Right This Minute

Movies
Robot & Frank -  Robot & Frank centers on a former cat burglar, Frank (Frank Langella) suffering from dementia, whose son (James Marsden) buys him a robot to assist him at home as a sort of butler-cum-companion.  The nameless robot becomes a catalyst for Frank's return to a life of crime, as he hopes to pull of one more big job as a quasi-revenge on a yuppie couple responsible for cleansing the library of its written texts. 

The premise is a bit silly, but my, does it work.  Langella gives a beautifully nuanced performance, all subtlety and heart, balancing the roguish edge when remembering his glory days and the stuttering confusion of that same memory when it fails.  It's a fully formed performance, and well-played against the robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard); it's a surprising, funny chemistry.

The film is strongly plotted, and thematically interesting.  Juxtaposing Frank's inability to fully master his memory with the robot's willingness to give its own memory up to protect Frank from the suspicious local law enforcement works to heighten their relationship, even as the film reminds us that the robot is far from human.  Thrown in a slew of strong supporting performances, including Liv Tyler and Susan Sarandon, and you have a gem of a film, equal doses touching and funny.  Robot & Frank is now playing in select cities.

The Lady Eve - Preston Sturges's classic screwball comedy still feels fresh, thanks in large part to the great pairing of Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, whose bumbling square and fast-talking manipulator, respectively, call to mind the similar dynamics in Howard Hawks' classic Bringing Up Baby.

The film is laced with imagery and themes drawing on the story of the Garden of Eden, to often brilliant effect, and Charles' (Fonda) fascination with snakes, and showing his prized specimen to Stanwyck's Jean, is a hilarious evasion of the Production Code, which, in preventing any sort of frank sensuality, motivated filmmaker's to implement the steamier fare in more creative ways.

The film employs many staples of the genre, such as reversal of gender roles and the desirable other, but there are some great twists that make it stand out (such as the desirable other being the attractor in disguise), as well as an ending that is a bit unsettling in its lack of resolution.  By breaking some of the "rules" of the genre, the film becomes a standout entry within it.  It's certainly more satisfying than 99% of the romcoms we get fed today.  The Lady Eve is available on Netflix Instant.

Take This Waltz - Sarah Polley's beautiful romance is on my mind Right This Minute despite having seen the movie months ago, and the Blu-ray release being more than a month away yet.  Not a day has gone by since I saw the film that I haven't thought about it.  It's a haunting study on patterns of love and infidelity, the eventual demise of excitement within relationships, the false promise that something new is something better.  Check out my review, and look for the film in stores October 23.

TV
Grimm - While most shows aren't starting their new seasons for a few more weeks, Grimm got an early start out of the gate, hoping to build its audience on Monday nights before reverting to its normal Friday night slot, where it became a consistent hit for NBC (of course, the NBC standard for "hit" is much different than that of other networks).  After a bumpy first few episodes this season, Grimm is settling back into its creature of the week routine with a few exciting new developments making for a more interesting season.

It's clear that Grimm, whose creators include David Greenwalt, is trying to itch that Buffy scratch, and it's doing a fine job.  David Giuntoli's Nick is, like Buffy, a special individual with the ability to battle the supernatural creatures that most others don't notice.  The show even sports a very Buffy-esque intro this season, and with Nick's partner Hank (Russell Hornsby) in on the gig, Nick now has a ragtag group of Scoobies to help him solve the mysteries that arise.

For now, the procedural episodes are doing just fine, but the season should get even better when the writers decide to flesh out the mythology even more.  Grimm moves to its normal timeslot September 28 at 9 PM.

Glee - I finally watched the first season of Fox's love-it-or-loathe-it musical comedy, and it was a bit disheartening to see how far the show has fallen from its funny, creative early days.  This season, the show has a chance to get a fresh start, with the McKinley High Glee Club full of new faces, Rachel and pals off in New York City, and guest stars including Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker.  I'm now pretty committed to Glee, so even if the fourth season continues the downward trend of the last two, I'll try to stick it out.  Glee premieres this Thursday, September 13 at 9 PM.

