Through a series of tweaks to my column, I've lost a few long-ish entries that I was holding on to and planning to post today. The blessing and the curse is this: I'm now forced to quickly recompose them in much leaner versions. I'm back for real this time folks. AT&T DSL, overtime at work, and not getting enough sleep are roadblocks no longer.

My pronounced absence has been the result of a chaotic (in the frustrating way) and life-changing (in the resoundingly positive way) relocation from the pit of North Florida to the great wide open of Central Texas. I'm now finally settling in to the laid-back, cool-as-can-be Austin vibe, and I like it a lot. I've got all I need here, the love of my life, a great job with a great company, and every cinema I could ever want to have within driving distance. I'll be back in the saddle again this week, so expect my multiple postings a week to resume shortly. The only tease I have is this: guess what movie about Edie Sedgwick is getting an improved Director's Cut when it hits DVD in July?

Frank Langella has won the role of Nixon in Ron Howard's upcoming film of Frost/Nixon. Michael Sheen, of this week's DVD-released The Queen will also reprise his role from the stage.

Ferrell's at his best when collaborating with Adam McKay, and this brilliant short video is a great example of why that's true.

Sour Jackie Chan's tempestuous rhombus! My lung is sparkling like a tower! This line and many more come from this Will Ferrell Movie Generator.

Nikki Finke reports that Harvey Weinstein is planning on re-releasing the Grindhouse features separately in the US in a few weeks, cut longer as they will be in Europe. This means you have a limited time to see the original configuration as a double feature.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. offers his father's words from 40 years ago in an entry today on the Huffington Post. What does this have to do with film? Nothing, really.

The list of candidates to replace the retiring Bob Barker includes top picks Mark Steines (Entertainment Tonight), George Hamilton, and Mario Lopez. Reuters also lists Todd Newton, Mike Richards (Beauty & the Geek), and John O'Hurley as other guys up for it. Personally, I'd back John O'Hurley. He's got personality, class, and presence. How is he not in the "top three" (no offense to the other guys)? I watched the show with my grandfather Deyoe (my mom's side of the family, raised a family on a farm in Kansas). He watched it every day without fail, as older dudes do. One day when I was four, he had a quiet heart attack toward the end of the day's episode, sitting right next to me. I've never really been able to watch a show of The Price is Right all the way through since. I didn't really know what was going on at the time, but I get this feeling of dread right toward the end. I enjoy watching pieces of it at a time, usually when I'm home visiting my younger brother, who fixates on game shows of any sort. Every time it rolls around to the Showcase Showdown, I have to pop over to another channel. Funny thing is, people will actually poke fun at this when I share it with them. Usually, people think I'm joking or outright lying about it having happened, or they defer to humor because it makes them uncomfortable. I find the people who ask "really?" in a particular tone after I tell them tend to be better friends. Boy this got serious and pensive and QUICK. I need to go find a funny wire story to comment on....

