Ben Affleck’s career has been on a slippery slope over the past few years.  He appeared in three films last year, each time in a mere supporting role. In 2008 he appeared in no films at all.  An argument could be made that the fallow period begain in 2003, when Affleck began an over-publicized romance with Jennifer Lopez. I’m not saying that the two things are related, but, let’s face it, the release of “Gigli,” in which he starred with J-Lo, didn’t exactly give Affleck a career boost.  From that embarrassment, things only seemed to get worse.  And I’m not even counting his breakup with Lopez.

To his credit, Affleck has been trying to reinvent himself.  In 2007, he co-scripted and directed “Gone Baby Gone,” which was well received; and this year will see the release of “The Town,” which he also co-scripted (from Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves) and directed. Clearly, he has taken the hint from many other performers who have discovered that, while the public might be fickle in their taste in movie stars, a capable director can generally stay employed.

With “The Town,” Affleck is obviously making the most of his opportunity, by taking the hybrid path of actor-director.  It’s a prudent hedge: even if the public fails to turn out to see Affleck the actor, Affleck the director need not take the blame.

From the press kit:

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang’s latest job, when they briefly took a hostage–bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name… and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug….not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path.

– Warner Bros.

This looks like the sort of film that Woody Allen would have made if he made films in France.  Well, actually, he does make films in France.  And in England and Spain, as well.  Allen claims he can no longer afford to make films in the United States, where films are churned out merely to make a profit.  Really?

More to the point, Allen has discovered that Europeans finance filmmaking much in the same way that Americans finance sports stadiums: with public funds.  The city of Barcelona, for example, put up 10% of the budget for Allen’s film “Vicky Christina Barcelona.”  What more do you need to know about the difference between the cultures of “Old Europe” (to borrow a phrase from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld), and the United States?

One difference between a real French film and a Woody Allen version of one: the female stars all look well beyond the “barely legal” age.  On the whole, this is a hallmark of French films.  Most of the players, while attractive, have a generally lumpy and mussed appearance that would look quite alien in a Hollywood film.  And while the female leads might appear a bit younger than the men, the age disparity isn’t so great that you feel you’re watching a remake of “Manhattan.”  Refreshing, especially if you couldn’t stomach the original version of “Manhattan.”

From the press kit:

CHANGE OF PLANS (LE CODE A CHANGÉ), is a delicious comedy of manners from acclaimed Oscar- and César-nominated writer/director Danièle Thompson (COUSIN COUSINE, LA BÛCHE, JET LAG, AVENUE MONTAIGNE). The film centers around a summer dinner party where ten acquaintances, each attempting to mask their own personal troubles, come together for an evening of food, wine and friendship. It’s not long before the couples begin revealing their dissatisfaction with their partners and it becomes obvious that they are planning or having affairs. The all-star ensemble cast includes Dany Boon (MICMACS), Emanuelle Seigner (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY), Karin Viard (PARIS), and Marina Hands (LADY CHATTERLEY).

– IFC Films

Harry Nilsson was the sort of performer your mother would’ve wanted you to be, assuming she didn’t know anything about Nilsson’s personal life, which she probably didn’t. Nilsson wrote pop songs that other singers were born to cover, although Nilsson himself had a voice that other performers would’ve died for, and of course many of them from that era actually did.

His quirkiness as a popular artist ensured the inconsistent sales of his albums, and at one time he was in danger of being remembered primarily as John Lennon’s drinking buddy during the latter’s extended lost weekend in Los Angeles in 1973. But quirkiness has a way of leading a second life, and perhaps this film will give that to Nilsson’s unique career.

From the press kit:

Directed by Emmy and Grammy nominee John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon, We Believe), the powerful and incredibly emotional WHO IS HARRY NILSSON combines compelling interviews with Harry’s friends and colleagues, rare and never-before-seen archival footage, home movies and excerpts from Nilsson’s recently discovered oral autobiography.

