Movieline Online

THE FLICK: The residents of an isolated village live under an uneasy arrangement with strange creatures that roam the surrounding forest. When an emergency forces Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) to break the truce and enter the realm of “those we do not speak of,” the entire village must come face to face with their worst fears. The tsunami of criticism that washed over M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Village started with ripples of egotistical showmanship inherent in the director’s work from the very beginning. Touted as the next Spielberg after his deft touch with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan instead molded his career as a latter-day Hitchcock, using his unusual moniker to signify the next big event in cinema. His name – strange, exotic and mysterious – became synonymous with the “master of suspense.” And the guy had only three major movies under his belt. Most people have to go through at least seven years of college to be considered at “master” at anything; Knight crowned himself after only six....

After an angry break-up, Joel and Clementine (Jim Carrey & Kate Winslet) take advantage of a procedure that eliminates every unwanted memory of each other from their brains. But when Joel has second thoughts during the procedure he must find some way to cling to the pieces of a relationship he so desperately wanted to be rid of. THE FLICK: Memory is a theme that lends itself very well to the process of moviemaking. What is film if not the virtual downloading of another experience into our willing cranium? And Eternal Sunshine uses this knowledge to its advantage; wrapping itself in non-linear knots around your brain stem with such asphyxiating pleasure it leaves you breathless. But there’s no denying this is a movie that makes you work for it. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) specializes in concepts that shouldn’t be successful in any medium...but somehow are. Here, he introduces a stable of generally unlikable characters – flawed, annoying, loud and ...