Below is an interview with Mike Binder earlier this week about Reign Over Me and what he's looking to take a crack at next. There's some interesting info in there about the fate and future of The Search for John Gissing and a bookend/companion to The Upside of Anger. MC: Where did the idea come from? Mike Binder: I just wanted to do a piece about the people that still wander the streets after these major tragedies of our time after the 24-hour news spotlight goes on to the next one. They go over to Katrina and the Tsunami and leaves Oklahoma City behind. I remember when 9/11 hit feeling really bad for the people of Oklahoma City because everyone was so... just blanketing all that affection on the survivors and victims' families of 9/11. It was almost like, y'know, well I thought okay, maybe these Oklahoma City people, they're done, they're over, you know? Their time is up in terms of getting help, getting assistance and sympathy. So I thought...I was just thinking about that type of people...the families. You know, it's such a horrible thing to have in your life. MC: Contrary to the way some of the publicity stuff came across, to me it's not a movie that is all about 9/11. Of course, that's the inciting incident to the story, but it's principally about grief and these two guys reconnecting and bonding. The thing I like most about is that at it's core it's about moving on and getting past the grief. Binder: You know, I never saw it as a "9/11 movie". I saw it more as a movie about communication and I just...you know, you can't control how these things come out and what the publicity looks like. You can stick your two cents in there as much as possible but, boy I tell ya, you gotta leave that stuff up the the gods. MC: There's a game that recurs as a theme in a constructive way that I'm not used to seeing in a lot of movies, Shadow of the Colossus. Binder: Isn't it a great game? MC: For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a game where you play as this guy who has to climb these gigantic bad guys and knock them down. Where did that game come into the process? Binder: I wrote a game into the movie. I was just gonna make up a game and then Jeremy Roush, one of our editors, turned me on to Shadow of the Colossus, and I showed it to Sandler, who said "man, this such a good game for this". MC: Some of the footage you got of those guys (Cheadle & Sandler) playing looked like it was just these two guys playing a game and messing around. Something more real than you get in a lot of what comes out these days. Binder: They were. They played off each other really well when I just let them go like that. MC: Something I've tried to convince friends of is that this isn't what they want to call an "Adam Sandler Movie" just because he's in it. At least some of the critical notice Adam's gotten on this, I wish he'd read. He said in the Q&A at SXSW that he doesn't read any of it. Binder: None of it. MC: I understand where he's coming from, but... Binder: I think it's horrible to read any of that stuff, especially for an actor. I mean I hardly read any of it. I like the sites, you know, I like Hollywood Elsewhere, and I like Cinematical, and...uh, Movie City News, and I like Harry Knowles' site, so I can't help but read those because...that's just what I read! But y'know, you can't read the other stuff man. First of all, there's too many opinions...especially about my movies. My movies are the kind that one guy loves, and another guy hates. Which, y'know, I'm kinda proud of. They're not really for everybody...but Sandler is a guy...either you like the smell of Sandler or you don't. There's no inbetween. You know, people hate some of the shit he's done over the years and they love debating him. For him, reading up on the news and how people react to him would be a mistake, because he's stayed an original. You hang out with him, and his comedy is just so natural. MC: That's the thing, I don't think the dramatic strength he's shown here and in Punch Drunk Love didn't show up out of nowhere. It's been there all along, he just hasn't had many opportunities to show it off. I think he's surprised a lot of people with what he can do. Speaking of, did you catch him hosting Letterman? Binder: Yeah, I was there! I was with him, we were all flying around the country together. MC: Cheadle name-checked Stubbs BBQ in Austin. Binder: They tried to go back into this routine they did...we all went to dinner at Stubbs the night I met you (at SXSW) and they were trying to get into this riff that they do a lot, they put these riffs together that are really funny. They couldn't get wind with it on Letterman, y'know what I mean? It was one of those "it was funny if you were there" at Stubbs that night, but they couldn't get the picture in their minds across to the audience. It ended up being a good hit for Stubbs, but it wasn't a great piece of comedy. MC: It was a noble attempt that bombed, but hey, they sang Endless Love, and that saved everything. Binder: That was great, wasn't it? MC: I thought it was hilarious. Binder: It's all over YouTube. MC: What kind of stuff are you looking at putting on the DVD for Reign Over Me? Binder: Oh, the guys did a great improvised song when they did the jam session scene, so we'll put that in there, but I'm not gonna put any deleted scenes in, I'm not gonna do a lot. I don't like doing it anymore, I think it gets in the way of the movie. MC: What's happening with The Search for John Gissing? I've heard stuff about a DVD for that... Binder: I'm gonna release it myself on DVD, right on my website, here in about a month or so. MC: It was another SXSW movie. Binder: Did you see it there? MC: No, I didn't start going until a year or two later, but everyone I know who saw it liked it a lot. Binder: I'll send you one, we're making a bunch of copies. We're shipping them right out of here, just do-it-ourselves. I made the movie and I liked how it came out. It did really well at festivals, but the only distribution I could get was like "well, we'll put in three theatres and then we'll own it forever". I mean, I had a lot of my own money in it. I raised the money independently, and I was almost gonna just go do a couple weeks of reshooting, but then I started doing Mind of the Married Man. I got it all together and did another season of Married Man, and then I left to go do Upside of Anger and I finally just said, you know what? I'm never gonna get those reshoots done, it's sitting on the shelf, so I rewrote it where I woulda done the reshoots, and I called it The Multinationals, and I actually fixed it. I think there's a great premise for a really great international comedy in there, and I'm gonna remake the whole thing completely, with new actors. MC: Is that what you're doing next? Binder: No, I don't think I'm gonna do it next. I think the next thing I'm gonna do is this movie I wrote called The Emperor of Michigan. MC: What's that about? Binder: Well, it's kinda like a bookend companion piece to The Upside of Anger. It's a father and four grown sons, and the father is kind of a lost soul guy and he's been traveling around the world with this young woman...the mother died years ago, and the father just kind of lands back in these four sons' laps. I really like it a lot. I'm gonna shoot it in Michigan...Birmingham, Michigan, where I'm from, and I wrote it for Owen Wilson, but he jumped ship on me. MC: Got anybody lined up for it? Binder: Not yet. The father's more like Pacino's age, someone like that. MC: So hopefully Emperor of Michigan or the John Gissing rework next? Binder:I'd like to do [Emperor] next, but I just finished Reign Over Me basically, and I've been sick as hell, so I don't know. That's what I would like to do next. I want to do some writing, make some money, 'cause you know the way I do these movies, I do them pretty cheap. The Multinationals probably after Emperor of Michigan. I'm gonna put out the Gissing DVD and then I'm gonna put out a book I'm working on called Crafting the Comedy. It's actually a series of four books, the first one I've got finished. It's interviews with screenwriters, just conversations. It's Woody Allen, Judd Apatow, it's got just about everybody that's done any comedy. MC: You looking to do any more acting? Binder: No, I'm not gonna do that anymore. It drives me crazy. You just sit around for all these days on end, and especially after being a director. As a director, you're right in the middle of a storm and your days go by so fast, and then you get on someone else's set when you're acting, and you look at your watch and it's goin' backwards. It's hell. MC: Hey, I know you've got a meeting, I don't want to take up too much more of your time. Binder: Listen, thanks for the interview. MC: Thank you Mike.

