Foxx, Diaz, Renner will have you weeping

Spring drama is a dying breed — and as for summer drama: R.I.P. But sometimes the lack of studio financing or an overcrowded winter schedule means that you may get a quality drama while the flowers bloom. Keep an eye out for Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker,” as a possible breakthrough role. Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Daiz, Mickey Rourke and director Stephen Soderbergh check in with dramas that will try to find success in spring.

“The Soloist”

Video   ‘The Soloist’: April 24 Jamie Foxx plays a schizophrenic, homeless musician who is discovered by an L.A. Times reporter (Robert Downey, Jr.).

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, Lisa Gay Hamilton
Director: Joe Wright
Story: Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Lopez (Downey) meets Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) in the Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles and discovers that he’s a musical prodigy who’s also a schizophrenic. Their friendship transforms both of their lives.
Worth seeing? Perhaps. Originally, this film was scheduled to come out during Oscar season, but was pushed to April. At the time, Paramount told the L.A. Times that the economy “might have made November an awkward time to release a movie about homelessness.” Does the film’s release mean the economy is all better now? L.A. Times writer Patrick Goldstein thought it might be more about the Paramount’s own lack of funds to market the film. Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells wrote that the film “is thought in some quarters to be a little schmaltzy.” Watching Jamie Foxx’s performance in the trailer, it’s a bit hard not to think about Downey’s comical “Tropic Thunder” speech about the dangers of going “full retard.”
Web site: http://www.soloistmovie.com/
Release date: April 24

“The Hurt Locker”
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Story: Set during the Iraq War, Renner stars as the leader of an EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) team, who, along with his men (Mackie, Geraghty) must try to figure out where the next bomb will appear and how to disarm it, all while dealing with the psychological and emotional strains of the job.
Worth seeing? Yes. Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells compared watching the film to “having your heart operated on by a construction worker wielding a power pneumatic nail-driver.” He added, “The high-voltage stuff, which happens often, is, no joke, on the level of the armed creature-hunting and creature-evading sequences in ‘Aliens.’” The Playlist.com agreed, calling the film, “riveting and tremendous.” Though set in Iraq, The Playlist wrote that the film “is an apoliticized look at adrenaline junkies who happen to be EOD experts.” Does that mean that it can escape the Iraq War film curse?
Web site: NA
Release date: June 26

“My Sister’s Keeper”

New Line Cinema

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack, Jason Patric
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Story: A 13-year-old girl (Breslin) brings a lawsuit against her parents (Diaz, Patric) when she learns that she was conceived to be a bone marrow donor for her sister (Vassilieva), who has leukemia. Baldwin plays the lawyer that takes Breslin’s case.
Worth seeing? Unlikely. Cassavetes (“John Q,” “The Notebook”) loves melodrama and this looks to be a three-tissue weeper. Elle and Dakota Fanning were originally set to star as the two sisters, but, according to Variety, they pulled out after Dakota learned she’d need to shave her head for the role.
Web site: NA
Release date: June 26

“The Informers”

Video   ‘The Informers’: April 24 Oscar-nominee Mickey Rourke plays a kidnapping thug in "The Informers," a sprawling drama set in Los Angeles in 1983. Access Hollywood

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Amber Heard, Rhys Ifans, Jon Foster
Director: Gregor Jordan
Story: Based on the book of short stories by Bret Easton Ellis, the film takes a look at hedonism in early ’80s Los Angeles through interweaving stories. Foster realizes his girlfriend (Heard) is sleeping around. Foster’s father (Thornton) is trying to patch up his marriage to Basinger, but having an affair with Ryder. Rourke gets Brad Renfro involved in a kidnapping to make some extra cash.
Worth seeing? No. Cinematical’s Scott Weinberg called the film “nearly unwatchable” after seeing it at Sundance, and added that it was “an ugly, blank slate of a film, one that feels like a rough outline for one of the better Ellis adaptations.” CinemaBlend.com’s Kelly West called the film “an empty examination of overindulgence.” This was the late Renfro’s final film.
Web site: http://www.theinformers.com/index.php 
Date: April 24

“The Girlfriend Experience”
Starring: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Glenn Kenney, Peter Zizzo
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Story: Grey stars as a Manhattan call girl who offers more than a cheap thrill, she offers “the girlfriend experience,” which includes more personal time, kissing, small talk and intimacy beyond mere sex.
Worth seeing? Perhaps. After seeing it at Sundance, Cinematical’s James Rocchi wrote, “Soderbergh's made an intimate and yet honest movie about honesty and intimacy.” Grey is an adult-film actress, but Rocchi added that the on-screen sex in the film is at a minimum. “Soderbergh is less interested in sex work than he is in work,” Rocchi wrote. The cast is all non-actors and Soderbergh shot the film in 16 days using a digital camera.
Web site: NA
Release date: May 22

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