Page One: Inside the New York Times focuses on several facets of the paper itself—its day-to-day operations, the folks who write, edit, and run the paper, and its struggle to remain competitive in the age of the digital news, but it also provides a glimpse into the quickening change of newsmedia as well.

Director Andrew Rossi (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven) was granted a year’s access inside one of the oldest papers in America to film, and from what must have been a warehouse of footage, he scaled it down to a mere 88 minutes that covers an exhaustive array of topics through the camera’s own eyes and those of The Times‘ colorful cadre of show-runners. Among the faces we meet and follow are the paper’s Executive Editor Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, the Managing Editor, Brian Stetler, the cherubish Media reporter, and, mostly, Media Columnist David Carr, the plain-talking, ex-cocaine addict.

Rossi does an excellent job of capturing the toils, trials, and tension of a daily newspaper with practically every shot. We see reporters and editors ensconced in their workspaces, surrounded on all sides by endless stacks of books, papers, and computer monitors. We see them plan a day’s paper and then go to work furiously, bicker amongst themselves, check their facts, chew out interviewees, and feel the tension as they wait for a call back from one source minutes before the deadline.

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If there was one week for forget to check Apple Trailers  it was definitely this past week.  Usually there is at least one interesting trailer coming out everyday, but for some reason this weekend only had new cuts for films we already had seen trailers for, and has hardly anything new premiering in theaters or online.  Is this a preview of what we can expect in the fall?  At this rate, at the end of the summer we will have quite a boring couple months until Oscar season.

This week we have a franchise spin-off, a quirky indie comedy, and one documentary to throw in the mix.

Planes

Click to see the trailer

Yes, this is a spin off of the popular Pixar movie Cars, who’s sequel is set to come out this month.  No, this one is not being make by the talented team at Pixar, and is instead being brought to us by Disney alone.

In all honesty, the mere fact that this is only a Disney film really scares me as to the quality of this film.  I would have normally thought that this is a terrible spin-off idea for this franchise, but if I hear that Pixar was still doing it, I would hold onto my hope just because of their impeccable track record with animation.  Disney, on the other hand, while I admire their effort in acquiring Pixar to stay on top of the animation industry, has had a long string of bombs in the past few years when it comes to producing feature animations by themselves.

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Guys see movies for a lot of different reasons. Most will only admit to getting excited for the newest raunchy comedies or fast paced action movies, but how many of them are secretly enjoying themselves when they get dragged to a date movie and are forced to see something a little more “girly”? Everyone has a few guilty pleasures hiding in their DVD collection, and it takes a real man to admit that he’s popped in Love Actually just as many times as the Bourne Trilogy.

This week’s theme is both a literal and figurative.  We have one crazy movie about a girl, two movies to see with the girlfriend, and a documentary to check out when she’s not around.

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo

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Stop the presses!  Here it is, this is the movie to watch for in 2011.  Based on the literary phenomenon The Millennium Trilogy, this film is a remake of the 2009 Swedish film of the same name.  Already dubbed “The feel bad movie of Christmas”, I think this film has a lot more in store for us than even this exciting teaser shows us.

Director David Fincher has been pumping out masterpiece after masterpiece the past few years, sending him on the fast track to becoming one of the most legendary filmmakers of our generation.  With an early track record including such film school favorites as Se7en and Fight Club, he has since settled into a core group of creative collaborators that he has worked with on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and, most recently, The Social Network, which has propelled him to the front of critical acclaim, box office success, and Oscar recognition.

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When people talk about movies they are most excited to see, they will normally stick to the big budget action adventures, raunchy comedies, or thrillers.  It is rare to see a grown adult get publicly excited about the newest children’s animation or cheesy chick-flick.  But when all is said and done, and we are alone in our living rooms browsing Netflix, most of the time we are actually in the mood for something light and fun.  Just admit it, we all love the occasional cartoon for family comedy.

This week we have two classic family franchises getting rebooted, a trailer for a superhero film that just doesn’t seem to want to ever come out, and a guilty pleasure indie flick.

