Six Picks for the Week of November 29-December 5

Comments: ↓ 9 user comments
by Nick Hyman, for Metacritic
Publish Date: November 28, 2010

Black Swan (Fri.)

Dancing queen

Darren Aronofsky follows the critical success of The Wrestler 81 with a return to his psychological thriller roots. Black Swan, opening Friday, stars Natalie Portman (Brothers) and Mila Kunis (Date Night) as rival ballerinas vying for a role in a New York City production of Swan Lake. Portman’s character journeys into darkness on her way to becoming the Black Swan, running into Winona Ryder, Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises), and Barbara Hershey (Beaches) along the way, and possibly earning Portman an Oscar nomination in the process.

Stand on your tippy toes at the official website.

A Twin Peaks reunion on Psych (Wed.)

But how's the coffee?

It’s been 20 years since Twin Peaks revolutionized the television landscape, and the USA Network series Psych is celebrating with a special episode Wednesday at 10pm that features several cast members from that groundbreaking show. Twin Peaks’ Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), and Ray Wise (Leland Palmer) are just four of the returning actors now playing residents of the town of Dual Spires. Stars James Roday and Dulé Hill assume the FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper role and show up to investigate a murder that happened during the town’s cinnamon festival. Twin Peaks + cinnamon. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Visit the damn fine official Psych website.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special (Sun.)

A Festivus for the rest of us

It’s been a while since Tim and Eric said farewell after five wonderful seasons of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and they’re finally returning to the boob tube this Sunday at midnight on Adult Swim with their first Christmas -- make that "Chrimbus" -- special. Following their highly successful Awesome Tour 2010, the holiday special supposedly features "Wharf" and "P’kard" from “the Star Trek” and might include a send-up of not only Jaws, but Jaws 2 as well. Whatever happens, we don’t want Tim and Eric to go away, so please watch in record numbers so we can hopefully see T&E on the big screen in Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie sometime soon. Cinco©.

Find your Chippy at Tim and Eric's official website.

Grammy nominations announced (Wed.)

Like you were expecting somebody else

Wednesday brings all things Grammy, starting with the announcement of nominations for the 53rd year for the popular music awards. (We’re predicting several nominations for Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”) LL Cool J hosts the one-hour Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! on CBS at 10pm. The special will reveal the nominees in several categories, and feature performances by potential nominees Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and Miranda Lambert. But you'll have to wait until February 13, 2011 to find out who wins.

Go Gaga at the official Grammy Awards website.

Disney Epic Mickey for Wii (Tue.)

A mightier mouse

Nintendo follows the release of the acclaimed GoldenEye 007 with another highly anticipated release for the Wii. Disney Epic Mickey comes out on Tuesday, and has you playing as icon Mickey Mouse, wielding a paintbrush that will add platforms to levels with paint or take obstacles away with paint thinner. Several locations and characters will seem familiar to fans of Disney lore, but the game also shines a light on early, long-forgotten characters such as Oswald the Rabbit.

Paint a path towards the official website.

I Love You Philip Morris (Fri.)

I just called to say I love you

After a string of questionable movies, Jim Carrey tackles his most interesting role in years as con man and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell in the long-delayed I Love You Phillip Morris. The film, already released outside of the U.S., comes out Friday in select cities after legal shenanigans prevented its initial release. Ewan McGregor co-stars as the titular lover, who falls in love with Russell in prison and becomes his partner in crime. Leslie Mann (Funny People) co-stars as Russell’s unsuspecting wife.

Escape to the official website.

