Reviews

I'll give a star for Jason Schwartzman, a star for Bill Murray, a star for Aubrey Plaza and a star for the movie as a whole.

I'm entertained by Charlie Sheen and his antics. While I can't hate the guy because I don't know him personally, I don't want to watch a movie that seems to basically reflect his poor decision making, meltdown and turn around. Too much "nothing" happened. Plenty of fantasy sequences and flashbacks seemed to just emphasize Sheen's boisterous and lady killing ways. In the end it seems like an exaggerated and far fetched Charlie Sheen Documentary. Roman Coppola works much better with Wes Anderson.

A film about a mother, her romantically challenged son and her dreaming slacker son, all very lonely and disorganized. The story begins with Jeff (Jason Segel), a 30 year pot head that lives in his mothers basement. Jeff believes that everything is a sign or has a deeper meaning. He receives a mysterious phone call asking for a "Kevin", but he doesn't know a Kevin. He takes this as a sign. He is somewhat philosophical but is viewed as a slacker by his mom, Sharon (Susan Sarandon) and his brother Pat (Ed Helms). Pat is a mono-toned and pretentious salesman. We are introduced to Pat and his wife Linda (Judy Greer) at breakfast. Pat attempts to water the dying flower that is their marriage with breakfast and a not so welcomed surprise, a new Porsche boxster. This sprouts into an argument do to the fact that they don't have the money and that ultimately, Pat made the decision without Linda. Linda vents her frustration by throwing the breakfast onto the car as passive-aggressive Pat watches. We are brought back to Jeff who receives another call and is hesitant, it is his mother Sharon asking him to go out and get a new shutter for the pantry. She really intends on getting her middle aged son out of the house. Jeff than leaves for what is more than just a trip to home depot. He begins seeing signs relating to "Kevin" such as a kid with the same name, he follows the kid resulting in his mugging as well as crossing paths with his brother, Pat while he is at Hooters. The brothers than crash the new car into a tree. Pat pays some people off to not call the police due to the fact that Pat had been drinking. They spot Pat's wife, Linda at a gas station with another man in the car. They proceed to follow her around to find out what is going on. All this is happening while Sharon is at the office receiving hints from a secret admirer over IM. She is excited but also cautious because of her insecurities with her age and her body along with the fear of rejection, or being the butt of a joke. She confides in her friend Carol ( Rae Dawn Chong) as she continues to wonder who the secret admirer is. The movie seems to have a lot of content packed into one day. Jeff and Pat are chasing around Pat's wife, Linda, in suspicion of infidelity. Sharon is desperately searching for her secret admirer who has an inflated importance because of her loneliness. The film feels like a climax to a much longer movie. In the matter of a day we see Jeff conflicting with Pat, Pat conflicting with his wife, Linda and Sharon conflicting with both of her sons and all of them conflicting with themselves. The story results in the saving of lives along with the saving of their own lives. Through a series of traumatic events we find the characters re-prioritize and come together as a family. The climax is what made my rating a 7/10. It felt like everything was happening all at once (in a day) and made it feel pretty unrealistic. The movie than hit the climax which provided an interesting turn in the story. This comedy-drama felt like another Step Brothers (Will Ferrell and John C Reilly) at first but proved to be more of a family drama with a few decently funny scenes. Overall a good film even though I don't feel the need to watch it again anytime soon or really boast about it.

I try to give all of the movies I see an honest, unbiased rating. For some reason I feel weird giving this a 9/10 rating, just because I didn't know what to expect going into it. I saw the trailer a few months ago and put it in my watch list for later. Today I saw it on Netflix and without any anticipation and on impulse just put it on. Along with an estimated $50,000 budget, Parker Croft and Emilia Zoryan are young, virtually unknown actors, which initially sparked my interest. I was excited to see some new talent and was interested in what was made out of the given budget. This is a story of young love. It is raw,awkward, emotional, funny, sad, tragic and most importantly realistic. Elliot (Croft) and Chloe (Zoryan) cross paths and connect instantly. Chloe is a photographer and invites Elliot to her art show that night, and from there a love story begins to unravel. From parties and shows to a small kick back in the hills and we meet different groups of interesting friends that are out partying and enjoying the night, all while Elliot and Chloe become closer and closer in a matter of hours. It really took a little bit for the characters to grow on me. Through the social awkwardness and little mishaps I finally begun to really like the characters. I took into account Elliot's condition and was very interested in how he would reveal this to Chloe. You learn about this in the beginning of the movie and as the story progresses the condition turns into an overbearing secret. I was anticipating the revelation of this secret to Chloe and I thought it was executed perfectly. This is a simple and realistic love story between two young lovers captured in a sort of cinéma vérité style in the glowing and active city of Los Angeles.

Middle of Nowhere is a coming of age comedy about friends, family and the struggles that come along with that. We meet the protagonist, Dorian Spitz (Anton Yelchin) in the opening scene getting stoned. He is rebellious and witty, like Matthew Broderick in 1986. Initially I thought I was getting into another Charlie Bartlett which although I enjoyed, felt like the genre was a little worn out. I knew this was going to be different as I got further in. We soon meet Grace (Eva Amurri) who is at the loan office trying her hardest to sweet talk her way around thousands of dollars in credit card debt to get a student loan to go to college in the Fall. She blames the debt on her mother, Rhonda (Susan Sarandon), stating that after her father died her mother needed the money. We are then brought back to Dorian, his parents have high expectations that he feels he doesn't need to meet and this is presumably the motive for his actions. Dorian lands a job at a water park where he meets Grace and puts forth a great amount of effort to get to know. She needs money for school and he needs money to break off his dependence from his parents. Being without a vehicle he is forced to walk everywhere and buys a ride from Grace for $100. They make a few different stops and Grace finds out that he is selling weed and being the straight edge that she is drives off, leaving him at gas station. Grace later realizes that selling pot would be her best bet on paying for school. Grace and Dorian team up for a series of drug runs. Dorian meets Grace's younger sister, Taylor (Willa Holland) when they pick her up. Like Grace, Taylor also struggles with their mother. Taylor is being forced into starting a modeling career. Grace meets Ben Pretzler (Justin Chatwin)at the water park and they form a relationship of lust. Dorian is jealous because he begins to form feelings for Grace all while Taylor forms feelings for Dorian. As the story progresses, we find Grace, Taylor and Dorian struggling with family issues but forming a friendship through it. This is a drama-comedy about love, drugs, money, lust, suicide, family and friends. What looks like the formation of a nasty love triangle turns into a beautiful friendship between a lonely non- conformist and two sisters brought together by tragedy and angst.