lighter-than-natural lipstick. It’s just not her look.

CHARLIZE THERON at the GLAAD Media Awards
jumpsuit by Jason Wu

Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty

Whatever. The jumpsuit is nothing special, and the belt is downright awful.

ELIZABETH BANKS in Las Vegas
dress by Roland Mouret

Photo: Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Surprisingly matronly for the usually fun-loving Effie Trinket, no? It’s not terrible, it’s just a little disappointing. And boring.

KATY PERRY in Hollywood
dress by Suno, shoes by Aldo

Photo: Brian Dowling/Invision/AP

That is one of the stupidest dresses I’ve ever seen, but kudos to Katy for almost pulling it off. Love the shoes, but not with that dress.

EMMA ROBERTS at the Tribeca Film Festival
dress by Cushnie et Ochs, purse by Jimmy Choo, shoes by Walter Steiger

Photo: Andrew Toth/Startraksphoto.com

I don’t know what’s worse – the fit of this dress, or the styling.

EMILY BLUNT in Las Vegas
dress by Miu Miu, shoes by Vince Camuto

Photo: Matt Baron/BEImages

I don’t understand why anyone wears dresses with those sloppily tied-together cut-outs. I have literally never seen that trend done in a way that is even remotely aesthetically pleasing. It just makes everyone look like they’re wearing beach cover-ups instead of actual clothes.

GWYNETH PALTROW in New York City
gown by Ralph Lauren, jewelry by Tiffany & Co., shoes by Jimmy Choo

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty

You’re the worst, and you should stop wearing bracelets that go over the sleeves of your dress.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS in New York City
gown by Katie Ermilio, jewelry by Tiffany & Co.

Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

This is stupid. There’s “look how good I can look in weird things because I’m a hipster,” and then there’s dresses that are just awful to look at. This, clearly, is the latter. And that hair – is she in a boy band in the late 90s? What other excuse could there be for that hair?

OLIVIA WILDE in New York City
dress by A.L.C., shoes by Tabitha Simmons

Photo: Cindy Ord/FilmMagic

Cute dress, but the shoes don’t go with it at ALL.

SANDRA BULLOCK in Las Vegas
top and pants by Roland Mouret, shoes by Rupert Sanderson

Photo: Lionel Hahn/AbacaUSA.com

Awkward and ill-fitting.

SARAH JESSICA PARKER in New York City
blazer by Yeojin Bae, gown by Vicky Tiel, purse and jewelry by Tiffany & Co., shoes by Manolo Blahnik

Photo: Gregory Pace/BEImages

Wear a bra.

SALMA HAYEK in Cancun
dress by Gucci, shoes by Sergio Rossi

Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty

She only pulls this off because she’s Salma Hayek. Anyone else would look like they had a seizure in a fabric store.

SALMA HAYEK in Las Vegas
suit by Gucci

Photo: Ryan Miller/Getty

This just in: Gumby-chic is not a thing, and will never be a thing. So please, starlets and mere mortals alike: DON’T WEAR ANYTHING LIKE THIS. EVER.

—
© Democracy Diva, 2013.
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Release Date:

Imagine you were a cheerleader during school. Where would you envision your future would take you once you were finished? Surely not cleaning as a profession? This is what happens to Rose Lorkowski (played by Amy Adams).

We meet Rose while she is cleaning someone’s house. She is single mother to a boy named Oscar. He has trouble being able to behave at school, and often disrupts the class – and the most recent is enough to have Rose’s presence requested by the principal.

Rose is seeing her high school boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn), who unfortunately is married. He’s a detective and suggests Rose get herself into cleaning up crime scenes. Apparently it pays a good amount of money which Rose suddenly needs when she decides to remove Oscar from that school. She seeks out the help of her sister Norah, and asks her dad Joe (Alan Arkin) to babysit. Meanwhile, Rose aspires to break into the real estate industry.