The star-studded documentary features interviews with Micky Dolenz, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Al Kooper, Randy Newman, Yoko Ono, Van Dyke Parks, the Smothers Brothers, Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams, Robin Williams, Brian Wilson and many more as well as members of the Nilsson family. The result is a vibrant and definitive portrayal of an uncompromising artist.

– Lormer Films

Who says a best-selling pop-econ book can’t be turned into an entertaining film?  It seems to have a bit of everything: sex, violence, romance and junk food.  And it’s educational.  Can’t wait!

From the press kit:

FREAKONOMICS is the highly anticipated film version of the phenomenally bestselling book about incentives-based thinking by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Like the book, the film examines human behavior with provocative and sometimes hilarious case studies, bringing together a dream team of filmmakers responsible for some of the most acclaimed and entertaining documentaries in recent years: Academy Award® winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Casino Jack and the United States of Money), Academy Award® nominees Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Academy Award® nominee Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) and Seth Gordon (The King of Kong).

– Magnolia Pictures

Finally, in a season that has seen a dearth of date films, a picture that will make you long for the return of drive-ins.

From the press kit:

A remake of the controversial 1979 cult classic, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE retells the horrific tale of writer Jennifer Hills, who takes a retreat from the city to a charming cabin in the woods to start on her next book. But Jennifer’s presence in the small town attracts the attention of a few morally deprived locals who set out one night to teach this city girl a lesson.

Starring: SARAH BUTLER, RODNEY EASTMAN, JEFF BRANSON, DANIEL FRANZESE, CHAD LINDBERG, ANDREW HOWARD

Directed By: STEVEN R. MONROE

– Anchor Bay Films

British film actress Helen Mirren has called herself a “man in disguise.”  A revelation for the tabloids?  Is she a secret cross-dresser, or does she have some sort of sexual quirk that has hitherto escaped public scrutiny?

No, far from it.  In fact, she’s merely admitting to feeling an aversion to anything overtly emotional or histrionic.  As reported in the Toronto Sun, Mirren said, “I don’t really like romantic movies very much and I hate talking about feelings, so I’m definitely a man in disguise.  I don’t even really like seeing people kiss in movies. This movie is about as romantic as I can handle.”

The movie she was referring to, of course, is “Love Ranch,” the new feature in which she stars with “Goodfellas” icon Joe Pesci.  Based on a real-life story, the pair plays Grace and Charlie Bontempo (surname translation: “goodtime”), the owners of Nevada’s first legal brothel.

While the film might be pushing the red zone on Mirren’s personal romantic meter, the role didn’t come out of the blue, as “Love Ranch” was directed by her husband, Taylor Hackford, who admits that the project was designed as an opportunity to work with Mirren again.  The last time they worked together was 25 years ago, in “White Nights.”

As for Mirren’s aversion to that very American pastime of “talking about feelings,” that would seem as much a British characteristic as a merely masculine one.

What do you get when you mix “The Blair Witch Project” with a Goth internet porn site?  “Suicide Girls Must Die,” obviously.  Clearly, this is the DVD everyone’s been waiting for.  That’s assuming people still wait for DVDs.  Brought to you by First Look Studios, the same lovely folks responsible for “Suicide Girls: Guide to Living,” and “2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams,” not to mention “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” this latest effort promises to be a classic of the genre.  Just what the genre is, I’m not sure.

From the press kit:

In an unscripted “reality horror” plot that pays homage to the pierced and tattooed pinups of SuicideGirls.com, twelve SuicideGirls  calendar models find themselves fighting for their lives inside a remote cabin in Maine. Thanks to an array of hidden cameras as well as portable cameras the edgy, sexy, alternative beauties are carrying, viewers get to see their terror firsthand from every angle. Sawa Suicide directs.

