Bride Wars

directed by: Gary Winick
written by: Gary DePaul & Casey Wilson

Best friends since the beginning of time Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudon) have always dreamed of having June weddings at the Plaza Hotel. Emma is a high school teacher and a people pleaser. Liv is a tough, hard-nosed lawyer who always gets her way (and was a chubby girl). Miraculously the girls are proposed to within a week of each other and they rush off to New York's best wedding planner Marion St. Claire (Candace Bergen). Since she is the best a what she does, she lets them know there are two openings for June weddings at the Plaza. Hooray!!

The girls book a wedding, Liv's at the beginning of the month and Emma's at the end. But due to a horrible mix up, the girls are booked on the same day and neither wants to give up the dream. The war is on.

I guess the movie appealed to me because of my addiction to WE go bridal sundays. Total chick flicks aren't usually my thing, but this one had a few good laughs in it. It's completely predictable but it's not as cheesy as a Lifetime movie would be. You learn a bit about friendship and relationships. But its mostly for fun.

I wouldn't drag a guy to see it cause they do tend to make the men a little...useless??? Something like that. Unnecessary. Not bad at all though.

The Wrestler

written by: Robert D. Siegel

directed by: Darren Aronofsky



River Oaks finally got the movie and was showing it AFTER Mickey Rourke won the Golden Globe for best actor. SOOO I went to go see it. Wrote a review about it. Like to hear it? Here it goes.



Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was the shit in the late 80s. Anyone who knew anything about wrestling knew the name. Cut to 20 years later in a seedy wrestling arena in Jersey, we see an older, less brilliant "The Ram" geering up for a match. He makes a few bucks, goes home to his trailer, which he is locked out of for back due rent, then heads to a strip club to see Cassidy (Marissa Tomei). Cassidy is much older than the rest of the girls, but Randy is an old favorite of hers so she does a little dance and has a little convo with him before he goes back home.



The Ram's life aint an easy one. The amatuer boxing racket is not a lucrative career. Despite the coreography of wrestling, there are some real injuries involved. Every once in a while you get to do an autograph signing, but being famous 20 years ago doesn't draw in many fans. After one brutal match Randy is hospitalized and has to find an alternative to wrestling to support himself. Cassidy suggest that he make amends with his daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) so he doesn't have to be alone while he tries to recover.

Ok by the time I got to see the movie I really was thinking it was going to be the best thing ever. I like Aronofsky's stuff (see: Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) and everyone else was ga ga about the movie. It doesn't live up to the hype per se, but its still a damn good movie.

Aronofsky gives the movie a real documentary feel. A lot of the film is shot behind The Ram, giving the viewer his point of view. The first 30 minutes or so are a little slow and you're worried the whole movie is going to be like that, but it gets a lot better.

Evan Rachel Wood gives a good performance even though I think the whole father-daughter aspect should have been expounded on a little more. You know that he wasn't there when she was little, and they rarely speak and she can't stand him, but I could have used more background.

For a little while I didn't know why Marisa Tomei's Cassidy couldn't get a dance in the club. She was pretty hot, but then again, she was at least 40 (Tomei is really 45 and looks GREAT) surrounded in a club full of young men and working with women in their 20s. She struggles with keeping the relationship with Randy on a strictly professional level, but you can tell she wants a compainion and out of that she's living. I'm pretty surprised she hasn't gotten any nods coming her way.

And on to the star. Mickey Rourke really did deserve the globe for his role. He wasn't reading a script, he wasn't acting. He WAS Randy "The Ram". A complicated guy who tries hard not to screw up, and can't handle the lonliness when he does, and is at heart a wrestler. That's all he knows. All he's good at. You can feel the frustration and the need to want to do better. You feel it! (see: the greatly done "Deli" scene) The movie wouldnt have been nearly as good if anyone else had been cast as Randy. It's a basic story and it would have been hard to feel so much for The Ram if someone else had half assed the role.

It has a totally open ended ending that works. For me anyway.

All in all it was a good movie. At least check it out for the performances that deserve as much hype as they have been getting.

Revolutionary Road

written by: Justin Haythe (novel by: Richard Yates)
directed by: Sam Mendes

It's 1940 something . We meet young April (Kate Winslet) and Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) at a party in the city. She is an aspiring actress. He is ambitious and wants to do something great with his life..whatever that may be. Fast forward to a few years down the road. The Wheeler's are leaving April's horrible stage play and get into a heated argument on the way back home to the suburbs. This surely can't be the same couple that we just saw at the party. Something has changed between them.

