Movie Reviews, From My Seat On The Couch... The One With The Half-Empty Box Of Tissues On It

It’s February: The month I like the least. It’s about 8-degrees outside. I have a never-ending virus. I haven’t been able to get out very much. I can’t taste food. I wake up with a nose so stuffy I have to get up every few hours.

So in the interim, when things aren’t very exciting, I’ve been watching a lot of movies, care of my free Blockbuster Online Trial:

1)The Station Agent: I liked this quiet little movie about a dwarf named Finbar McBride. He inherited a train station in New Jersey. The whole film (warning: spoilers) pivots around people’s treatment of Finn. He quietly ignores catcalls from street kids like “Hey – how’s the little wife?” He gets frustrated when he can’t protect a woman’s honor: her abusive boyfriend began yelling. When the dwarf interceded, he simply got pushed aside. Later, he gets so drunk he passes out on a railroad track. The last image he believes he’ll ever see is the lights of the oncoming engine. (last spoiler warning) – In the morning, he awakens – his watch was smashed on the tracks, but the train’s wheels proved too far off the ground to… well, kill a dwarf… so here’s a guy that doesn’t want to talk to anyone – yet somehow is cajoled by two neighborhood misfits – into an unlikely friendship. What struck me about this film – was how passive Finn was – he sought no one out, required nothing but a little respect from others – and simply let life happen to him. In the end, he found friendship – but he wasn’t really looking… Or maybe he was.

2)March of the Penguins: The funny thing that happens when a documentary dresses up as a narrative… I fall for characters, but don’t get all my questions answered. I think I actually have more questions about emperor penguins than I did before I watched this film.

3)Bullets over Broadway: I just love John Cusack. In this role, he plays David Shayne, a near playwright. I guess I love Cusack because his roles are always these conflicted men, who unlike Finbar McBride, are fighting every day to gain identity ground… His Shayne is a combination of Martin Blank (Grosse Point Blank), John Trager (Serendipity), and my favorite, Rob Gordon (High Fidelity). In this silly little tale, Shayne is given the opportunity of a lifetime: his play will be produced on Broadway, if and only if he agrees to cast Olive, the tripsy-dipsy girlfriend of his mobster financial backer. Olive sucks – but the real truth is – Shayne’s play isn’t very good. It isn’t until Olive’s cocksure bodyguard helps Shayne do a rewrite that the action really heats up. It’s an altogether watchable film. I was especially impressed with Diane Wiest - who gave an amazing performance.

4)American Splendor: I liked the convention of this film far more than I liked Harvey Pekar, the protagonist. Pekar, the real-life creator of the comic book ‘American Splendor,’ appears in interview-style as Paul Giamatti is “That Guy who doesn’t really look like me” who portrays Harvey in the vignettes that reenact Pekar’s life. Especially interesting: When Harvey Pekar appeared on the David Letterman Show – Giamatti appears in the greenroom, but it’s the real Pekar who shows up on screen. Overall – this is truly a redemption tale of a guy who’s “almost there…” Maybe more like David Shayne than I care to admit.

5)Auto Focus – This film really bothered me – and despite the appearance of Willem Dafoe, it’s one of those movies I regret sitting through. The story of the unsolved murder of Hogan’s Hero star Bob Crane, I thought the film was going to be more of a mystery. Instead, it just depressed the snot out of me (And now that I’m trying to shake my cold, maybe I should watch it again…) (Forget it. I won’t do it.) Director Paul Schrader and I went to the same college. I’ve heard him speak, I’ve read his book – but I can’t help but feeling that he should be seeing a therapist – not working out his life issues on film (et, tu, Quentin Tarantino).

Okay – I sent back The Aviator, and another movie I can’t remember – because as it turns out, I didn’t really want to see them after all.