It's time to play catch-up. Here are a few movies I've been meaning to review.
Drinking Buddies
Drinking Buddies is a rather pleasant comedy that was attractive to me since it concerns two friends who work together at a brewery, and beer is my jam. Olivia Wilde plays Kate--a gorgeous guy's gal who likes beer, biking, and pool. She's dating the stuffy Chris (Ron Livingston), but is close friends with her coworker Luke (New Girl's Jake Johnson, all hipster teddy bear here). Luke is dating stuffy Jill (Anna Kendrick). Gosh, do you think maybe these two sets of couples aren't right for each other!?
Not a lot happens in Drinking Buddies. The two couples take a weekend trip out to the woods and events occur fueled by beer and wine that lead to romantic confusion. That's pretty much it. It's basically a glossier mumblecore film. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it! All four actors in the leading roles had their characters down pat--and Olivia Wilde really shines as a woman who by all appearances is the "ideal girlfriend", but who is just as unlucky in love as anyone else.
Drinking Buddies is a great film for a relaxing Saturday night with your buds and your brews.
3.75 out of 5 stars
***
Black Rock
It's been called the "female Deliverance", which should give you a hint or two about its content. In Black Rock Kate Bosworth, Lake Bell, and Kate Aselton (who also directed) play Sarah, Lou, and Abby, three old friends who go to a remote island for a weekend of camping and catching up. But tensions are high due to a long-held grudge between Lou and Abby. Sarah thinks that the trip will mend old wounds. After a day of hiking, the women realize they are sharing the island with three men--Iraq War veterans who are spending the weekend hunting on the island. They cozy up to the men and share their camp fire, drink, and, well, one thing leads to another. Abby and one of the guys, Henry, head to the woods to make out. But when Henry gets too aggressive, Abby clocks him on the head with a rock.
This act leads to the men turning on the women and a fight for survival. Abby, Lou, and Sarah realize that they won't be able to escape the island--they'll have to kill or be killed. Unfortunately for the men, these ladies have it in them to fight viciously for their lives.
Black Rock has some tense moments, but overall it could have been a better and more original film. The "guys vs. girls" dynamic seems rather forced and exploitative, especially since it stems from an attempted rape. Not a bad movie by any means, just rather average.
3.5 out of 5 stars
***
But I'm a Cheerleader
I loved this movie when I was in high school, and it's just as delightful 10 years later. Nastasha Lyonne plays Megan, a bubbly, popular cheerleader whose parents and friends suspect she's a lesbian, and so they ship her off to "True Directions" a gay rehabilitation center run by a strict woman (Cathy Moriarty who forces the girls to wear pink and learn to vacuum and the boys to wear blue and learn how to repair cars. Of course, sticking a bunch of queer teens together leads to, ahem, experimentation, and it's only a matter of time before Megan finds herself falling for the sardonic Graham (played by the wonderful Clea DuVall).
But I'm a Cheerleader was directed by Jamie Babbit, but it has a distinct whiff of John Waters about it: from the genderfuckery of the characters (the film stars RuPaul out of drag as one of True Directions' counselors), to the brightly-colored sets that look like they jumped out of a 1950's appliance advertisement, to the cameos by Waters regulars Mink Stole and Bud Cort as Megan's parents.
If you're in the mood for a sassy, not-too-serious take on LGBTQ rights and coming of age, But I'm a Cheerleader is your movie. And it's got a great soundtrack.
4 out of 5 stars
***
Rosemary's Baby
How I came to re-watch the horror classic Rosemary's Baby is a bit screwed up: I was reading about Dylan Farrow's letter in which she opens up about her abuse at the hands of Woody Allen. This led me to think about Roman Polanksi, who drugged and raped 13 year old Samantha Geimer in 1977. Thinking of Polanski led me to think about one of my favorite horror films of all time, Rosemary's Baby. And then I saw it was available via Netflix streaming, so I...watched it. I don't want to downplay the disgusting crime Polanski committed against a young girl, as well as the fact that he fled the country to avoid facing the full punishment for his crimes. But taken as a discrete work of art, Rosemary's Baby is amazing. Starring Mia Farrow as Rosemary, the young wife who unknowingly becomes the center of a satanic plot, Rosemary's Baby intensely (and ironically, given that Polanski went on to harm a vulnerable girl himself) depicts female powerlessness at the hands of male authority in the mid 1960's.
If there's one thing the crimes of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski can teach us, it's that even monsters and criminals can create great art. What we choose to do with that art is on us. I know that this statement comes off as simplistic, but at the moment it's all I can manage to say on the topic.
5 out of 5 stars
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