Video Games
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - After playing through Nathan Drake's thrilling first adventure, I waited mere moments before popping in this second chapter.  Naughty Dog has done a nifty job of creating a defining series for each iteration of the PlayStation (Crash Bandicoot and Jak for the PS1 and PS2, respectively), and they've outdone themselves with Uncharted.  The games strive for cinematic action, romance, comedy, and characterization, and even if they aren't knock-outs across the board, they're still stand-out titles for this console generation.

Uncharted 2, so far, is an even fuller, more exciting entry than the first.  Opening with a thrilling escape from a collapsing train on a snowy mountain, the game is a globe-trotting adventure in the tradition of Indiana Jones, including double-double-crosses, intense platforming, an exciting museum heist, and a sexy love interest.  Nathan Drake is a great hero, ever clever, crafty, and full of funny one-liners.  It's no wonder Uncharted has already ascended to the PS3's most iconic franchise.

Mario Tennis Open - The best entry in Nintendo's long-running Mario Tennis franchise was the Game Boy Color version from long ago, so I was excited to give the newest handheld version a spin.  While the game lacks the RPG-like story mode that made the GBC entry so great, Mario Tennis Open marks a strong return to form after the party-game vibe of the Gamecube/Wii Mario Power Tennis, which was broken by all the power shots and zany courts.

Mario Tennis Open takes things back to basics, with most of the courts being pretty plain, only differing in the ball speed and bounce afforded by their surfaces.  Power shots are gone, replaced instead by suggested shot types that give your swing a little extra oomph.  There's a huge cast of characters and a shop full of rackets and outfits to deck out your Mii character, but much of the game's excitement comes from the means by which you fill your coin purse for said shopping sprees.

While the ring-shot and rally mini-games are pretty standard, Mario Tennis Open goes beyond the call of duty with the fascinating Super Mario Tennis, which has players hitting their ball against a scrolling screen of Super Mario Bros.  When you hit a mushroom, your ball gets bigger.  Hit a pipe and the screen scrolls down to a hidden area.  It's a strange way to play through a classic, but it's very fun and clever, yet another great way for Nintendo to pay homage to its storied past.

Music
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Behn Zeitlen and Dan Romer - Behn Zeitlen's tale of an imaginative young girl's experience of Hurrican Katrina is my favorite movie of the year so far, and one of the best parts of the film is the incredible score that Zeitlen crafted with co-composer Dan Romer.  The music often echoes Sufjan Stevens in its bursts of joyful horns, but other tracks are dominated by thumping, menacing strings, tinkling bells that mask a deceptive childishness, or - on "Momma's Song," an ensemble so hazy that you can almost smell the cigarette smoke.  It's doubtful there will be a better score this year.

Electra Heart, Marina and the Diamonds - My roommate turned me onto this fantastic band that feels like they should be featured in a Sofia Coppola movie.  "Primadonna" is a thumping, synth-y lament of entitledness, while "Teen Idle" is full of gorgeous, unexpected musical turns and regret circa high school.  "Bubblegum Bitch" is the kind of edgy pop throwaway that Katy Perry would take on if she were a bit more adventurous.  Every track on the disc is gold.

Books
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward - A great literary companion to Beasts of the Southern Wild, Salvage the Bones was borne of Ward's own experience during Hurricane Katrina.  The novel is narrated by fifteen year-old Esch, the only daughter in a family of men, including her brother Skeetah, whose world revolves around his dog China, who recently gave birth to a litter of puppies.  Esch experiences pangs of love, fear of motherhood, and the burden of trying to hold her family together in the face of the coming storm. 

Ward's prose is strong if sometimes too full of simile and metaphor, as well as many allusions to the mythological story of Medea.  The way Ward weaves in so many anxieties, ranging wildly in scope, into the experience of one young woman is beautifully done, and the story of a boy and his dog, so vital in this novel, is one that never gets old.  It's a meaningful bond, one strong enough to survive a storm.

Every Day by David Leviathan - Next up on my reading list is Leviathan's new young adult novel, which I learned about from Entertainment Weekly's Must List.  The novel follows a gender-less protagonist, A, who wakes up every morning in a new body, and for that day, lives that life.  The only constant in A's body-jumping is that every body is sixteen years old.  The crux of the novel is A falling in love with Rhiannon, and figuring out how to act on his/her love while never getting to stick with one body.

The novel's gotten a lot of praise, so I'm excited to give it a read.