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While this past week had a few fun trailers, unfortunately there wasn’t anything that I’m going to be waiting in line opening night to see.  It seems that we have fully transitioned out of the exciting summer films and are now getting prepared for the mediocre releases that didn’t quite make the summer block.

This week we have a couple big budget films that I feel obligated to talk about, a couple smaller indies I’m a little more excited for, and — Moon Nazis!

Real Steel

Click to see the trailer

There was an early teaser that came out for this last year, but this is the first chance that we really get to see the story of this film.  On one level you instantly want to dismiss this film as “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots: The Movie,” sure to be filled with terrible dialogue and cheesy one-liners.  But on another level you hope that this interesting premise might actually turn out to be a fresh take on inspiring boxing films.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men, The Prestige) is usually pretty decent in whatever he does, but who I would be most interested to see is Evangeline Lilly in this role, who is most famous as Kate from Lost.  Although she was in The Hurt Locker for a bit, this will definitely be her biggest step into features.

While part of me is excited to see some fun robot violence, I feel ultimately this film has to disappoint.  Everyone is going to be expecting Transformers quality CGI, but there is no way they had the budget to pull that off.  And, I get the feeling that people are going to want this film to have more heart that it will end up having.

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(Even though it’s been over for a while, there’s still some reviews to squeeze out of SXSW!)

The opening scene of Fambul Tok is as powerful as any documentary could hope for: A few dozen Sierra Leone villagers circle a campfire—the social center of their tiny community—one of them stands and accuses another, her own uncle, of slaughtering her family during the 1991 civil war. The gathering becomes a tribunal as the leader reiterates the charges and then asks the accused if they are accurate. And then, instead of handing down a sentence, the leader asks the man’s accuser if she forgives him. She does.

It’s everything an opening scene should be: engaging, tense, and a capsulation of the film.

Fambul Tok, which is Sierra Leonean for “family talk,” refers to this process, where, instead of charging one with a crime and judging him with a jury of his peers, justice is replaced with forgiveness in the hope of fostering peace. This method, its application and merits, are the focus of the film as explored by director Sara Terry and her guide John Caulker, himself a victim of the Sierra Leonean atrocities.

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While there were plenty of large Summer blockbusters to preview this week, they all seemed to fall short on originality and just show us the same overdone action styles that have become popular over the past few years (Conan the Barbarian).  Instead, I thought it was the perfect time to do a spotlight on some of the more obscure independent films coming up, right in the middle of this year’s Sundance hits finding distributers and buzz beginning to form around the film showing at Cannes.

This week we have two breakout hits from Sundance, one disturbing foreign thriller premiering at Cannes, and a documentary that is food for your soul.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Click to see the trailer

Yes!  There is a third Olsen sister and she can act!  While this is only Elizabeth Olsen’s second feature since appearing that in Mary-Kate & Ashley videos as a kid, this film could definitely be a break-out role for her.

The other performance to watch in this trailer is from John Hawkes, an underrated but diverse actor that always delivers solid work in some great projects.  You may know him from his comedic role on HBO’s Eastbound and Down, or from his Oscar nominated role as Teardrop in Winter’s Bone last year.  This lesser-known cast could be set to become of the strongest ensemble performances of the year.

This film is going to be a hard one to miss, combining strong storytelling with powerful performances.  LA Weekly describes the film as “a triller that shifts nearly imperceptibly between dream, memory, and reality.”  The subtle psychological element of this trailer is sure to make for an intriguing film.

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As one of those people who still reads a newspaper every day, the thought of an inside look at how a giant daily works makes me pretty excited. As a fan of movies like The Philadelphia Story, All the President’s Men and The Paper, I’ve always hoped for more of a documentary approach to the subject matter that tells the real, inside story.

It looks like my wish is coming true in the form of a documentary called Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times. Making its debut at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the Andrew Rossi-directed doc gives audiences unprecedented access to the most powerful newspaper in the world.