Rose’s sister Norah (Emily Blunt) is not exactly a positive nor happy person. When we meet her, she quits her job at a diner. She’s a slacker by nature, but agrees to help her sister considering she doesn’t have many alternatives. They come together to form a business called “Sunshine Cleaning”.

Both Rose and Norah lost their mother when they were kids as she committed suicide in the bathroom while they were playing outside. She once appeared in a movie where she played a waitress and spoke 2 lines. The girls keep an eye out for this movie to appear on television because they can barely remember her.

While their father tries to make money by selling flavoured popcorn or fresh shrimp, they deal with crime scene after crime scene as well as their personal lives. Rose is trying to find a way to get her life on track as well as deal with her relationship with Mac, while Norah is trying to find the best way to tell a stranger (that she’s befriended) that the strangers estranged mother has died.

As Rose is about to attend a baby shower, a job offer comes in that could make or break their business. She convinces Norah to the job and start without her. So what happens to them when Norah has a major accident that could ruin everything?

Special Features include:

• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer
• Madman Propaganda

Sunshine Cleaning is a sweet, funny and edgy film based on what can happen if you are trying to make ends meet and feel like you’re not getting anywhere, making some bad choices along the way.

While there is a fair bit of swearing in this film you’ll most likely enjoy it – especially if you enjoyed “Little Miss Sunshine” as the film is from the same producers. It’s probably good to rent for a movie night with your pals, or on your own if you’re feeling a bit gloomy. The film serves as a reminder to keep soaring through the dark clouds – you will soon find your next ray of sunshine.

Review product was provided by Madman Entertainment, and does not affect the outcome of this review.

Colin Firth and Emily Blunt in Arthur Newman.

Two lost souls on the highway of life—that’s what a well-acted but benign little trifle called Arthur Newman is about. Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) is a meek, unhappy man who decides to fake his own death, leaving his wallet and passport behind on a Florida beach, and starts over again with a new identity as a golf pro named Arthur Newman. Before he can erase the past and escape his old self, he crosses paths with a Goth vagrant named “Mike” (Emily Blunt), who is lolling around a motel pool in a daze, having just stolen an automobile and overdosed on cough syrup. For reasons that do not entirely convince, they hit the road together. It’s 35 minutes into the film before she gets around to asking “Who are you?”—a question everyone else has been wondering since the opening credits. It takes the entire film to find out.

Wallace was a sad sack wasting away in a dull management job at American Express who left behind a spiteful ex-wife, a young son who won’t even speak to him and a new girlfriend (Anne Heche as another defeated character) who is already tiring of his restless anomie and sullen indifference. As Arthur Newman, he’s on his way to a new job as a golf instructor at a swank country club in Terre Haute, Indiana. Similarly dysfunctional, Mike has her own secrets, namely a mother and a twin sister who both suffer from schizophrenia. Showing signs of becoming a chip off the old block, she evades emotional needs with sarcasm, is terrified of relationships and incidentally has no place else to go. Despite their age difference, she tags along for the ride.

On their cross-country journey, Arthur/Wallace and Mike, trying to ward off death by loneliness, break into empty houses, helping themselves to the clothes, food and beds of total strangers. It’s an outrageous game of role playing and a pathetic stab at lovemaking within the safety of other people’s identities, the danger of getting caught only heightening the adventure. How long can they keep it up? First-time director Dante Ariola shows an admirable aptitude for observing the small, sweet quirky things people do and say, and the script by Becky Johnston (The Prince of Tides) provides quiet, reflective moments of dialogue. The film is sometimes touching but more often episodic, an odyssey that becomes part road movie and part metaphor for American ennui. Unfortunately, each episode grows more disheartening, and neither character is developed enough to sustain audience interest for 101 minutes of playing time. The movie goes nowhere.

