If you know Harry Shearer only as a key voice on "The Simpsons," you're missing a lot, especially his work as a fearless and incisive social commentator on his KCRW program "Le Show" and in his excellent muckraking documentary, "The Big Uneasy," playing in theaters nationwide one night only Aug. 30.

A part-time resident of New Orleans, Shearer has put together a gripping, persuasive film that posits that the catastrophic flooding that overwhelmed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was not a natural disaster but the result of years of ruinous decisions and horrific misjudgments by the Army Corps of Engineers, the same people who are in charge of the city's latest flood-control plan.

With the help of lively computer imagery and smart interviews, "The Big Uneasy" shows what went wrong and how both academic investigators and a Corps of Engineers whistle-blower were unceremoniously quashed. Essential viewing. Showing at the Grove, the Americana in Glendale and theaters listed at thebiguneasy.com.

-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times film critic

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

It was only two years ago that "Slumdog Millionaire" swept the Academy Awards, claiming eight Oscars, including one for best director Danny Boyle. That's a fact, it seems, Fox Searchlight doesn't want audiences to forget.

The new teaser trailer for "127 Hours," Boyle's first film after "Slumdog," opens by hyping the director's many credits: "Trainspotting," "28 Days Later," "The Beach." Set to music with a strong drumbeat, the trailer's opening definitely has a "Slumdog" vibe to it -- lots of fast-paced edits, wide shots of impressive scenery. "This fall," the preview touts, Boyle "takes us on a ride beyond our imagination -- and it's true."

That journey? It follows Aron Ralston (played by James Franco), the mountain climber who infamously got trapped under a boulder in Utah in 2003 and was forced to cut part of his arm off to escape a near-death situation.

We've heard that a majority of the film deals with Ralston's frightening predicament, and the loneliness and desperation he deals with over the 127 hours he's pinned under a rock. (And is perhaps thematically similar to the upcoming "Buried," in which Ryan Reynolds plays a U.S. contractor who gets buried alive in a coffin in Iraq.) But you might not realize that, having only watched the movie's trailer.

Indeed, most of the footage we see from the movie is, we'd imagine, not in line with the film's larger tone. As Ralston, Franco comes across as an offbeat adventurer -- a dude unafraid to take risks in the dangerous outdoors, who manages to chuckle even after taking a painful-looking fall off of his bike. He's believable in this playful goofball/stoner type of role, especially when he charms the socks off of two cute girl hikers (Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn) in need of a guide.

Watching his performance evolve as the story goes to a much darker, introspective place is something we're looking forward to. But what has us more perplexed is how Boyle will deal with the rest of the movie, which -- as far as we can tell -- seems to take place largely inside the crevice of a rock canyon. We're hoping that the film will take us that deep inside Ralston's mind, too.

--Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: James Franco in "127 Hours." Credit: Chuck Zlotnick / Fox Searchlight.

RECENT AND RELATED:

Oscilloscope howls with James Franco

James Franco and his 'General Hospital' performance art project

James Franco carries on the Warholian marriage of celebrity and art -- and who else?

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

 

"Get Low" is one of those fine character studies that is blessed with good characters and even better actors to bring them to life. Set in the hills of Tennessee during the '30s, it swirls around legendary recluse Felix Bush, played by Robert Duvall, who decides he wants to stage his own funeral in time to attend.

There is a very funny turn by Bill Murray as a sly shyster of a funeral director more than happy to take his money, with Lucas Black as his much better, much younger No. 2.

Sissy Spacek, in a performance that seems to catch her "Coal Miner’s Daughter" a few decades later, has lingering affections and a bitter grudge toward the old codger that she’s still working through. Watching Spacek and Duvall play off each other is enough of a treat on its on to put the movie on your to-do list.

But Felix, never the most popular person, is worried no one will show up, so there’s a lottery to make sure they do.

The filmmakers capture the raw beauty of the region and the raw culture it produced. In director Aaron Schneider's hands, it all makes for a blissful way to spend a few late summer hours -- a warmhearted story in the cold comfort of a theater’s deep freeze.

