Bits and Pieces

Check out Adrienne's review of DBAOTD. 

I want to officially recommend Win, Win. I don't know that I have a lot to say about it other than it's a great feel-good story that doesn't seem cliched or unrealistic. There are some genuinely-emotional tingly moments. Both my wife and I loved it and want to show it to the boy. It's rated R, but seems to be barely R (a lot of F-bombs). It's about an everyman lawyer who takes on an elderly man with dementia for less than ethical reasons, and ends up in the middle of a very complex moral dilemma involving the elderly man's daughter and grandson. The acting is great (Giamatti almost never disappoints me), and there's a fair amount of humor peppered in that feels very natural despite the dramatic tone of the film.

The night after I watched DBAOTD, I saw Bava's Kill, Baby, Kill. It was decent enough, but it was so late I kept falling asleep. One thing that was interesting was that the ghost was played by a girl without any special effects (aside from makeup), and she still managed to be superbly creepy.

I watched Wrong Turn with Eliza Dushku 2 nights ago. Solidly entertaining hillbilly slasher film a la Hills Have Eyes/Deliverance (but not nearly as good, as it's a lot harder to justify the hillbillies' murderous behavior--though at least there's no rape in this one). Can Dushku play anything but a tough girl? she does it well, but there's really no mystery in her performance for me anymore. Jeremy Sisto is underrated.

I read some reviews in Entertainment Weekly recently that made me interested in a few recent films that I added to my wanna-see list: Miranda July's The Future, the documentary The Interrupters, Another Earth, and The Whistleblower. Yesterday, Adrienne recommended to me Stephen Merritt's (Magnetic Fields) documentary Strange Powers.

And that is all for today.