Since winning the Academy Award for The King’s Speech, Colin Firth’s film career has hit a few speed bumps. A farce called Gambit (a remake of an old Shirley MacLaine-Michael Caine turkey) has been on the shelf for more than a year, and Main Street, filmed three years ago in Durham, N.C., has never been released at all. Arthur Newman won’t do much to buck this trend, but Firth is always charming, polished and agreeable to watch. With heart and soul, he and Emily Blunt bounce off each other in a pair of beautifully modulated performances that personify understatement (and in perfect American accents). But the resolution for both characters, in a finale that turns disappointingly conventional, is so sad that it left me depressed beyond hope. Their road trip becomes a tiresome journey of self-discovery that is more about self-avoidance, negating the fun along the way.

rreed@observer.com

ARTHUR NEWMAN

Written by Becky Johnston

Directed by Dante Ariola

Starring Emily Blunt, Colin Firth and Anne Heche

Running time: 96 mins.

2/4 Stars

“Pain & Gain” (2013)

Source: Paramount

Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) works as a personal trainer. He’s a fairly happy guy, but he wants the good life and he wants it now. So Daniel comes up with a sure fire plan to make all his dreams come true; just kidnap Victor (Tony Shalhoub), a wealthy client of his, and extort money from him. He enlists two of his bodybuilding friends (Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie) to help. So, what could go wrong? Uh, just about everything. Pain & Gain Website

What to Watch For: This is the first film Michael Bay has directed after doing the “Transformers” trilogy.

Word on the Street: Fans of Bay’s work are hoping this is a return to his fun action films like “The Rock” (1996) and “Bad Boys” (1995).

My Take: Rebel Wilson alone, makes this film worth the price of admission. I am sure, that once again she will steal every scene.

“The Big Wedding” (2013)

Source: Lionsgate

Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) have been divorced for quite some time. Their adopted son, Alejandro (Ben Barnes), is getting married and his biological mother, Madonna (Patricia Rae), a strict Catholic from Colombia, is coming to the wedding. So to keep things on a happy note, Don and Ellie agree to act married around Alejandro’s mother. It’s about the only thing Don and Ellie will agree on that weekend. The Big Wedding Website

What to Watch For: The writer/director of the film, Justin Zackham, wrote the much loved film, “The Bucket List” (2007).

Word on the Street: The film is being compared to the 1996’s “The Birdcage,” which also starred Robin Williams.

My Take: Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Robin Williams in a comedy? I’m in!

“Mud” (2013)

Source: Lionsgate

Two teenage boys (Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland) encounter a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey) who persuades them to help him evade bounty hunters so he can get back his one true love (Reese Witherspoon). Mud Website

What to Watch For: Matthew McConaughey has been on quite a winning streak lately both at the box office and with the critics with roles in films including “Magic Mike” (2012) and “Bernie” (2011).

Word on the Street: Tye Sheridan could be the breakout performer from this film. His first film was 2011’s big Indie hit, “The Tree of Life” (2011).

My Take: This is one of my favorite films from the 2013 Atlanta Film Festival.

“The Company You Keep” (2012)

Decades ago a radical student terrorist group named, “The Weather Underground,” set off bombs and robbed banks to try and force the American government to end the war in Vietnam. Some of the terrorists were caught, but others are still on the run. Now, a newspaper reporter (Shia LaBeouf) begins digging up the story after one of “The Weather Underground” members is caught. By the time the reporter is finished, a number of lives will have changed.

What to Watch For: The film stars and is directed by Robert Redford. The Academy Award winning director (“Ordinary People”) always gets a star-studded cast, and this film is no different; Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie, Anna Kendrick, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott round out the cast.

Word on the Street: The film was well received at last year’s Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

My Take: The screenwriter is Lem Dobbs who wrote one of my favorite films of last year, “Haywire” (2012).