Closing the book on last week

	Weekend Box Office Champion (Estimated, U.S. only; source: Boxofficemojo.com)
	Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 68	$50.3 million; 2nd week at #1
	#1 Album on Billboard 200 (Source: Billboard.com/Nielsen SoundScan)
	Susan Boyle: The Gift 59	2nd week at #1
	Top-Rated Primetime Broadcast Show (Source: Nielsen)
	Sunday Night Football (Giants/Eagles) (NBC)	23.2 million viewers; week of 11/15 -11/21

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Comments (9)

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Latest

Anonymous
- Dec 1, 2010 9:28AM
I am pretty sure Justin Bieber would not have time to read Metacritic, MG but i agree the Grammys are joke as well. Popularity contest indeed. Why else would Metallicas St. Anger win a Grammy? One of their crapiest songs, IMO, though I do like their older stuff, the only reason it won was probably more popular than the rest. One out of surely hundreds of examples of Grammy popularity over quality, and probably not the best.
M.H.
- Nov 29, 2010 3:23PM
EXTREMELY excited for Tim and Eric Chrimbus. Awesome Show was one of my favorite [adult swim] shows.
Epic Mickey looks cool too, but I hope I'll actually get to play it since I hardly ever touch my Wii...
Grammys are still a joke. No reason Justin Bieber should be considered for a legitimate music award. A VMA maybe. An AMA possibly. But hell no for a Grammy.
Jason Dietz
- Nov 29, 2010 10:47AM
A.C.: Kanye's album won't be eligible until next year; the cutoff is at the end of September, so albums released after that cannot be considered for this year's awards. (Why they don't just wait three additional months to announce the nominations is beyond me.)
A.C.
- Nov 29, 2010 9:16AM
It'll be interesting to see if Kanye West's new release gets nominated, given the glowing reviews and most likely #1 spot on the Billboard charts. If Arcade Fire doesn't get nominated for best artist/album, then I can forever give up any hope for the Grammy's. Finally, good to see some worthwhile films coming out in theatres (it's been too long). December looks to be a really good month for films with Black Swan and True Grit.
Rienye
- Nov 29, 2010 2:16AM
I Love You Phillip Morris was released last december to dvd. Its a brilliant movie and funny as hell too. First good thing Jim Carrey has done in a long time. I highly recommend it.
As for the Grammys, there really isnt any valid reason Bieber should be getting nominated let alone winning any of this awards, except for the Nickleodeon awards. And he keeps getting nods for Best New Artist, really??? come on!! Its the equivalent of giving Uwe Boll a best director nomination at the Oscars. STOP IT!!!!
MG
- Nov 28, 2010 11:08PM
You know, 'Anonymous', I reckon Justin Bieber will read your comments and say 'hell yeah, he's right - I should just go back to being a normal kid. I don't want millions of dollars, girls throwing themselves at me, and basically being able to do whatever I want. I should just go to school and be told what to do and get picked on every day'. Yeeeeahhhhhhh riiiiighhhhtttt.......

Fact is I don't like his music either, but the grammys are a joke. Just an oversized popularity contest. It has nothing to do with quality of music (though everyone's tastes differ). The fact is Bieber will be nominated simply because millions of teenage girls wet their panties at the mere mention of his name, whilst quality groups such as Arcade Fire & The National will no doubt be ignored. But hey, life aint always fair.
Anonymous
- Nov 28, 2010 9:33PM
Why is Justin Bieber even nominated in the grammys? I cannot understand the obsession America has with this kid. I personaly cannot stand his music. He should just go back to being a normal kid IMO.
SKULLbrgr7
- Nov 28, 2010 9:29PM
Uh Nintendo didnt make Goldeneye Wii or Disney Epic Mickey Eurocom and Junction Point did, respectively. Anyways, Epic Mickey looks alright, but I probably wont play it right away- I will go for Golden Sun Dark Dawn for DS instead. ;-)
Mitch Tough
- Nov 28, 2010 5:40PM
Fired up for the Twin Peaks reunion on Psyche! (Don't watch that show regularly, and don't quite understand why they chose that one to converge on, but all that matters is that it's happening!) Give yourself a present everyday. Whether that's a cup of hot, black coffee, or just a cat-nap at your desk. Don't plan it, just do it.

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