Editor’s note: Please enjoy this expanded edition of Film Sweat, including last week’s recommendations that were unpublished due to technical difficulties.

RECOMMENDED: An Education stars Carey Mulligan as a wise-beyond-her-years British schoolgirl who becomes the apple of businessman Peter Sarsgaard’s eye. And like Mad Men, it’s a window into that time before the 60s really happened, maaaan, and rebellion was a far more personal thing than has ever been since. And surprisingly, this chic, thoughtful affair was written by Nick Hornby, who usually traverses in a much less feminine motif. As one Facebook friend recently put it, “Yeah, An Education is basically a Belle & Sebastian song set to film, but I loved it anyway.” Hear hear.

ALSO RECOMMENDED: It is our sincere hope that in the week since Balloon Boy hid in a box, threw up on The Today Show, and subsequently watched his father’s transmogrification into the Worst Failed Reality TV Jerk Of All Time, someone has taken him to see Where The Wild Things Are. Because this film’s lessons about the healing power of one’s own imagination would hit really, really close to home. One of the things we liked about this movie — apart from Karen O’s surprisingly awesome soundtrack (movie surprises from rockists left and right lately!) — was how aggressively the camera work and direction really wants you to see through the boy Max’s eyes. Director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers are didactic here in a lot of ways, but lucky for everyone, the dudes at the wheel knows what they’re doing. By now, lots of people have weighed in on Where The Wild Things Are, with most getting their hipster cards punched by way of complaining about how it’s too sad for kids or too this or too that, but we’re just here to say that this movie is fantastic and we will definitely be watching it for the rest of our lives.

NEW IN THEATERS LAST WEEK: A Serious Man, the hotly-tipped new black comedy by the Coen Brothers in which a divorcee’s every good deed goes very much punished in the grand Coen style; Law Abiding Citizen, which is like, OH GREAT, another creepy movie about perverted justice shot in Philly, starring Gerard Butler as a Dexter-ish vigilante and Jamie Foxx, thee Most Annoying Actor Alive, as the freaked-out D.A. (AS IF!); The Stepfather, a thriller with Sela Ward that looks like the evidence for Why Narrative Is Dying In Hollywood; Black Dynamite, a blaxploitation romp that I am sick of getting emails about; New York, I Love You, an episodic affair in which Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Orlando Bloom, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Robin Wright Penn, Ethan Hawke, Maggie Q, James Caan, Cloris Leachman, Qi Shu, Emilie Ohana, and Blake Livel all get their cards punched; and More Than A Game, the LeBron James documentary/vanity project.

NEW IN THEATERS THIS WEEK: Astro Boy, who was the first manga hero of ever, is now a CGI wisecracking kid like everybody else and Nicholas Cage is his voice of reason (pray for Astro Boy); Amelia, starring Hilary Swank in a role that will challenge you to hate Hilary Swank even more than you already do; Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, which asks you to be scared of John C. Reilly as a vampire right after you just watched him in Step Brothers five times in the last month on Starz; Ong Bak 2, which is really just a series of letters with a number after it that contains what appear to be live action versions of all the levels from the video game Soul Calibur II; The Damned United, a UK footy caper based on the true story of football manager Brian Clough; and Saw VI, just in time for Halloween.

For more recommendations on films currently in theaters, visit Philebrity’s Film Sweat archive. And click here for movie times.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm.