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Darren Aronofsky is a smart filmmaker. This REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is a devastating piece of cinema, which asked tough questions within a deeply layered narrative. For his follow-up, THE FOUNTAIN is a sci-fi epic that looks a various generations’ attempts at finding immortal life. This topic is presented in an ethereal way with a complex plot structure that is unnecessarily convoluted creating an air of pretension when the thin concept delivers nothing all that profound in the end.

Hugh Jackman (X-MEN) and Rachel Weisz (THE CONSTANT GARDENER) play three roles each separated by 500 years. Tomas is a Spanish conquistador who travels to the Americas to locate the Tree of Life for Queen Isabel, who has promised her hand in return. Dr. Tom Creo is a current researcher looking for a cure to his wife Izzi’s cancer. Then 500 years in the future, Tommy travels with the Tree of Life in a space bubble to a dying star. It is alluded to that they are reincarnated versions of the same soul, but this is more implied than made explicit. In actuality, the 2005 male and the future male are the same person, which makes the connection to the Spanish male fuzzy.

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With BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA hitting DVD this week, it felt like a perfect time to look at some of the best live-action family films of the past five years. Adults without kids tend to avoid family films, but they’re often missing out on some great movies. I kind of cheated though I left out the two HARRY POTTER films and CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, because they were monster hits and kind of transcend the “family” label anyways. Plus, they’d take up more than half the list and overshadow some other lower key films that deserve some praise and extra attention. And I’m sure there are some good family films that I missed such as HOLES. I encourage readers to post their picks for the best live-action family films in the comments.

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Very rarely do I see a film more than one time in the theaters. It takes a lot to spur me to give my hard earned money to a film more than once. GHOST WORLD so blew me away when I first discovered it that I didn’t want it to end and I went back (while laid off from my job) to take two separate groups of friends to see it. It was the best film released in 2001 and remains one of the best films ever made about self-discovery following high school graduation.

Enid (Thora Birch, AMERICAN BEAUTY) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson, MATCH POINT) have just graduated from high school, where they were the resident eccentrics. Rebecca is excited about getting a job and moving out on her own. Enid, on the other hand, seems unwilling to accept her need to become a cog in the “real world.” Via a pretty cruel prank, Enid meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi, FARGO), a forty-something manager at the corporate office of a fast food chicken chain, who can’t relate to 99% of humanity so he consumes his life with collecting old jazz records and memorabilia. Enid finds a kindred spirit in the cranky old “nerd,” who exists outside of the norms of society.

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Chuck Jones is often credited to the quote, “if you can do it in live-action than it shouldn’t be animated.” With today’s technology this solid rule has weakened, but for this 1988 anime feature there is nothing in it that would have kept it from being a live-action feature at the time of production. So why make it an animated feature? As a director I wouldn’t want to put real children through the torture that these children must endure during the U.S. fire bombing of Japan during WWII. This heartrending feature is the most emotional devastating feature I’ve ever seen. It’s also one of the best animated features I’ve ever seen.

The story begins at the end with Seita, a 14-year-old boy, dying alone is a train depot. After this, we flashback to him living with his sick mother and his 4-year-old sister Setsuko. During one bombing Seita and Setsuko are separated from their mother, who is severely burned and eventually succumbs to her injuries. With their father away in the Navy, Seita and Setsuko go to live with their selfish aunt, uncle and cousin. Their aunt cares little for them, barely paying them attention unless to tell them how worthless they are or to take advantage of them. It gets to the point when the siblings must go out on their own.

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With GHOST RIDER arriving on DVD and FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER hitting theaters this week, I thought it would be nice to spotlight comic books for This Weekend’s Film Festival. However, with GHOST RIDER getting panned and F4 2 looking not much better than its awful predecessor, I thought it was an even better idea to bring attention to good films based on comic books. But when I began thinking about it, a lineup of SPIDER-MAN and BATMAN films didn’t get me excited. Then I thought of graphic novels. And this idea led me to graphic novels that do not feature superheroes. There have been some great films in the past few years that have been based on graphic novels, some of which don’t even have anything to do with action.

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There is something primordial about the characters in REVENGE. A throw back to misogynistic conventions of men and women where men possessed a beautiful woman and valued loyalty between friends and respect over everything else. Director Tony Scott is a perfect fit for this testosterone filled story. Quentin Tarantino calls it his masterpiece, which I find a strong word, even if it is the director’s best work that I’ve seen. The film works for two reasons 1) the actors make us believe in the characters and 2) the screenplay has no pretension to be anything more than what it was meant to be.