“Arthur Newman” (2013)

Source: Cinedigm

Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) is not happy with his life. He’s lost a job he didn’t like, his ex-wife hates him, his son doesn’t want to do anything with him and his girlfriend (Anne Heche) isn’t crazy about him either. So, Wallace decides to go on a road trip to reinvent himself and start a new life as Arthur Newman. While on the road he meets Mike (Emily Blunt), who also wants to reinvent her life. It’s a trip that’s going to be a bumpy ride. Arthur Newman Website

What to Watch For: Academy Award winning actor (“The King’s Speech”), Firth, has done numerous successful romantic comedies before, like “Love Actually” (2003) and “Mama Mia!” (2008).

Word on the Street: While this is director Dante Ariola’s first feature-film, he has directed some of the most talked about television commercials in the past few years.

My Take: Emily Blunt is becoming one of my favorite actresses, with “Looper” (2012), “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” (2011) and “The Adjustment Bureau” (2011) to her credits.

If you can’t go to the theatre this weekend, stay at home and watch movies on CW69.

Saturday
1:00 pm

“Zapped” (1982) Barney (Scott Baio) is a high school student who likes science and Peyton (Willie Aames) is his rich, but loveable friend. After a science project goes awry, Barney discovers he has developed telekinetic powers. Wonder what kind of trouble a teen can get into when he can move things with his mind.

3:00 pm

“The Nutty Professor” (1996) Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is a professor who is on the brink of a breakthrough in DNA research. When Professor Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett Smith) starts teaching at the college, Sherman becomes obsessed with creating a formula to change himself from a fat, shy man to a man whom any woman would love. But, while dreams do sometimes come true, they can have consequences

Sunday
3:00 pm

“The Banger Sisters” (2002) Suzette (Goldie Hawn) has been living the life of a rock-and-roll groupie for the past 20 years. When she loses her job at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, she decides to go on a road trip and visit Vinnie (Susan Sarandon), a woman who went on many a rock-and-roll adventure with Suzette. But there is a kink – Vinnie is now a respected housewife and mother. Can the former friends find common ground after so many years apart?

What better way to start out the day than with the must-click talking points from around the web, curated by us. Have a story you’d like to nominate? We’ll be posting our top stories each morning, so tweet us at @BeautyHigh #BHbuzz

1. Emily Blunt has already stunned us on her latest “InStyle” cover, now go behind-the-scenes of her magazine shoot to learn fun facts about the star. [InStyle]

2. The always popular BB Cream is now available as a drink ... [Style]

3. Find the best scent to match whatever mood you’re in. [Birchbox]

4. Are you in that awkward growing out your bangs phase? Here are 8 hairstyle ideas to get you through. [Huffington Post]

5. Make a lazy hair day cute and chic with these tips. [Daily Makeover]

I am not a fan of shorts on the red carpet but Jen gets a free pass since we see her too infrequently.  The jacket/tuxedo top is a little odd and too wide at the hips but I’m really liking her hair and makeup.

I get where Kerry was going with this but it just didn’t pan out.  Instead of a fashion-forward look, we get a mini that got tangled up with a parachute.

Finally embracing her bump, Kim puts it out there in a classic dress with massive sleeves that add both a distraction and drama to an otherwise (for her) basic look.

Emily’s look is deceptively interesting – without the top peekabo, this could be a black column with a belt.  Some color or more sparkle would have livened this up.

Yet Kate’s look is an example of when basic is all you need.  The cuff and heels are all the drama this gown needs – although there’s a reverse French manicure situation for the fun of it.

Yes to pants on the red carpet but please have them fit right.  Sandy’s top is interesting but I’m totally distracted by her baggy pants that could use a good 6 inches lopped off.

How bizarre that Gwynnie’s look dovetails with Sandy’s.  I’m actually liking this simple dress that plays on both color and shape, with a menswear element thrown in.  Sexy strappies too.

It’s like seeing  a ghost in a torn tuxedo.  I’m usually such a fan of Carey’s choices but this is just wrong.  She looks too pale and overshadowed by this ensemble.

Loving the sexy flamenco drama of Kelly’s look, head to toe.  The gown is simply en fuego and is the perfect mix of couture and sass.

