So this weekend there are two significant releases, and it looks like both are worth seeing if you're looking to head out to the multiplex. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is their best reviewed film since the original Iron Man, surprisingly enough. Consensus seems to be that it's a timely, old-fashioned, more welcomingly low key conspiracy thriller, which I'm guessing is what makes it stand out from the effects heavy, CGI-ridden Marvel movies in recent years:
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the first superhero film since the terrorist-inflicted The Dark Knight that plugs you into what's happening right now." (EW)
"Chockful of the breathless cliffhangers dictated by the genre, but equally rich in the quiet, tender character moments that made the first film unique among recent Marvel fare..." (Variety)
"Takes the bold (for Marvel) step of reducing CGI spectacle to a relative minimum in favor of reviving the pleasures of hard-driving old-school action, surprising character development and intriguing suspense." (Hollywood Reporter)
Not that anyone who's going to see Captain America this weekend pays a lot of attention to reviews, but at least it looks like you'll be getting your money's worth. It's definitely a big ScarJo weekend, as another movie finally coming out is Jonathan Glazer's surrealist Under the Skin, a movie I've personally been looking forward to for a long time, and one that's proving to be very divisive among the critics (it's Rotten Tomatoes score is 84% but the top critics is just 59%), with some hating every minute of it while others are proclaiming it a masterpiece. I can't wait to see for myself:
"Johansson is phenomenal in every sense of the word. She joins Glazer in creating a brave experiment in cinema that richly rewards the demands it makes. The result is an amazement, a film of beauty and shocking gravity." (Rolling Stone)
"'Under the Skin' falls in love with its bleak monotony. It is a melodrama with all the thrills surgically excised." (Time)
"This stark and intensely controlled film is the work of a powerful visual stylist and storyteller, one who looks like he belongs on the short list of directors who have carried the narrative methods of the silent era deep into the modern cinema." (Salon)
"Very little in 'Under the Skin' is clear at all. Its secrets unspool in mysterious, supple ribbons, but that's part of its allure, and its great beauty." (Village Voice)
Here's the behind the scenes featurette on the making of the movie, with interviews with Scarlett and director Jonathan Glazer, whose only other feature films are Sexy Beast (2000) and Birth (2004):