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Arts & Entertainment

From <em>Carnage</em> To <em>The Sitter</em>: Some Winter Movies To Look Forward To

By

Robert Horan

Published Nov 25, 2011

Modified Nov 25, 2011

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Starting things off is the film The Descendants, which is Alexander Payne's first film since the critically acclaimed Sideways in 2004 (not counting his first draft of the disaster known as I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry). The film stars George Clooney as Matt King, a descendant of Hawaiian royalty trying to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife goes into a coma, while also wrestling with the decision to sell the land he inherited. Payne adapted the screenplay from the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel of the same name, but considering his adaptation of About Schmidt, probably made it very much his own. Anyone familiar with Payne's movies knows his sick sense of uncomfortable humor, but he's strangely Oscar bait nontheless (not that he's not a great writer, he just seems a bit dark for the Academy). Reviews have been very good, we'll just have to see how it holds up to the competition.

 

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By

Robert Horan

Published Nov 25, 2011

Modified Nov 25, 2011

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Well folks, we're down to the home stretch. It's time to begin that anxiety and booze fueled consumerist haze that is the holiday season. This time of year is always an interesting one for film. Studios release, simultaneously, their best Oscar bait and their summer blockbuster rejects, known in the business as: winter rockbottombusters (the only real difference being their budget and a scene involving snow). This year we get a slew of interesting and exciting films flooding into six week time period. For most of us, things are going to be very hectic as it is, but for your mental health's sake, you'd be doing yourself a kindness to check at least one of these out.

Click through for our premature thoughts on this season's new releases and repertory screenings, which include: The Descendants, Hugo, The Muppets, A Dangerous Method, Shame, Young Adult, The Sitter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Carnage, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, It's a Wonderful Life, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Adventures of Tintin, We Bought a Zoo, and Pariah.

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winter movies

Robert Horan

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