-- Betsy Sharkey

Photo: Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall in "Get Low." Credit: Sam Emerson / Sony Pictures Classics

Francis Ford Coppola was nervous when he got a phone call Tuesday night at his home in the Bay Area from producer Sid Ganis in Los Angeles.

“Whenever you get a phone call from some folks from L.A. you haven’t heard from, immediately your heart stops and you say, 'Who died?,'” says the 71-year-old-Coppola, who has directed such seminal movies as those in the “Godfather” trilogy, 1974’s "The Conversation” and 1979’s “Apocalypse Now.” “That was my first thought because Sid Ganis is my connection to lots of friends from L.A.. But they said, ‘This is not bad news.’”

Indeed, it was very good news. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors announced Wednesday that Coppola would be this year’s recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The Thalberg Award is named after the famed MGM producer who died in 1936 at the age of 37. The award is given to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” Winners over the years have included John Calley, Walt Disney, David O.Selznick, Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Mirisch and Steven Spielberg.

The Thalberg and three honorary awards will be handed out at the Academy’s 2nd annual Governors Awards dinner Nov. 13 at the Grand Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland Center.

Coppola says he’s “very honored indeed” with the award “when you think of the tradition” of the prize. "But when I stop to think about it,” he adds, “I did found a movie company that is still making relevant movies after 40 years. Another thing a producer should be expected to do is to introduce new talent -- both directors and creative people, writers and actors -- and American Zoetrope over the years most notably introduced directors George Lucas and Carroll Ballard…. When you think of the actors, we introduced not only the cast of the films like 'The Godfather' but then there was 'American Graffiti,’ I can’t take credit for all of that, but the producer presides over that. We introduced a lot of innovation. We were among the first to move into the more electronic and digital phase of films.”

Coppola shares a connection with two of the honorary Oscar winners this year -- film preservationist Kevin Brownlow and French director Jean-Luc Godard. Brownlow preserved Abel Gance’s 1927 epic “Napoleon,” which Zoetrope presented on tour in theaters. “Zoetrope made the innovative contribution of putting a live orchestra with a conductor (Coppola’s father Carmine conducted the orchestra and penned the music) and that started another trend.”

Godard, he says, was one of his influences. “And in the days where I owned the old Zoetrope studio on Las Palmas, Godard was wandering around shooting things. I never knew what he was shooting. If you live long enough you tend to be intertwined with everything. That does seem to be a fact.”

EXCLUSIVE

Magnolia Pictures has acquired the American rights to “All Good Things,” the first dramatic feature from Andrew Jarecki, director of the award-winning documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” (2003).

The independent distributor plans to release the fact-based murder mystery/love story in December, and says it will push the film for Oscar consideration.

Jarecki and financier Groundswell Productions initially had planned to release “All Good Things” through the Weinstein Co., but Jarecki and the cash-strapped distributor disagreed about the film’s domestic release strategy. Earlier this year, Jarecki bought the domestic “All Good Things” rights back from the Weinstein Co., which will still handle the film internationally and is currently selling foreign territories.

Starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, the film is loosely adapted from the real life story of real estate heir Robert Durst, who was linked to the disappearances and deaths of three people, including an elderly Texas neighbor whose body he admitted hacking up.

“Because it is impossible to know exactly what happened, we have not tried to replicate the history of the case, but to capture the emotion and complexity of this unsolved mystery that has for years been kept hidden from public view," Jarecki said.

Among those interested in buying the film were Roadside Attractions and Focus Features.

“It’s an absolutely fascinating story and the performances are tremendous as well,” says Magnolia’s Eammon Bowles. He said like “Capturing the Friedmans,” about a child molestation case, “All Good Things” is much more complex than a simple synopsis would suggest.

“The real focus is on the relationship” between the fictionalized Durst (Gosling) and his wife (Dunst), who vanished without a trace, Bowles said. “That’s the core of the story.”

To make sure that the film would be eligible for the Academy Awards, “All Good Things” was given a token (and not publicized) theatrical release in July, so that it wouldn’t be disqualified if it were otherwise to premiere in some overseas territory.