It tells the story of a once dominating media force now grappling with the implications of the web and digital content as well as questions of its very relevancy in a changing world. It looks pretty fascinating and to get you interested in the film as much as I am, we’ve got the new trailer for it to share today.

The film will be released by Magnolia Pictures later this year. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Tim Harrison is an animal advocate and police officer in Ohio who spends his days responding to calls about exotic animals that have escaped or have become unmanageable. We’ve all heard the stories about escaped chimpanzees, snakes, alligators, and other pets, and rarely do they end well. As Harrison says, “There are no happy endings.”

The mere fact that Harrison stays busy in Ohio, of all places, is alarming. However, exotic pet ownership and trade is largely unregulated, and many states don’t require any type of license to own a potentially lethal pet.

Director Michael Webber tackles the emotionally charged issue of exotic pet ownership in the United States. He takes us undercover at an exotic pet auction where monkeys, cubs, poisonous snakes and other exotics are casually obtained by anyone who has the money to purchase the animals. Plenty of children were in attendance.

Many people don’t think about the consequences of buying a cute lion cub that will eventually weigh close to 600 pounds when fully grown. Often the owner simply lets the pet go in the wild. There have been so many pythons let loose in Florida that entire ecosystems are changing due to unfettered breeding and overpopulation.

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This week’s pick salutes World War II’s most decorated hero. Audie L. Murphy stars as himself in the 1955 film To Hell and Back directed by Jesse Hibbs. The film was based on Murphy’s autobiography of the same name.

The film also stars Marshall Thompson (Pvt. Johnson), Charles Drake (Pvt. Brandon), Jack Kelly (Pvt. Kerrigan), Paul Picerni (Pvt. Valentino), Richard Castle (Pvt. Kovak), and Art Aragon (Pvt. Sanchez).

The film opens up as a young Murphy struggles to keep his family’s farm going during the Great Depression. When Murphy’s father deserts the family, young Audie drops out of school in order to work full time and now become the head of the household for his younger siblings and ill mother.

When World War II breaks out, Audie takes the advice of his friend and neighbor to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corp and go career in order to provide for his siblings and older sister due to the death of their mother. Audie is denied due to his small stature and his boyish looks. After being rejected by the Navy and Paratroopers, he enlists in the U.S. Army to become an infantry man in the 3rd Infantry Division, the “Marne Division”.

Audie hits the beaches of North Africa in November 1942 to help the British and Free French forces drive out the German and Italian forces who are being sandwiched into Tunisia by the advancing British 8th Army moving East from Egypt. As soon as he joins the men of the 3rd Division, he is ridiculed due to how young he appears. The men of his squad soon take a liking to him after he’s proven himself, especially Johnson (Thompson), Brandon (Drake), and Kerrigan (Kelly) who become his pals throughout their campaigns together.

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Kumaré is a good documentary. It (somewhat) does what it sets out to do, does it well, takes some daring chances, scores some laughs, and is a nice-enough movie-going experience. It’s premise is ingenious: Vikram Gandhi, a 30-ish lad of Indian descent, poses as the “enlightened guru” Kumaré and amasses a following among some of the spiritually attuned (and gullible) residents of Arizona.

Dispensing platitudinal and often comically obtuse wisdom, he nevertheless ingratiates himself to his followers, who soon (and not surprisingly) take him to be their confidant, asking questions far less abstract and, personally, much deeper than the lofty spiritual conundrums he poses.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I had the good fortune to meet Becoming Santa’s star, Jack, on the shuttle ferrying us from the horrendous labyrinthine beast of the Austin Convention Center to the heavenly outpost that is the Alamo Drafthouse. Yes, I know I’m mixing mythologies there, so bite me.

Anyway, I met and chatted with Jack before knowing whom he was or even that he had a documentary in the festival, and for those fifteen minutes we conversed, he was just as charming and articulate fellow as he comes across in Jeff Myers’ sweet little documentary.

So I met and liked the guy and ended up watching and liking his film, too. But the two likes are separate from each other; rest assured I’d tear it apart like an eel on a horse head if it were bad (as I well some other films whose directors I likewise met).

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