Noah

It's a natural progression for indie (male) directors to ascend their guts-and-pennies world for cushy blow-up jobs---Kenneth Branagh eschewed Shakespeare for Thor, David Gordon Green caught a ride out of the South on the Pineapple Express and Spike Lee left Brooklyn for Inside Man. Darren Aronofosky's first big to-do is an odd choice for the guy who came up with "ass to ass"---the story of Noah's Ark. As usual the world is awful, and then The Creator (you know who) tells Noah (Russell Crowe) to build an ark, fill it with animals and his family and the scourges of the earth will be drowned right good. There's some garbage about exiled-angel rock monsters, Noah's teenage sons' shenanigans and about 60 percent of it looks mad fake---like they were going to make it 3D then decided against it---but Noah is incredibly compelling visually, as Aronofosky manages to bend the source text into an environmental allegory about how Man is the worst. It would've been nice to see Jennifer Connelly do more, but it's also just nice to see Jennifer Connelly. As a Bibilical adaptation it makes a great action movie; as part of the Aronofsky canon it sticks out like a rock monster. —Tara Thorne