********MOVIE(S) RECOMMENDATION********June Bug; Mad Hot Ballroom; Hustle and Flow; Wedding Crashers
JUNE BUG...Forget it. A must miss. Slow and unpredictably predictable. Another generational re-discovery of old Freud: mothers are domineering, father's are castrate, children of those situations miss-marry and are unhappy. But, I assume the director/editor assumes, if you slow the pace of the film to a crawl, we will think something meaningful is going on. Unfortunately, the director adds to it a permanent disaster ending....We are doomed to stay unfulfilled in relationships. Some really good acting. The writer/director didn't deserve it.
MAD HOT BALLROOM...Exquisite. On all levels. "Reality"/documentary film at its best. It traces public high school students and schools as they prepare for a NY-citywide ballroom dancing contest. Great perserverance in shooting the footage and editing on the part of the filmakers. Sociology, psychology, hope, conflict, cooperation...Its all there. You can be unaffected only if you are dead. I saw it twice. The battle-hardened movie audience applauded both times.
HUSTLE AND FLOW...Rocky meets Rap. A pimps dream of success told with energy, grit and heart. Great acting. Once you get past the street 'black-ese'--which is enjoyable in and of itself, even for an old white man like me--it's an old fashinoned and easily understandable tale of upward mobility...with whores with hearts of gold, friendship, camaraderie, great funny lines and character, much laughter, little sex and no gratuitous violence: the punching and gunplay is tasteful, and all justified by character and plot. My brain must be getting addled: I'm liking too many films.
WEDDING CRASHERS...Cotton candy for a long dull day. Another young people's old fashioned movie. But fun. Boy meets girl: actually, boys any girls they can find, then one boy meets one girl, and other boy meets impossible girl. If you can drop the logic of the attraction, and just go with it, its not a bad ride. Wonderful comedic acting, especially by Vince Vaughn. His love affair with his virginal but really been-around girlfriend reminds me of Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot. "Well...Nobody's perfect." Vince seems to have hit his starring stride with these roguish parts (he's finally come out of the personality closet?) in ribald comedy, fast rhythmed and totally un-PC. Is that is what he is really like in everyday life?! Answer: hard to think otherwise.
MAD HOT BALLROOM...Exquisite. On all levels. "Reality"/documentary film at its best. It traces public high school students and schools as they prepare for a NY-citywide ballroom dancing contest. Great perserverance in shooting the footage and editing on the part of the filmakers. Sociology, psychology, hope, conflict, cooperation...Its all there. You can be unaffected only if you are dead. I saw it twice. The battle-hardened movie audience applauded both times.
HUSTLE AND FLOW...Rocky meets Rap. A pimps dream of success told with energy, grit and heart. Great acting. Once you get past the street 'black-ese'--which is enjoyable in and of itself, even for an old white man like me--it's an old fashinoned and easily understandable tale of upward mobility...with whores with hearts of gold, friendship, camaraderie, great funny lines and character, much laughter, little sex and no gratuitous violence: the punching and gunplay is tasteful, and all justified by character and plot. My brain must be getting addled: I'm liking too many films.
WEDDING CRASHERS...Cotton candy for a long dull day. Another young people's old fashioned movie. But fun. Boy meets girl: actually, boys any girls they can find, then one boy meets one girl, and other boy meets impossible girl. If you can drop the logic of the attraction, and just go with it, its not a bad ride. Wonderful comedic acting, especially by Vince Vaughn. His love affair with his virginal but really been-around girlfriend reminds me of Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot. "Well...Nobody's perfect." Vince seems to have hit his starring stride with these roguish parts (he's finally come out of the personality closet?) in ribald comedy, fast rhythmed and totally un-PC. Is that is what he is really like in everyday life?! Answer: hard to think otherwise.
posted by Cliff Osmond at 4:41 PM
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