I found another dependable site for movie talk. It's called Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People and it has brought me a lot of honest joy over the last week as I have devoured their entire review index (the site only dates to about 2004, that's only about 4 1/2 years of reviews - didn't take long). The writers of this one seem more in my age range, and also seem to have a lot of my movie sensibilities. They're crass and they cuss and they're occasionally unprofessional (this site isn't affiliated with any major publication or news agency, so I guess they're free to stink it up) but that doesn't mean these people can't write or that they don't have some great insight. The fact is, they like most of the same movies as I do, only they're much more articulate about why which makes me feel smart and right. How very self-righteous of me. But it's a good feeling. As much as I love a good, serious film board - like the Scanners or The Cooler blogs - sometimes I just wanna feel validated and laugh. And this site offers that in abundance while continuing to adeptly analyze movies. (They also have a great group of readers/commenters who are inappropriate and funny and full of opinions, but don't take themselves too seriously and don't meanly jump on people who disagree - it's all plays out like warm banter.) Here's a smattering of quotes I really liked and agreed with:
From the review of Sideways:
The exuberantly physical Jack doesn’t hold himself back from Miles, as men in films (and life) usually do; he hugs him, he jumps on him, he mimes rutting on him when he’s teasing Miles about going to bed with a woman. It’s what saves Jack from being wholly unlikable: He loves this uptight sad sack and so, after a while, do we, so we forgive Jack for being coarse and selfish.
From the review of August Rush:Because while August Rush is not an important film, while it is not a serious one, or an Oscar contender, or subversive, or destined to be a cult classic, it is a movie that — if you allow it — will liquefy your innards, that will make your small little atrophied hearts grow three sizes and then melt into a giant puddle of gop that those poor, put-upon theater workers will have to mop up while you’re out singing and holding hands with the denizens of Whoville. It is a magically romantic movie in the way that movies are meant to be romantic, a feel good movie that still feels good after you’ve taken stock, after you’ve digested it all and checked the undercarriage for faulty lines because you may just find that you’ve sprung a goddamn leak.
From the review of Brokeback Mountain:
Jack struts around like a stud horse, intoxicated with the idea of being a rodeo star and proving his worth to his disapproving father and, by extension, the world. Gyllenhaal’s performance at first seems a little out of place; everyone around him ... seems entirely at ease and unactorish, but on a second viewing I realized that what I was watching wasn’t Gyllenhaal’s performance — it was Jack’s. Jack is constantly trying to fill the role of Western hero, trying to impress; when we first see him he leans against his truck in an exaggeratedly casual posture, with a “hey, cowboy” leer. The pose seems tentative here, but when he strikes it again later, after he knows he’s won Ennis, it’s triumphant. Unlike Ennis, Jack knows what he wants and is willing to go after it, though he may be only a little better at understanding it.
From the review of Brick:
Brendan’s fights with the jock and Tug are fairly close together, and they’re disturbing in their visceral honesty. This kid just starts beating on people, and gets plenty bloody in the process. The fight scenes, and there are several more, are often completely free of music, and what few melodies do appear in them are far from the bass-heavy bombast of typical genre brawls. Composer Nathan Johnson, the director’s brother, interweaves spare melodies and reworks haunting themes for each of the characters, ranging from something like loose, instrumental indie pop to piano-based ballad lines that play like an uber-depressed Gershwin. But his silence in the fight scenes serves to ground the film even more in its own sad realism: We start to understand that, far from the neutered deaths of a Bruckheimer movie, these people might actually kill each other.
From the review of Wedding Crashers (confession - I can't even adequately describe how awesome Vince Vaughn is in this movie. He's on crack, in a good way.) :
The film is really about the interplay between Owen Wilson’s wise-assed honeyed drawl and the rapid-fire, morally valueless interjections from Vaughn, a comedy duo as energetically complimentary as Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell would have been if they were allowed to use verbiage from the Urban Dictionary. These two have played scene-stealing sidekicks for so long that the combination, at first, seemed unsustainable. But Vaughn and Wilson battle in a game of one-upmanship throughout, effortlessly competing in a volley of witty crassness that doesn’t let up (though, it is Vaughn who ultimately wins out), and in which the only danger is one of comedic over-stimulation.