Frank gets up every morning. Catches a train to a job he can't stand and knows is useless. But he has to make money to support his wife and two kids and the life they have come to know in their neighborhood. April cooks and cleans and plays mom but she can't stand it.

She eventually gets the idea to pack up the family and move to Paris. Frank had been there before and loved it and it would give him the time he needed to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He just turned 30. It's not too late. Or is it? Their neighbors and Frank's coworkers completely scoff at the idea of them pickin up and moving across the seas. Were they nuts or something? They soon get thrown for a loop when April discovers she is prengnant again and Frank gets offered a promotion. Is Paris still an option.

All I knew when I first saw this preview a hundred million months ago when I saw this preview is that I had to see it. I love Kate. I love Leo (however I didn't watch Titanic...go figure) and it just seemed so good. Then we get to River Oaks Theater Saturday morning. The line went down the sidewalk. Unheard of. Everyone was psyched. Not the same vibe when they got out. At all.

I'm not saying that this is not a good movie. In fact, it's the opposite. Awesome performances by Leo and Kate. Hell even Kathy Bates is in the movie. And there's this dude who plays Bate's husband who was recently committed to a psych ward, John (Michael Shannon) who is incredible. I have no idea why he wasn't nominated in the slew of nods this movie is getting.

Anyway, I didn't hear not one pleased person coming out of the theater. Yes it is a depressing movie. Yes it is incredible real. I wasn't alive in the 50's but I grew up in the burbs and I could see how it turns young, ambitious people into...suburbanites. "You work a job you hate to buy shit you don't need" - Tyler Durden. Nobody liked April's character. The girl behind me told her boyfriend she could just not be sympathetic for such a bitch. I could really understand where she was coming from most of the time, but one of her lines in the movie actually made a woman in the front of the theater gasp.

To me I immediately was reminded of the Best Picture winner of 1999. Don't know what I'm talking about? American Beauty. For some reason Lester Bernham's life wasn't as much of a downer as the tale of the Wheeler's was, but it wasn't far off either.

So I will definetly be looking for this book. Especially since I found out that it was written back in the day. And I do recommend this movie for the great performances, even though if you were in a bad mood before you'd wanna curl up on the couch and cry.

Doubt

written and directed by: John Patrick Stanely (also the playwright)



In 1964 a Catholic school gets their first black student Michael Miller. The school is run by Sister Aloysius (Merly Streep) a hard, rule following, devout nun. Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is the church's priest. He's a little trendier (as far as priests go). Sister James is a young nun who teaches at the school and has a soft spot in her heart for the students. It's clear from the beginning that Sr. Aloysius isn't too keen on Father Flynn. His first sermon that we see is on doubt and she wonders what he's up to that made him pick that topic. She tells the other nuns to be on the look out for any odd behavior. Sure enough Sr. James notices the close friendship between Father Flynn and Michael Miller. They have a private conversation one day and afterwards the boy came back to class a little...odd. Sr. Aloysius takes this info and runs with it because her certainty has convinced her Flynn has done something horrible and decides to take him down.

It's a very simple plot. Doubt vs. Certainty. Sr. Aloysius is incredibly certain the entire movie that Father Flynn is guilty. Sr. James goes back and forth on the issue depending on who she just spoke to. We never fully know if Father Flynn is guilty so you must weigh your own doubt and certainty to come to your own conclusions.

The movie itself was paced pretty slow to me. I'm sure that was a method by the director, but since I knew the movie was originally a play, it felt like a play to me. There are a lot of subtle devices used that you end up thinking about later. And the movie is very dialouge driven. But with people like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep you don't necessarily get bored because they are awesome actors.

There was a lot of buzz going around about Viola Davis. She plays Michael Millers mother. She was good because her character's stance on the accusastions is definetly not what you think it would be, but she's only on screen about 10 minutes. Hoffman does is standard job of delivering everything needed to pull off the role. And Streep has to be nominated for an Oscar for this one. She plays such a good bitch. You have really hate Sr. Aloysius but then again she's so convincing you want to be on her side.

It's a damn fine movie if a little slow at times. I don't think its one I would watch over and over but its guaranteed to make you think about things and discuss them with whoever you go see it with. Yesterday on Oprah (don't ask why I was watching) this dude was saying how your perception is used to confirm your beliefs. Your mind turns whatever you see to make whatever you believe true. It was crazy that I saw that right after i saw the movie. And its definetly true. I'm sure everyone came out of this movie with a different outcome. Good stuff. Really sticks with you.