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Before there was Paris Hilton, there was socialite Edie Sedgwick. However, instead of hanging out with the likes of Nicole Richie, Sedgwick gained stardom as the muse of Andy Warhol, and in this movie a Bob Dylan-like “Musician.” Sedgwick was well educated, but naïve, used up and quickly discarded from the culture that made her the premiere “it” girl of her generation.

Sienna Miller (CASANOVA) plays Sedgwick as a beauty who to Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce, MEMENTO) represented the rich party glamour that he equally adored and despised. Along with her tagalong friend Chuck Wein (Jimmy Fallon, FEVER PITCH), she basked in the limelight, appearing as the central figure in Warhol’s art and especially his avant guard films. She quickly became one of the hottest models in the world. This drew the attention of the famous “musician” in the film, played by Hayden Christensen (STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH). The folksy singer with his message-filled tunes was in strict contrast to the pop culture emotional void that surrounded Warhol. Along with her lavish spending and eventual decline into drugs, her life spins out of control.

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Well, after a two-week hiatus for the Oscar Showcase tour, This Weekend’s Film Festival is back. It’s a strong lineup filled with recent Oscar winners and nominated films, which all deal with the theme of crime. We have corporate evildoers. We have race-related murders. We have child kidnappers. And we have a double header of gangsters. Let take a look at why crime makes such great drama.

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Ben Affleck slides from in front of the camera to behind it, making a declaration that he is a serious filmmaker to stand with the likes of other actor-turned-directors such as Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, the writer of MYSTIC RIVER, this tense crime drama plays out like a solid procedural, finally cumulating in a gripping morality debate that can divide audiences down philosophical lines. This film lives in the grey margins where opposite views can be equally right and wrong at the same time.

A young girl goes missing. Private eye couple, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, GERRY) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, NORTH COUNTRY), are called on by the aunt of the young girl to supplement the police investigation, focusing on the neighborhood element of the investigation. The distraught aunt Bea (Amy Madigan, FIELD OF DREAMS) and her husband Lionel (Titus Welliver, TV’s DEADWOOD) love their niece; possibly more than the girl’s own white trash mother Helene (Amy Ryan, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD). Police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman, MILLION DOLLAR BABY) reluctantly connects Patrick and Angie with the lead investigator on the case, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris, THE TRUMAN SHOW). As the private eyes poke around they discover that many people in the working class Boston neighborhood have their own reasons for keeping secrets about the missing girl.

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Sweeney Todd - a perfect match of content and creator.

It’s that time again for the RFP Overlooked Awards, celebrating award-worthy films, performances, directors, screenplays and animated shorts, which are all worthy of award recognition, but didn’t get enough of a chance to glow in the spotlight. This year I have add a Jury Prize for overlooked craft categories and films and/or performances that I missed since the Overlooked Awards began. So without further ado, here are the winners and honorable mentioned.
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Though THE PEARCE SISTERS is from Aardman Animation, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, don’t expect a sweet, witty tale. Director Luis Cook’s pitch black comedy is a 2D CG concoction that tastes bittersweet due to the poisonous touch of its title characters.

Two spinster sisters scrape out a living drying fish by their seaside shack. With their wrinkled, hairy, vein-lined, olive faces, they are an unwelcoming sight. One day they rescue a shipwrecked sailor out on the open water. The freakish duo nurses the man back to life, but when he wakes he is shocked at what he sees. Though the sisters have each other, we learn that two can still be a lonely number when your sibling is a bit batty.

As if the color palette was inspired by the slime coming off seaweed, the bleak, weathered look of the short is a perfect convergence of style and story. The score-free soundtrack filled with the harsh sounds of the environment helps add to the uneasy sensation that the visuals present. This isn’t a laugh-out loud comedy, but one that makes you smile at its diabolical audacity. In addition to its dark humor and macabre plot, the film ends with a surprising dose of heart. Because the sisters are so well defined, we are gripped by the sadness of their existence, especially when one sister doesn’t seem to find the same joy in the other’s grim way of coping with their life.

Currently, I’m touring the studios of San Francisco and Los Angeles with the Oscar nominees for Outstanding Animated Short Film. While I’m busy blogging about the experience, Rick’s Flicks Picks will be on hiatus. I will return on before the Oscars with this year’s RFP Overlooked Awards. So for the meantime, you should check out my exploits over at the Oscar Tour Travelogue.

