Movie-O-Meter: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Could Be the Summer’s Best Blockbuster

SEE IT NOW!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The improbable rise of the apes continues, both in the film’s narrative and in the minds of critics, who continue to swoon over this series, written by husband and wife team Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The brilliant chimp Caesar (played by Andy Serkis), a decade after the events of the first film, remains a shockingly convincing and sympathetic hero, a mightily conflicted Shakespearian protagonist stuck amongst war-monger apes and humans, alike. The film takes its sweet time to build to its shattering climax, also an anomaly in a season where most films—action or otherwise—are all too quick to try and appeal to a jacked-up audience’s fast-twitch ADD tendencies. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

WAIT FOR DVD

Venus in Fur: A thoroughly striking film from the ever-controversial Roman Polanski, based on the Tony-winning Broadway play by David Ives. It concerns the extensive auditioning of a bedraggled actress (Emmanuelle Seigner, Polanski’s wife) by the director (Polanski doppelganger Mathieu Amalric) of a theatrical adaptation of the infamous Austrian S&M novel. The power dynamics between the couple—always a Polanski obsession—shift back and forth until the lines get sufficiently blurred to set up the film’s fascinating conclusive flourish. We suggest waiting for the DVD only because the nature of the production—two people in an empty theater, lashing out at one another—would likely play as well on a flat-screen as it would on a silver one. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%