Jay Cochran (Kevin Costner, DANCES WITH WOLVES) has just retired as a pilot from the Navy. Years before he helped save the life of Tibby Mendez (Anthony Quinn, GUNS OF NAVARONE) on a hunting trip and they have been friends for years. Cochran goes to visit the rich older man at his Mexican estate where he meets his friend’s young, gorgeous wife, Miryea (Madeleine Stowe, BAD GIRLS). Cochran knows that his friend is wrapped up in shady dealings, but doesn’t care. Part of why he doesn’t care is that he is reckless and a hot head, which leads to an uncontrollable attraction to his dangerous friend’s wife. The opening sequence only hints at the violence to come when Tibby finds out.

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With the Visual Effects Society Festival this coming weekend, I thought it would be a great idea to center This Weekend’s Film Festival on movies featured on the VES’ 50 most influential visual effects films list. The lineup comes from a sampling of four-star films from across the list. I selected one film from the first ten films on the list then another one from the next ten films and so on.

What struck me when I looked over the complete list of 50 films (which you can find here) is that for the most part they’re all good films. The list does seem to skew toward recent visual effects accomplishments, but it doesn’t leave out many of the obvious landmark achievements of yesteryear. Many of the films are some of the greatest entertainments of all time. So does this mean that great visual effects only appear in great films or is it that we only remember the great visual effects if they are in great films?

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Widely considered the greatest film ever made, and for good reason, CITIZEN KANE matured filmmaking by combining established techniques with new innovations. No first film has ever been as influential as Orson Welles freshman turn behind the camera. The fact that he also starred in, co-wrote and produced the film only heightens the accomplishment. But does the label of “the greatest film ever made” hurt it? I’m sure the label and it’s stark black & white cinematography scare away younger audiences, who have all seen THE GODFATHER (which is often a close second as the greatest of all time). What those film viewers are missing is a thoroughly modern film. Made over 60 years ago, the film has not aged a bit.

In a now very common way, the film starts at the end. Charles Foster Kane dies, uttering only one word — Rosebud. Then a newsreel fills us in on Kane’s life. When the newsreel ends, a group of reporters argue whether the report really captured who Kane was. So they set out to discover the meaning of Rosebud. This begins a series of interviews of the people that knew Kane.

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Last year penguins danced in HAPPY FEET; now penguins catch the big wave in SURF’S UP. This animated mockumentary looks great and has enough heart and laughs to be a step up from Sony Picture Animation’s first animated film, OPEN SEASON. But more so than Sony’s MONSTER HOUSE, the film suffers a bit from having a stock hero, leaving the flare to the supporting cast. Nonetheless, the characters are likeable and the laughs are enough that this film is the best time I’ve had at the movies this summer so far.

Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf, HOLES) lives in Shiverpool, Antarctica and has dreamed of becoming a professional surfer ever since famed Big Z came to visit his town when he was a small child. A film crew interviews Cody as he sets out to prove his mother Edna (Dana Belben, HAPPY TREE FRIENDS) and older brother Glen (Brian Posehn, TV’s THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM) wrong and make it off the block of ice where he was born, succeeding as a pro athlete. Determined, he all but forces himself on talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (Mario Cantone, TV’s LAUGH WHORE), who works for the Don King-like surf promoter Reggie Belafonte (James Woods, SALVADOR). We learn that Cody’s idol Big Z disappeared during a surf tournament, leaving the arrogant Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader, TV’s THE DREW CAREY SHOW) behind as the reigning champion. Cody makes friends with laid-back Chicken Joe (Jon Heder, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE) and pretty lifeguard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY), but a clash with Tank leaves Cody finally in the care of the Zen-like Geek (Jeff Bridges, THE BIG LEBOWSKI).

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Practically an anthology of five short films that share plot and thematic similarities, this gripping independent production shows how one particular brutal death effects many lives as well as universal issues of life and death. Director and writer Karen Moncrieff, whose first film BLUE CAR dealt with dark, touchy emotional territory as well, brilliantly constructs an episodic feature that feels like a whole, but could conceivably work as parts. This is a remarkably good film.

The story begins with Arden (Toni Collette, THE NIGHT LISTENER), a mousey woman who cares for her bedridden and mentally abusive mother (Piper Laurie, CARRIE), finding the mutilated body of a woman in a field. The media attention that surrounds the murder just upsets Arden’s mother more and brings Arden to the attention of an intense, tattooed grocery store worker named Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi, SKY CAPTAIN), who is obsessed with serial killers.

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