The big-budget “event” pictures and the big-buzz Oscar-bait releases of the holiday period are starting to dominate the box office. Meanwhile, “Starting Out in the Evening” finishes with a quiet thoughtfulness.
Directed and co-written by Andrew Wagner, adapted from the Brian Morton novel, this low-key character piece concerns a topic not exactly a natural allure to the general moviegoing public: It examines the idiosyncrasies, ambition, irrepressibility and loneliness of artists on a very small scale. And it does that in the context of a discomfiting May-December crush between a physically and professionally decrepit writer of literary fiction on New York City’s Upper West Side and the pushy young graduate student crafting a critical thesis on him. So if you were looking for a popcorn movie to attend this weekend — say, something about flesh-eating zombies — boy, have you entered the wrong door at the multiplex. (See the review of “I Am Legend” on Page 35.)
