Rachel Getting Married

Written by: Jenny Lumet

Directed by: Jonathan Demme



There was all this talk abuot this movie being Anne Hathaway's breakout role and she'd probably be nominated for an Oscar or something and I knew Anne had done indie work cause my sister loved Havoc and I remember Anne Hathaway from that show that ran on FOX pre OC but sorta like a more grown up OC or sorts...Anyway I knew she wasn't all cutesy Princess Bride and Devil Wears Prada.



Anne plays Kym in Rachel Getting Married. She's a chronic rehaber who is out for the weekend to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie Dewitt) wedding. Kym is picked up by her super sweet dad Paul (Bill Irwin) and step mom Carol (Anna Smith) and is dropped off smack dab in the middle of the chaos of setting the house up for the wedding. It's a giant multi-cultural musical bunch of friends raising a tent and setting up flowers in the house and theres black people and white people and asian people and guys playing saxaphones and a violinist and kids on drums. Its crazy. And here's Kym puffing away on her cigarettes after 9 months in rehab.



Rachel is estatic to see her sister but Emma (Anisa George) the Maid of Honor is not. The girls have been friends since kindergarten and Emma is well aware of Kym's mishaps. Kym is slighted as Rachel and Emma go about getting the Sari pinned for the wedding. They immediately get to bickering.



Kym has to keep up with Addicts Anonymous meetings, drug test, and the temptation to use while dealing with the stress from being around the family. Her dad is overbearing and worried that something will happen when she's out of his eyesight, especially behind the wheel of a car. Her mom is avoiding her, and they avoid at all costs any discussion about the family tragedy they all went through.



At first i was completely annoyed with the directors use of a handheld camera to film the movie. Im like 'what is this? Cloverfield/Blair Witch all over again" which didnt make sense because this is a dramatic movie, not scary. And i wanted more of a backstory like "why is kym in rehab" and how the hell did Rachel and Sidney get together? And i was just irritated. And i was worried i had got sucked into another "Margot At The Wedding".

But at some point in the movie the documentary style camera made you feel like you were there. Like you were at the house getting ready for the wedding. And Rachel and Kym were bickering sisters that you had to sit through the uncomfortableness of watching argue. But not sisters that hate each other, just regular sisters. And you were part of the warm, loving, Conneticuit family.

All the critics are going on and on about Anne Hathaway, and she is great as Kym, but I really loved Rosemarie Dewitt as Rachel. I guess Anne's more famous so she gets more publicity. But Rachel is the older sister who has to entertain her sisters narcisism, while trying to shine as the star in her own wedding. She can't stand Kym for always being in the way and screwing up but steps in as the older sister to take care of her. She's great.

I can see why its getting the oscar buzz. If you can get past the first 10 minutes, youre hooked. Great movie.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Written & Directed by: Mike Leigh

Soooo everytime we would go to Angelika we saw a preview for Happy Go Lucky (did i write a review for Loins of Punjab Presents??? it was the funniest movie this year. plain and simple.) anyway, it looked cute and perky and there was a Lily Allen song playing and a happy little British chick rode around on a bike and made fun of her boob lifts.

We meet Poppy (Sally Hawkins), the "happy-go-lucky" elementary school teacher. She's 30, and lives with her flatmate Zoe (Alexis Zergerman) who is also a teacher. They work during the week and party really hard on the weekends. Poppy is a sweet lady who really cares about the well being of others.

That's really all the movie is about. Poppy and her interaction with other people who dont share quite the same optimistic view on life that she does. She trampolines, and takes flamenco classes, and befriends a psycho driving instructor and a social worker, and all the other random Brits she comes in contact with.

Sally Hawkins isn't unbelievably happy. And the character Poppy is just one of those people who lifts up anyone when they are down, even if she doesn't know you. Sally pulls it off. Some people compare it to Amelie, and i could see the similarities, its just that Amelie was just as cute and likeable, but the movie was also plot driven.

The guy who played Scott (Edide Marsan) was totally creepy and weird but im sure he was supposed to be.

Overall the movie was just ok. I didnt leave wanting to hug strangers, and nothing extremely tragic happened to totally change Poppy's view on the world. But I think it would have been better as a book than a screenplay. It was like bam theres Poppy she wears funky clothes and is super quirky. I was kinda so what about it.

RocknRolla

written & directed by: Guy Ritchie

YES! Guy Ritchie is back. Yeah I know it aint like he's made tons of films but dammit I was wondering if he was just going to sit at home and live off Madonna (well not anymore) but he was in the studio making the awesomeness that is a Guy Ritchie film.

