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adelaney1
Reviews
American Girl (2002)
So bad!
Really honestly...apologies to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...but wow! It just doesn't get much worse than this movie. It really felt like a movie written, directed and cast by people who really like good, beautiful independent films (much like the rest of Jena Malone's body of work) but just doesn't have one single little iota of talent. Not a shred, truly. The writing is so bad I really had to laugh. And I'm not a person who immediately objects to cliché. I have more than a little fondness in my soul for melodrama. Particularly when it's Jena Malone. I can forgive a movie a lot when Jena Malone is in it. Not because she's God's gift to acting or anything but she's very pleasant to watch...doesn't do very much different in each role she is in, but in general picks good movies and is pleasant. Saved is fantastic. United States of Leland was pretty good. Heck...Life as a House had some nice moments. But wow! This movie...so bad. It was like the screenwriter chose a different cliché or hackneyed bit of dialogue for each scene and then structured each scene around it. I started cheering every time we reached the cliché for the season. It couldn't decide what genre it was in...it had no idea how to make us feel or identify with characters...it was offensively cliché towards the class of people it was...caricaturing (I can't bring myself to describe it as illustrating) And the father character? The movie would have made a lot more sense titled Ernest Goes to Prison.
Please please please don't watch this movie. I watched it all the way through for the same reason one watches a car wreck...but please please get something else. Anything else.
Might make a good drinking game...but be sure to have several drinks in you before you start. And to Scott Sandoe's second cousin...yes the director's camera work was odd at a couple of points. And yes...good on him for managing to write a screenplay and managing to get it produced. But let's be honest...it was a bad screenplay. What was wrong with the film more than anything else (even worse than the casting of the father....which actually may have been inevitable given how the character was written...I'm not even sure I can blame that on the actor) was the (I hesitate to even use the word) writing.
If you're looking for a reason to not try to become a screenwriter and instead go get your law degree like your Dad wants you to...watch this film. Otherwise...walk into a rental store blindfolded and grab something at random...but make sure, when you're checking it out, to ask the clerk to make absolutely dead certain that the movie you are renting is not Confessions of an American Girl.
Pumpkin (2002)
see the film for yourself
I can imagine people being really confused after all these comments, you either love it or hate it I guess. Too bad. I hardly ever write comments on films, I guess I can't be bothered most of the time even though I benefit from other's writings since I watch a pretty absurd amount of movies. I put off watching this one along time though, which is unusual for a sky blue flavored indie Ricci flick...something I would normally tear off the shelves and make a run for the door with. But I don't know, the subject matter didn't interest me that much. Fortunately I finally took the trouble to see it and I just know it's going to be one of those films I'll annoy people with trying to talk about. This is a good film, the writing is so smart it's astonishing. It switches genres a lot, but in a subtle way that seems really natural....you just have to go with it, there are ridiculous bits intentionally, but that's part of what makes movies so great...exaggeration. It's a sweet film that obviously owes a lot to Romeo and Juliet, the characters are drawn in pretty astonishing ways...at first they're all stereotypical, but even the most superficial of them gets a chance at some point to be really human. The screenwriter and director was quite generous there. I was pretty dang impressed, and it was a fun ride at the same time. Highly recommended. Christina Ricci was fantastic as always, and the guy playing her boyfriend, the Paris character (not the Romeo character) was just brilliant. He should be the next Cary Elwes, except that his humor was actually more subtle and more ridiculous at the same time. Like I said it switches genres, but what a fun picture...I liked the comment here that mentioned it should have been a musical. It has that feel to it sometimes. I wouldn't have minded a couple of dance numbers...and if you're a person that really doesn't like that kind of thing...maybe this isn't quite the film for you...but maybe it is. It's just a movie to let yourself go at and let it be what it is. Kudos to the filmmakers if anyone involved in the project happens to ever read this. I was very impressed. Very original and, oddly and appropriately for this picture, all the more original for being so Shakespearean.
The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002)
Excellent
I walked into this at the Santa Barbara Film Festival not even knowing Campbell Scott was in it (who I loved in Spanish Prisoner). I can't remember ever feeling more emotionally involved in the life of a family on screen. Scott has an incredible touch that makes it all the more tragic and beautiful. But it's not your typical depressing indie film by any means. The depth of the drama is very real, but it's also very entertaining. And there's a....there's a certain pace that Campbell Scott gives a room a scene when he's in it. It's lovely to watch. And the director said at the screening today that he's told it will come out in March. So go see it. Really great.
Confidence (2003)
Pretty good, but thinks it is too cool.
Just saw this at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. It was the opening night film...and though this is my first film festival...I have to say it still managed to be disappointing. A lot of really pretty good acting. Paul Giamatti is, as ever, fabulous. And I like pretty much everyone in the cast. A few of the scenes were no better than your typical clone 10 pm police drama, but many of the scenes were fine and great. The film was ruined however by these stupid and incredibly frequent/long voice overs and fancy scene shifts. It was as if Edward Burns' voiceovers were intended to continually say, "Hey...isn't this film cool...this has got to be the coolest film you've ever seen, wait till you hear the rest of the story it is so cool my god are we ever cool." I think by hacking the voiceovers they could come up with a pretty good film...if they were a little more unassuming, because there really isn't anything very original in the film. It's as if they think they have the next Usual Suspects on their hands which they quite clearly don't. For the first half of the film I thought maybe the smarmy ultra coolness would turn out to be a joke and they would start making fun of themselves...but they never did. Unfortunately, an entirely forgettable film, and I was excited for it. But...I'm sure the rest of the festival will be much better.
-Arthur