From the review of Juno:
I’m almost at a loss for words to describe just how good — how deeply and honestly good — Juno made me feel, and how its big bright beating heart is capable of delivering moments of genuine love and heartache and confusion and the general feeling of being left to the cold mercy of the universe in the hell that is growing up.....There’s a moment in Juno when it becomes clear that the film will not walk the well-trodden ground of easy comedies that have come before it but instead aim for — and grandly achieve — something greater, and truer, and full of the shivering joy of life itself. And it’s a small moment, too. Juno shows up on Paulie’s lawn one morning and tells him she’s pregnant, deadpanning that her situation typically leads to “you know … an infant.” and Paulie pauses for a few moments before asking, “What should we do?” His eyes show just the barest glint of tears for the rest of the conversation, and you can tell he’s working through too many emotions to count. He doesn’t freak out at her, and he doesn’t swear at her; he doesn’t even ask if it’s his. He just knows, and acknowledges it, and in that moment he cements everything he feels about Juno and everything the film itself will be: blunt, funny, and warmly accepting.
Occasionally the reviews are fucking hysterical, like this following excerpt from the review of The Lake House. (Disclaimer: I don't actually think Keanu Reeves is the worst actor in the world, but this cracked me up nonetheless.)
But then again, I suppose if Hollywood scriptwriters (or in this case, South Korean scribes) abided by the rules of logic and common sense, then we’d never be treated to pointless bullshit romantic sci-fi films like The Lake House, in which the only moments of amusement come when Keanu Reeves is asked to sneeze or cry onscreen — two actions that look remarkably similar when Neo is trying to sell his dramatic talents. Granted, I’ve been a fan of Reeves since he provided unheard-of levels of unintentional comedy in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, but Keanu’s talents do not run toward weepers, where his tears look about as natural as Ashlee Simpson’s new nose, and whatever chemistry he shared with Sandra Bullock in Speed was clearly eradicated when that bus fell below 55 miles an hour.
Also found this great little gem in the review of Sex Drive - it has nothing to do with the movie, but everything to do with the certainty one feels as a teenager when the first movies you see and love will always be the best"
Of course, as a product of the late ’80s/early ’90s, I like to believe that I grew up on the golden age of teen comedies, but I’ve come to the realization that, for most folks, the teen comedies they were given when they were teens are the ones they are most fond of (this explains, in my mind, the inexplicable fascination with Empire Records, for those who were born between 1978 and 1983, and also why I don’t get Fast Times at Ridgemont High as much as people who are a little older than I am do.). So, essentially, what I’m saying is this: Modern teen comedies need to be judged, not against Say Anything or Pump Up the Volume (do today’s teenagers even know what a short-wave radio is, or a boombox?), but against the teen comedies of the era they grew up in because those are likely the only ones modern teenagers are familiar with. After all, I doubt there are a lot of high-school sophomores troubled with the derivative nature of Superbad. Movie critics, on the other hand, are going to shit all over Sex Drive because they’ve seen it too many times already. But if you’re 16, fuck the critics. You know why most of them loved The 40-Year-Old Virgin? Because it spoke to them. And they’re still pissed off that John Hughes promised dorks all that trim and didn’t deliver, and now they’re too bitter to see a new generation of sex comedies with fresh eyes.
My favorite part of that passage is the section about Empire Records; I heard about this movie all over the place in 7th or 8th grade and it used to play on our one movie channel all the time (probably Encore) and I fucking loved it. Seeing it today I can admit the plot is ludicrous and the acting mostly absurd, but the music is fun and I'll always remember loving it then. And you just can't explain that to someone who didn't know at the time. (I wonder what my kids will think of Titanic. How can I possibly explain the beauty and freshness of a young Kate Winslet when she will be well into her 40's before I even conceive? And how can a child of of the 2020's possibly understand why Leonardo DiCaprio was such a phenomenon, or why those special effects were amazing? By 2020 we'll be on Transformers 5: Decepticons Go Nuclear on Our Asses; all special effects, no plot, for two and a half hours. We're talking gooooood special effects. Titanic's gonna look pretty lame in comparison. Especially if my kid's a fucking boy.)
Other favorite part about this site? They make lists!!! That's actually how I found it in the first place; I clicked a link to their most recent "Seriously Random" list, which I can't remember right now - I think it was either the 15 Mot Influential Classic Movies of All Time or the Best Movie Dweebs - and I found this great site. Other favorite lists include the 5 Most Unattractive Hot Women, Men Heterosexuals Believe Gay Men Love, Best Coming of Age Movies (which included personal faves Billy Elliot, Almost Famous and What's Eating Gilbert Grape), If They Have to Remake The Breakfast Club Dream Cast, and the Biggest Paycheck Whores. A little something for everyone and good time suckage during a slow day.
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