Perez Hilton posted the first photos of Depp in costume as Sweeney Todd here.

Disney may just finally be taking Song of the South out of the vault, where it has been locked away for a good long while.

Due to unforeseen tech issues, this is late and should have been up Friday, but here it is: a 20-ish minute interview with TMNT director and reigning box office champ Kevin Munroe. It's about 4mb. Enjoy.

Some nuggets from an interview coming later tonight with TMNT director Kevin Munroe: When asked about using CGI instead of live action, Munroe is confident the movie as it is couldn't have been done with the hyperkinetic speed and impossible camera angles without it. Interestingly, he also revealed that they re-created scenes from the first movie with the CGI models and in their opinion, it worked and moved better. He later added "there's also only so much emotion and expression you can get out of rubber suits controlled by servos, even though I love what the Jim Henson people did in the previous movies". As for the inclusion of those test scenes on the DVD, they're looking in to it, but there may be rights issues involved that'd prevent it from happening. As for moving forward with a sequel, Munroe is contracted for a sequel script with an option to direct, but all that has been discussed so far are hypothetical storylines, wanting to give more time to Donatello & Michaelangelo since the other two turtle brothers got most of the spotlight this time around. Munroe is also interested in potentially bringing back the Shredder as a villain. Has also indicates a desire to dig back into the original comic series for the theoretical (though I'd call it almost certain) sequel. He's looking to the widely-reported feature adaptation of Gatchaman next, but when asked what his dream project would be moving forward, he named two: an original comic creation of his own, Olympus Heights (Zeus comes to a small town in Indiana to subdue bad guys that keep popping up) and the DC Comics epic Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come, done in CG with Alex Ross-inspired designs, would leapfrog the problems of using franchise-attached characters like Superman and Batman, and wouldn't threaten the developing Wonder Woman property...which brings to my mind a similar route: how Marvel released their animated Ultimate Avengers movies and are separately developing live action standalone movies for Avengers characters like Iron Man. After seeing the movie and talking with him, if anyone is going to be out there making CGI movies, Kevin Munroe treats adapted properties the right way. We should trust guys like him exponentially more than the mass-market, unfunny, condescending glut that's been CGI movies for the last few years. Supporting TMNT is good for CGI movies, supporting the other crap means letting the bad guys win.

