Friends With Money

I don’t understand why you two insist on watching movies with jennifer aniston in them. She is the kiss of death. If you are a movie executive and she likes the film you are green lighting, RUN don’t walk to the exits. Even keanu reeves throws in a passable film every once in a while.

Where’s your Team Angelina t-shirt, JSJ?

See The Good Girl. That’s her ‘passable’ film, and it’s definitely more than passable. Nice call on Keanu — I thought he was great in Thumbsucker. He’ll always be Tod Higgins in Parenthood to me, though.

You must mean Team Brangelina, Tattie. Rumor has it, it’s best to stay away from Jennifer Aniston movies. Ha ha ha, do you get it. That would have been a great review…Good Girl was only passable – I think people gave it more credit than it really deserved because it moved at a snail’s pace (think Shopgirl) and Jennifer wasn’t comical and exchanged many meaningful, pained glances with Jake. For what it’s worth – the scholarly ‘Weekend’ magazine gave it a thumbs up. (Friends with Money, that is). Here is a question for you. Which of these movies is excellent: The Libertine, Dot the I or Beautiful Boxer? I guess you’ll have to see all 3 to find out.

I doubt it has much in common with the films mentioned, but this is probably as good a place as any to recommend The Science of Sleep (IMDb / official site), by far my favorite movie of the year. The main character can’t separate his dreams from reality, and Michel Gondry — who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — does an amazing job of creating this dreamlike view of the world through a combination of live action and stop-motion animation. One example of this: The main character is shaving (in “real life”) with a dull electric razor which painfully nicks him. Later, in his dreams, the razor appears enlarged, with big hairy spider legs. Eventually he unleashes it like an attack dog on his “enemies” (his boss and coworkers).

If you liked the twisted reality of Eternal Sunshine, you’ll probably like this. I was surprised how full the theater was and how many times the whole crowd burst out laughing. Definitely not your typical romantic comedy from Hollywood, but it should appeal to a lot of people, especially creative types. Just don’t go expecting a clear, easily traced plot as some moronic reviewers apparently did. Are your dreams scripted and logical?

Stars Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (21 Grams).

Todd – great to hear the endorsement! The Science of Sleep is on my list. I really enjoyed Eternal Sunshine, and I’m a big fan of Gael Garcia Bernal. The previews reminded me of The Wizard of Speed and Time, a quirky little movie from the late-80s about a stop-animation filmmaker trying to make his own film. Wildly imaginative. Definitely weird.

Anybody besides me think Gael looks a little like Julia Roberts in ‘Hook’? I thought he was really cute until I made that (loose) connection. It could just be the similar haircuts but….

Well now I do… He’ll never be the same. Thanks a heapload.

The wife picked this one out to watch last week and I couldn’t find anywhere else to be. But even she regretted wasting her time on it. Almost all of the characters were unlikable for most of the movie, which I guess is supposed to add realism. Nobody is happy until the last few minutes, and then everything magically improves.

As my wife has observed, bad movies very often include special features where the director and cast talk about the film’s importance and how great it was to be involved. We had to see if the theory held true. It did. Apparently this was a film by and about women, something that has NEVER been done before. Your “D” is just right.

Nice observation on Mrs. Prouty’s part – I’ll have to keep my eye out for that sign. Another sure giveaway of a stinker – alternate endings.