Films Films Films. (oh, pardon me, movies) 'tis the season, it seems. My average is now up to one for every day I've been home.

Film : Thoughts

Sixteen Candles (Monday night, with Martha in the exercise room) : First time I've seen one of the "brat pack" films the whole way through. I rather enjoyed it, my only apprehension was that it might just be really dumb. But it's actually somewhat cleverer than a lot of recent high school films. Easy to see how those follow the cliches set up in these movies, but I liked how this was so exaggerated in its ridiculousness - almost to the point of tongueincheek. And doesn't try too hard to be moralistic (unlike various Julia Stiles flicks, etc.) John Cusack (at about age 9) is, as Martha pointed out each time he came on screen, very cute. And Molly Ringwald continues (sets?) the tradition of the protagonist loser-chick being way too attractive to be believable as a misfit. I'd like to see some much earlier teen high school films. Blackboard Jungle or something. What were some that were made in the 60s?

Rat Race (Tuesday night with Dad, Martha, intermittently, and Mom but she was mostly asleep) : It took the first hour or so of Martha expressing her disbelief at our failure to laugh out loud at every single gag in the film (although I'm not sure that was necessary), but it got pretty hilarious by the end. Past a certain point, you just have to start laughing if you're going to keep watching it at all. The set-up (quite reminiscent of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World) is promising, but the cast is unfortunately divided between performers who pull off with requisite subtle balance of zaniness and sanity (Breckin Meyer and Cuba Gooding as sweet, slightly smarmy straight men, and Seth Green as his usual self, matching the pitch of the movie) and those who are just annoyingly hammy (Jon Lovitz is awful, and Rowan Atkinson is just preposterous, even worse when he opens his mouth.) Nice cameo from Wayne Knight (aka Newman); Whoopi doesn't get nearly enough screen time (although she has one of the best scenes - "you should have bought a squirrel"), while John Cleese is rather disappointing, despite a great string of great big-shot bets a la Henry Sugar. Hmm. So, there are a lot of actors. Yeah, it's funny. Not great.

Ghost World : later that night, by myself in the exercise room.
I've been waiting to see this for a really long time - I went to the movie committee screening but the projector(s) weren't working. Man, that was annoying. Anyway. It was worth the wait; this was a very engaging movie. I'm not completely decided yet about its "artistic merit" or whatever, but I definitely enjoyed watching it. Enid (played Thora Birch, who is terrific) is problematic; you're obviously supposed to like her, and I tend to, but she really is horridly inconsiderate, besides being just cynical and friendless and "misunderstood." Misanthropes have no more right to be mean to people than the rest of us, right, otherwise they give other misanthropes a bad name. It's probably a good thing I don't know her, because I would befriend and try to humanize her, and get partway and probably end up upset by the whole thing. This is mostly superficial, but she reminds of Meredith a lot, beyond just appearance. Steve Buscemi is as likable as ever, and his vinyl collection is pretty enviable. The guy on the bench at the bus stop is a good touch, even if the ending is both predictable and unsatisfying. Not in a bad way. I'd like to read some of the comics. Basically, the film just looks really great, and it has a good story.

Nine Queens : tonight (Wednesday) back at the Little (I'm getting really good at driving there) with Dad
Alright! This certainly evokes Mamet and The Sting, like they said. A genre piece, indisputably, but brilliantly executed - good writing, great pacing, very nice visuals, especially the first half which is a long continuous scene following the two leads as they wander through the streets of Buenos Aires, casually perpetrating a series of small-fry scams. This sort of stuff is always fun to watch, but this film does an especially good job of working in "human interest" details that aren't necessarily central to the main plot of the con. My only real complaint is with the ending, which has an all-too-typical final revelation adding another level of complexity - you know it's coming, and it almost wouldn't be right without it, but this one just doesn't quite work. It strains the realism of the story up to that point, and even if it can all be made to work out, thinking retroactively, it just doesn't make as much sense as if they'd let things stay as they seemed. Regardless, definitely worth seeing, and lots of fun.

after the victory at sea
we learned Portuguese
for use when in Brasilia