Some juicy tidbits from an interview with TMNT director Kevin Munroe: Munroe met with Turtles co-creator Peter Laird with his Issue #1 of the original comic series in hand, and Laird's involvement continued from there and remained a major presence throughout production. As far as he was concerned, if Laird was happy with what they'd done, Munroe felt confident that they'd done right by the longtime fans, which was one of the two biggest influences on sculpting the film in general terms: make it something that is appropriate for the younger audiences and maintains who the Turtles are to tons of fans who've been with them for 20 years. When asked about live action versus CGI, Munroe is confident the movie as it is couldn't have been done with the hyperkinetic speed and impossible camera angles you see in the film. Interestingly, he also revealed that they "re-created scenes from the first movie with the CGI models and in their opinion, it worked and moved better". He later added "there's also only so much expression you can get out of rubber suits controlled by servos, even though I love what the Jim Henson people did in the previous movies". As for the inclusion of those test scenes on the DVD, they're looking in to it, but there may be rights issues involved that'd prevent it from happening. TMNT was the last film Mako worked on, and according to Munroe, he was gracious and an absolute pleasure to be around. His first meeting with the legendary Japanese actor was actually in a restroom, while Munroe was washing his hands and Mako came through the door beaming "Kevin, so nice to meet you!" Kevin found out much later that Mako had been quite ill while working 8 hour days in the studio, without indicating to anyone that anything was wrong. It was a blow to lose him before finalizing the film, but in the end, they used only his takes from his first session rather than use a voice double. According to Kevin: "he gave that perfect father figure presence to the movie, and we didn't need alternate takes". As for moving forward with a sequel, Munroe is contracted for a sequel script with an option to direct, but all that has been discussed so far are hypothetical storylines, wanting to give more time to Donatello & Michaelangelo since the other two turtle brothers got most of the spotlight this time around. Munroe is also interested in potentially bringing back the Shredder as a villain. Has also indicates a desire to dig back into the original comic series for the theoretical (though I'd call it almost certain) sequel. He's looking to the widely-reported feature adaptation of Gatchaman next, but when asked what his dream project would be, he named two: an original comic creation of his own, Olympus Heights (Zeus comes to a small town in Indiana to subdue bad guys that keep popping up) and the DC Comics epic Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come, done in CG, would leapfrog the problems of using franchise attached characters like Superman and Batman, and wouldn't threaten the developing Wonder Woman property...which brings to my mind a similar route: how Marvel released their animated Ultimate Avengers movies and are separately developing live action standalone movies for Avengers characters like Iron Man. After seeing the movie and talking with him, if anyone is going to be out there making CGI movies, Kevin Munroe treats adapted properties the right way. I trust him exponentially more than the mass-market, unfunny, condescending glut that's been out the for a few years. Supporting TMNT is good for CGI movies, supporting the other crap means letting the terrorists win.

