Month: March 2009

Pegwarmers, as defined in this documentary, are the action figures nobody wants. They’re the plastic personalities that are left behind to gather dust while their more popular, exclusive brethren are snapped up quickly. It’s a geek term finding an ideal home in this exhaustively geeky movie. Lovingly prepared and quick to charm, “Pegwarmers: The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth” is an affectionate ode to the less esteemed pop culture pursuits, returning some dignity to those brave few who boldly go; individuals who take on sci-fi and fantasy pursuits in the face of disdain, eventually finding a safe haven in the company of other like-minded enthusiasts.

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Celebrated director Doris Dorrie’s “Cherry Blossoms” concerns the enriching odyssey of life lived after the cruel death of a loved one, tracing that specific psychological abyss for a German man at ease with his habitual life and now confronted with cataclysmic change. Endearing, modestly tear-jerking, and basted with just enough culture shock oddity to keep the cinematic brew tart and curious, “Blossoms” is an emotionally charged pearl of a film.

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For his third motion picture, director Zack Snyder has returned to a formula that’s served him very well: snatch a well-established event in geek culture, slather it in photographic gloss, and call it a “tribute.” Through a remake of “Dawn of the Dead” and a photocopy interpretation of “300,” Snyder has found his niche seizing the work of others and shaping it into crude, chest-puffing cinema, intended to rile the senses and play to undemanding appetites. With the illustrious graphic novel “Watchmen,” Snyder is forced to wield his adaptation sword carefully, for a single flawed stroke is sure to topple the entire endeavor. I give Snyder credit for his tenacious reverence here, but “Watchmen” is an unimaginative attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle, ultimately shadowing a literary franchise that was better left on the page.

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