Movie Reviews: Just Sex and Nothing Else, Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show and more

SUMMER LOVE Full of the dusty sweat and fly-bitten gore of Sergio Leone's greatest works, Summer Love, the feature-film debut from Polish artist-turned-director Piotr Uklanski, comes touted as the first "kielbasa Western." Rather than merely paying homage, however, Uklanski has said that he used the spaghetti Western as a "found object," plucking the genre's stock characters and set pieces — everything from the steely-eyed stranger to the bombastic shootouts — and repositioning them in a rambling, often beautiful collage. But unlike genre-appropriating spectacles such as Death Proof, Summer Love isn't born of an enthusiasm for movies and moviegoing, but of an appreciation for genre films as seen through the cold, detached lens of a museum theorist. Fittingly, for a director better suited to conceptual art than cinematic storytelling, the film's most memorable moments play with notions of representation. Warnings are carved into hanging portraits with a knife and smeared onto parchment with blood, while one scene shows a broken sheriff drawing tears onto his cheek with a grease pencil. In a pivotal love scene, the bodies themselves are contorted to spell the word "sex"; elsewhere, a grizzled cowboy's piss forms the outline of a naked woman on hot sand. For all his visual punch lines, Uklanski, like so many artists-turned-directors before him, mistakes the screen for an installation piece. By eschewing any attempt at storytelling or character development, a film with all of the Western's fecund imagery and putrid fumes still ends up feeling as flat and distant as a gallery wall. (Grande 4-Plex) (Sam Sweet)

GO  UGLY ME Starring ravishing former telenovela actress Bárbara Mori, the Chilean Ugly Me is a predictable romantic comedy immeasurably redeemed by its likable performances and easygoing charm. Disillusioned after learning of her husband's infidelity, Amanda (Mori), a talented architect, flees cosmopolitan Santiago for the sleepier Valparaí­so, hiding her fetching appearance behind an unflattering wig and fat suit in the hope of finally being valued for her brains. But her new life faces its first test when she gets hired to work alongside Marcelo (Marcelo Mazzarello), a handsome Lothario who views women only as sexual conquests. Deciding to teach him some manners, Amanda woos Marcelo as "Helena" — Amanda sans camouflage — so that she can torment his hormones and then humiliate him. The setup may be Rom-Com 101, but, as directed by Carlos Dabed, Ugly Me is a breezy delight for all the reasons it runs counter to typical Hollywood conventions. For one, the characters are refreshingly grown-up and witty, not infantile jerks hurling crude putdowns disguised as "flirting." For another, Mori (as Helena) and Mazzarello exude a hot-blooded rapport that's sexy and playful, giving the silly proceedings a terrific carnal undercurrent. Mazzarello plays the archetypal cad with self-mocking humor, making his inevitable change of heart deeply satisfying, and Mori, whether buried in bad makeup or dropping jaws in a slinky number, turns out to be a fine actress who just happens to be a total knockout. (Regent Showcase; One Colorado; Mann Plant 16) (Tim Grierson)

July August Productions/Sony Pictures Classics

The Band's Visit: All dressed up and nowhere to go ...

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VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW: 30 DAYS AND 30 NIGHTS ­— HOLLYWOOD TO THE HEARTLAND Even at 100 minutes, this documentary about Vaughn and pals' 2005 bus tour from L.A. to Chicago (and all points in between, oy) plays a little long — mostly due to the "comedy show" part, which is filled with such antiquated bits as "Starbucks customers order the damnedest things," "dudes who show off their iPods in the gym are douche bags" and "techno music's for tone-deaf stoners." Echoing the far more successful Comedians of Comedy, Ari Sandel's backstage-diving doc showcases the grind of life on the road. Only, Vaughn's fab foursome — amiable irritant John Caparulo, nostalgic Bret Ernst, would-be waiter Sebastian Maniscalco and proud Muslim Ahmed Ahmed — are thrilled to be along for the ride. The doc provides plenty of back story (meeting the comics' families offers generous context to material heard earlier in the film). But in the end, it's the bits involving Vaughn and his celeb guests that linger, chief among them two re-enactments — one where Justin Long reads Vaughn's part in Swingers with Jon Favreau, and the other in which Vaughn replays his part in a 1991 CBS Schoolbreak Special about steroid use with his actual co-star, A Christmas Story's all-growed-up Peter Billingsley. Also on hand: Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens and Keir O'Donnell — or, as he's always referred to, "the gay guy" from Wedding Crashers. (Selected theaters) (Robert Wilonsky)

GO   WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS In this overlong but exuberantly performed comedy from writer-director Malcolm D. Lee (Undercover Brother), Martin Lawrence is R.J. Stevens, a tabloid-TV talk-show host who takes his Survivor-winning fiancée (Joy Bryant, terrific) home to Georgia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ­parents (James Earl Jones and Margaret Avery). In Hollywood, R.J.'s a king, but down home, he's still seen as the hapless kid who lost every childhood game to his cousin Clyde (Cedric the Entertainer), who arrives at the reunion on the arm of R.J.'s unrequited love (Nicole Ari Parker). Although the big comic setups in Lee's script feel a bit forced — R.J.'s encounter with a skunk, R.J. and Clyde's climactic obstacle-course showdown — the director continually sets up moments of rapid-fire, barb-filled interplay among his accomplished cast, which also includes The Green Mile's Michael Clarke Duncan. As R.J.'s crazy cousins (lots of cousins in this house), Mike Epps and the stand-up comic Mo'Nique counterbalance each other nicely — he with a sly, street-hustler charm and she with raise-the-rooftops boisterousness. It's impressive, actually, that Lawrence lets this film's supporting players steal so much of his show — as movie stars go, he must be a pretty secure guy. (Citywide) (Chuck Wilson)