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Drop Dead Gorgeous - PG-13
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Sooo...they really need to make more movies like this. Hilarious, wicked, catfighty, beauty pageant goodness. Everybody plays their roles to pitch-perfection. Kirsten Dunst used to be so cute! Even though it dies out a little towards the end. Awesome seeing vintage blonde Amy Adams.
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December 22, 2009
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N/A
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The Informant! - R
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The style is so retro I love it! Soderbergh can always be depended on to conjure up something stylish. And I love how the story is so at-odds with the zaniness. Damon does an excellent portrayal of a paranoiac, although sometimes it can veer off into caricature.
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December 22, 2009
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N/A
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Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) (Broken Hugs) - R
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I don't get Penelope Cruz's appeal. Sure, she's sexy and glamorous, but what else? This is sub par Almodovar, at best. It's not really relatable or engrossing, and the characters are all pretty undeveloped.
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December 22, 2009
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N/A
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Moon - R
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This has touches of 2001 to it, but a little more humanistic. I like this because the spin isn't too surprising, but isn't too predictable either. Even though it gets a little tiresome staring at Sam Rockwell's face all the time.
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December 22, 2009
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N/A
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In the Loop - Unrated
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Exactly the type of black comedy that I cannot for the life of me understand. Yes, let's spend 100 freaking minutes debating about the word "unforseeable."
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December 20, 2009
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N/A
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Rocket Science - R
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Slightly inspirational and sort of adorable, but too insubstantial and too self-aware to be more than a floaty little indie. I sort of like Anna Kendrick a lot though.
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December 20, 2009
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N/A
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The Young Victoria - PG
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While this is not particularly an illuminating nor interesting period tale, it is still a period tale, and that is enough for me to rate it 4 stars. I'm serious. I think on a primal level I connect to these stories or something. Maybe I was a princess of England in my past life. There's not much to say about this film except that the costumes are SUMPTUOUS. I feel like I just ate a really moist chocolate cake.
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December 20, 2009
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N/A
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Fantastic Mr. Fox - PG
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So Wes Anderson needs to make more kid's movies, stat. It is doubtful that these films will be in any way appealing to kids, but they are certainly appealing to ME. The...I don't really know how to identify it..."rootlessness" - I suppose - is toned down to a dull hum, the themes are much tenderer but not trite, and the animals are just soo freaking COOL. George Clooney is an excellent choice for Mr. Fox. Dialogue is nearly pitch perfect. (But if I hear another animal say "clustercuss" I'm going to shoot myself.)
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December 20, 2009
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N/A
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The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - R
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Ok, so this movie...it's way too nervy and unsettling for me. It's a neurotic without a reasoning behind it, and while some moments are pretty funny, and I never get tired of looking of Blake Lively's face, it's all so surface level to me. I kind of get what Rebec Miller is saying but just barely. Go learn some more lessons from your daddy, honey.
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December 15, 2009
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N/A
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Mary and Max - Unrated
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This film is an absolute masterpiece. It's colorful, whimsical, red, depressing, disgusting, gorgeous, hilarious, and illuminating all at once. It doesn't limit itself to merely being an "adult animation" film, which I love. You can tell Elliot was inspired by a bunch of filmmakers (particularly Wes Anderson) but at the same time his style is uniquely his own. There's a release at the end that comes out in a little pop, cathartic and heartwarming. And I don't usually like to praise voice actors, but Philip Seymour Hoffman's New York Jewishness is ON THE MONEY.
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December 13, 2009
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N/A
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Invictus - PG-13
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December 13, 2009
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N/A
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High Fidelity - R
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John Cusack is endearing even when he is being intolerably annoying. I really like the scenes where Joan and John do their stuff. Although there were some really refreshing adult notes to it, High Fidelity is sort of uneven. At times contrived, at times ridiculous, at times hilarious, John Cusack's genuineness is what grouts the cracks together, even when he is being totally fake. I know that makes no sense. The lack of chemistry also bothers me a little. I attribute this to Iben Hjejle's bangs, which make her look like Judy Davis, and as a result she scares the crap out of me.
