Jersey Girl

I'm glad I wasn't able to see this until recently. I remember a lot of controversy over Kevin Smith doing a romantic comedy, worries about it ruining his career and the whole Gigli II aspect of it. Well, I didn't see it as a rom com. I looked at it as a father and a daughter with a romantic subplot, Clerks 2 proved to me that Smith still has it and Lopez was in it for about 15 minutes. I refused to see it for a long time because I didn't want to see the career-ending flick of one of my favorite directors, but I convinced myself that a true fan has to take the good with the bad - or at least form her own opinion. It was certainly a departure for Smith, but it wasn't a bad movie, in fact, I enjoyed it. And I think that the critics saying it's not a true Smith film because it's a different style are sort of missing the point. He showed that he's able to make movies that appeal to people other than his frat boy fan base: that's growth and last I heard it was good to not pigeonhole yourself into something "safe."

xx/xy

This was described as a complicated romantic comedy, but it was none of the above. They say it's about three people involved in a complex relationship who meet up again many years down the road and see if they can pick up where they left off. It was really about two immature people in a relationship who cheated on each other, then called it quits. Many years down the road the couple and one of their old friends meet up while they are all married or in committed relationships and try to be friends despite the fact that everyone knows the original man still loves the original woman. There is no concrete ending, which can work well in some films, but it did not work here.

thirteen

I thought this was a good film. The acting was top-notch, Hunter even picked up a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her role. There has been a lot of criticism about the unbelievability of the characters, but I think those critics missed the point. Not everyone is exactly like those two girls, but if you take away the illegal activities and strip the film down to its basic message I think every girl can see herself in Tracey's place. At that age most are trying to rebel and hate their parents. Mothers are left wondering what she did wrong and where her little girl went. Should she be a parent or should she try to stay in the girl's life as a friend? That said, there are people that age who do the things that Tracey and Evie do. But, there are also kids like Mason and Tracey's pre-Evie friends who would never do them and can't understand why anyone would. The film does show that not every teenager uses drugs and steals, it's in the background but it's there.

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

Jeremiah was a happy child living with foster parents until he was 7 or 8 The movie starts with the cops taking him away to go back and live with his real mother. The Cliff's Notes is that she's bad news, he ends up abandoned in a hospital, his crazy Christian grandparents adopt him, his mom steals him back - but, as you've come to expect from Cliff's Notes, there's a lot more too it. It reminded me a little of Sherrybaby, but that messed up mom was trying to do what's right and this messed up mom is trying to do what's fun. She thinks her son is a burden (which is a little odd because she took him from his foster family) but has convinced him that she's the only one who will ever love him. He knows she's bad for him, but he seems to have accepted his place in life and the fact that he doesn't deserve anything better, and that only makes the movie more unsettling.

Mean Creek

This was good. I like the ambiguity of George's character. It made him more realistic and I think it made the movie better that he wasn't a stereotypical bully. I also like that it was left open-ended. What happens to the kids after they confess? What should happen? Big fan that they left that open instead of forcing their values on us by using what they think should happen. I don't know what I think happened. I'd like to think that legally they are okay because it was an accident, but mentally they're messed up because they know that even though they didn't do it, they wanted to and made a plan to get away with it. The multiple cameras were nice too. How George sees George vs how everyone else sees him. Sort of forces the "good, bad, or normal" question a bit further. Probably a movie to watch with others to sort through everything at the end.

Manderlay

Interesting set, reminded me of Death of a Salesman (with Hoffman, not sure if there are multiple). I like that the guy who made it was Dutch. It gave the movie an extra element - seeing our history as foreigners see it. And reading up on Von Trier it seems he's quite Anti-American. Doesn't really seem fair seeing as he's never even visited, but there are a lot of Americans who hate Canadians (or whoever) and they've never been there either. Certainly adds to the film. I've read people comparing it to the current Iraq situation which didn't immediately jump out at me, but now that I hear it I feel stupid for not noticing. A lot of interesting themes though: what is freedom, helping for ones own benefit vs what the helpee wants, the exotic black man, Grace hating racism but beating Timothy (self-loathing?). Danny Glover was right, it's a philosophical debate.

I'm still not really sure how to react to it. It's one of those film that sort of stays with you. I would like to see the complete USA- Land of Opportunity trilogy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of continuity through them, but I'm hoping that will take a backseat and not be obnoxious and in-your-face-annoying.

Brick

Noir in high school is a great concept, sort of hybrid film. I love this premise, but I think I would have liked this movie more if it was set somewhere else. As it was, all I could think about was how irritating and emo those kids were. It just screamed "my life is way worse than everyone else and no one has ever had problems like mine." The plot and characters were so out-there that I'm sure only a handful of people have had to deal with what they did, but that just made it more unbelievable.
I liked the concept and the story was decent, apart they might have worked, but together I think they doomed each other. Maybe that's the point of the film though - everyone is whiny and self-obsessed and you just don't realize it? Or maybe I'm making excuses for a not-so-great movie. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I will ever watch it again.

12 and Holding

I have a soft spot for coming-of-age flicks, and this one was great. A couple of bullies target one boy, but he has three friends to help him through it so they're more of an annoyance than anything to be worried about. That is, until the bullies send a Molotov cocktail into their treehouse with two kids inside. One boy manages to escape, but another dies. The rest of the movie shows how the remaining kids, including the arsonists, cope with his death. They have methods that seem unorthodox on the surface, but do have a basis in reality if you think back to when you were that age. To a lesser extent the film looks at how the dead boy's parents move on, but the kids reactions are far more interesting.

Zodiac (Fincher)

I have to preface this by saying that I have a thing for Zodiac. I wrote a paper on him years ago and since then I've been fascinated by his case. The basis for that paper was Graysmith's book, which was also the basis for the screenplay.
That said, I enjoyed the film. The case was a clusterfuck as it was going on, which they do a good job of showing. There are a lot of "two days later" messages which I usually feel interrupts the flow of movies, but I think it was necessary here to show just how drawn out this thing was. It spans decades, without those messages it would have seemed that everything happened relatively close in time.
They make a clear case for who they think is the killer, but the case was never solved so the movie couldn't officially be resolved. Lacking a typical movie ending, they were forced to go in another direction - the lives of those working on the case. It was interesting to see how the case affected those working on it. You could argue that Avery was an addict prior to the case, but it's clear that the others had their lives torn apart. I think that was the point of the film.

My theater companion did not have such a glowing review. He thought it seemed to drag on with no real payoff. I say that's the point of the movie, but I can see how that would bother someone who didn't have previous knowledge of the case.

Idiocracy

This was right up my alley. I'm a big fan of everything dystopic and the idea behind the film is something I've had tumbling around my head for some time now. The movie is a thinking man's popcorn comedy, which was a nice change. You usually get drama if you want the movie to stay with you and a comedy for mindless entertainment. But what if you want a comedy with a little more substance? Or something to think about without it feeling preachy or depressing? I think Idiocracy fills this void and shows that you can have both. I hope this leads to more like it.