Flick picks for the weekend

Wild Grass, the latest from Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour and a certified member of the French New Wave) is at the Detroit Film Theatre. The plot seems intriguing. A man finds a woman’s purse. The woman was the victim of a robbery. The finder becomes infatuated with the purse’s owner though he hasn’t met her. The DFT says the film is a “playful meditation” on coincidence and desire......The City of Your Final Destination (at the Landmark Maple), has a great cast with Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg, about an academic seeking to write a biography of a deceased famous writer, with conflicting answers from family members agreeing to the project. The movie is by well-known James Ivory (The Remains of the Day, Room with a View) and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the novel by Peter Cameron. The topic – books - the cast, the director and screenwriter creds, all make for an interesting pick.....And a couple of passes: Eat Pray Love. Based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-seller this is sure to appeal to all the romantically lost and narcissistic women who also fantasize about exotic travel and food though less so prayer unless it’s in a Buddhist ashram. I suppose Julia Roberts is the perfect pick. She has long held artistic pretensions, no doubt still trying to shed her earlier very superficial Runaway Bride and Lady in Red images. There are also gargantuan product tie-ins. No wonder: the movie has spinoff sales galore written all over it given its targeted demographic that likes to spend spend spend.....Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I have a real problem with Canadian (except Quebec) movies of any sort because, well, they’re usually quite crappily made. This, plus another rock/slacker/teen story based on a comic book is a little too much. Enough with t-shirt wearing, pimply-faced, immature guy flicks already.