Lost River, True Story, Alex of Venice, Dior and I, Monkey Kingdom

Lost River

True Story



Alex of Venice

Dior and I



Monkey Kingdom (my rating)

Monkey Kingdom (Scruffies' rating)








Quick capsules on the week in film:

Palo Alto

In Gia Coppola's debut feature "Palo Alto," Emma Roberts plays April, a hard-working and conscientious high school student who spends most Saturday nights babysitting for her soccer coach, Mr. B (James Franco, looking edible in his black tracksuit).

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Call it the Chodorow Inversion Principle: The more dialogue in a contemporary romantic comedy, the less amusing, clever and truthful it is. Example #4,291: the laugh-free zone “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” with writer-star Rashida Jones as the co-founder of a “trend forecasting” PR firm and Andy Samberg as the goldbrick artist she’s divorcing – but still goes out with every night and lets stay in her guest house. As they begin to date other people, they still talk to each other – nonstop – and the effect of all their cutesy-poo shtick on us is enervating.

Ruby Sparks

The objectification of women is not only the theme of the ludicrous and dreary romcom “Ruby Sparks” but its sustaining vision. Paul Dano, the most mannered and false young actor working in Hollywood, plays the vaguely antisocial author Calvin Weir-Field, whose first novel evoked comparisons to Salinger but who’s getting nowhere on his next. Until, that is, a wisp of a dream in which an apparition of a young woman beckons to him, and he can’t stop writing about her.