25th Hour (IMDB) (Netflix)
Tomorrow, drug dealer Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) goes up the river for seven years, but today he's saying goodbye to his friends, one of whom probably ratted him out--perhaps his girlfriend (Rosario Dawson). He's also more than a little doubtful of his longevity as an inmate. This is the first post-9/11 New York film, directed by Spike Lee, from David Benioff's adaptation of his novel. Who better to do it than Spike?

I haven't seen all of his films, but this is the best of what I have seen--less self-conscious and less confrontational, and the better for it. There aren't that many twists in the plot--this is pretty much about a guy who's going to prison in the morning and doing what most people would do in that situation--spend time with intimates, find someone to take care of his dog, have a meal with his Dad. So hold the action, go heavy on the subtext and characterization, watch out for the unmarked flashbacks, and add a couple of Spike Lee Joint side orders, which are wonderful monologues/montages by Norton and Brian Cox (as the father). These two sequences (the second in particular) lifted what would have been a very competent-but-unremarkable genre piece into something more mature, more profound, more...poignant, taking on a New Yorker's love/hate for the city, and even more affecting, the road that could easily have been taken. As the audience member behind me noted, it's "heavy," but not exactly a downer.

Talk to Her (IMDB) (Netflix)
Real men don't let a little thing like a coma come between them and their loved ones, at least not in the imagination of Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). Benigno and Marco each have someone in the vegetative way, but approach their circumstances differently, one seeing it as problem, the other, an opportunity (and what might that be...). This leads to, as the IBM manuals used to say, "unpredictable results."

Almodóvar's typical looseness with reality is more under control here, mostly contained in some plays- and a movie-within-a-movie pieces (the movie bit is also a good litmus test to see if your date has any prudish tendencies, but is mainly good clean--we hope--fun). Javier Cámara, as Benigno, does a really subtle job with a role that could come off the rails any time. And while Talk to Her works on the whole, there are a few too-convenient moments, and at least one missed opportunity (the second bullfight) that would have built in some tension and generated more affection for two of the characters. It's also too languid by half, making this relatively short 112-minute film play like 150. A Golden Globe nominee for best foreign film, however, so somebody likes this a lot, but for me, more work has been done with less concept in other films.

Nicholas Nickleby (IMDB) (Netflix)
This Charles Dickens classic has been remade more often than Enron's financial results, from Victorian theatrical productions to a 1903 silent film to a nine-hour Broadway play. And why not, it's got all the elements of a great populist yarn: evil financiers, abused street urchins, beleagured families and heroic youths railing against oppression. The Nicklebys, minus the recently deceased father, unwittingly put themselves at the mercy of Uncle Ralph (Christopher Plummer), whose unctuous manner poorly masks his exploitive tendencies, and even blood relatives aren't safe. Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam) ends up teaching at Mr. Squeers's abusive school for unwashed boys, and Sis (Romola Garai) gets fixed up with one of Ralph's leering investors.

A host of other character actors, including Jim Broadbent, Edward Fox, Tom Courtney, Nathan Lane and Juliet Stevenson, fill in the supporting roles with relish and wit--there's no subordination to the leads here and they make the most of their screen time. There's also no grayscaling in the personas; you're either bad person or a good one, and character development is nil over the two-plus hours. No matter, this story is about bad guys getting their comeuppance, and us enjoying it. Some of the logic of the ending escapes me, but by that time I had been well won over by the humor, heart and warmth.

Adaptation (IMDB) (Netflix)
Every writer has a story about being blocked—the humorist Robert Benchley supposedly started one such day by typing "The" on a fresh sheet of paper, stopped, went to a bar and drank himself stupid, returned to the typewriter that evening newly inspired and continued with "hell with it." Then he went to bed. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (a real person who wrote Being John Malkovich and the upcoming Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) has to adapt "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (a real author, played by Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper is the real-life orchid obsessive John LaRoche). Played by Nicholas Cage, Charlie is a successful but self-conscious wreck on his best days who can't get a handle on how to approach the screenplay. Adding to his misery is twin brother Donald, who decides to also take up Charlie's profession, but blithely foregoing the angst of realizing how hard this stuff is to do.

It may be a common premise and seemingly too self-referential, but the Kaufman boys (the real ones--correction, Charlie's real, Donald isn't, but shares screenwriting credits, which is a clue for what's in store) sail from humorous reality for more absurd shores, spinning into a recursive loop that tickles the brain and tweaks the screenwriting game, including real-life guru Robert McKee. The fun comes from being in on the joke, and is essential for appreciating the third act. Director Spike Jonze is a clear match for this kind of conceptual material because he can do it without being campy, and Cage's innate intensity serves him well, especially when he's playing Charlie. Lots of fun.