One reviewer said of Mad Hot Ballroom (something like) "I dare you to sit through this movie and not have a grin on your face the whole time."It was funny, touching, insightful and inspiring to watch and listen to these children talk about their lives and relationships and to see them practice and compete etc. It was also nice to see something where there are winners and losers and the joy and sadness that accompanies those things aren't held back. So often these days competition has been taken out of the equation for children (leaving them, IMO, ill prepared for the real world and probably denying parent's of sharing those joys and sadnesses).
Me And You and Happy Endings were both quirky relationship movies. I have to give the nod to Me And You. It was intimate and warm and shocking and cold and extremely creatively directed by performance artist Miranda July. It was about how hard it can be to really connect and, of course, about how much we have the need to do so.
Happy Endings is worth seeing just for Maggie Gylenhall's (sp?) performance. She brings an enormous amount of life and depth to the film (and she's sexy as hell). It's a bit long and has 3 or 4 stories it's following but it too is involving (though not to the extent of Me And You) and it tells it's story about connections (and the attempts/desire to have them) in a much different setting/style. It's more like an Altman film.
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
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Topic - Mad Hot Ballroom, Me And You And Everyone We know & Happy Endings - sjb 13:50:17 08/02/05 (7)
- Haven't seen the others but Me And You And Everyone We know Is Not Good - Daryl Zero 19:32:06 08/02/05 (6)
- Well... different strokes, I guess. - sjb 22:24:01 08/02/05 (5)
- Don't You Think . . . - Daryl Zero 13:11:29 08/03/05 (3)
- Re: Don't You Think . . . - sjb 19:09:04 08/04/05 (0)
- Re: Indie movie cliches? - Dave-A 07:42:02 08/04/05 (1)
- Would you rather see the wildly creative Dukes of Hazzard? - Daryl Zero 08:20:46 08/04/05 (0)
- I liked it too - tunenut 10:07:10 08/03/05 (0)