With the release of David Fincher’s ZODIAC on DVD, I thought it was a great time to devote This Weekend’s Film Festival to true crime films. I’ve picked five films covering three real killings and/or killers. Four are fiction accounts of real events while one is a documentary where we hear directly from the killer. Murder, especially serial killings, often draws our attention, because it deals with the darkest reaches of the human condition. Bloody conflict between men has been part of our art and entertainment forever. We are fascinated with the fringe and extreme behavior, but why? Hopefully this lineup will address the reasons.

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Emilio Estevez wrote and directed this drama following the lives of 22 people in the Ambassador Hotel the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Though his name supplies the title to this Altman-esque feature, Bobby Kennedy is not a character. The real politician is however seen in archival footage woven throughout the narrative. The various stories are meant to peek into the various cultural currents that were running through America at the time from the hippie movement to the war in Vietnam. The stronger stories keep the film from lagging under its own ambitions, making it a compelling look into the ways RFK’s death altered the course of America and the lives of its people.

One of the film’s best stories is kitchen worker Jose, who has tickets to go see Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale beat the consecutive shut out record. However, racist kitchen manager Timmons (Christian Slater, ROBIN HOOD) has assigned him a double shift without telling him. So Jose gives his tickets to the dignified cook Edward Robinson (Laurence Fishburne, WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?), much to the dismay of angry fellow kitchen worker Miguel (Jacob Vargas, 2004’s FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX), who wants to make money on it. Diane (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS) plans to marry fellow high school student William (Elijah Wood, LORD OF THE RINGS) in an effort to keep him out of Vietnam. Kennedy campaign workers Cooper (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS) and Jimmy (Brian Geraghty, JARHEAD) play hooky from their duties to find drug dealer Fisher (Ashton Kutcher, TV’s THAT 70S SHOW), who gives them acid so they can get closer to God. And waitress/wanna-be actress Susan Taylor (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, GRINDHOUSE) knows they’re high. Wade (Joshua Jackson, TV’s DAWSON’S CREEK) is running RFK’s campaign and sets up a meeting with Bobby and dedicated black campaign worker Dwayne (Nick Cannon, DRUMLINE), who is just shy of militant.

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Inspiring is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this compulsively watchable documentary on the rise of the clowning/krumping dance movement in South Central Los Angeles. Involving face-painting (and in some cases all-out clown outfits), the dance style is a unique blend of aggressive hip-hop, moshing and African tribal. The speed at which the best dancers move is astonishing. The fact that it all grew as a positive alternative to gangs makes its central characters heroic.

Tommy the Clown is one of the originators of the clowning faction of the dance movement. Less aggressive in some aspects than krumping, the main differences are all in style. Clowning, apparent from its name, has a more comical bent, while krumping is more of an outlet to unload anger. Lil C. (guest choreographer on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE) was once a dancer for Tommy and left his crew to form his own, which spawned the krumping style. At the time of the making of this film, there were more than 50 active clowning/krumping groups in Los Angeles.

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With the summer reaching its mid point, my wife suggested that I center this week’s This Weekend’s Film Festival on films set during summer. This week’s lineup deals with vacations, amusement parks, picnics, fishing, scuba diving and hungry CG dinosaurs. There is something for everyone this time around — drama, comedy, action and horror. I have to say this is one of the most fun This Weekend’s Film Festivals yet.

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Taking a page from the work of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Zach Helm’s screenplay about a man who keeps hearing a narrator in his head is brought to the screen by director Marc Forster (MONSTER’S BALL) as both a parable about living one’s life more fully and the tormented process of a writer. It’s really not as innovative an idea as Kaufman’s ADAPTATION or BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but the film is intriguing with solid performances from the entire cast, especially lead Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Harold Crick (Ferrell, ANCHORMAN) is an IRS auditor, who pretty much wakes up, goes to work, comes home, goes to bed and then repeats the process all over again. He meticulously plans out his day on a perfect time frame. One day he starts hearing a voice in his head that is narrating his actions. When the voice warns him of his emanate death, he is frightened and turns to literary expert Prof. Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman, RAIN MAN), who tries to determine if Harold is in either a comedy or tragedy. Meanwhile, Harold is assigned to investigate the case of baker Amy Pascal (Gyllenhaal, WORLD TRADE CENTER), who only paid part of her taxes because she objects to paying for things like wars. Of course, she hates Harold at first, but soon falls for his innocence and dry wit. As this is going on, writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson, DEAD AGAIN) is looking for a way to kill the main character in her next novel, which happens to be Harold Crick. She is a very depressive type, who isn’t too receptive to her book publisher strapping her with an unwanted aide named Penny Escher (Queen Latifah, CHICAGO).

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Novelist Louis Sachar adapts his own young adult novel into this strange, but emotionally honest story about troubled kids and friendship. The real surprising thing about this film is not the originality of its story, but the lack of pandering toward its intended audience. Thus, the film rises above the tween set and becomes something truly for the entire family.

Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS) is from a long line of cursed men in his family ever since his great grandfather didn’t follow through with the demands of the gypsy Madame Zeroni (Eartha Kitt, TV’s BATMAN), who was trying to help him win a wife. Stanley is blamed for stealing a pair of sneakers and is given the option of either going to jail or going to Camp Greenlake, a reform camp for troubled boys. Now Camp Greenlake has no lake in sight. There, caretaker Mr. Sir (Jon Voight, DELIVERENCE), counselor Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?) and Warden Walker (Sigourney Weaver, ALIEN), make the boys dig holes in the desert all day. As Mr. Sir states, “You make a bad boy dig a hole in the hot sun all day and you turn him into a good boy.”

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Chris Paine’s documentary looks at the history of the electric car production from what first spurred it to the many factors that led to its death. The EV1 was a completely electric car, which ran completely clean. It’s manufacturer, General Motors, pulled the entire fleet of vehicles from the market, taking them from their lessees, and destroyed them.

The film looks at many factors to why the electric vehicle died from the oil companies, the viability of battery technology, consumers, the California Clean Air Board, the hydrogen car, the U.S. government and the car companies themselves. A mandate by the California state government to have no emissions cars available forced the major auto companies to create the electric car or be pushed out of the California market. So while several car producers were making electric vehicles, they were systematically trying to kill their own product. What kind of business would want to undermine it’s own advanced technology?

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I love lists. So, best of film lists are like an addiction to crack for me. I can’t get enough. THE GUARDIAN has put together its list of the 1,000 films to see before you die. Not as complete as Steven Jay Schneider’s book, 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE — it’s missing THE GODFATHER: PART II and Cocteau’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST — the Guardian list skews toward more modern films, shies away from sequels and certainly has eclectic taste. So I decided to highlight some of its more wacky choices that I think deserve your attention.

I commend choices like ONE FALSE MOVE, THREE KINGS, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, GHOST WORLD, GHOST DOG and GRIZZLY MAN, but question picks like DODGEBALL, NEAR DARK, ZOOLANDER, ACE VENTURA and THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE. (Yes, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE). Maybe not cinematic perfection, but it does pick modern successes that have influenced the business like AMERICAN PIE, BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, CROCODILE DUNDEE, X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, TERMINATOR, T2 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL. There are a lot of good films that I don’t really think of landmarks like BAD SANTA, 8 MILE, ROMEO + JULIET and HOT FUZZ. Kevin Smith’s CLERKS was a landmark film of the ’90s, but MALLRATS instead of CHASING AMY? Lots of fun cult films like BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, ROBOCOP, STRICTLY BALLROOM, TWO LANE BLACKTOP, OFFICE SPACE, TOUCHING THE VOID and TIMECODE. It doesn’t miss great animated films like SPIRITED AWAY, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, THE IRON GIANT, CHICKEN RUN and Starewicz’s THE TALE OF THE FOX. It also doesn’t miss some the “baser” genres like horror, picking such films as RE-ANIMATOR and SCREAM. But are films like DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID, OUT OF SIGHT or PARENTS, really that good?

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More than any of the other HARRY POTTER films, this one got the emotional core of the story perfect. This edition in the series is less spectacle and more dramatic. It puts Harry’s emotional struggle — fighting his inner anger with the world — front and center. The characterization of the new characters is perfect. Director David Yates (THE GIRL IN THE CAFE) and writer Michael Goldenberg (2003’s PETER PAN), who are both new to the series, take the biggest of the novels and pare it down to its essence. Remarkably, the HARRY POTTER films just keep getting better.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) feels isolated back home with his non-magical Muggle family. After he is forced to use magic outside of school to save himself and his cousin Dudley (Harry Melling), he is expelled from Hogwarts, but then is taken from his aunt and uncle’s home to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, which includes his godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, THE PROFESSIONAL), former teachers Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson, GANGS OF NEW YORK) and werewolf Remus Lupin (David Thewlis, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN), veteran wizards Kingsley Shacklebolt (George Harris, LAYER CAKE) and Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena, ABOUT A BOY) and Ron’s parents Mr. and Mrs. Weasley (Mark Williams, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE & Julie Walters, BILLY ELLIOT). The minister of magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy, AN IDEAL HUSBAND) is denying the return of the dark lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, THE ENGLISH PATIENT), putting sugary sweet dictator Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton, VERA DRAKE) in the role of Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, where she refuses to teach real magic that could save the teens and rules over the student body with decrees controlling all forms of behavior and thought.

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A MIGHTY HEART turns the kidnapping of WALL STREET JOURNAL reporter Daniel Pearl into a powerful procedural. Director Michael Winterbottom (THE CLAIM) and star Angelina Jolie bring energy and emotion to the political and personal side of the story that gripped headlines across the world. The production honors the life of Daniel Pearl, the courage of his life Mariane and the passion of dedicated journalists.

Daniel (Dan Futterman, TV’s JUDGING AMY) and pregnant Mariane Pearl (Jolie, GIRL, INTERRUPTED) moved to Karachi, Pakistan where he continues his investigation into a link between “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and extremist cleric Mubarisk Ali Gilani. They move into the house of colleague and long-time friend Asra Nomani (Archie Panjabi, THE CONSTANT GARDNER). Danny meets with Randall Bennett (Will Patton, REMEMBER THE TITANS) at the U.S. consulate about whether he should go through with a planned meeting with Gilani and Bennett advises him not to. But after getting assurances from a Pakistani government official that as long as they are in public he will be safe, Danny takes a taxi to meet Gilani, but never returns.

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