Park City's Flick Chick by Jill Adler
August 2005 - Lastest Movie Reviews in a Nutshell
The Last Days
Film Rating: R
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Oh, you want more? We’re supposed to be watching The Last
Days of a fictional grunge rocker (Michael Pitt channeling Kurt
Cobain) in this try-too-hard-to-be-artsy flick. But I’d
rather have watched the Last Minutes. I’d then be spared
the internal angst of whether to walk out on one of the crappiest
films of the year and possibly insult other audience members.
You either need to be stoned out of your mind or a roadie in your
past life to sit through 97 minutes of random, uninteresting dirtbags
mumbling and stumbling through a dilapidated stone mansion on
the way to the rocker’s final demise. I never thought I
would be stoked to see a hero off himself. Until now.
Pretty Persuasion
Film Rating: PG13
First
screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Pretty Persuasion
stunned, horrified and entertained audiences with its black humor
and even blacker take on what popular American society is up to
these days. Filled with self-indulgent little hotties who run
around making backhanded remarks like “I respect all races,
but I’m very glad I was born white,” as they scheme
to get the drama teacher, Mr. Anderson (Ron Livingston) fired
for molestation. PP is like a South Park episode – it offends
all equally. Too bad it’s not nearly as funny and somewhere
halfway into the film the whole point of playing up the fall of
humanity in today’s youth gets lost. Pissed she loses the
lead in “Anne Frank” for making a racist remark about
Jews, Kimberly Joyce (Evan Rachel Wood) enlists the aid of her
blond friend Brittany (the replacement Anne Frank) and the new
Hindu girl Randa to help her stage one hell of a witch trial that
simultaneously carries out her revenge, embarrasses Brittany and
showcases her ‘acting’ talents. True, Wood is talented,
along with the rest of the cast. Predictable plot twists and despicable
characters, however, leave you more than slightly numb…and
bored by the end.
Must Love Dogs
Film Rating: G
Women now have their payback for getting dragged to The Island.
And, Men, be prepared to squirm. While The Island was basically
a silly futuristic action pile about clones wanting to live like
“normal” people, Must Love Dogs is all warm fuzzies
about the trials of finding love after baggage. There are no guns,
no profany, no fist throwing. Sorry, Guys. Sarah (Diane Lane as
charming as ever) is a depressed preschool teacher, recently divorced
because “he stopped loving me”. Awww. Jake (John Cusack)
gets dumped by his wife and fears the jump into the dating pool.
Awww. They meet at a dog park after Sarah’s sister (Elizabeth
Perkins) forges Sarah’s ad on PerfectMatch.com. It reads,
“Voluptuous DWF seeks…must love dogs.” Of course,
neither of them actually own dogs and Lane is too magnetic to
ever want for a date. Technicalities. Cusack and Lane turn a mundane,
predictable love story into a cute, charming, awkward, humorous,
sometimes uncomfortable ride. Yes, it feels like the blind date
it portrays but suffer through this one, guys. You owe us. Plus,
you’ll be well rewarded back at home, I promise.
