Washington remains great summer movie

In theaters today: Live Free or Die Hard
In theaters Friday: Ratatouille, Sicko

New on DVD: Behind the Mask, Black Snake Moan, Shooter

Celebrity birthday: Tobey Maguire turns 32 today. Hey Tobes, I picture you spending your birthday strutting around to “Staying Alive” like you did for 10 tangential minutes in Spider-Man 3. If only we were all that cool…

In case you missed it late last week, here is Harrison Ford on the set of the fourth Indiana Jones film, set in 1957 and rumored to be titled Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods. He looks pretty good for his age (dude’s 65, by the way), and is definitely still in shape. I wonder what he’s thinking about…Nazis? Marian Ravenwood? Where’s Lucas with my latte?

This weekend, I was in the mood for a good summer movie. Not the blockbuster action-comedy kind of summer popcorn flick, but a summer movie that reminded me of the golden summers of my youth. Summers stocked with all-day bike rides, afternoons slow and unrushed enough to make way for the discovery of hiding places and rope swings in the woods. Rewatching George Washington fit the bill. Written and directed by David Gordon Green, who also did one of the best love stories of all time, All The Real Girls, George Washington is a rich, lingering portrait of a group of southern pre-teens who are forced to deal with a tragedy that strikes their underprivileged ranks. Any fans of cinematography and esoteric characterization should definitely see Green’s films. If you give it some time to soak in, you’ll enjoy George Washington too.

Speaking of films that make me feel like a kid. Here is the first still from Spike Jonze’s adaptation of children’s classic Where The Wild Things Are. Look at that wolf suit! The book is a classic for children and adults, and I fully trust Jonze, and co-writer Dave Eggers, to turn Maurice Sendak’s 48 pages (of mostly drawings) into a dynamite feature-length film. Unfortunately, Wild Things doesn’t arrive until next year.

Here’s the trailer for Margot at the Wedding. I have very conflicted emotions about writer/director Noah Baumbach. He co-wrote the worst, most misguided and disheveled Wes Anderson film to date, The Life Aquatic, and his post-college drama Kicking and Screaming was self-indulgent and unfocused. But I really enjoyed The Squid and the Whale, which I consider to be two fine acts of filmmaking. There was no traditional third act as far as I’m concerned (and the movie’s 75 minute run-time supports my view). This trailer didn’t impress me, since much of the flair that the Anderson-produced Squid showcased seems to be gone. What remains of course is Baumbach’s predictable dependence on the now cliche ‘70s-ish Woody Allen-Eric Rohmer-Hal Ashby tableau. But I’m no elitist, I’ll check it out on DVD when it arrives at the end of the year.

And finally, Germany is really putting its foot down on Scientology. Read here as a spokesman for the country says the upcoming production Valkyrie will not be allowed to film at German military bases as long as Tom Cruise, member of the “Scientology cult,” stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a real-life colonel who attempted to assassinate Hitler with a brief case bomb in 1944. I’m not really a fan of Cruise, but, holy cow, the rest of the cast and crew are superb: Bryan Singer, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Eddie Izzard!