This Weekend: De Niro, Pacino, Perry, the Coens and The Women

Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
The prolific Tyler Perry strikes again, this time with a drama about class struggle and adultery that marks a departure from the light tone of his prior work. Wealthy Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) and not-so-wealthy Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard) have been friends for years, but when their children start to get involved in greedy business dealings and extramarital affairs, it all threatens to destroy their families as well as their friendships. The Family That Preys also stars Sanaa Lathan as Alice’s self-serving daughter Andrea and Cole Hauser as Charlotte’s duplicitous son William, both cheating on their spouses and trying to further their own careers at the expense of their souls. The tangled mess they create prompts Charlotte and Alice to go on a cross-country road trip to get away from it all and try to figure out a way to salvage their families from these disasters.

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Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers veer back into their comedy mold, which always yields unique and interesting results unlike any other brand of humor out there. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand are two dopey gym employees who come across a briefcase filled with sensitive “CIA shit” who then proceed to blackmail the owner, Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), to try and get a big-time payday, even though the secrets had been stolen by Cox’s ex-wife (Tilda Swinton), and her current beau, sex addict Harry (George Clooney), makes the mess even bigger. Plus, J.K. Simmons and David Rasche! This cast is fantastic!

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Righteous Kill
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are reunited for the most screen time they’ve ever shared, both playing hard and grizzled cops on the trail of a serial killer whose victims are all scumbags that managed to cheat the justice system. The full review is here.

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The Women
Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Bette Midler, Kathy Griffin, Candice Bergen, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Cloris Leachman, Carrie Fisher, Ana Gasteyer, Lynn Whitfield and Eva Mendes all starring in this clarion call to women everywhere to go see a movie because there are absolutely no men in it. A remake of a 1930s Joan Crawford classic about the perils of idle gossips, this one has more camaraderie between all the characters in this circle of friends bandying back and forth ideas and rumors about infidelity, and Murphy Brown creator Diane English is the woman behind the camera guiding the proceedings.

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In Limited Release

Towelhead
Towelhead is directed by Alan Ball, who created Six Feet Under and wrote American Beauty. It’s the story of a 13-year-old girl named Jasira (Summer Bishil) who is sent by her mother (Maria Bello) to live with her strict Lebanese father Rifat (Peter Macdissi) in suburbia, and who has to deal with neighbors like the racist reservist Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) and the obnoxious Melina (Toni Collette)… and yet, when she falls for a young black teen in the neighborhood named Thomas (Eugene Jones), her father is the one who violently condemns her for it.