SCREEN: IndieWatch

Todd Hill By Todd Hill Staten Island Advance
on October 09, 2008 at 1:00 AM, updated October 09, 2008 at 1:16 AM

Alternatives to the blockbuster mainstream

Eddie Marsan and Sally Hawkins in "Happy-Go-Lucky."

Early in our screening of this British film by director Mike Leigh a handful of people walked out. No doubt they were put off by the incessant sunniness of Poppy, its lead character played by oh-so-happy Sally Hawkins.

Well, maybe their glasses were just half empty.

Poppy, a free-spirited school teacher who doesn't necessarily have an amazing life but has no real reason to complain, does indeed bounce around and say things like, "Oh! Whatchumacallit ding dang dilly dilly da da hoo hoo!"

If you think this is annoying, imagine how Poppy's driving instructor (a wonderfully surly Eddie Marsan) feels. "You know, you can make jokes while you're driving, but you will crash and you will die laughing," he spits out, venomously, as she fails to signal a turn. Poppy just giggles.

But there's more to this unusual film than silly lightheartedness. How, it asks, should such an optimist as Polly react when so many around her are negative? What should she do when some of the real pain that exists in this world confronts her?

It's a powerfully sad spectacle, seeing an untroubled soul such as Polly corrupted by a world that refuses to play along, especially given how we tend to think of happiness as the same thing as innocence or naivete. But is it, just?

Hawkins is utterly delightful as Poppy; she will, inevitably, bring a smile to your face no matter how hard you try to resist her, but not in the same way we smile at cute children or laugh at funny clowns.

In Poppy's world a frown is a four-letter word. Watch your language.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Four stars. Rated R for language. 118 min.

A lot of filmmakers working today started out directing music videos, and there's absolutely no shame in that. What's a shame is when the movies these filmmakers make feel like nothing much more than extended music videos.

Give Guy Ritchie cred for at least trying to branch out on occasion. Unfortunately, his 2002 film "Swept Away" was dealt a fatal blow by the casting of Madonna, Ritchie's wife, in the lead role, while last year's "Revolver" was utterly incomprehensible.

Gerard Butler in "RocknRolla."

What Ritchie has done well is gangsters, Cockney laddies on London's East End who swear, commit violence upon each other and swagger. Oh, how they swagger. If Guy Ritchie has a talent for anything it's putting swagger on the screen.

There's really nothing to say about "RocknRolla" that hasn't been said about all his gangster movies that have come before, except that the fun seems to have seeped out of the formula.

"RocknRolla" is a charmless, joyless slog that only briefly comes to life courtesy of a couple of its stars. The Scottish star Gerard Butler ("300") is clearly having fun playing a two-bit thug named "One Two," while a scene with Thandie Newton making it happen on the dance floor - well, that's really all the movie you need right there.

We've said this before, but as a film critic we'd be perfectly happy if Ritchie just stopped making movies. It's long been clear that he doesn't have much to offer, beyond swagger.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Two stars. Rated R for pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality. 115 min.

"Humboldt County"
Coming-of-age stories are, more often than not, like the first waffle - it's better to just throw them out.

This isn't to say that such tales should never be attempted (or that waffles should be abandoned for something simpler like cereal). Everyone has to start somewhere.

The cast of "Humboldt County."

Based on the potential that "Humboldt County" shows, we'll be interested to see what first-time writer/directors Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky do next. We'd advise you to wait as well.

Grodsky spent much of his youth in Humboldt County, a locale along northern California's coast that if it isn't the most beautiful place on this earth is probably among the top three. And it's apparent that as a filmmaker he's heavily influenced by 1970s films like "Five Easy Pieces" (not a bad influence to have).

But Jacobs and Grodsky, in telling this story about a closed-off young man from Los Angeles who experiences profound culture shock living with marijuana growers among the redwoods, have yet to find their own voice.

As this young man, Peter Hadley, Jeremy Strong hasn't found an entry point into his character, all annoying tics and frustrating awkwardness. We never manage to see past these surface distractions.

Fortunately, the free-thinking, free-living clan who take him in, featuring the smokey-eyed Fairuza Balk, "Six Feet Under's" Frances Conroy and especially Brad Dourif, give the movie all the charisma it needs.

The story is wholly predictable after the first 10 minutes, there's nothing to anticipate here, but lazy scenes of a couple of guys taking a sledgehammer to an abandoned pickup truck deep in the woods just to pass the time are mood-altering.

As a movie, however, "Humboldt County" is nothing more, and probably something less, than a mellow high.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Two stars. Rated R for drug content and language throughout. 97 min.