The Women (Diane English, 2008). This remake of the 1939 George Cukor-directed comedy had been in development for so long that I swear we reported on it on the movie review radio show I co-hosted in college. That show ended in 1993. Watching the finished product, it’s easy to understand what inspired the reluctance. Similarly, the easiest explanation for the project finally coming to fruition is sheer attrition: Diane English must have simply outlasted the studio execs with sounder taste. As nice as it is to see the rarity of a movie filled with female characters, it would be nicer if they weren’t a motley, painfully unfunny collection of cliches and stereotypes. A band of good (or at least respectable) actresses get painfully stranded in the dreadful mess, none more tragically than Annette Bening, whose character varies so wildly from scene to scene that she seems to have no consistent connection to herself.

World’s Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait, 2009). The third feature film from stand-up howler turned writer-director Goldthwait is a fantastically dark comedy. Robin Williams plays a beleaguered father who responds to a family tragedy by concocting an explanation for what happened that is less mortifying than the truth. The lie builds and swells until a sort of sentimental folk hero quality surround him, elevating him to a level of respect previously unknown in his festering failure of a life. Goldthwait proves to be a skillful satirist and a properly relentless adherent to his own grim vision. He’s also a better writer than director at this point; the film occasionally gets stuck in a bland procession of predictable visuals. That doesn’t hurt that much, though. Overall the film is devilishly bracing.

RockNRolla (Guy Ritchie, 2008). Another exercise in tough guy style from Ritchie, RockNRolla may not represent great artistic growth, but it is just clever enough to make it worthwhile. The film brings together low-grade thugs and sleazy high rollers as the banter and batter their way through some complicated real estate scams and other smeared morality chicanery. It’s hard to argue against assertions that there’s a lot of empty posturing inserted in place of thoughtful drama, but the movie is dynamic and entertaining while it unfolds. There’s also a nicely abrasive performance by the ever-reliable Tom Wilkinson.

In the Loop (Armando Iannucci, 2009). A seasoned British TV director makes his feature debut with a farcical comedy about international diplomacy, depicting the governmental drones who debate and institute far-reaching policies as foul-mouthed clowns constantly spinning out of control. And he makes it seem about right. There’s a constant stream of barbed dialogue, sprinkling in vulgarities more frequently than punctuation. Unfortunately, all of the characters speak in precisely the same way and eventually the rhythmless rush of bitterly bitten-off words becomes redundant. The one standout among the cast is David Rasche, bringing a garish delight and egotistical cluelessness to a role clearly modeled on Donald Rumsfeld.

Blindness (Fernando Meirelles, 2008). The film version of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago’s acclaimed novel does the original work no favors. It’s not just matters of tone or performance that undo the film. As presented in this form, there are huge problems with the plot that send the film swerving towards the detestable. In the film, an epidemic of sudden, unexplained blindness strikes an unnamed major city, leading to those afflicted being quarantined in abominable conditions. One woman, trying to stay with her husband, fakes her own blindness in order to be in the makeshift sanatorium. The film is so committed to playing out its allegory of social breakdown when people are under great duress that it ignores for too long the logical responses she would have to dire situations, most notably when a vicious band of interned patients begins oppressing the others. Meirelles remains a director with a knack for piercing moments, and some of the bleakest sequences are presented with wrenching power. He makes the film with a certain amount of skill, but he can’t overcome the story flaws effectively enough to invest the film with real purpose.

(Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”)