I've had the opportunity to dive into some movies I've been wanting to see the past couple of weeks. Here we go:

Away We Go
Jim from The Office. Maya from SNL. You'd expect hilarity. No. I forgot that this was a Sam Mendes movie. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. This film experience was a good example of studio's mis-marketing. It was advertised as a quirky comedy, but it was much more of drama with hints of humor.

The film is a mix of a romantic dramedy, buddy pic, and road movie. It took me a few scenes to get into it, but once I finished I felt compelled to go back to some scenes and review the subtle or not so subtle landmarks the characters experienced.

Why I liked it? I'm not sure. I like slower movies and liked the characters enough at the end to care during its most poignant moment.

Drag Me to Hell

I was all up on this movie to see Sam Raimi do his thing even though I wasn't really into his thing before Spider-Man. No, it's not because of Spider-Man, but I knew he had a visual style that I wanted to check out. Horror? Yes. Comedy? Yes. Drag Me to Hell? I should've seen it in the movie theater. Why? Because there were shrieks, ewws, and yucks that would've been fun to experience with a crowd. Did I like it? Yes. I don't think there was much depth, but I didn't expect any. I didn't want to think to much and the movie didn't ask me to. There were scares, gross moments, chuckles due to the outrageousness of the "horror" scenes. I was entertained.

The Wrestler

I had the highest hope for this film being a wrestling fan all of my life and the fact that this covered the grittier side of the industry with respect. I've never seen any of Aronofsky's other movies although I've intended to. I thought the story was simple - the characters more complex. Although, Randy the Ram was by far the most complex. Bill Simmons either made or echoed a solid comment that Randy the Ram's story, a once hyper successful 80s wrestler (it's first national heyday) mimicked Mickey Rourke's career. There was early and vast success that deteriorated within missed opportunities and the damage of drug abuse. Marisa Tomei did a great job portraying Cassidy but we've seen that character before. They worked well together, I thought. Overall, it was done well, entertaining, tragically sad, and appreciative of the workers (the indie and somewhat successful wrestlers it featured in the film).

I was mildly disappointed in, what I feel, was the spoon-fed symbolism. One being the comparison of the wrestler's life with the stripper's life: selling of your body, performing under a different name so much that it becomes who you are to the people that are your "fans", the dead-ended nature of the industry once you're not at optimal physical condition. I also thought the scene where Randy's first going out to man the deli counter didn't need the sound track that came along with it. If you've seen it, you'll know what I was talking about. Fatal flaws? Not at all. I just feel that indies beg for more subtlety.

posted by breakfast boy@ 5:40 PM