Movies from this weekend

Brandon, nice defense of the films on everyone's lists. Thanks for the A, I was ready for an F. I hate to spoil the debate but I don't really have anything to say in defense of mine, I pretty much expected everyone to disagree with me. But I am glad I'm getting some agreement from you guys on a couple of them. It makes me feel a *little* better about not liking them even though I still feel like I should. Not totally better. But a little better.

Source Code sounds good. I like Michelle Monaghan too, she's really pretty, I agree, and she has been great in everything I've seen her in so far. I'll check it out once it's available. I haven't seen Moon either, but it's been in my queue for a while.

In other news, I watched a couple movies this weekend:

1) The Shining: Yeah, I finally watched this. I really liked it, especially the music and editing and the shots - he did such a great job getting you to feel the sense of isolation with the shots of the mountain and stuff. Like you'd think you would think, wow pretty mountains... but the way he did it I thought, wow that's a long drive with nobody around. There were a lot of those moments - I thought the buildup was really great. And the blood coming out of the elevator was beautiful and disgusting all at the same time. I also think the casting was fantastic - the wife and the kid were totally creepy and I love Jack Nicholson. There was a lot of great stuff in this movie, I'm sure you all already know it all since I'm really behind the times finally watching this. But I did want to say that while I haven't read the book, I am guessing that like most of Kubrick's movies, he changed a bunch of stuff. Because what was up with the ending? The photograph? There's no way that was in the book. Anyway, overall I liked it although I was dissatisfied with the ending. I'm sure Kubrick would be thrilled to hear that.

2) The Exploding Girl: Ben, I got around to watching this one today. I liked it - again, I thought it was great casting. I liked that it was not over-produced, I think that really worked for them, straight through until the end. It was a good indie romantic drama, I always like stories about friends who end up becoming more than friends. It all felt very true to life, which I really appreciated. In the same vein, they did a great job making you feel Ivy's anxiety and loneliness... as a person prone to anxiety attacks and to over-empathizing with characters, I must say that aspect of it made it a little nerve-racking to watch. But overall I really enjoyed it, indie for the win.

3) Harmony and Me: This was weird. It was shot with a handheld camera and felt more like a home movie or a documentary than a regular film. I got immediately that this was supposed to be a comedy... but... I didn't really think it was funny. I generally like dry, deadpan humor but this was trying so hard and it just wasn't my style at all. It felt like a pilot for Comedy Central or an SNL short or something. My favorite part was a 10 second shot of a bunny eating lettuce. So cute. And I liked the score - Harmony was taking piano lessons so the score was his piano music, which went from terrible to better, I liked that a lot. But yeah besides that I wasn't really into this. The guy was whining the whole movie about how his girlfriend broke up with him like a year ago, which like I've mentioned before, is really tired to me both in movies and in life. It also had an amnesia storyline, which again was supposed to be funny but which I thought was a lame ploy. And I didn't think the characters were likeable at all. And I don't think you were supposed to like them... but that didn't make it any better. At least it was only like an hour long.


4) The Good Guy: This was a romantic comedy starring a bunch of former teen TV stars - Alexis Bledel (Rory on Gilmore Girls), Scott Porter (Jason Street on Friday Night Lights), and Bryan Greenberg (Jake Jagielski for all you One Tree Hill fans out there!... no?). I actually really liked it. I hate when romantic comedies have sucky endings (when watching a good old fashioned romcom, I don't want to watch my own miserable romantic failings played out before my eyes on screen, what a drag), and I was a bit worried at the beginning of this one that it was going to be one of those, because of the narrator they chose. But the movie was about being able to tell the lies from the truth in a place like NYC, and in what I thought was a clever twist, you find out (SPOILER) they chose the narrator on purpose because viewers tend to trust the narrator and assume the narrator is telling the truth even when they shouldn't trust him. Things were not as they seemed, and the "Good Guy" was not the person you thought it was going to be when the story started. I also tend to like movies where people like quit their high-paying but soul-sucking jobs to do something better with their lives... and also movies where girls break up with guys who are assholes and choose a nice guy instead. So I was a fan of this one. Plus, it helps that I want to marry Bryan Greenberg. The end.