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With STEP UP 2 hitting theaters this weekend, and the tradition that unrelated sequels are worse than the originals, than you want to step away from this franchise. Cheap dance movies of late have been a dime a dozen, but they make their studios millions. Most of them feature plots that serve as an excuse to strip great dance numbers together. This clunker gives viewers two dance numbers that are not worth your time.

Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum, COACH CARTER) is a white kid who leaves in the ghetto. He’s a well-mannered and well-meaning young man, who gets in trouble by stealing cars with his friends Mac and Skinny Carter (Damaine Radcliff, GLORY ROAD, & De’Shawn Washington, screen debut). When Tyler isn’t stealing or scamming kids on the basketball court, he dances. Tyler finally gets nabbed and is sentenced to community serve as the school for the arts. While working as a janitor, he volunteers to help out senior Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan, TAKE THE LEAD) with her senior dance after her original partner gets injured. The poor guy and the rich girl sure make for an odd couple.

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Warren Beatty’s epic chronicling American reporters John Reed and Louise Bryant and their involvement with the Russian revolution was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, taking home three Oscars for Best Director (Beatty), Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro) and Best Supporting Actress (Maureen Stapleton). At 194 minutes, the film takes its time to develop its characters bringing us into their history before they begin to play key roles in important historical events of the 20th century. Mixing documentary interviews of people who knew the couple with dramatic recreations, REDS not only gets a wide view of its protagonists, but also the era in which they lived.

Married Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton, ANNIE HALL) meets playboy reporter John Reed (Beatty, MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER) at a Liberal Club meeting, where she asks to interview him. He agrees, with the hope of a one-night stand, but after a long night of debate, Louise sends John packing. The pair will meet again and Louise will take the aggressor’s role. Later Louise will leave her husband and follow John to New York, where she becomes overshadowed by the dynamic personalities of John’s Greenwich Village friends, which include outspoken activist Emma Goldman (Stapleton, COCOON) and writer Eugene O’Neill (Jack Nicholson). John and Louise’s relationship will be tumultuous, spurred by infidelity of both of their parts, loneliness when they are separated and artistic competitiveness.

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Tamara Jenkins follows up her solid first feature SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS with a sophomore effort that shows her tackling more mature material, as she matures as a filmmaker. For her work she was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, which chronicles the tale of two aging siblings dealing with the impending death of their father. Part character study, part black comedy, this satire makes you go ouch more than it makes you go ha ha.

Wendy and Jon Savage (Laura Linney, BREACH, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, CAPOTE) have been called upon to travel from New York to Arizona to deal with their father Lenny (Philip Bosco, WORKING GIRL), whose physical and mental abilities have declined quickly following the death of his longtime girlfriend. They move him to a nursing home close to Jon’s home near Buffalo where he teaches. Wendy, who lives in NYC, moves in until the end of the winter holidays to help deal with the transition.

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Director Lasse Hallstrom works from John Irving’s own Oscar-winning adaptation of his novel creating a thoughtful coming-of-age story that was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Michael Caine won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his pragmatic and ornery doctor. Additional Oscar nods were given for the film’s art direction-set direction, Hallstrom’s direction, editing and original score. The love for the film by the Academy was great, but it might be remembered in the future for its early performances from then up-and-coming stars Toby Maguire and Charlize Theron.

Dr. Wilbur Larch (Caine) oversees an orphanage in Maine where he has raised Homer Wells (Maguire) as if he were his own son. Homer has trained under Larch to be a fine physician, but he questions the morality of the abortions his mentor performs. When Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd, KNOCKED UP) brings his pregnant girlfriend Candy Kendall (Theron) to get an abortion, Homer’s longing to see what the world outside the walls of the orphanage is like comes to a peak. Despite Dr. Larch’s protests, Homer heads off with Wally and Candy to work as an apple picker for Wally’s family orchard. Wilbur comes under the tutelage of Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo, HEIST), a migrant worker who has been picking fruit with his daughter Rose Rose (Erykah Badu, BLUES BROTHERS 2000) for years. As Homer breathes in the joys of his new freedom, he learns that life is full of tough moral decisions, especially when he falls for Candy after Wally goes off to serve in WWII.

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