Given its timely release, the deadpan, coal black comedy Beatriz at Dinner could easily be read as a trenchant metaphor for American political and social values under the Donald Trump regime, but it really gets to the icy heart of problems that have plagued America for longer than the orange tinted leader of the free world has been in power. The third collaboration between director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White (following Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl) is a balanced human drama so painfully close to the bone that the only option to avoid crying about the situation at hand is to uncomfortably laugh at it.
Miguel Arteta
Available this week on store shelves: Michael Cera plays a very familiar character in Youth In Revolt; Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis try to survive a barren future in The Book of Eli; and a look at Caddyshack on Blu-ray.
Happy 2010, everyone, and welcome to a brand new year at the movies. New this week in theatres, Ethan Hawke stars as a remorseful vampire in the action-horror hybrid, Daybreakers. Also in theatres, Michael Cera stars in the adaptation of C. D. Payne’s famed novel, Youth In Revolt; while Amy Adams and Matthew Goode lead the romantic comedy, Leap Year.