— John Horn

Photo of Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling in "All Good Things": Magnolia Pictures. 

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

Many directors would be wary of working with two actors who have been involved in a longtime on-again, off-again romantic relationship — not Nanette Burstein. The filmmaker, who directed Drew Barrymore and Justin Long in the upcoming romantic comedy "Going the Distance," said the pair's history made working with them "easier."

"They were just so happy together, and they had this chemistry that you can’t create," Burstein said at the movie's premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Monday night. "Plus, they had the intimacy, too, to draw on. Sometimes you get couples that fall in love in the middle of making a movie, but they don’t have that history together to draw on. And here you had both."

In recent years, Burstein has gained notice for her work as a documentarian. In 2002, she made "The Kid Stays in the Picture," which centered around producer and former Paramount studio head Robert Evans. Six years later, she took home the best director prize at Sundance for her work on "American Teen," which followed high school seniors in Indiana. 

But after working on documentaries for the last 15 years, she was ready to try her hand in the fiction world. The script for "Going the Distance" — which landed a coveted spot on the Hollywood Black List in 2008 — spoke to her because of its focus on a unique kind of a relationship.

"I related to the subject matter. I’ve had long distance relationships before. And I realized, 'Huh, there’s really never been a movie about this extremely relatable topic,'" she said. "And I love the humor and I love the sincerity of it. So I just wanted to make a Hollywood movie with the same sort of tone that I loved about some of the documentaries I’ve made."

But she didn't leave all of her documentary filmmaking skills behind during production on "Going the Distance." During one scene, in which Barrymore and Long's characters connect on a long first date, Burstein opted to shoot at the bar she co-owns in Manhattan's Chelsea district called The Half-King. She only used a "couple of small HD cameras" and all-natural light.

"I shot it like a documentary," she smiled.

For more from the "Going the Distance" red carpet, including interviews with Barrymore and Long, check out full coverage on our sister blog Ministry of Gossip.

— Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

RECENT AND RELATED:

'Going the Distance' premiere: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Christina Applegate

"Piranha 3D" may have only bit off a small portion of box office receipts this weekend, but the cash-strapped Weinstein Co. is already ready to take another dive into risky waters.

On Monday -- after an opening weekend during which "Piranha 3D" lured in a moderate $10 million in ticket sales -- Dimension Films said a sequel to the movie about flesh-eating fish is already "in the works." (News, undoubtedly, not being received well by Lake Havasu locals.)

A press release about the sequel touted the film's "80%-82% favorable reviews" on Rotten Tomatoes, along with "rave reviews from top critics" as evidence of the film's success.

Still, with news coming so quickly after the film's release, the announcement seems somewhat -- well, fishy.

Just a year ago, immediately after the opening of the Weinstein Co's "Halloween II," (which also fared modestly at the box office) the independent studio's co-chairman Bob Weinstein said a 3-D sequel was being developed. The release date for the potential "Halloween 3D?" Summer 2010. 

-- Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: A vicious fish from "Piranha 3D." Credit: Dimension Films

RECENT AND RELATED:

With 'Piranha 3D,' Playboy cover girl Kelly Brook shows her teeth

'Piranha 3D' is too hot for ... something

'Piranha 3D,' the Oscar campaign

Lake Havasu fears 'Piranha 3D' could take a bite out of tourism

'Halloween 3D' coming in summer 2010

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

On the large billboards plastered all over town promoting this weekend's release of "The Switch," A-listers Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are touted as the film's main attraction.

But according to many critics, the real star of the romantic comedy is Thomas Robinson, an 8-year-old Valley Village resident who plays Jennifer Aniston's precocious and endearingly neurotic son.

In her review of the film this week, Times critic Betsy Sharkey praised the actor's "excellent job" in the movie, calling him "talented and adorably soulful."

