Best bet this weekend: still The Departed

Of the three wide releases this weekend, one's a stinker and the other two can be presumed to be stinkers, since they weren't screened in advance for critics. Guess which is which! Just kidding, I'll tell ya. Barry Levinson's Man of the Year [my review] isn't merely a throwaway, bad Hollywood flick: it's a cowardly attempt to be revolutionary that goes wildly astray when it discovers that revolution is supposed to be radical, and then it tucks its tail between its legs and slinks off into total irrelevance.

If it's that bad but they let us critics sneak a peek at it anyway, I can only imagine that The Grudge 2 must be like getting a boot in the kidney while Sarah Michelle Gellar pulls your fingernails out, and that The Marine surely is comparable to being forced to attempt to convince a Nobel laureate that World Wrestling Entertainment "matches" are actual athletic endeavors while Robert Patrick pours liquid metal down your gullet.

But I can only guess at this, because the studios didn't want anyone to know precisely how awful these movies were. And if they don't want me to know that badly, then I want to know even worse. I'm especially atwitter with sweet, terrible anticipation to find out exactly how dreadful The Marine could possibly be.

If you're in one of the few cities in which Infamous [my review] is playing -- and there aren't many of them; the film debuts on only 179 screens -- then this is definitely your best bet this weekend. The second movie about Truman Capote writing his "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood, this is an excellent companion to last year's Capote, one with a different but complementary perspective on the enigmatic writer and his stange relationship with convicted killer Perry Smith. There's a weirdly sexy man-smooch between Toby Jones, as Capote, and the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, as Smith, and if that's what's gonna drag people into theaters to see this fascinating film, so be it.

So that leaves The Departed [my review]. I can't get this movie out of my head -- I'm haunted by the twisty cunning of the plot and by Leonardo DiCaprio's fiery performance, and by how covertly funny Mark Wahlberg is, and by the sheer joy of being in the presence of an artist like Scorsese, who is so in control of his material. Even if you saw The Departed last weekend, see it again -- I know I will have no trouble sitting through it a second, third, and fourth time.

Indie watch: Children, fictional ones and those of flesh and blood, are in peril in two new films. The documentary Deliver Us From Evil examines the epidemic of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and how the very structure and philosophy of the Church actually facilitates abuse and ensures it will be covered up. Terry Gilliam's latest, Tideland, revolves around a little girl abandoned by family, and by civilization itself, who invents desperate fantasies through which to cope. Both movies are must-sees, and each is very hard to watch.

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MaryAnn Johanson
author of The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride
minder of FlickFilosopher.com

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