Untraceable

reviewed by Sam Osborn

Like a glorified episode of “Law & Order,” Untraceable works less like a movie and more like an hour of television. And it’s not Must-See TV. It’d be the sort of show you could doze off to late at night while your Tivo whirs calmly beside you. Director Gregory Hoblit’s previous picture, Fracture—the courtroom Ryan Gosling engine—fell into the same unremarkable stupor. Carrying a similarly beguiling premise, Untraceable queries the legions of modern technology to compile this new lackluster tale.

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We can remember 2007 as the year we grew weary of politics (Rendition, Lions for Lambs, Redacted, blah blah blah!), the year we remembered the Western (3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James, No Country For Old Men), the year we were disappointed by the sequel (ahm…the whole Summer), the year we were surprised by Apatow (Knocked Up, Superbad), and the year where young Indie culture left another footprint (Juno). Feel free to remember it fondly.

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Director: David Fincher

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chloe Sevigny

Screenplay: James Vanderbilt (based on the books by Robert Graysmith)

MPAA Classification: R (some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images)

Consider the complications involved in making Zodiac. Fact: the Zodiac killer was never caught. Fact: Robert Graysmith, the main character, survived to write the books the film is based upon and is still alive today. These two very relevant, very essential facts are widely known. So how does a filmmaker go about making a thriller where any suspense surrounding the hero is moot, and where the audience already knows the ending? These aren’t spoilers, they’re circumstances.  They force Zodiac into uncultivated territory, and it makes for the most beguiling mystery since…well, since the last time David Fincher made a film about serial killers (Se7en).

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We sat down with the cast of The Last Mimzy, Bob Shaye’s new film that’s being hailed as the new E.T. The group, five of them in all, included the two young stars of the film, newcomer Chris O’Neil (13 years-old) and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn (6), who walked in gripping the real Mimzy doll tightly to her chest. Oscar winner Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson of “Nip/Tuck” fame play the children’s parent, with Rainn Wilson (the unshakeable Dwight Schrute from “The Office”) in the role of Chris’ New Age teacher.

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Rarely do big studio executives step away from their desks and onto sets to direct a movie of their own. But for the first time in over fifteen years, Bob Shaye, co-chairman and founder of New Line Cinema, has directed his own picture. And it’s a film some people have hailed as the next E.T. We sat down with the Big Suit and spoke about his new film, The Last Mimzy, the fourteen years it took to get moving, the danger of online word-of-mouth, and Dwight Schrute’s bare, white ass.

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Director: Peter Berg

Screenplay: Matthew Michael Carnahan

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper

MPAA Classification: R

Politically conscious films are the flagship theme of this year’s award season, which has so slyly snuck up on us. The Kingdom is the first out of the gates, asking the question “What would happen if American civilians were killed by terrorists on Saudi Arabian soil?” And despite the flashy ad campaign that flouted the film as Three Kings the Sequel, The Kingdom does a respectable, intelligent, and often exceptional job at answering its own question. So instead of Three Kings 2, it’s more like Syriana with Guns.

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