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December 12, 2009
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N/A
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Dead Poets Society - PG
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No offense, but I wasn't super inspired or anything after watching this movie. Robin Williams is funny, and that scene with Ethan Hawke's craziness was the stuff of legends, but all that talk of carpe diem and ripping out pages of poetry oh-this-is-so-pretentious was so surface-level to me. So why did I like this film so much? Plain and simple, the high school adolescent preppy horny hormonal BOYS, with big dreams and deliciously hot schoolboy ties and jackets. Whether it was popular premed-turned-actor-turned-tragic-figure Neil, or bad boy Charlie, or shy sweet head-over-heels loverboy Knox, I leave this film salivating for more. Carpe diem guyz!
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December 12, 2009
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N/A
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The Princess and the Frog - G
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I hope that it's just the weary, jaded adult in me, but I guess I expected more. Too derivative, too race-assuaging, too GREEN! It's beautiful, like omg-jaw-dropping beautiful, and it's interesting, and it's pretty funny, but it's not revolutionary, and it's still pretty racist.
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December 12, 2009
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N/A
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Brothers - R
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As a narrative, this couldn't get any better. Jim Sheridan is masterful at directing children, and Bailee Madison is exquisite. Also, Tobey Maguire and Gyllenhaal are like twins, seriously. Which is helpful for the role reversal. Still, all that war moralizing gets me kind of down.
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December 7, 2009
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N/A
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A Single Man - R
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December 7, 2009
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N/A
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The Lovely Bones - PG-13
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December 7, 2009
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N/A
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The Big Lebowski - R
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I think what makes this movie so funny is that it's sooo ridiculous, like Jeff Bridges hallucinating that he's flying over the world and then turns into a bowling ball. Stuff that is implausible becomes plausible. Plus, the story isn't too shabby, either. I, too, dream of being as cool as the "Dude."
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Not Another Teen Movie - R
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I just really, really don't like satire movies. Some things were actually done quite well in satireland, but I don't know...it's honestly all the same to me.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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A Cinderella Story - PG
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Ok, so exchanging emails that say "Nobody understands me *bawl*" is probably THE most implausible way to fall in love with someone else, especially in this day and age of pederasty, but WHATEVER. Umm, but Chad Michael Murray is cute? And I've grown to tolerate Hilary Duff after her stint on Gossip Girl. And, well, Rosman didn't do such a bad job of updating the Cinderella story in terms of realisticness - except, like I said, the emails, and how the hell can CMM not recognize Hilary Duff when all she's wearing is like one inch of paper over her papers - and...this is the most possible nice I can get with this movie. It could've been worse.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Saving Face - R
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Ok, so when I first heard of this, the plot sort of threw me for a loop. Chinese lesbian? 50-year-old unmarried pregnant mother? This is risky stuff! But really, it's just poor man's Ang Lee. Given the plot, Alice Wu makes it seem as low-key as possible, which I guess is kind of the point? but doesn't make it any more interesting. It's a tolerable kind of movie.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Sugar & Spice - PG-13
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This feels like more of a half-movie, but the extant half isn't quite that bad. It's kind of risque, kind of bitchy, and kind of stupid, and I kind of just adore Mena Suvari.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Pirate Radio (The Boat That Rocked) - R
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This movie is really cute! It makes me want to learn all this music and be as good natured and hilarious as these dj knights in shining mixtapes. Although I don't understand why Philip Seymour Hoffman is consistently cast in this type of role. Didn't you already make Almost Famous ten years ago?
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre - PG
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Whoa, way to take a feminist classic and make it as humanly boring and awkward as possible.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - R
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Ok, first of all, even though these movie screams abuse, what hard-hitting film doesn't? Why is it that foreign films don't shrink away from real things but we Americans are so prudish? Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie ok, and Sidibe in particular pulls out a particularly "real" performance, but my gosh - the shock, low-key value of this movie is equivalent to a teaspoon. Try as it may, Precious is still a high concept film. You want to see jaw-dropping abuse, see "City of God." And honestly, without Mo'Nique's freakout, Precious would simply wallow in the seas of mediocrity, no matter what Oprah tells us. Impressive things: its stealth casting (but was it REALLY necessary to pay 918242947837 dollars just for a deglammed Mariah Carey/Lenny Kravitz??), Gabourey Sidibe's haunting, fleshy eyes, and Mo'Nique.
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December 3, 2009
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N/A
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2170 ratings
1063 reviews
