Project Nim

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A family of wacky hippies in the 70s decides it's a good idea to move a baby chimp (Nim) into their Upper West-side Brownstone and raise him like a human being, teaching him to communicate through sign language.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Stephanie, Herb, Laura, Bob, and a bunch of other first names they made a point of writing across the screen real big, which I don't remember.

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. The pace is fairly slow, then it overcompensates to keep your attention with suspenseful music and intriguing camera pans that imply that something fatal is around the corner. SPOILER ALERT: nothing is.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Yeah, the 70s are funny as shit, no matter how many monkeys got hurt in the process.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It didn't me, because I'm a cold-hearted animal non-worshiper-- by which I mean that I would never put their needs before those of human beings. That said, some pretty messed up things end up happening to this monkey.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It did win the Best Documentary award at the Newport Beach Film Festival, but the Newport Beach Film Festival wins the award for the Closest Film Festival to Los Angeles that No One in Hollywood has Ever Been to.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: One of the best things about this movie is its demonstration of how, in researching this monkey, humans once again prove that they themselves are the stupidest species in the Animal Kingdom.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Similarly to how I felt about James Marsh's previous effort, Man on Wire, there is a constant impending sense of doom, which never leads to doom, and therefore leaves me feeling very... shall we say, "tantric"?

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I'm pretty certain that this is the best story coming out this summer about monkeys acting like humans. I'm talking to you Rise of the the Planet of the Apes! DISCLAIMER: I haven't seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The trailer was quite enough for me, thank you very much! Rise of the Planet of the Apes Trailer

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: Project Nim Trailer

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The Black Balloon

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: An Australian coming of age drama about a teenage boy (Rhys Wakefield) who tries to lead a normal life, despite the fact that his older brother (Luke Ford) has autism and ADD.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Rhys Wakefield, Luke Ford, Toni Collette, Erik Thomson, Gemma Ward, Firass Dirani

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. It's beautiful to watch how this family stands by each other as chaos ensues all around them due to their uncontrollable autistic son, but unless you have similarities to the people and situations in the story, their pain isn't always that relatable.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Only if you think it's okay to laugh at retarded people acting retarded. Which, of course, you don't.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: The person I saw it with cried, but I asked her why, and her reasons were personal. No, I swear, I'm not telling.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It won some Australian Award for writing, but their film industry is pretty small, so I can't vouch for how important that is.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: The two young leads, Rhys Wakefield and Gemma Ward, are very easy on the eyes and will probably have big careers ahead of them. The two boys playing the autistic kids are of more questionable talent, but since I don't have any first hand experience with autistic kids, it's hard for me to judge how accurately they were portrayed. All I can do is refer you back to Tropic Thunder, where we learned that it's never a safe bet to go full-retard.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Elissa Down is young, cute, and would do well in a meeting-- in other words, she has what it takes to slowly chip away at that oh-so-lopsided ratio of female to male directors. The fact that she cut her teeth doing 6 short films before tackling her first feature (that's 5 more than most people do), proves that she means business. And the added bonus that she's already attracting talent like Toni Collette, should give her some pull if she plans to make her move to the Hollywood studios.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Some interesting arenas are tackled but not pinned. The script is subtle, and the beats are hit, but there's not quite enough of an emotional spine pulling you through, from incident to incident as the autistic boy acts out and the normal boy suffers for it.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: This is the second film I've seen in the last two days containing a graphic poop scene. Please don't let this become a movie-making trend. Nobody wants to see that.

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