– First Look Studios

If the latest Matt Damon vehicle, “The Adjustment Bureau,” has a familiar paranoid alternate reality sensibility to it, it’s because it’s the latest rendering of a Philip K. Dick story (the ninth, to be exact) in film.  Dick, it will be remembered, was the wizard behind the curtain for the stories that were eventually adapted as “Blade Runner,” “Total Recall,” “A Scanner Darkly,” “Minority Report,” and “Paycheck,” the latter starring Damon’s longtime buddy Ben Affleck.

Dick considered himself to be as much as a visionary as a teller of tales, and many of his works reflect turmoil in his personal life, including substance abuse, as well as the various political and social trends that were prevalent from the early cold war era through the Watergate period.  Taken as a whole, he saw his body of work as a kind of intellectual and philosophical autobiography.  You might say he’s a darker Ray Bradbury on acid.

While it’s difficult to say that any sci-fi writer is ahead of his time (after all, in most cases, that’s their stock-in-trade), in Dick’s case, it’s fair to say that the world finally caught up with him.  He died prematurely in 1982, and he lived just long enough to see his cult following begin to develop.

The film stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael Kelly and Terence Stamp.  It was written and directed by George Nolfi (writer of Ocean’s Twelve, co-writer of The Bourne Ultimatum).

From the press kit:

Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Matt Damon stars in the thriller The Adjustment Bureau as a man who glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he’s ever loved across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York.

On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris (Damon) meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt)—a woman unlike any he’s ever known. But just as he realizes he’s falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart.

David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself—the men of The Adjustment Bureau—who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path…or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her.

– Universal Pictures

Whenever you hear a film actor utter the words, “We’ve changed the rules…we’ve crossed the line…,” you know you’re in for an evening’s worth of good, clean entertainment.

This new film starring Adrian Brody (“The Pianist”) and Sarah Polley (“The Sweet Hereafter”), and directed by Vincenzo Natali (“Cypher”), is an update of an idea that’s been kicking around for centuries. The notion of cross-species transformation is at least as old as ancient Greek myths.  It was also explored in the earliest extant novel composed in Latin, The Golden Ass of Apuleius (158 AD).

More recently, Mary Shelley developed the plot line of a scientist synthetically engineering a beast-person in Frankenstein (1818). And H.G. Wells, always keen to illustrate the Law of Unintended Consequences, utilized a similar plot device in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896).

Of course, with the possible exception of H.G. Wells, who might have been familiar with the work Gregor Mendel, these writers were working in the dark with respect to genetic engineering.  Not so, the makers of “Splice”  The essential idea behind the film is now commonplace.  Fortunately, CGI techniques have finally caught up with the demands of sci-fi stories on film, and we’re now able to see an example of what a genetic experiment gone wrong really looks like.  In this case, it’s both creepy and sexy.  Although, come to think of it, that could be a description of Pamela Anderson, or any other celebrity with an addiction to cosmetic enhancements.

From the press kit:

A dark vision of the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. Ignoring legal and ethical boundaries, the scientists, who are romantically involved, introduce human DNA into their experiment and risk the dawn of a  terrifying new era.

– Copperheart Entertainment

Steven Spielberg and J. J. Abrams have been working on a top secret sci-fi project for Paramount – except it’s not so secret anymore.  A teaser trailer for their “Super 8″ was shown to audiences on Friday at “Iron Man 2″ showings.  The film was apparently inspired by Spielberg’s sci-fi efforts of the late seventies and early eighties, i.e. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.”  In fact the teaser bears more than a passing resemblance to some of the  “Close Enounters” sequences in which Richard Dreyfuss is racing around the countryside at night chasing UFO’s.

The “Super 8″ teaser gives little away in terms of plot.  A title card does say, “In 1979, the U.S. Air Force  closed a section of Area 51. All the materials were to be a transported to a secure facility in Ohio,” but no further information is revealed.  Early reports indicate, however, that the plot is a sci-fi mystery.  There has been speculation that the film is a prequel to “Cloverfield,” a 2008 picture produced by Abrams.