Yes, the gun pointed at your face is meant to send a message, and it might be the last one you ever receive. Of course, when the trailer for Violet & Daisy opens, the sights are on James Gandolfini, so you’re probably safe for now. The movie is high concept enough — two young girls kill people for a living but are confronted by an unusual target that changes them — but after watching the trailer, it’s difficult to understand exactly what the hell is going on. Flight attendant-laden dream sequences, studies on friendship and Danny Trejo in a vest punctuate the Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel-starring flick. The production also has a strange history. Geoffrey Fletcher made this his directorial debut after his big Oscar win as the writer of Precious, it scored praise at TIFF in 2011 along with some profiles, but is just now finding distribution in the States from Cinedigm. Sometimes that speaks to quality, but it seems more likely in this case that traditional distribution channels just didn’t know what to do with this thing. Defying categorization usually isn’t good for the advertising team. Check it out the trailer for yourself:

Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard that President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. I was in third grade, under the creepy Catholic tutelage of Sister Hermina (she refused to die!), and the lesson on Lincoln’s presidency had come to dramatic and shocking conclusion. Granted, those aren’t the words I would have used to describe it at the time, but I do recall feeling frustrated, confused, and angered at the tall, bearded man’s death. So why open a film review with a reference to a grade school history lesson? Because the film in question, Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, feels like a two-hour lecture on some of the very same material. Viewers learn about the coordinated assault against Lincoln and two members of his cabinet, the capture and conviction of those responsible, and their subsequent hangings for the crimes. While the material here is more detailed than the lesson taught by zombie nun it’s also presented dryly, without any real energy, emotion, or drama, and very much in the spirit of a made-for-television movie. It doesn’t help matters that Redford uses his directorial lectern to include some incredibly unsubtle and politicized comparisons to our own modern day battles between personal freedoms and national security.

Robert Redford has directed a movie starring James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Danny Huston, Stephen Root, Colm Meaney, Toby Kebbell, and Evan Rachel Wood. That should be enough to cause excitement. The Conspirator tells the story of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the ensuing police action and trial of the conspirators – including Mary Surratt, who became despised by an entire country. She was guilty until proven innocent. Check out the intense trailer for yourself:

Kevin Carr breaks down the week’s releases, looking at Inglourious Basterds, Shorts, and Post Grad.

Kevin welcomes Neil back to the Magical Studio in the Sky from his emergency “gender re-clarification” surgery in the Netherlands. Neil celebrates his return by not seeing any movies, even though he wanted to see Inglourious Basterds.

It’s hard to tell from the trailer, but it looks like Post Grad might move beyond simple comedy to explore the frustration of graduating college without any job prospects.

Boyfriends and husbands may need something to get them through it, but their girlfriends and wives are going to love this movie.

In general, I try to avoid any movie with the word “Sisterhood” in the title. Be it traveling pants or divine Ya-Ya secrets, the s-word in the title is a red flag to me that it will not be my cup of tea.

Variety is reporting today that Bledel has signed on to star in Fox Atomic’s college comedy Ticket to Ride, which is being directed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek, Shark Tale).