After spending a night observing Thomas during his first big Hollywood movie premiere earlier this week, we can vouch for that. Thomas -- who was only 6 when he filmed "The Switch" -- is about as un-Hollywood as it gets. Too shy to speak to reporters on the red carpet, he timidly posed for pictures and attended the premiere's swanky after-party, where he sat with his family for about an hour before asking his mom if they could go home. (Check out this photo diary of his big night.) What struck us most about him is how much he truly seemed to embody the character he plays in the movie: honest and even a little sad.

Bateman echoed that sentiment: "I don't want to take anything away from his acting talent, but he was similar to that part in his sweetness and kindness and his accessibility," the actor told us in an interview earlier this year.

Of course, Thomas is only one of the young actors who has popped up on the big screen this summer, when it seems there have been a wave of strikingly naturalistic and evocative performances from kids in films like "Ramona and Beezus" and "Flipped."

But just how do casting directors track down the perfect child actor, who is not only cute and talented, but capable of handling the pressure? That's one of the questions we explore in our Sunday Calendar story, in which casting directors, filmmakers and former child stars weigh in on the challenges of working in Hollywood as a youngster. Douglas Aibel, the casting director who found Thomas for "The Switch," said he could sense early on that the young boy was overwhelmed by the audition process.

If you're a British actress fired by Simon Cowell from the judge's chair of a reality talent show -- after three days -- you do what any British actress fired by Simon Cowell would do: You go on a long holiday.

You just don't expect that to lead to "Piranha 3-D."

That, in a nutshell, is the journey of Kelly Brook,  the Internet sensation, Playboy cover girl and co-star in the campiest of summer movies. It's that last one where audiences across the U.S. will get a chance to see her in what is, by all reasonable assumptions, a first in mainstream cinema: an unclothed underwater Sapphic love scene. With an adult-film star. In 3D.

Brook attempts a breakout of sorts in the Alexandre Aja movie, one of her first notable film roles after a decade of parts in little-known indies such as "School for Seduction" and "Survival Island." ("Smallville" devotees may also remember her arc as Victoria Hardwick in the show's first season.) She doesn't have many lines in the movie, but she does survive longer than some of the other pretty faces, which is something.

Brook's in-person appearance -- dark hair pulled back, dark skirt -- bespeaks a restrained elegance, but talking to her one quickly is shown a giddy, daffy quality. When asked why she thinks producers chose her for "Piranha,” she replies, "Well, there are two obvious things," and gestures to her breasts.

As the actress orders a very un-model-like side of garlic truffle fries (where's M.I.A. when you need her?) at a restaurant at the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills, where Dimension Films is putting Brook up for several weeks of film promotion, one is struck by a sense of self-reflection -- though that self may not entirely be filled with musings on, say, the collected writings of Soren Kierkegaard.

"I've always been branded the girl who's not that bright, the bimbo, because I've got big boobs and I laugh a lot and I'm girly," she says, laughing. "All of those things in England that growing up you have to fight against. And all of a sudden I'm in a movie for me. It's a bit of an up-yours to all my critics -- 'I'm going to be all those things you told me I was going to be and I'm going to be in a big blockbuster doing all those things you said were really bad for me.' I'm 30, for goodness sake. For me it's, like, the perfect thing to do right now."

The actress, whose laugh is airy, with a certain musicality, began modeling and appearing in Maxim  while still a teenager.  Television and small film roles followed, as did a place in the limelight as a girlfriend of British action-star Jason Statham.

The reviews have not been kind for Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman's latest comedy, "The Switch," which is, as the posters proclaim, "From the people who brought you 'Juno' and 'Little Miss Sunshine.' " It has a Pulitzer Prize pedigree, since its source of inspiration was from Pulitzer-winner Jeffrey Eugenides' short story, "Baster."

Sadly, all the good genes in the world can't keep this child from coming out deficient and unloved.

Writing in The Times, critic Betsy Sharkey bucks the opinions of most other critics and finds many nice things to say. She calls the film a "Bate-and-switch affair," in that the film is "more his journey than hers, more satire than slapstick." Instead of "Juno" or "Little Miss Sunshine," she compares it to "About a Boy" and "The Kids Are All Right," though she concludes "the film never quite rises to the level of either, the filmmakers show enough restraint to keep things interesting."

