Spring has always felt like a sort of no-woman's-land when it comes to movies: It's a post-Oscar-season, pre-Memorial Day-blockbuster CGI-fest. Which means that right now, what's playing are all the flicks that studio suits think either won't cut it in the highbrow-award category of all those winter releases or won't crush at the box office in the dog days of summer. Slim pickings.
And yet, there are still some little nuggets of gold to be found amid the dreck. Here's a look at what's catching our eye this month.
The Lincoln Lawyer
We had, shall we say, low expectations for this courtroom drama starring Matthew McConaughey. After all, he's been pretty much dialing it in ever since Fool's Gold (please, let us forget The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), playing that same sort of Southern good ol' boy in substandard "romcom" fare. Enough, already.
But with The Lincoln Lawyer, McConaughey brings the same sort of energy and verve that he did with A Time to Kill, another courtroom drama from back in the day. This time, instead of playing a young, idealistic lawyer, he's playing Mike Haller, a middle-aged, boozing defense lawyer who abandoned his idealism a long time ago in favor of the quick buck and easy case. (The "Lincoln" in the title comes from Haller's propensity for doing all his business from the backseat of his Lincoln as he's ferried around Los Angeles by his street-savvy chauffeur, Earl, played to laconic perfection by Laurence Mason.)
Until, that is, he's handed (thanks to bail bondsman John Leguizamo, hamming it up as always) a case with lots of dollar signs attached to it: A rich playboy (Ryan Philippe) with mommy issues is charged with attempted murder. Did he do it?
The plot's pretty implausible, twisting and turning until everything's been turned inside out and upside down. But with a snappy dialogue and a cast that also includes Marisa Tomei as Haller's ex and William H. Macy as Haller's investigator, we were having too much fun to care.
What we like: It's a hoot; pure escapism. What we don't like: You've forgotten about it as soon as you've left the theater. Go here for the trailer.
Bilal's Stand
Amid a culture that is hostile toward Muslims, independent filmmaker Sultan Sharrief brings us his coming-of-age story that shows a more nuanced image of Islam. The film is based on Sharrief's own struggle growing up in a Muslim household with real and imagined responsibilities while trying to be true to himself and his desire for a better life through a college education.
Bilal, a Muslim high school senior in Detroit, works long hours to keep up both his grades and his family's taxi stand. "The Stand" has been the family's social and financial hub for 60 years, and now Bilal must carry the torch, especially after the death of his father and uncle.
Despite those responsibilities, Bilal secretly submits a college application and takes up ice carving in order to win a scholarship. What ensues is a character-driven story about the chaos in the life of a teenager having to deal with adult situations while also seeking order and balance in his life.
Like the lead character, played convincingly by Julian Gant, Sharrief, a Muslim raised in Michigan, is able to capture the intricacies of Muslim and mainstream life while not passing judgment on either. Bilal literally drives other people to their destinies in his cab, while his own destiny has been determined, despite his desire for a better life and education. The ending of Bilal's Stand is complicated: happiness tinged with sadness, showing the complexity of real-life compromises instead of the classic Hollywood ending where all ends well despite the challenges.
What we like: It is a great story with strong performances that show black Muslim culture that isn't part of the Nation of Islam. What we don't like: The images of women are pretty harsh and lack the sensitivity shown to the male characters. The film is based on a true story, so Sharrief is representing his reality at that time, but still, it can be hard to watch. Go here for the trailer.
Even the Rain
También la lluvia (Even the Rain) takes a familiar trope — it's a movie about making a movie — and places it in an unfamiliar location: the lush and verdant forests of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Mexican heartthrob Gael García Bernal plays Sebastien, a director who's hell-bent on making a movie about Christopher Columbus, a revisionist history that takes the explorer down a notch or five, showing him to be a murdering, raping and pillaging kind of guy. Sebastien and his penurious producer, Costa (Luis Tosar), have picked Bolivia because it's cheap and filled with a bunch of indigenous folks who are happy to work as extras for two bucks a day. Beautiful locale, cheap labor, great story — it's all good, right?
Except that one of the actors playing an Indian leader, Daniel, is also an activist. An activist on a mission. Bolivia has sold off the water rights to a major corporation, and the people are now forced to pay a steep price for their water. Wells are nailed shut. Led by Daniel, the people of Cochabamba take to the streets in protest, shutting down the city and throwing Sebastien's film in peril. After Daniel is beaten and imprisoned and then released, Sebastien and Costa are faced with a life-and-death moral dilemma.
Reader, we were enchanted: Beautiful landscape, gorgeous language, compelling story. Even the Rain (the title refers to how corporations would charge you even for collecting rain), a Spain-France-Mexico collaboration directed by Icíar Bollaín, goes where we wish more American films would go: taking on current-day events and reflecting our lives back at us.
Rango
Cartoons are often thought of and promoted as harmless, child-friendly programming, when the opposite can be true. Take, for instance, Paramount-Nickelodeon's Rango, the story of a lizard that learns that he cannot find water until he finds dirt.
A story line that starts off deep yet accessible is reduced to a bunch of clichés, "borrowed" from classic Westerns like High Noon and Man With No Name. The lead character of Rango, voiced by Johnny Depp, gives an inspired performance in an increasingly flat film.
The dialogue and filmic references are too adult for children, and the story is quite boring and drawn out for adults, especially those who follow Westerns. Unlike Toy Story 3, which had a story to which children and adults could connect, Rango has a schizophrenic existence, not quite aware of where it's going or why, much like the lead character.
The wonderful visual aspects of the film — like the brilliant 3-D animation, photographic quality and live-action sequences — are wasted on tired narrative devices and stereotypical representations of every animal in the group. We've got the token mystical Native American bird, a band of Mexican owls that serve as traveling minstrels, and the wheelchair-bound villain. And we won't mention how the animals' ethnicities are coded in their Mexican and cockney accents, or the love interest that goes into hysterics and then trances for no apparent reason other than stress and being a woman.
The worst part of the film is not even that it isn't really made for kids, recycles every stereotypical characterization of the Western genre or is way too long. It is that it completely stole the plot of Chinatown — a greedy mayor stealing water from a dehydrated town and dumping it elsewhere for profit.
The filmmaker didn't take the time to reference Chinatown in a film full of references. Not even an appearance at the end by Clint Eastwood can make up for this adult film masquerading as a children's film that is boring to boot.
What we like: The visual effects, especially the chase scenes, are pretty awesome. What we don't like: The inappropriate and adult language, stereotypical images and uninspired story line — and the running time is 30 minutes too long. Go here for the trailer.
Nsenga Burton is The Root's editor-at-large. Teresa Wiltz is The Root's senior editor.
Teresa Wiltz is senior staff writer at Stateline, the journalism outlet of the Pew Charitable Trusts.