Tag: three sentence movies

I tried, once upon a time, to read this classic of mid-century literature and eventually discarded it, thinking, “You know what? These guys are jerks.”  And you know what came through loud and clear in the film version?  You guessed it:  these guys are jerks.*

Cost:  $4.00
Where watched:  Laurelhurst, with S. North.

*This book/movie is navel-gazing male literature/cinema at its finest.  Which for me means “most boring.”  Although there were fun period details and the cameos were interesting.

I liked this movie for the building tension, and for the good performances by all the leads and especially the presence of Sarah Silverman.*  But what I really like about this movie is that it didn’t end where I thought it would, but kept going, giving me a very different ending than I expected.  Michelle Williams was not exactly a likable character, but her performance was very much worth watching.

Cost:  $1.00 from Videorama’s $1.00 Thursday
Where watched:  At home.

*There is a post-swim session shower scene in the movie that is pretty much spot-on depicting the realities of post-swim showers.  It has a lot of nudity in it (including Sliverman and Williams), but the nudity is of the “everyday” variety, not the much idealized women’s locker room scene that opens the movie Carrie.  If you are female, the locker room scene in Carrie is totally worth watching just for laughs.  It is very much the male fantasy of what happens in the women’s  locker rooms.  Take this Waltz is the reality.

In my mind, the best kind of movie is where a character, or characters, if you are lucky, go through some sort of transformation over the course of the movie.  Based on that criteria, this movie was fabulous: simple story, interesting and not unlikable characters, and kind of quirky. Overall, this movie was made of some simple parts, but they all came together so well that I greatly enjoyed myself, and was reminded that this is why I love to watch movies.*

Cost:  $1.00 from Videorama ($1.00 Thursdays!  How lucky am I?)
Where watched:  at home.

*Have you not heard of this movie?  Well, you should watch it because there is a reason it was the Laurelhurst Theater’s longest running movie of 2012.
Also:  the extras have a great story about how the text for the ad came about.

In celebration of having my real life back,* I took myself out to this movie.  It was a very good choice as I loved the story itself, the acting was phenomenal,** I was entranced the entire time and kept thinking about the movie in the days that followed.  This was an excellent flick and not just because a certain someone was all tarted up with incredibly white trash tattoos.***

Cost:  A premium $8.50
Where watched: Regal Fox Tower

*Class is over, dress is mostly done, I can reclaim my time!
**Hamster Ryan Gosling is growing on me and Bradley Cooper keeps being marvelous.
***It took about a week before I realized that the Ryan Gosling character was cleverly designed to appeal to every single bad-boy trigger point:  trashy motorcycle racer who changes his ways for not just a woman but, (wait for it) a baby!  I totally fell for it.

This is a quasi-documentary, in that it’s filmed in a documentary style, but you can’t believe anything you see presented as fact. However, that does not make it one whit less delightful as we travel the country with Charlyne Yi hearing people talk about love and watch her own views on love undergo a metamorphosis when one charming gentleman by the name of Michael Cera enters the picture. Overall, this is 88 minutes of delight (possibly propelled by the fact I love Michael Cera, but also due to the general whimsical nature of the movie) and I recommend it heartily.

Cost:  free from library (yet another, “why not?” that turned out well)
Where watched: at home with Kelly, my “I’m on break, big salad and a movie” companion.

This movie is much better than it had any right to be.  Probably because a bunch of very good actors* took this usual high school romantic comedy up several notches.  Also, I think the setting is so magical, it conspires to make the movie great too.

Cost:  free from library.
Where watched:  at home.

*Joseph Gordon-Levitt!  Julia Styles!  Allison Janney!  And Heath Ledger, who, it is amazing and sad to realize, would be dead less than 10 years from when this was filmed.

I think I’ve figured out that watching a Paul Thomas Anderson movie is not like watching a typical verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus-type movie.  I was entranced the entire film because the acting is tremendous and yet I felt like nothing had really happened when the movie was over.  Instead of watching a story, it seemed like I was on a journey with the characters.

Where watched:  Laurlhurst Theater
Cost:  $4.00