You have to hand it to the Weinsteins. Most studios would get turned down by a convention or network, make a note of it, and move on. The brothers hear the no and then run out and tell everyone about it.

For spring-break splatterfest "Piranha 3-D," Dimension Films is running with the "too hot for the mainstream" campaign as far and as fast as they can. First the film was too hot for Comic-Con, as the publicity pitch went, when the convention decided not to let a presentation for the R-rated monster comedy play in the coveted Hall H. (Dimension held a separate event off-site, but not before turning the Comic-con rejection into a rallying cry.)

Now it's the quiet promotion to reporters of the above TV commercial, via RyanSeacrest.com, implying that company's spot has been turned down by MTV and Fox for being too bawdy. Under what circumstances it was actually rejected -- and the fact that plenty of commercials for R-rated movies are turned down by networks all the time -- is secondary to the too-hot message. Come see the movie Fox -- Fox! -- didn't want you to see.

Finally, there's this Hollywood Reporter story, in which Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis objects that a character in the film who gleefully films body shots and toplessness is too closely based on him. But even here there's a promotional vein to tap, since it gives the film's talent a chance to say "the movie's not about Joe Francis ... but kind of is" -- and, oh yes, paves the way for audiences to infer that this is the movie even the king of beach-time partying doesn't want you to see.

The Weinsteins have tried the outsider approach before -- most famously and fruitfully with Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11." The basic template is to take a corporate disagreement about standards, wring every last bit of press from it and then use the affair to position the movie as the-film-the-powers-that-be-want-to-keep-from-you.

You have to admire how any company can take a mild objection and seek to turn it into a promotional opportunity; that's an old-school zeal you don't see much anymore. The truth is that "Piranha 3D," in which an alcohol-infused spring break is rudely interrupted by flesh-feasting fish, is actually not that shocking (one sapphic love scene and one gross-out 3-D male anatomical moment notwithstanding). The partying is nothing you wouldn't see on, well, a spring-break video, and though director Alexandre Aja does fixate on a large number of severed limbs, most of the violence is of the ketchup-packet variety Which leads to a small wrinkle, since promoting a movie as sensationally controversial may get people piqued to see the film but disappoint them when they have.

Then again, Dimension may not have had much of a choice. "Piranha" is a tough sell, with a premise audiences may feel they've seen before and a party-down vibe that can be seen almost any time of day on MTV or, for that matter, the nearest college bar. So any promotional opportunity is one worth taking. If the marketing world gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or use them in a tequila body shot.

--Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

RECENT AND RELATED:

Piranha 3-D, the Oscar campaign

Laka Havasu fears Piranha 3D could take a bite out of tourism

Piranha 3D director says it's Gremlins for adults

Movie Review: Piranha 3D

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

Months before its release, "I'm Still Here" was already generating a healthy amount of buzz. The documentary/mockumentary, out next month, of course has director Casey Affleck filming Joaquin Phoenix as the actor tries to launch a career as a rapper and engages in some very bad behavior.

As we reported in June, the movie apparently contains some pretty out-there stuff:  Phoenix "snorting cocaine, ordering call girls, having oral sex with a publicist, treating his assistants abusively and rapping badly."

But Phoenix -- who only five years ago earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" -- can't be serious, right? The whole thing has to be a joke, some kind of social experiment aimed at making a statement about the malleable nature of celebrity. 

A newly released teaser trailer -- only a minute long -- throws some light on the movie, though we'll admit we're still not entirely sure whether the film is a joke.

In the trailer, Phoenix appears disheveled, just as he did during that bizarre David Letterman appearance last year while he was promoting his last film, the family drama "Two Lovers." With a bushy beard and a head of hair flying in all directions, Phoenix looks stoic throughout the trailer, frequently hiding behind dark sunglasses. He is photographed numerous times. He puts his head in his hands, overwhelmed. He boards a private jet. He hugs P. Diddy.

