From now until the end of the year, movie studios large and small will be releasing their holiday film fare. Some will be great and some will only be fair. In the coming weeks you will be able to read my reviews of the films with an * before the title. In the meantime, here's a list of nearly two dozen of some of the most highly anticipated December releases to keep in mind when you are looking for something to do over the upcoming long, cold days, nights and weekends ahead. ( # = queer interest )
*#A Beautiful Mind ( Dreamworks ) ...Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly
Ali ( Columbia ) ...Will Smith as the man, the legend, the boxer
*#Beauty & The Beast ( Walt Disney ) ...IMAX!
*Black Hawk Down ( Columbia Tri Star ) ...War story with Josh Hartnett, Jeremy Piven and others
*Business Of Strangers ( IFC Films ) ...Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles
Charlotte Gray ( Warner Brothers ) ...The ubiquitous Cate Blanchett
#Eban and Charley ( Harcamone/ Monqui )
*#Gosford Park ( USA Films ) ...Robert Altman's latest ensemble piece
How High ( Universal ) ...Hip-hop giants Method Man and Redman
*I Am Sam ( New Line ) ...Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer
*Impostor ( Miramax ) ...Sci-fi with Gary Sinise
In The Bedroom ( Miramax ) ...Sissy Spacek
*Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius ( Paramount ) ...cartoon
*Joe Somebody ( Twentieth Century Fox ) ...Tim Allen
*Kate & Leopold ( Miramax ) ...Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman
*#Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring ( New Line )
*The Majestic ( Warner Brothers ) ...Jim Carrey
*Monster's Ball ( Lion's Gate ) ...Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton
*Not Another Teen Movie ( Columbia ) ...Teen flick parody
Ocean's Eleven ( Warner Brothers ) ...George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Julia Roberts and others
*The Royal Tenenbaums ( Touchstone ) ...Gene Hackman, Angelica Houston, Gwynneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and others
*The Shipping News ( Miramax ) ...Kevin Spacey and Cate Blanchett
*Vanilla Sky ( Paramount ) ...Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz
Video recommendations
Divided We Fall ( Columbia TriStar ) : This excellent 2000 Oscar-nominee for Best Foreign Film tells yet another compelling story about people in Eastern Europe during World War II. In 1943 Czechoslovakia, a married, but childless, couple...Josef ( Boleslav Polivka ) and Marie ( Anna Siskova ) ...take in concentration camp escapee David ( Csongor Kassai ) , the son of a Jewish industrialist who was Josef's former employer, and hide him from the Nazis in their small apartment. So as not to call attention to themselves or their secret, Josef goes to work for scheming Nazi collaborator Horst ( Jaroslav Dusek ) , another former employee of David's father. The suspicious Horst also has a crush on Marie, who rebuffs him. To avoid having a shamed Nazi move in with them...a plot by Horst to expose them...the married couple makes up a story about Marie being pregnant and enlists David to be the sperm donor, because Josef is sterile. Divided We Fall is a beautifully told tale about what abnormal times do to normal people, with performances ( particularly from Polivka, Siskova and Kassai ) , that leave a mark, as indelible as a tattoo, on one's memory. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
#All Over The Guy ( Lions Gate ) : An average romantic comedy about two gay men...Eli ( Dan Bucatinsky, who also wrote the screenplay ) and Tom ( Richard Ruccolo ) ...who are introduced by their straight best friends...Jackie ( Sasha Alexander ) and Brett ( Adam Goldberg ) ... and struggle to make a go of a relationship. While Jackie and Brett's relationship quickly develops into something that ends in marriage, Eli and Tom are constantly insulting each other, making scenes, and only end up having sex twice. Both men blame their parents ( Eli's are psychotherapists and Tom's are alcoholics ) for making them the kinds of people that they've become...Eli's neurotic and Tom has a drinking problem, and both men have intimacy issues. Did I mention that, while both men are attractive, neither of them is especially likable? In fact, the most genuinely pleasant character in the whole movie is a woman named Esther ( Doris Roberts ) , who works at the health clinic where Eli gets tested for HIV. She offers Eli a sympathetic ear and sage advice. While I'm grateful for the increase in gay characters ( nice and not so nice ) in movies, is it too much to ask for the movies to be entertaining and have substance, as well? MILDLY RECOMMENDED
Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas ( Universal ) : Without sounding like too much of a Grinch ( or Scrooge ) myself, I have to say that I was terribly disappointed by Ron Howard's live-action version of the Dr. Seuss cartoon from my childhood. Jim Carrey possess the furry and rubbery green body of the holiday-hating Grinch like the demon that overtook the little girl in The Exorcist. The only thing missing is projectile pea soup. The holiday-hugging Whos in Whoville, the town that the Grinch lives above, are portrayed by one miscast actor ( Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski ) after another and look as though they are struggling with their dignity under their make-up and costumes. Taylor Momsen, the young actress playing Cindy Lou Who, is perfect until she opens her mouth. Only production designer Michael Corenblith's visually spectacular rendering of Whoville and the Grinch's cave retain some semblance of the world created by Dr. Seuss. If Dr. Seuss were here, he would be doing the dance of discontentment. NOT RECOMMENDED
On cable: Sundance Channel ( www.sundancechannel.com for times and dates ) ...The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Anatomy of a Scene: Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Anatomy of a Scene: The Deep End, Chuck & Buck, Conversations In World Cinema: Christine Vachon, Conversations In World Cinema: John Waters, The Delta, Different For Girls, The Doom Generation, Edge of Seventeen, Get Real, Hide And Seek, hITCH, Inside Out, Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End,