I'm from a generation that grew up on Super Mario and Sonic, and I usually chuckle and dismiss cinematic use of videogames as misleading or flat-out offensive to even the average person who's more familiar with Tetris than anything like Halo or God of War. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a "hardcore" gamer, in fact I barely play them at all anymore. There's more to videogames than bang-bang-kaboom gameplay and CGI boobs, contrary to what lots of critics and people on the street would lead you to believe. Three movies I saw during SXSW this year made not just respectful, but organic use of videogames in their narratives, Reign Over Me, Eagle vs. Shark (review forthcoming), and TMNT (in a roundabout way), and I can't tell you how distracting it would have been if they'd gotten it wrong in execution. Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has written up a fantastic piece on the implementation of Sony's Shadow of the Colossus in Reign Over Me. Sandler's Charlie character plays and replays a game where one guy has to go from level to level climbing giant colossi and bring them down. Videogames and symbolism...go figure. The moment I spotted the game in the movie, I thought, "this is the most appropriate choice they could've made". Eagle vs. Shark uses a fictionalized game called Fight Man that strongly resembles the first Mortal Kombat and it works perfectly as a believable game. Again, more on that in the pending review. TMNT's "use" of videogames is more in its kinetic style. In one of the most effective meshings of the two, you get comic book pacing/storytelling/storyboarding mixed with camera angles and dynamics you could only do with the free-moving "in-game camera". Director Kevin Munroe's experience as a game programmer/designer with game production house of the gods Shiny Entertainment makes perfect sense after seeing the movie. Munroe apparently worked there during the heyday of Earthworm Jim and also was a part of designing a little-remembered personal favorite game of mine, Wild 9...but I digress. TMNT plays like the greatest game cutscene ever, and after reading this TV Guide article, now I know where this "unknown" guy came from: he's one of my favorite game designers moonlighting. Games and movies don't have to be a bad thing, folks.

A map from the new Alamo Ritz location to the Paramount in downtown Austin, TX for SXSW-goers like myself who didn't know off the top of their head where the Ritz is located.

Sad and happy news all at once today. It turns out that with this year's SXSW, I've seen my last movie at the original Alamo Drafthouse downtown in Austin because it's closing down. As detailed on the Drafthouse site's blog and on Ain't It Cool News today, come the end of June, the 10 year old Colorado Street Drafthouse is no more due to rising downtown rent costs among other things. Out of the ashes, however, the Downtown Drafthouse will be reborn at the historic Ritz Theater off of Sixth Street. I'll miss the old place, which I have extremely fond memories of, but am excited about where Tim & Karrie League are taking my favorite brand of cinemas. Head over to AICN for more.

I've seen plenty of ads all over TV (the not-you tube) for Shooter, TMNT, Grindhouse (mostly), and (for the love of god) The Hills Have Eyes 2 but nothing for Reign Over Me. Is the studio spending any money on advertising this flick? Most people I know don't even know Reign Over Me is out this weekend, for cryin' out loud. Believe it or not, there are people who've seen 300 and want to go see something that isn't animated, a thriller, filled with explosions, or horror. If you're reading this and have kids, go with them to see TMNT and then hire a babysitter and go see Reign Over Me. Please.