The entire thing is kind of a blur, but it seems the film's very obvious message is about identity, and how fame can change your public persona. We think the voice-over of some wise old man telling Phoenix that he's a "mountaintop waterdrop" who "doesn't belong in this valley" with all of the other drops of water is funny, if also a tad heavy-handed.

But that doesn't mean we're not intrigued by Phoenix's journey. Whether or not he's really trying to be a rapper is almost a moot point; it seems like he (and Affleck) are commenting on what it means to be a part of the modern-day Hollywood machine. Which is more than most actors usually have to say.

-- Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: The poster for "I'm Still Here." Credit: Magnolia Pictures.

RECENT AND RELATED:

The Joaquin Phoenix comeback (?) tour officially begins

Joaquin Phoenix's 'I'm Still Here' could soon be there in theaters

Joaquin Phoenix documentary: Even buyers aren't sure if it's a prank

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

EXCLUSIVE: Carla Gugino has returned to "Entourage" this season to bust Hollywood tail as a hard-nosed agent. We could soon be watching her on the screen busting more than that.

Gugino is in talks to star as the title character in "MILF." Not the kind you may be thinking of, but Mothers I'd Like to...Fight, a revenge story about a woman who, recently released from prison, returns to the street to take care of some unfinished business.

Franck Khalfoun, who directed the garage-set horror thriller "P2," is on board to direct the film, while "Piranha 3D" director Alexandre Aja and executive producer Alix Taylor will likely be involved in producer capacities. Gugino, for her part, continues a Hollywood career in which she's especially adept at tough-girl roles, with "Watchmen," "Karen Sisco" and "Sin City" all lining her resume.

Outlaw women with weapons and a score to settle are proliferating on the big screen: Angelina Jolie in "Salt," Noomi Rapace in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Michelle Rodriguez in the upcoming "Machete" (and pretty much anything else she does), all the women in Zack Snyder's upcoming alternative-reality action movie "Sucker Punch," about a woman in a mental institution who must fight her way out. Gugino herself is in that film, as the tough-cookie madam of said institution. Which we guess  makes her a Madam I'd Like to Fight.

— Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Carla Gugino as Karen Sisco. Credit: Glenn Watson/Universal Network Television.

RECENT AND RELATED:

Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' goes for Grrrrl power

The Sunday Conversation: Carla Gugino of 'Watchmen'

Dangerous Curves: Carla Gugino's career is driven by contrasts

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

When I heard that "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" had girl problems, naturally I thought, "Oh right, Michael Cera as Scott has trouble with girlfriends new and old, young and old, just about every configuration you can imagine." But no, the film has girl problems -- as in they will not go see it.

I was mystified. Loved the film, and I’m a girl. Took my daughter, also a girl, to see it. She loved it even more. So for those bothered and bewildered about "Scott's" appeal, here are some reasons for the femmes to check it out.

1. Ramona Flowers: The chick (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) everyone’s fighting over is retro-cool, with dudes going for mind over matter. How often do you see that in a fanboy film based on a comic book series?

2. Knives Chau: Sure, as Scott’s 17-year-old girlfriend, she (Ellen Wong) can be a little needy. But hey, she is only 17, and when Ramona skates into the picture, literally, Knives makes some mature adjustments and then goes on to kick some serious ... well, you get the picture.

3. The dialogue is totally smart girl: And the guys mostly listen. And there are a lot of girls doing a lot of talking: Scott's hard-rocking ex Envy Adams (Brie Larson); Alison Pill as the amazing drummer Kim (and another Scott ex) in his band, Sex Bob-Omb!; Stacey, the always spot-on Anna Kendrick, as Scott's smarter younger sister.

4. Director Edgar Wright: The manic mind behind the London zombie scene in "Shaun of the Dead" has gone crazy here, in a good way, packing the film with a lot of action, yes, but also a ton of social-networking and video game satire. And as far as Ramona's seven evil exes that Scott must defeat before they can seriously consider dating seriously, Wright has great fun mocking a lot of genres before he's finished.

5. It’s really a date movie disguised as a comic book flick: So it’s a snap to get your guy to take you. Shhh ... I won't tell if you won't.

-- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times film critic

Photo: Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is shadowed by Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World." Credit: Universal Pictures

It's no secret that "Avatar" was the highest-grossing movie last year, helping Hollywood to rake in piles of cash. But James Cameron's 3D epic also had a more negative effect, according to a new study: It was one of five youth-rated movies that carried the most smoking impressions in 2009.

What does that mean, exactly?

"A smoking impression is when someone in a movie is smoking or using packaged cigarettes. So if you have a scene where one person was smoking and you show that once — that's one impression," explained Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and a lead author of the report "Smoking in Top Grossing Movies — United States, 1991-2009," released Thursday.

Translation: Though the PG-13-rated "Avatar" may not have had that many scenes including smoking,  it had a whopping 951 million smoking impressions because so many people saw the film. Conversely, a movie with more smoking scenes that made less money — such as Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," also rated PG-13 — had 723 million tobacco impressions.

Still, that's not to say the report had only negative findings. Yes, more than half of the PG-13 films released last year included images of tobacco. But total tobacco impressions fell from between 30 billion and 60 billion per year from 1991 to 2001 to 17 billion in 2009.

What's most important about the new report, said Glantz, is that it has prompted the government to weigh in on the debate over smoking in movies.

After the new information was released, some members of Congress urged the Motion Picture Assn. of America to reevaluate the way smoking is depicted on screen.

"It's time for the movie industry to accept its own version of a nicotine patch by embracing a policy that will help them kick the habit of including images of smoking in movies targeting youth," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), senior member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

In case you're curious, "Sherlock Holmes" was the PG-13-rated film that had smoking impressions last year, with 1.58 billion. The other movies filling out the youth-rated Top 5 are "Julie and Julia" (1.041 billion) and "Nine" (540 million). Interestingly, all three films are rooted largely in past decades (or even past centuries).

— Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: Robert Pattinson smokes a cigarette in "Remember Me." Credit: Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down.

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

EXCLUSIVE: "Violet & Daisy" is fast becoming one of the more eccentric/eye-catching  projects out there.

When news of it broke a few months ago, it had Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher -- best known for writing the emotionally charged drama of "Precious" -- making his feature directorial debut in a movie described  as "Thelma & Louise" meets "Superbad" with a helping of "Pulp Ficton." Carey Mulligan and Saiorse Ronan were attached to star, which we suppose would make them this generation's Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.

Now we're hearing Bruce Willis is in talks to come aboard the film (which we suppose would make him...Brad Pitt). Willis is generating heat in "Red," his action romp about a veteran assassin and is, at the age of 55, working as hard as ever. He's set for the lead in an array of current and upcoming productions, including the video-game adaptation "Kane & Lynch," the time-travel hit-man picture "Looper" and the action film "Catch .44"

Also negotiating to star in "Violet & Daisy," sources say, is Danny Trejo, one of the few actors who works harder than Willis. Longtime character actor Trejo is set for his close-up in the upcoming "Machete," in which he plays the mythic title character.

The casting moves coincide with a switch behind the camera on "Violet & Daisy." Wendy Finerman, the A-list producer behind "Forrest Gump" and "The Devil Wears Prada," had been slated to produce "Violet & Daisy." But Finerman has ceded her role, and the movie will now be produced by entertainment veteran Bonnie Timmermann, who has been getting her producer on lately, also coming on to produce a John Belushi biopic with "Hangover" director Todd Phillips.

Timmermann and Willis have a relationship dating back to the 1980s, when Timmermann helped launch Willis' career by casting him on an episode of "Miami Vice," on which she served as casting director. She also put Willis in the apocalyptic hit "Armageddon," which worked out pretty well at the box office. "Violet & Daisy" is likely to shoot in the fall. We can only imagine how these, um, seeds will grow.

--Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Geoffrey Fletcher. Credit: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

There are films that are satisfying in and of themselves, and there are films that offer the additional pleasure of starting a career that you can feel is going somewhere. It's not that anyone seeing Christopher Nolan's "Following" back in 1998 would necessarily have predicted "Inception," but the sense that this was a director worth watching was inescapable. As it is with Australian writer-director David Michod's impressive debut with "Animal Kingdom."

