Saturday, April 25, 2009

6 Movies, 1 Book

Sunshine Cleaning (2009): I want it to be Sunshine Cleaning Company. I liked this one a lot but I like dark wry comedies and I love Amy Adams and Emily Blunt is only rising in my opinion. Adams does a good job of at once being completely pitiful, a little cheerleader annoying, but completely likable. I don't know what else to say, I like it.

In the Mood for Love (2000): Bleh. Not all that interesting. The premise is very interesting: a man and a woman in 1960s Hong Kong (the film is Chinese) find out that their respective spouses are having an affair with one another. The man and woman then decide to be friends but to never cross the line their spouses crossed. What develops, of course, is a very complicated relationship in which they play act conversations they might have with their spouses (confronting them about having an affair) or how they met/began the affair. All of that is, of course, sexually charged and intimate. The movie, however, fails to build much tension and then just falls off, dropping everything. I appreciate subtlety but too much subtlety and you have nothing.

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009): I want it to be Monsters v. Aliens. We saw it in 3D and that was ok enough for a little while but it made my eyes go wonky (probably just a symptom of my particular eye dysfunctions). The 3D added some interest to the film and that was cool. Otherwise, it was cute. Probably better if you love the old monster movie genre and know those films well enough to catch all of the references.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton (2009): I can never remember that title. The closest I get is "Personal Artifacts." Luckily that works in the B&N search engine when I look up the title for the bazillionth time. I had my doubts about this one. It's completely formatted like an auction catalog (so, photos of objects with brief descriptions), yet it is supposed to tell the story of the demise of Lenore and Harold's relationship. Strangely, it works quite well. There are a few letters, postcards, e-mails and whatnot included to give the object descriptions a slight push forward but, for the most part, the objects tell the story and you find yourself engrossed in the relationship. It's annoying only in the fact that I wished I'd thought of it and was talented enough to pull it off. There is supposed to be a movie made of it. I don't know how exactly that is going to work . . .

Rachel Getting Married (2008): No. No. No. I cannot stand people like Anne Hathaway's Kym in this movie. Perhaps I took the movie a little too personally but I really hated it. I didn't like the contrived faux-multi-ethnic, tragically hip wedding. I didn't like the bride having to coddle and bathe her sister on her wedding day. I didn't like the dynamics of the family. And the list goes on. The only thing I vaguely liked was Kym's mother punching her in the face and I wish that happened in the first scene. Terrible movie.

Role Models (2008): I'll watch just about anything in which Paul Rudd dances. My only complaint is that he didn't dance enough. I did, however, really appreciate him dressed as a Kiss-inspired Role playing game member (is there a more precise word for such people?). Not brilliant but a funny fulfillment of the genre.

I've Loved You So Long (2008): Here, Kristin Scott Thomas is a French/English woman (the movie is French) just released from a 15 year prison sentence, for murder, who begins living with her younger sister whom she has not seen in years (and the sister is much younger). The film is very very very well-paced, especially for a film in which nothing much happens and Thomas's performance is remarkably restrained and precise. Somehow I managed to figure out the motive behind the murder almost as soon as who was murdered was revealed but I don't think this was given away by the movie (maybe I just watch a few too many murder mystery oriented tv shows). Anyway, I liked it very much.