Two days. Two movies. Two reasons to see "The Brothers Bloom" and "Whatever Works" at the State Theatre: 1) Both are highly enjoyable films, and 2) Unless George Lucas picked out your home sound system and Ford Mustang made your living room furniture and a team of taste experts personally approved your microwave popcorn, you're guaranteed a better moviegoing experience at the State than in your home. It's just a fact, folks.

"The Brothers Bloom" is Rian Johnson's affectionate homage to old-world con movies - but with a quirky and thoroughly modern bent. The characters travel by train and steamboat and dress like they live in the '40s, but turn around and use cell phones and drive Lamborghinis, so it's impossible to define the era from which they hail. But maybe that's just another of Johnson's winking cons on the audience - one of many throughout the film. It's great to see Mark Ruffalo cut loose from his typical shoegazer roles to play a snappy, loveable scoundrel, and Rachel Weisz to trade in her normally restrained intellectualism for a sweetly manic eccentricity. The whole cast, really - rounded out by Adrien Brody and a fantastic Rinko Kikuchi ("Babel") - is flawless. The ending is surprisingly bittersweet, but everything leading up to it is rollicking fun.

"Whatever Works" treads some familiar territory if you're a Woody Allen fan - but if you're A Woody Allen fan, you know that's territory worth treading. As with so many Allen films, here again we have an aging misanthrope who ends up comically mismatched with a young ingénue, but this time around, Allen has passed off the misanthrope hat to someone who wears it with equally dry pizzazz: Larry David. Except for an amusing tendency to break the fourth wall (an Allen hallmark) and a soft spot for a Southern runaway (Evan Rachel Wood), there's not much to distinguish the Larry David of "Whatever Works" from the Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." But if you like Woody Allen and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," that's not a bad thing. Lots of great Woody one-liners here (when a straight character swaps breakup stories with a gay character, the former observes: "They all hurt you in the end, every woman - male or female"), while Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr make for a strong supporting cast. It may not be "Annie Hall" - and really, can any follow-up Allen movie ever be? - but if you're a Woody fan, "Whatever Works" is still a can't-miss.

See both "The Brothers Bloom" and "Whatever Works" this Wednesday and Thursday at the State Theatre. For tickets and showtime information, click here.

Go to Source »