Loving Rosario’s day version of the same idea, with a nude underlay to keep things street legal.  Pretty, dainty but not dowdy.

Not sure about the smirk but liking everything else, from her bangtastic headband to the edginess of her mini, with its mix of fabrics and textures.

But I think J-Law’s look is my favorite.  From the mellow layers of her new cut to the perfect shape of the dress, it’s an almost lowkey looks that stands out for looking timeless.

You’ve already read her adorable quotes about husband John Krasinski, but now you’ve got to see the star go full diva in her cover shoot for May’s InStyle magazine.

Visit InStyle’s site to see the stunning behind the scenes video of Blunt posing in gorgeous designer gowns. It’s hard to believe that she showed up to the set in wet hair and sneakers — just one of four fun facts they share about the shoot in the video.

Then after you drool over all her gorgeous clothes in the video, check out Blunt’s best looks ever. You may get some weekend outfit inspiration!

Tell us: What do you think of Blunt’s cover shoot?

–Alex Apatoff

My Summer of Love - Pawel Pawlikowski

United Kingdom 2004

Set in the countryside of Yorkshire, My Summer of Love is a tale of friendship, desire and growing up. Teenage girl Mona, real name Lisa, lives in a pub with her brother Phil who has recently become a born again Christian and converted the pub into a centre for prayer meetings. Mona finds her escape in the form of Tamsin, a high class girl who is staying with her parents in their mansion whilst she’s not at boarding school. The two girls develop a friendship which becomes very intense, very quickly. Their inner most secrets are revealed to each other with Mona explaining how her mother passed away and Tamsin speaking of Sadie, her sister, who died of anorexia. Tamsin attempts to fill Mona with the intellectual teachings she has learnt through her education, largely the belief of there being no God. Mona begins to argue with her brother about his growing obsession with his new found faith and consequentially her friendship with Tamsin grows stronger and turns into something more. The two girls begin to dream of running away and living a life together forever.

Phil plans to erect a cross on the top of a hill overlooking the town to banish all the evils within it. Things begin to change soon after this as Tamsin begins to become interested in Phil’s actions and when he makes a visit to her house to speak to Mona she attempts to seduce him. When she pushes him away and tells him he is too easy, Phil becomes violent. He locks Mona in her bedroom and she makes an attempt to hang herself, all be it a fake attempt. As Phil rids his prayer group from his house Mona packs her things and runs away to Tamsin’s house. On her arrival all her previous illusions are shattered. Tamsin is nothing like she said she was. Her sister Sadie hasn’t really died and after promising she wound never leave Mona, Tamsin is going back to boarding school. The pair return to the spot in the woods where they first kissed and kiss once more. Everything seems to be leading towards a happy ending, until a drastic turn of events occurs. Mona forces Tamsin’s head under the water, but doesn’t follow through with her intentions. Mona says nothing and walks away with a look of content on her face leaving Tamsin in confusion at her actions.

My Summer of Love is a film that very much takes place in the here & now. No time is wasted in explaining the back story of any of the characters in the film, but rather just concentrates on the situation they are in at this current point of time and only things extremely relevant to moving the plot forward are explained. Though an advantage as no time is wasted, for viewers who are used to Hollywood blockbusters, the lack of spacial and temporal information may cause confusion.

The film is very intense in both plot and cinematography. Pawlikowski’s use of long tracking shots and lack of frequent edits force audiences to focus upon what is taking place of the screen, even if it is nothing after all characters have left shot. These long tracking shots, which often focus upon open spaces are compared drastically with tight close ups of characters. While the long shots put focus upon action, tight close ups place high emphasis upon the emotions of the characters and the intensity of what they are feeling. This use of tight close ups to present intensity of emotion is used extremely well during a scene with Mona and Tamsin where the pair tell each other they will kill the other if they were to leave them. The scene is shot in extreme close up where all the audience is able to see is the outline of the two faces and the fire flickering away in the background. The scene is made even more intense by the use of lighting, or rather lack of it. The fire behind the two girls enables audiences to see the outline of their faces however any further details are not visible due to there being no other light. This only heightens the intensity as audiences are then forced to listen to the words being exchanged between them and are not distracted by their facial expressions. There is an element of curiosity for the audience as well as they wonder what is hidden by the darkness.

