movie nights!

Last weekend, something completely unprecedented happened. I rented two movies and my family enjoyed both of them.

Granted, it probably had something to do with the fact that it's the time of year when the weather is getting nice and everyone is a little more easily pleased, but I didn't really expect both Enchanted and Dan In Real Life to be hits. My stepdad tends to rent kung fu movies, or action things, or comedies we've seen a hundred times (at one point, I am fairly certain that everyone could quote along with the entirety of Down Periscope). Mom likes things a little more esoteric and enjoys foreign films, but she'll cheerfully watch martial arts. My brother goes for scifi action films and raunchy collegiate comedies. I tend to go for indie and foreign films like the pretentious liberal arts graduate I am, so it was interesting that a partially animated musical and a comedy in the lives-of-quiet-desperation genre (made so popular by Garden State, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and another recent Steve Carrell venture, Little Miss Sunshine) actually seemed to please everyone.

Of course, they both have their charms. Enchanted manages to simultaneously subvert and reinforce the Disney standards of love at first sight and the naive but plucky princess' journey from doe-eyed maidenhood to doe-eyed marital bliss. The songs, if not Oscar-worthy, were well-executed. I even managed to suppress my distaste for roaches through the "Happy Working Song". Giselle's series of dresses were too fabulous for words, and Amy Adams does an admirable job of being wide-eyed and cheery but nobody's dupe. My only problems with the movie were first, if you've got Idina Menzel, let her sing, and second, I was never convinced by Patrick Dempsey that he could form an attachment to anyone. But maybe that's just my indifference to McWhatever and his monotone. It would have marred the pacing of the movie to show anything worthwhile about his relationship with Nancy (or her motivations - it was nice to have the cut scene on the DVD showing that she was a hopeless romantic looking for a prince in addition to being a self-motivated, no-nonsense Manhattan fashion designer), but he did seem to fall for Giselle awfully fast when she was asleep on his couch. So much for rationality. It was a little too easy for me, but then again, I have to remind myself that this is a movie marketed to children, and that in a Disney movie, it's always going to be easy to fall in love.

Dan In Real Life was much more grown up. Even if it went along with the love at first sight trope, it was a lot more complicated and satisfying. Steve Carrell as the frustrated widower father of three was funny and warm, and the rest of the family was great too. Besides, it's conceivable to me that no one could resist Juliette Binoche. It's not so believable that everyone loves Patrick Dempsey. The only problem with Steve Carrell movies is when they degenerate into Will Ferrell-style hysterics (though it can't be denied that Carrell does a great histrionic fit, as we've seen on The Office), but the only moment where that happened was the "Put it on my tab" comment to the policeman, which felt believable at the time. Dan In Real Life was sweet and funny, if not laugh out loud hilarious. Ah, the claustrophobia of being around one's large family for a week at a time.

Oddly enough, last night's rental of Kinky Boots was a hit too, though it turned out that everyone had seen it except me. Now we'll have to see if we can continue the trend of finding happy mediums (by which I mean I will impose my movie wishes on the rest of the family and the films I choose will conquer their hearts, or at least entertain them for a while).

I watched Juno

So with the Oscars last Sunday, and my knowledge of this year's films anything but nuanced, I was kind of surprised to see Juno in the running for Best Picture. Sure, I loved it, and sure, there was the strike on and all, but really? Best Picture? Isn't that the hallmark of stunning epics and things with lots of violence? I haven't even seen any of the other nominees and it was clear that Juno was not going to win, which it probably shouldn't.

Don't get me wrong. I was charmed. Ellen Page? Delightful. Allison Janney? Exquisite as ever. Rainn Wilson's cameo almost made me burst a seam. I laughed, I nearly cried, I said "aww" at all the appropriate bits, etc. But the problem with Juno is that it doesn't have much of a sense of resolution. I'm not asking for an anti-sex moral, or an anti-abortion moral - I'm not anti either of those things - but we never really saw the consequences of Juno's pregnancy. There were a couple of scenes in the school, but she never really seemed ostracized, or at least not any more ostracized than she had been as the weird girl. She was huge, but she wasn't in much more discomfort than that, and her parents still let her run around all over the place.

Part of Juno's charm is its lightheartedness, but at points it's a little too lighthearted. It doesn't confront the realistic consequences of teenage pregnancies, or the difficulty of finding a good solution. Juno doesn't confront the idea of giving away her child, though the weeping at the end was convincing enough to me.

The other problem is the relationship between the adopting couple - they hardly have any rapport, even at the beginning of the movie. It's a puzzle as to why they're together at all. I couldn't be sympathetic at all to Jason Bateman's character: he's cold at the beginning and a jerk at the end, never getting over the selfishness we see in his first scenes. He was cruel and inappropriate to put the problems in his relationship on Juno's shoulders when her load was already heavy enough for a high school girl. One wonders just what Jennifer Garner ever saw in him.

Juno is a movie I'd gladly watch over and over, but it isn't a Best Picture. Its scope is too limited, and it isn't nearly gory or sweeping enough. The soundtrack is quirky and sweet, but not epically moving. I'm sure No Country For Old Men fit the mold much better.

I was still pleased that Diabolo Cody got the award for best screenplay, but maybe Helen Mirren can teach her what to wear - nobody does classy and non-transparent like Helen Mirren.

I watched Walk Hard

I ended up going to the movies a lot more than usual while my other best friend was home. This isn't surprising; I really only go to the movies with people, and when most of my friends have moved away. I think that until I went to see August Rush in November, the last movie I had seen in the theatre was Ratatouille. Then in the space of a few weeks, I saw I Am Legend, Walk Hard, and Juno. At least I know where the new cinema is now.

Anyway. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is not the kind of thing I would usually pick to go see. It's like a Will Ferrell movie, only without Will Ferrell (and while he's got some chops, I don't like his comedies much). The blatant innuendo in the title alone would be enough to turn me off the film. But I like John C. Reilly, I like it even better when he sings, and The Office (US) has awakened me to the charms of Jenna Fischer, so I said yes.

There were parts of the movie that amused me. Mostly the absolute hyperbole: the grown man masquerading as a fourteen-year-old, the woman playing his twelve-year-old girlfriend, the way that it all got worked into some expository dialogue. It was almost surreal, the way they discarded any pretense at realism. A song gets written on the spot, the musicians are so hip to the jive that they're able to play along, and within 35 minutes (thanks, DJ Exposition!), it's topping the charts! Amazing! I can get down (somewhat) with a movie that doesn't take itself seriously.

Despite Jenna Fischer's cleavage, the movie did drag on a bit. The whole-life approach meant a bunch of costume changes and a little bit of aging makeup, which was interesting, but I felt that the lessons could have been learned in much less time. Dewey Cox is no David Bowie, to go through a hundred phases and still be interesting. He wasn't that interesting in the first place. I liked the band members all right; they got short-shrifted in all kinds of ways.

The movie doesn't quite go far enough to be true parody, but I did enjoy the self-aware moments. And I'll admit it, I laughed at some of the cheaper gags, but more in "They did what?" shock and half-horror than in true entertainment. But then, I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to comedies.

Overall, I don't really regret seeing it, but I wouldn't see it again in the theatre. I might watch bits and pieces if it were on within earshot, but mostly for the novelty of seeing Jenna Fischer all dolled up. And maybe for the fake Beatles. That part was funny.