The movies I've seen, this the weekend of 8.20.04, include Garden State, Gummo, and The Girl in the Sneakers.

Garden State -

A young actor (Zach Braff), best known as his role of the retarded football player on that tv movie, returns home for the first time in years, to attend his mother's funeral. At the same time, he decided to quit taking his lithium medication, that he's been on for most of his life.

Wow, I loved this! It was predictably good, I went in with high expectations (which I don't often do) and I wasn't disappointed. The characters were great. Natalie Portman was very believable in her portrayal of Sam. I didn't think it was possible, but I was completely reminded of myself by her, while at the same time I was reminded of all the girls that I can't stand. Its the... talkative, imposing part of her personality that I usually find so disagreeable in most people, yet she was a compulsive liar (like me) and cried at the exact same times I would. Natalie Portman used to be one of my favourite actresses, but then came the Star Wars movies, and along with them, her dull performances. Has Garden State redeemed her? Quite possibly.

Zach Braff was great in his three roles of director/writer/Andrew Largeman. He described perfectly what its like to be on a heavy dosage of medication that leaves you feeling "numb", unable to cry or experience emotion. Of course, he tried to escape that, and I would rather go back to the numbness. Check out Zach Braff's personal Garden State blog. But this was a smart movie! I wish certain people I know would go see it, maybe it would open there eyes a bit. Actually, not just certain people, but everyone. Life... priorities.... You shouldn't have to destroy or leave behind the best things in life to "find yourself". You should attempt to figure your life out as you live it rather than having to stop, or make replacements. Do you ever get that weird feeling when you see people from a long time ago, from high school or something, like at The Wheel? That whole feeling is in this movie.

Though the movies are not really alike (aside from characters, in which there are striking similarities), fans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would like this. Would you erase me?

Overall, I give this movie a big YES



Gummo -

From the writer of Kids, the disturbing film about urban adolescents, comes a disturbing film about rural adolescents. Harmony Korine says that he's not out to shock anyone, and he doesn't believe in taboos. This movie had a man "pimping" his mentally ill wife to minors, girls practicing to become strippers, and a black jewish dwarf. And so much more. I didn't find it as shocking as Kids. The most disturbing thing to me was all of the cat killing. I love cats, watching anything die makes me sad, but cats... It was hard to watch. The characters where stereotypical "white trash" for the most part, but I thought there might be some depth to Tummler, when he would try to tell jokes and stuff.

My favourite part of the movie? The bunny boy! Not only was he adorable, but his reactions were great. When the two young boys pretend to shoot him, and the bunny boy plays dead. I liked that. The bunny boy making out with the two sisters at the end, it didn't fit well with the rest of the movie. Nor did the bunny boy holding up the dead cat, but I liked that.

I watched the commentary with Harmony Korine, and I must say, I am impressed with the way that he did the casting. He watched talk shows about troubled adolescents who survived paint sniffing, and he actually choice those teens to act in the movie. For the extras, he travelled around town to McDonalds, gas stations and so on, just pulling random people. He said that he set a 45 minute limit on himself to do all the casting.

Overall, following my rating rules, I give this a NO



The Girl in the Sneakers -

Tadai (Pegah Ahangarani) is a 15 year old girl growing up in Tehran, when she meets Aideen, a teenage boy. After the two appear together in a park, unchaperoned, a serious of unfortunate events arises, and leads Tadai to run away from home. The film follow the story of her journey on the streets of Tehran, and the interesting characters she meets. The original title is Dokhtari ba kafsh-haye-katani.

I did like this movie. Pegah Ahangarani is a gifted actress, and her potrayal of Tadai was very realistic. Once she ran away, parts of the movie seemed predictable, but then they would turn around and surprise me. When she went home with the first man that she meant, and he kicked her hout when he realized his wife was home, that surprised and kind of creeped me out. I thought this movie might be one of those simple, "Depend on the kindness of strangers" types of movies, but it wasn't, and I'm pleased.

I loved the ending. The way that the one thing that kept her going was the thought that Aideen would come find her and they would run away together, to complete his dream of travelling. And then Aideen finally comes, but it doesn't go as planned. As it turns out, Aideen's father talked him out of his dream, and his love for Tadai. He is no longer the same person, and Tadai is on her own. That was amazing because it was really not predictable. I mean, thats probably what would happen in real life, but in a movie like this you would expect love to conquer all. The rest of the ending was a little too ambiguous for my taste.

My biggest complaint? Cinematography! But, apparently this is only an issue on the American DVD. Some scenes were so dark that you couldn't see what was happening. The subtitles had so many misspellings and wrong wordings, and that got annoying, but was tolerable.

Overall, I give this movie a YES