There is also a slight eroticism present within the film, though not through the use of nudity, of which there is a very limited amount. Eroticism is conveyed mainly through eye contact and through an emphasis upon looking. It is not surprising that this voyeuristic element is of such importance within My Summer of Love in creating such intensity and eroticism given Pawlikowski’s background in documentary. Here of course there is less emphasis upon the audience looking but upon the idea of two people looking at each other and feeling such strong emotions.

Like all good romance stories, Mona and Tamsin are two very different people, fulfilling the ‘opposites attract’ cliché, and the differences between their two worlds are conveyed cleverly. In one of the first scenes of the film we see the girls side by side on a country lane. With the use of a wide long shot we see that Mona is slumped over, pushing along her broken motorcycle and Tamsin is sat upright, riding a horse. The two images side by side are very clearly different and it is obvious to audiences in this very early scene that these two people are complete opposites. These differences even spiral down to the costume choices. Mona is at first seen in cropped tops and trousers whilst Tamsin wears long flowing dresses. By showing the two girls in such contrasting outfits, Tamsin is presented as the one who is of a higher class and almost slightly glamorous where as Mona, in her cropped tops, almost looks unable to afford clothing that fits her properly and is presented as a lower class than Tamsin. As the pair begin to grow closer elements from their lives begin to intertwine. Mona is seen wearing one of Tamsin’s sisters dresses and Tamsin is seen in a similar outfit to Mona, consisting of a cropped top and jacket tied around her waist – a world away from her long flowing red dress we see her in earlier on in the film. Tamsin then reverts back to her early style of dress at the end of the film. This circle shows the progression and then demise of the girls relationship with each other and is very subtlety and cleverly done.

Generally most summer romance films are full of idealistic romantic clichés with a happy ending. My Summer of Love could not be further from that. The film has a gritty realism to it, such as that in films by Ken Loach and Shane Meadows. Pawel Pawlikowski is not shy of making a political statement within the film about the class system within the UK, as is often the case with many Loach and Meadow’s films. When Mona realises that she and Tamsin cannot be together emotionally audiences see that she is growing up and realising the difficulties of adolescent life however realistically the two girls are of different classes and worlds. Tamsin can just leave everything behind her and run away back to boarding school where as Mona is left in the town, trapped by her life there. She is unable to escape due to the financial circumstance she seems to find herself in. The relationship itself is presented in ultimately a very un-romanticised way and feels much more real that the relationships presented in big blockbusters. The girls summer love is nothing more than a bit of fun for Tamsin, who appears to just be saying all the right things at all the right times to Mona who has a innocence and vulnerability to her, in terms of the world of love. The reality of a young summer fling ending and not being something that is forever is portrayed very well.

The ending is somewhat unsatisfying. No conclusion is drawn between Mona and her brother or Mona and Tamsin, though what you would say after an attempted drowning is a question in itself. However as at the beginning there was no back story and instead of focus upon here and now, the lack of conclusions does make sense as the two characters lives will continue, just not together. Therefore the film ends when their relationship ends. There here and now is over.

Ultimately over the course of the film Mona has grown up. Through lost love and heartbreak she has become stronger and able to stand up to those who hurt her, all be it in an extreme manner. My Summer of Love is a realistic film about the heartbreak of teenage romance, adolescence infatuation and coming of age.

Emily Blunt poses together with costar Colin Firth at the premiere of their new film Arthur Newman held at the ArcLight Hollywood on Thursday, April 18 in Hollywood.

Blunt was joined by her husband John Krasinski.

Arthur Newman hits theaters on April 26.