This Week in Film: July 20, 2007

Interview

REVIEW: Aside from being one of the best character actors of his generation (turned unlikely celebrity), Steve Buscemi is more than a capable director; given that, he has worked with some of the best (Tarantino, the Coens, and Jarmusch just to name a few). His new film Interview is a remake of the Dutch drama of the same name by the late Theo Van Gogh, who was tragically murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004 for his portrayal of Islam in his short subject Submission Part 1.

Essentially a verbal jousting match between Buscemi and Sienna Miller in a stylish New York loft, the premise is equally just as bare: a political journalist gets assigned the boring task of interviewing a spoiled celebrity. They meet, they dislike each other, and then they make out -- it's that complicated, just fill in the rest.

The dynamic is interesting initially -- carried by the charisma of its two stars in a My Dinner with Andre type scene -- but nothing truly deepens after this. By the middle, we're already painting by numbers, and by the end, it turns out exactly like the trashy celeb show the film briefly makes a mocking of.

Also Opening this Week:

Hairspray
Sunshine
The Cemetery Club
Manufacturing Dissent
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

(Photo courtesy: Sony Pictures Classics)