"Animal Kingdom" is an art house crime saga that will put your heart in your mouth. This moody modern-day film noir, which took the highly competitive world cinema jury prize at Sundance, manages to be both laconic and operatic. Faultlessly acted by top Australian talent including Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom" marries heightened emotionality with cool contemporary style to illustrate one of the oldest of genre truths: "Crooks always come undone, always, one way or another."

--Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times film critic

Photo: Ben Mendelsohn, left, and Joel Edgerton in a scene from "Animal Kingdom." Credit: Reuters

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---

“Piranha 3D,” out Friday, is set on “Lake Victoria” – a fictional popular tourist destination where spring breakers find themselves attacked by vicious fish. But city officials in the region where the film was shot, Lake Havasu -- which borders Arizona and California – are fearful that moviegoers might recognize the vacation spot in the horror film and be led to believe piranhas actually exist in local waters. 

At least that was the sentiment conveyed by the city's publicist, Jeff Blumenfeld, who called us somewhat frantically Wednesday morning to express concern over the movie.

“We’re gritting our teeth -- we’re just hoping that the reaction is a good one for the city,” he said.

While it might seem preposterous that tourists could truly believe that there are piranhas swimming around Lake Havasu, some local hotel owners say they've already encountered a few nervous patrons.

“One woman was bringing up to me that the movie was coming out, and she asked – as serious as serious can be – ‘Oh, but are there still piranha in the lake?’ ” recalled Cal Sheehy, general manager of the London Bridge Resort, which is right on Lake Havasu. “At first, I kind of took it as a joke. But then I let her know that that’s the computer-generated part of the movie. And she was very relieved, saying, ‘Oh, I’m so glad to hear that.’ ”

The novelty wears a little thin in this spoof video for the blood-in-the-water comedy "Piranha 3D," in which the movie's actors plead for an Oscar. But Paul Scheer ("You got so many of them; just give us one") and Adam Scott ("There's enough CG in this movie to nominate us for best animated feature") elicit a chuckle, just as the notion of a thousand bikini-clad spring-breakers getting their heads bitten off elicits a chuckle. Next up for the movie's cast: a nighttime swim with Tom Sherak.

--Steven Zeitchik

Films set in the dance world inevitably contain an aspect of competition -- in movies like "Fame" and "Center Stage," everyone's vying for the lead role.

On the surface, Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" -- which will open the Venice Film Festival in a few weeks -- follows the same formula. Lots of pretty girls, only one precious spot.

But then things get considerably weirder.

The supernatural-tinged drama centers on Nina (Natalie Portman), a rising star on the New York City ballet scene. But when Lily (Mila Kunis) joins Nina's company, Nina feels that her prized role in a production of "Swan Lake" is threatened by Lily.

Or is it? The movie's trailer, like the buzz that preceded it, offers the tantalizing suggestion that what looks like a rivalry could be distorted considerably in Nina's own mind.Is Lily after her or is Nina, as Vincent Cassel's character says in the trailer, her own worst enemy?

From the ominous-sounding score to the black-and-white color scheme, the trailer has a sinister feel. Adding to the effect is the fact that that Portman and Kunis bear a strange resemblance -- both slight, with big, evocative eyes.

How far will Nina's trip to darker places go? The last scene in the trailer, where she plucks a tiny black feather from a cut in her back, both creeped us out and made us wonder how supernatural the film is going to get. Aronofsky is certainly switching gears here after his last effort, the acclaimed character drama "The Wrestler," although both movies are preoccupied with the toll the limelight can take on a performer.

It looks like "Black Swan" will indeed prove absorbing on a genre level. Potentially more intriguing, though, is what the movie has to say about the depths to which jealousy can root itself in the human psyche.

  --Amy Kaufman and Steven Zeitchik

http://twitter.com/AmyKinLA

http://twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Natalie Portman in "Black Swan." Credit: Fox Searchlight

---

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

---