January 22, 2006 at 8:33 pm · Filed under Movies
This wasn’t bad, but it could have been a lot better. There’s a lot of muddled, messy relationships. Parentage is disputed, or kept secret. Nobody really loves anyone else, or maybe they do. It’s a Don Roos picture, so everyone is high-strung, with the exception of Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays a femme fatale on a long con with wealthy Tom Arnold and his gayish son, who works at the restaurant of Steve Coogan, whose partner may or may not have been the sperm donor for a couple of no-sugar moms. Steve also, back in the day, fathered a child (that he doesn’t know about) with his step-sister, who grows up to be Lisa Kudrow, abortion counselor, who gets blackmailed into helping a film student make a fake documentary about a massage-therapist-as-sex-worker, so that he, the film student, will tell Kudrow the name of the baby she gave away.
I was actually with all of this complicated business for about two-thirds of the film, but it got excessive in the third act. I was also put off by the snarky titles that came up from time to time to tell us about the characters histories, as well as their fates. I don’t know; the same idea worked terrifically as voiceover in Amélie and Y Tu Mamá También. Maybe I just grow weary.
As Jessica points out, the problem with movies like this is the world is too small. Everybody’s a little too intricately related (related and related-related) with everybody else. Call it Magnolia syndrome.
Also, I admit that I don’t know how to end this review, happily or otherwise. Let’s leave it there.
January 22, 2006 at 4:07 am · Filed under Movies
You find some interesting stuff on the Comcast OnDemand at four in the morning, such as this. It’s an extremely earnest message short about a girl who doesn’t quite fit in with her peers at school. Susan Jane thinks the other kids laugh and make fun of her behind her back, but they don’t! They think she’s stuck up because she never talks to them, but she’s just shy!
This seems to have been meant to be shown in schools. There are even discussion questions at the end:
- Do you know a boy or girl like Susan Jane?
- Does your group ignore boys and girls like her?
- What can a boy or girl like Susan Jane do to make friends?
- How can the group help boys and girls like her?
This dealie is not particular good; these may be the worst child actors ever, or they are tied with Corey Feldman. It is mildly interesting because it was directed by Herk Harvey, who went on to make Carnival of Souls, the Salt Lake City horror movie from the ’60s.
The Outsider actually plays like the prologue to 13 Going On 30, a film which is much better than it should be, and which Jessica watched, rapt, while sitting on the coffee table.
I am happy to count The Outsider toward my life movie quota, which I may get around to explaining here for those who don’t already know.
It seems that you can see this film for yourself at the wonderful archive.org.
January 22, 2006 at 1:52 am · Filed under Music
Spider the Tylercore:
Too young to live, too young to die. You will die forever, never in your life. You will die forever and I will cut your skull.
Presumably, his cookie monster voice is inspired by the real thing.
