CINEMA
BIGGEST BUZZ
Wizards and Other Magical Wonders
The real world--who needs it? Not the movies, not this season, when the true realm of the fantastic beckons so seductively. Great anticipations hover over two projects that bring to the screen the most cherished franchises of fantasy novels in the past half-century: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Directors Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which opens Nov. 16) and Peter Jackson (The Fellowship of the Ring, due Dec. 19) have been on a sacred, scary quest. Each director must feel like a kid or a Hobbit who's been given a broom or ring with odd powers and told to go save the world. So it's nice to see that early indications give hope to match the hype. Snippets of the Tolkien film enthralled viewers at Cannes this May. And the Potter trailer is a smash. Hogwarts looks like a wizard's dream come to life; Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson look just right as Harry, Ron and Hermione; Maggie Smith and Richard Harris lend their veteran charisma to the Hogwarts faculty. We can't say if these films will realize their ambitions--pride always comes before the fall. But isn't it lovely to be able to anticipate two huge feats of movie magic?
CRITIC'S PICK
The Barber, His Wife, Her Lover...and the UFOs
Meanwhile, back on lower Earth--in the roiling depths of California film noir--there are plots every bit as dark and complex as those in the season's fantasy films. Just look into the barely beating heart of Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), the barber of Santa Rosa, in Joel and Ethan Coen's tragicomic cardiograph The Man Who Wasn't There. He's got a cheating wife (Frances McDormand), a conniving friend (James Gandolfini), a dead-end job and the depressive sense that "life has dealt me some bum cards. Or maybe I didn't play them right." But the Coens do. They lay out their story in pearly, sepulchral black-and-white, infuse the dialogue with mordant wit and somehow blend those two postwar innovations, UFO mania and dry cleaning.
Like another bountiful fall offering, David Lynch's Mulholland Dr., the Coen film serves up a lovely, lurid brew of greed, murder and twisted identities. It's a smart essay on the overwhelming human need to love someone who's bad news. Thornton's fabulously dour performance--a prime display of postmortem acting--reminds us that fall is the time when things die.
TELEVISION
BIGGEST BUZZ
A Killer Serial, Hour by Hour