If you've seen Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, or Snatch, you know how seemingly random characters and events coincide to a nice gangster filled fight. If you don't know, then you should be ashamed of yourself and find out as soon as possible. So I will do my best.

Some down in the gutter gangsters "The Wild Bunch" are made of One Two (Gerard Butler), Mumbles (Idris Elba), and Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy) want to get in the real estate game in London. The underhand real estate game and a lot of other gangster shit is run by Lenny (Tom Wilkinson) who's right hand man is Archie (Mark Strong). Lenny screws over the Wild Bunch and they end up owing him two mil. Lenny is also working with a Russian gangster who wants to do major developing in town. Lenny's fee is 7 mil to get the project moving along quickly. The Russian get his accountant Stella (Thandie Newton) to get the cash to Lenny. The Russian also lets Lenny borrow his precious lucky painting. Stella is a crooked little lady and calls her buddy One Two to rob the guys carrying the money to Lenny and give her a cut off the top. While the painting is in Lenny's possesion it gets stolen by his degenerate pressumed dead rockstar stepson Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell), who is managed by Roman (Ludacris) and Mickey (Jeremy Piven). The Russian thinks theres something awry and demands that his lucky painting is returned, which sends everyone crossing paths and trying to pin down Johnny.

Whew. The movie takes a minute to get going because there are so many characters to deal with. But once it does it kicks ass. I loved Tom Wilkinson as Lenny. He plays an asshole boss gangster pretty well. I dunno who the guy that played Archie is, but you know how the second in command is always cool, calm, and collected. THAT is Archie. He has a patented backhand slap I wish I could try on someone. Gerard Butler is wonderful to look at, but him and the other Wild Bunch guys really seem like grity gangster buddies. And you get to see him do a hillarious dance number. BUT the standout player for me was Johnny Quid. He's a strung out junkie Rocknrolla but he knows his game and he knows it well. Like you wanna hate him cause he's an asshole and unpredictable and just diry, but he's kinda cool at it.

The movie isn't as funny as Ritchie's previous work. Don't get me wrong, it had some laugh out loud bits and the dialogue is great, but its not as quirky funny as the others. It reminds me more of Layer Cake (which happened to be directed by the producer of Lock Stock and Snatch), or Lucky Number Slevin. It's more...character driven than story driven I think. There's flashbacks involved to get more background. That's new for Ritchie. I loved it. Yes I'm partial to British gangsters, but I loved it! It's not as violent either as the others. But it sticks to the Ritchie formula and thats fantastic.

Zach & Miri Make a Porno

written & directed by: Kevin Smith

Normally I dont watch Kevin Smith's movies that take a trip outside of his View Askew universe. I like the running gags and repition of characters and general absuridty and vuglarness that insues inside the realm. But when I saw the preview for this and that Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen were in it I had to see it.

Zach (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are life long friends and current roommates who have crappy dead end jobs. Miri works at the mall and Zach works at a coffee house. They find themselves flat broke but get ready to attend their 10 year high school reunion, where Miri is determined to sleep with the hottest guy in the school, Bobby Long (Brandon Routh).

Zach despises everyone in his class and Miri zooms in on Bobby as soon as they get there. Zach finds himself chatting with a mysterious guy Brandon (Justin Long) who tells him about all the money he makes in LA doing gay porn and he's just in town to go come to the reunion with his boyfriend...Bobby.

Miri is distraught so the pair go home only to find that their lights and water have been turned off. They go to the bar and Zach figures that they could do like Brandon and make a porno. Who wouldnt pay to see people from their high school class make porn??? (hypothetical question of course).

So Zach talks to his coworker Delaney (Craig Robinson) to bankroll the film (from his flat screen tv fund), they hold auditions, and get to work on making the film. Zach and Miri figure they should be able to get through their scene because after all they are just friends...or are they???

There is no way to describe this movie but a romantic comedy. A very very explicit romantic comedy. I mean its very predictable what will happen but they have a real live porn star in the movie (Katie Morgan), a hillarious list of porn movie titles, and thankfully Kevin put his good buddy Jason Mewes in the movie. This movie is not for the easily unsettled. They don't show EVERYTHING, but they come damn close.

It wasn't as funny as say...Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express, but it was damn entertaining. When the credits started I was kinda pissed because the movie felt unfinished, so I sat tight and hoped for a scene during/after the credits, and sure enough Kevin did not fail me. The movie wrapped up nicely so don't pop up as soon as its done. And definetly do not take any children or the easily offended.