kitchen party

this movie was so strange I couldn't help loving it. it's a 1997 Canadian movie starring Scott Speedman (Ben on Felicity) about a kid who has a party in his kitchen while his parents get together for their own kitchen party in a subdivision built on a golf course. Scott spends most of the film yelling obscenities in the direction of the basement where his stoner older brother resides, and obsessing about the living room carpet. he also leaves his guests to fend for themselves while looking for a couple of pre-teen twins that he can sell drugs to. see what I mean? it's a great movie.

the history boys

this movie had all the essential elements: impressionable teens in a school setting, sexual and moral ambiguities, and copious literary allusions. yet somehow it left me unmoved. maybe the boys, being tutored to play the game of "oxbridge" admissions, just seemed a shoo-in from the get-go. or maybe I missed all the good lines because of their British accents. either way, it's not a bad movie, just not as good as I hoped it would be.

dreamland

this is a beautifully shot indie about a lovely young woman (Agnes Bruckner) who lives in a squalid trailer park nursing her heartbroken dad and aspiring-to-be Miss America best friend who is suffering from MS. when a cute boy moves into the trailer across the way, things become complicated. the movie is very slow but has some nice moments if you allow yourself to be lulled by the gorgeous scenery and people. nice cameo by Gina Gershon as a cool ex-rock star mom.

13 tzameti

this is a really tense, compact french thriller about a rural immigrant roofer seeking to gain a windfall by going to do a criminal job intended for someone else, without knowing where he's going or what the job is. that's about all I can say without giving too much away but the movie is intense and good. although I still don't know what tzameti is.

perfect stranger

I had to pick a movie to see on my birthday (Friday) and this formula thriller with the lovely Halle Berry seemed like a good choice. it was. it had the one, most essential element of a good thriller - an ending I didn't guess. the rest of it was pure trash, but not boring. a waste of the talents of Giovanni Ribisi, but oh well. when you're at a matinee instead of working, you really can't complain.

premonition

yesterday my dad's mother died and I needed to see something really distracting. I thought trying to figure out if this time-jumping thriller actually made any sense would do the trick, and it did help a bit. does it make any sense? I'm pretty sure not. despite my grief, I feel confident I would have recognized internal logic if it had been there. was it fun to watch? there were a few good moments. emphasis on few.

blades of glory

the most interesting thing about this movie is that Busy Philipps, Kim from Freaks and Geeks, wrote the story. she has no other writing credits. Will Ferrell was funny in his usual way. I have yet to find Jon Heder funny in anything. I am also not a fan of Amy Poehler. I was happy to see Romany Malco from Weeds, though, and William Fichtner. basically a completely forgettable but mildly amusing film, with a fantastic ending. for some reason, there were barely any commercials/previews, so I missed the beginning. can anyone tell me what happened before chazz started skating? thanks!

come early morning

Joey Lauren Adams wrote and directed this indie starring her buddy Ashley Judd, about a girl who loves country music but not men. Ashley Judd was great and the movie is small but likable, as long as you don't mind things a little on the slow side.

hollywoodland

this movie is a little disjointed but kind of interesting overall. one thing I didn't get: the tarot cards. if you have any insights, please enlighten me, dear readers....always nice to see Molly Parker in a movie and I didn't even recognize Kathleen Robertson at first. not very satisfying as a whodunit but not bad as a character study of George Reeves as a kept man and wannabe serious actor.

high school musical

I blame entertainment weekly for compelling me to watch this movie: I could only read so many dozen references to it on their hallowed pages before giving in. the target audience is definitely not high-schoolers. I just learned from someone in my office that her 6 year old grandchild loves it, and that sounds about right. the movie is cute, annoyingly so. but if you fast forward through all the songs, it's kind of bearable.