Flakes Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Student films must be graded on a curve, and Flakes is basically a student film. If you overlooked the fact that the three leads are all moderately high-profile actors, I'd estimate the budget to be less than twenty thousand dollars. Most of the action takes place in or around the titular establishment, a cereal bar in which slackers and stoners assemble on a daily basis to eat their favorite cereals -- everything from standard fare like Cheerios to rare delicacies like Fruit Brute -- and make of themselves a quirky movie character. The two leads are a boyfriend-girlfriend, Neal Downs (Aaron Stanford) and the improbably named Miss Pussy Katz. (Zooey Deschanel) Their boss at Flakes is a 60-ish hippie played by Christopher Lloyd, and his performance is the biggest thing hindering my plan to give Flakes a better review than it deserves. Lloyd comes from some long forgotten school of acting where naturalism is never as a good a choice as creating a character with such a forced way of speaking that no one could ever mistake them for a human being.

With a movie like this, they base their plot on whatever is on sale at the 'cliched plot device' factory, and it appears that what was on sale that week was 'business is threatened by newer, flashier rival across the street.' A nerdy businessman comes walking into Flakes one day and is impressed by the concept but dispirited by the stoner attitude -- he doesn't get what Flakes is all about, man! -- and determines to open an upscale cereal bar directly across the way which will put Flakes out of business. This causes much tension. Miss Pussy Katz -- I can't believe I keep having to type that -- and her boyfriend have a number of rows over how Flakes should respond to the crisis at hand and the loyal customers alternately declare their loyalty or decamp to the new establishment across the street. As bad as this all sounds, there are a couple of things about Flakes that I really liked, and I'm more than happy to point them out and to remind everyone that this is from the director of Heathers.

• If you've spent any time at Cinematical Indie in the last few months, you've seen Persepolis mentioned at least once, and probably many times. It's won awards at several film festivals (including Cannes), it's France's submission for the Oscars, and it has the buzz to overtake Ratatouille for Best Animated Film. And now it's finally opening! It will arrive Christmas Day in New York and L.A., and expand from there. Here's James Rocchi's review from Cannes and Kim Voynar's from Telluride.

• Flakes is a slacker comedy directed by Michael Lehmann (Heathers ... but also Because I Said So and My Giant) about some Gen-Yers trying to get their cool business idea back from the wealthy jerk who stole it. Aaron Stanford and Zooey Deschanel star. Cinematical's Scott Weinberg didn't have much good to say about it at South By Southwest. Now playing at IFC Center in New York City.

• Steep is a documentary about extreme skiing, including its history and its perils. It looks pretty gnarly, unless the kids are no longer saying that. You'll find it in New York, L.A., and a couple places in Montana.

• From India comes Taare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth), an inspiring drama about a dyslexic and unfocused little boy who finds himself after a special teacher intervenes. Playing in New York.

What do you do when a hero takes a fall? For years I've been tracking the career of director Michael Lehmann, convinced that he had a kind of hidden brilliance packed somewhere in the corners of his films. If I persevered, I would have been the first to discover the hidden connection and trace the line that would lead to a major re-discovery. But then I saw Because I Said So (152 screens). I breathlessly arrived at the screening, excited by the possibilities the evening would have in store for me. The movie started, and I re-adjusted my expectations, thinking that maybe I'd have to work a bit harder to find something good. The movie kept going and I began to despair that I'd find anything good. The movie went a little further and I became convinced: this movie doesn't have anything good. It's one of the worst, most annoying movies I've ever seen. This was re-affirmed when the critic sitting directly to my right leaned over at one point and whispered, "kill me."