A few ticket stubs more

• The Golden Compass (12/15/07, NoHa)--Well, this is entertaining enough, and the effects are impressive, but I couldn't help thinking how hard it was trying to be Lord of the Rings, and how far it was falling. I like the newcomer, Dakota Blue Richards, but I would advise New Line to get the rest of the trilogy in the can asap if they're going to do it, because this kid looks like she's about six months away from becoming seriously hot, and while I haven't read His Dark Materials, I doubt very much that "hot" is right for the character.
• The Savages (12/21/07, Crit)--Painfully good, and good and painful. Long shot for my top 10 list and Oscar noms for Philip Seymour Hoffman and My Future Wife Laura Linney--and how about one for my former neighbor Stephen Trask's score?
• Juno (12/25/07, Crit)--Fell in love with the trailer first time I saw it, but my ex said "trying too hard," and that reservation holds for the film as well: it desperately wants us to find it charming and literary and irresistible. Despite that effort, it is pretty hard to resist, and it's certainly literate as hell: I hope we'll hear a lot for from screenwriter Diablo Cody, not because she used to be a stripper but because it's so darned much fun to say "Diablo Cody."
• Broken English (7/22/07, Crit)--Wanted to love this ('cause for one thing, "Zoe Cassavetes" is almost as much fun to say as "Diablo Cody"; then too, there's the presence of My Future Wife Parker Posey), but I had to settle for "like."
• American Gangster (11/4/07, Crit)--Denzel's great, Russell's great, and even the strategy of keeping the stars apart until near the end works pretty well, but ultimately the film is less than the sum of its parts.
• On the Town (1949) (11/4/07, Crit)--Used to love this, then stopped even liking it, but thought it was worth paying four bucks to give it another chance. Sinatra and Gene Kelly, music by Leonard Bernstein and Comden and Green, directed by Stanley Donen--how could it miss? Dunno, but with a few exceptions (the opening "New York, New York" is splendid, despite the city's Code-dictated demotion to "a wonderful" rather than "a hell of a" town), it misses.
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (11/3/07, Orange)--Another one I wanted to like more than I could--but this is the one Hoffman will be nominated for. And is it just me, or has Marisa Tomei been getting gradually more beautiful and sexier over the past 15 years? If she's this hot at 43, she should look as good as Julie Christie when she's 66.
• Sweeney Todd (12/22/07, Crit)--Not sure how, but the leads' singing--amateurish in the case of Depp, borderline inept in the case of Bonham Carter--works perfectly. A beautiful bloodfest--a top 10? We'll see how things shake down.
• I Am Legend (12/15/07, NoHa)--Mostly a perfectly OK zombie flick, but sensational special effects in turning Manhattan into a ghost town.
• Southland Tales (12/8/07, Crit)--David Lynch + sunlight = Richard Kelly. A more ambitious and weirder follow-up to Donnie Darko--and that, as my self-described poor-white-trash grad school friend from Shreveport, La., says, is tall cotton. Not sure it's great, but it sure as hell ain't boring--and guess what? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson can act! I swear!