The last time a reclusive novelist served up a pseudo-noir romp, we got No Country for Old Men. So even though no one’s yet read Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (August 4), we’re already expecting the movie adaptation to sweep the Oscars, circa 2012. As for movies you can see this summer, Up has been touted as roughly the Mona Lisa–meets–the Sistine Chapel; Sam Mendes’s Away We Go is the season’s twee Ishtar (Tweeshtar?); early word says Brüno is even more offensive (and funnier) than Borat, and Depp-as-Dillinger gives us a shoot-’em-up to get excited about—at least until the backlash begins.

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• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Adam Sternbergh
• Table of Contents: Jun 29, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!