As I was trying to wrap things up in the capital city of the Greatest State (the only one to have ever been its own country) before heading out, I put together some thoughts on Kevin Munroe's TMNT (opening Friday, 3.23). I couldn't finish everything up in time before the long drive, but now that my internet access is restored, here's what I thought: TMNT is not your garden variety, kid-friendly CGI movie. It is PG, but there is none of the Over the Hedge/Open Season etc. "one for you, one for me" humor. This is not the cuddly kids movie you're used to, but it's definitely safe to bring the kids. The movie is family friendly as the TV advertisements say, and unlike its cohorts in the CGI trade, will earn the big huge box office it's tracking for this weekend. At its core, this is a graphic novel brought to motion that sees no need to go back and retell the origin story and acknowledges the continuity of the three live-action flicks and everything that came before: the death of arch-nemesis Shredder, the Ninja Rap (not directly referenced), and even TMNT 3 having occurred (in a minor bit, if you catch it). I admire Munroe deciding to go all or nothing with the backstory...we've seen how not doing that can backfire. TMNT also never wears out its welcome and gets the story told efficiently without dragging us down with subplots to pad out the runtime. The story isn't rushed to ensure a certain number of shows per day in the megaplex either. As for the story, the turtles have been on hiatus from crime-fighting and an ancient evil force rears its ugly head. That's about all you need. The Ghostbusters II-esque "where are they now" montage was a nice touch. There has already been some grousing from other sneak preview screenings about various things ranging from the charcter models not looking right to the fact that former Reporter Girl April is now something of a treasure hunter and has the voice of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Folks, this is a movie about mutated, humanoid turtles that talk like New Yorkers and fight like ninjas...get over it. Munroe has put together a story about family for the turtles, which, if you look back, has not been the primary focus of the series going from the various TV series and movies. The element of family was there, but it wasn't front and center like it is this time around. Past installments have featured gimmicky storylines tacked on as reasons to sequelize or give life support to something that has strayed from the original concept put forth by Peter Laird (who earned a producing credit thanks to heavy involvement) and Kevin Eastman. Munroe has done what a number of comic book fans put in the director's chair haven't managed: he's let the franchise be itself. He's brought the turtle franchise home, and it works. I'm glad he didn't take the Superman Returns formula and half-acknowledge prior continuity in an effort to resist moving forward. You usually see, as I mentioned above, either a tendency to stagnation or a push toward Actionfiguritis (a term I attribute to Joel Schumacher from SXSW 2003) with new villains, guns, and cars every go. Next up for Munroe is a feature adaptation of Gatchaman (Google it if you're oblivious), and I have all the trust in the world in him. So, why CGI and who is Imagi? For me, the CGI really and truly works better for this comic book property than putting men in suits again. When I was eight, rubber suited turtles looked cool, but there's only so much that'd let you do these days. Imaga is a relatively new CGI house that cut its teeth on Father of the Pride for NBC to get themselves out there, and now they've done this flick and are apparently at work on an adaptation of Astro Boy. Again, as with Munroe, I trust them. These guys not only love the source, but also know how to translate it. Now, are you going to like TMNT? That depends on who you are, and you'll know going in. If you're a huge fan (young or old) who loves the turtles hardcore, then certainly so. If you're a kid deep down, you bet. Is it something you'll enjoy taking your younger kids to? Yup. If you feel like you're being dragged to it and have no idea why anyone would want to spend six to ten bucks to see it, then maybe not. Then again, you'll definitely find yourself pleasantly surprised if you've been stuck watching every cookie-cutter animal movie from the last three or four years. I can only hope the (in my mind) definite sequel is left to the esteemed talent of Kevin Munroe and not fussed with based on which direction the suits want it to go. He knows what he's doing folks, just let him do it.

I'm skipping a full writeup of Cyborg in the interest of getting this out, as it looks like my day job is going to eat me alive, along with recovering from the drive to come. Best Documentary & Biggest Surprise Truth in Terms of Beauty My estimation of a doc's worth is half the craft put into it and half the rarity of what I'm absorbing, and lots of them score high on craft and it comes down to splitting hairs on "precious knowledge", but this one takes the cake. It also took me off guard as one I didn't see coming that I love fervently and will cherish my next (if ever) viewing of it. Best Woman-Centric Movie tie I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK Arranged There were a lot of great female performances, but these two movies examined really interesting subjects you rarely get to see (seeing a pattern) in mainstream, homophobic, dick and fart, generic Hollywood movies. Cyborg follows an innocent young woman lost in the cynical modern world, trapped inside her own insecurities. Most of my friends think I'm abnormal for not having seen any of Park Chan-wook's previous films. That's right, I never saw Oldboy or Lady Vengeance (I'll get to them). I think they're morons for not giving this one a chance even though they'll import some of the most generic, cheap, terrible tripe to come out of east Asia. Arranged, as I said in my review earlier this week, focuses on the good of tradition and religion and avoids the more common general demonization of how people live their lives in these cultures. A pair of promising young actresses whose careers will hopefully blossom anchor a simple, engaging story that doesn't drag you down. Best Film of the Week Reign Over Me The piece I wrote a couple days ago goes in depth enough, but I'm re-printing it here in selections so you don't have to scroll way down past all the Knocked Up stuff:

