A Few Words from the Inner Movie Critic

One thing that I always love doing is viewing a good movie. Over the past month or so, I have seen a few noteworthy, and not-so-noteworthy, movies that I thought I'd share some thoughts on today.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I joined my friends Liza and Jen for a night at the Wayne Cinema where we saw the newest Harry Potter movie. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was actually a fantastic movie. Harry, Hermione, and Ron have begun to blossom as real human beings and the effects were incredible on the big screen. It's kind of funny because I think I'd consider this what Sara calls a guilty pleasure. I told Liza afterwards that it's one of those movies that make you feel the magic of childhood imagination. I had seen the other movies on DVD, so this was the first Harry Potter/cinema experience, so I have to say that I would prefer the cinema setting. Moving right along...

One of my most stress-filled weeks, when I was caving from graduate school pressures, Liza suggested we watch a completely no-brainer movie; so, we settled in for a night of Mean Girls. Can I tell you how funny I've always thought Tina Fey is? This movie only further confirmed her incredible ability to make people laugh. She captured the horrors of high school, added a touch of sentimentality, and topped it off with a couple characters played by her fellow SNL crazies. Bottom line: It served its purpose--we laughed uncontrollably.

The next movie I saw, at a very bad time (the night before my huge paper was due), was Donnie Darko. This was a fairly good movie. The overall message behind it was very good...the alien/satan-like rabbit that was human-sized and rather freaky was not so cool. Jake Gyllenhaal has always been one of my favorites, and he gets to team up with his sister in this 2001 movie, so it's an interesting watch. It kind of redefines willing suspension of disbelief.

Next, I saw Vanya on 42nd Street. This was a great movie, based on the play by Anton Chekhov. The cast was supremely talented and the character portrayals were unbelievable. Wallace Shawn and Brooke Smith were my two favorites...their performances were the ones that made the movie.

Another very good one that I had the chance to see was The Others, with Nicole Kidman and many other greats. The only thing I can compare this to was the moment in the theater when I went to see The Sixth Sense and realized the twist in the plot. This is one of those where, at the very end of the movie, you're forced to rethink almost every element of the movie. Fantastic brain teaser.

Finally, and on a less enthusiastic note unfortunately, we watched Ladies in Lavender last night. While two of my favorite actresses starred (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith), I have to admit that the storyline was a little flat and missing some arch. Janet (Smith) and Ursula (Dench) are very round characters, but there are several characters and elements of this plot that leave you wondering why they were even made a part of the movie. Not the best movie of the year...left me pretty disappointed.

So, there you go. A brief rundown of how I've been filling my time. More later...and there will probably be another similar listing later in my break because I have many recommendations coming in, including The Passion of Anna, Enchanted April, and Gosford Park. Oh! And I can't forget the generous offer from Jen and Greg to sit me down for a Star Wars marathon...I feel eerily uncomfortable that they both seem very eager to turn me into an experiment of sorts. I expect some slack for not seeing one of the movies in all 23 years of my life, but I'm a little nervous about their observations as I watch. (This is a joke...I look very much forward to this gathering just like all of the others.)