Keeping Track (January 26, 2012)

by HELEN GEIB

Last Week at the Movies

As if a Powell and Pressburger movie on the big screen wasn’t special enough, the IMA screening of A Matter of Life and Death was followed by a Skype Q&A with Thelma Schoonmaker, who I knew as Martin Scorsese’s editor and who is also Michael Powell’s widow. The really bad reviews for Red Tails put me off it, but I did see the weekend’s other two new releases, Haywire and Underworld Awakening.

Last Week at Home

The Passion of Joan of Arc- Carl Dreyer’s masterpiece lives up to its reputation
Playing by Heart- a good movie to watch on DVD because you can skip past the stories you don’t like to get to the good parts
BluffMaster!- thought I’d try an Abhishek Bachchan vehicle, this one co-starred Priyanka Chopra and was pretty dull
The Pirates of Penzance- impossibly funny and tuneful

New in Theaters This Weekend

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the trailer for The Grey, the “Liam Neeson takes on wolves after his plane crashes somewhere really far north” movie. I’ve only seen the trailer for One for the Money once but it likewise didn’t sell me on the movie (based on a Janet Evanovich book and starring Katherine Heigl). My pick for the weekend is the heist thriller Man on a Ledge, which looks from the shows-too-much trailer to have a complicated plot involving a misdirection for a heist; the ledge is definitely literal and probably figurative too.

Also on the to-see list: Locally on the arthouse scene, A Dangerous Method and Shame open tomorrow

What have you been watching? What are you looking forward to?