Charlie Fineman (Sandler) and Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) went to dental school together, and have been out of touch for years. The movie deals with Charlie's grief process following the loss of his wife and three daughters on September 11th, and how reuniting with Alan changes everything for both of them. Charlie drifts from place to place every day, meanwhile Alan's wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) manages and monitors his life so closely for him that he never has time to himself alone or to start a hobby. When he meets back up with Charlie, that all changes. Oddly enough, I found Alan's marriage suffers from a similar disconnect as the one portrayed in Knocked Up, but with a much less comedic overtone. The fact that the same root problem pop up in both films may just seem like a coincidence, but I think it's indicative of something that's becoming more and more obvious and prevalent: married couples are collecting all the components of a happy life and aren't able to assemble them to their satisfaction. Nothing fits as perfectly as they'd imagined or hoped. Terrific supporting performances from Liv Tyler as a therapist/colleague of Alan's, Saffron Burrows as an emotionally imbalanced patient, and the aforementioned Jada solidify the bond that the movie is built around, these two guys trying to get back to who they are deep down piece by piece, like they're putting together an old hot rod they used to tool around in years before to give it one more go, see a glimpse of who they were. Binder himself pops in as he has in all his previous films, doing solid work as always, not sticking out unless, like me, you know who he is and think "hey, it's Mike Binder" when he comes in. Momentary appearances from Donald Sutherland, Ted Raimi and John de Lancie are all memorable but unobtrusive, never really detracting from the narrative just because they have familiar faces. The never-seen-them discovery for me was Paula Newsome, playing Melanie, Alan's opinionated, self-assured receptionist. She can make you laugh without saying a damn word, and she does just that whenever she's on-screen and not firing off one of her lines with pitch-perfect delivery. So what's so great about the movie, huh? Well for starters, Binder doesn't knock us over the head with the origin of the trauma that Charlie (Sandler) has gone through. We have information withheld from us due to looking from the outside in at Charlie, and not because the director wants to act like we're stupid. A particular breakdown scene comes to mind, which I'm really glad they didn't cut. It came unexpectedly enough that I felt as surprised as Don Cheadle looked on-screen listening to him. The question Alan is faced with is: do we need to fix people, or should we just help them do the fixing themselves? As much as we may want to do the work for them because we love and treasure our loved ones, Binder's film makes a strong case for the latter. At a post-screening Q&A, a woman stood up and broadsided Mike and his two stars with the fact that she had recently lost her husband, and that the grief process in the film came of as completely authentic. "Everyone wants to just fix you, and make you go to therapy, or take pills, or..." she trailed off at one point. Awkward though it may have been, it hit precisely on what we saw on the screen. All of that and presumably more has been shoved on Sandler's Charlie Fineman, and none of it took for the longest time. What is it about Alan that means Charlie can open up? This has rambled and rolled, but I have to make some final major points or I'll hate this when I look at it in the morning. I've tried not to spoil anything, but still give an impression of what kind of movie you're looking at here. It's Binder's best film, from all the ones I've seen, and these are two of the best performances I've seen from either of these men, and that is saying something for both of them. What's that? Adam Sandler isn't an actor, he's a comedian? Don Cheadle's playing the straight man, right? That's no big task, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong.

All right, that's it. I've got a Mike Binder interview lined up soon, so watch for that too.