I saw that this weekend too. I was only half paying attention because it was late and I was tired, so I feel like I missed something happening. Some kind of climax. But I did enjoy it, and thought that Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps had great chemistry in their student/teacher relationship.

Dreamland. It got really good reviews at Sundance last year, but no big release. I liked it. Its beautifully shot. And has an excellent supporting cast (including a really hot Justin Long, a really good John Corbett, and a welcome Gina Gershon). My only problem was Agnes Bruckner. I still cant decide whether I liked her performance or not, or whether I even really liked her character, on the one hand, yeah she takes care of everyone, on the other...step off your best friends boyfriend. And Kelli Garner is like, distractingly pretty.

Jesus Camp. Just, wow. It's a balanced documentary and doesn't really judge its subjects, but it was highly disturbing. The home school stuff was especially disturbing (not that home schooling is wrong, but these kids get everything with a conservative Christian bent that is very, very extreme).

Anyhow, good doc, but I now have to leave the country.

Kiran, I really enjoyed Dreamland as well. I thought John Corbett was fantastic. He was such a nice surprise.

Wasnt he? I thought he was great. Especially the scene where he talks about his first date with his wife, and his later scenes with Kelli Garner. What are your thoughts on Agnes Bruckner? Because I'm still, 24 hours later still not sure how I felt about her performace, although I realized I did like the character.

See, I had no problem with Agnes Bruckner. I had a problem with Kelli Garner. I can't put my finger on why I had a problem with her (the actress, not the character) but I did. She wasn't horrible, I just don't think she was in the same league as the rest of the cast. Speaking of, I'm really enjoying these little, tiny parts that Gina Gershon has been playing lately. She was really good in her small role.

We watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated last night and it got me all rightously angry. Which I was expecting, and kind of enjoyed.

The movie itself was great. If you haven't checked out the deleted scenes, you should - there's a great one with lots of cutting between Kevin Smith, Matt Parker, and John Waters, an additional really interesting and rage-inducing phone call between Dick and the MPAA, a discussion of Love & Basketball that I wish they'd kept, and a really really long-winded dude talking about technology.

Also, I can't stand the John Waters ouvre even a tiny little bit (except Cry-Baby, but I believe that's what they call the Depp Effect), but holy cats do I adore him as a person. He's just brilliant and hysterical and I want to hang out with him and go to movies in Baltimore. There was a great interview with him on NPR a few years ago that I need to dig up.

Have you (AND EVERYONE ELSE) seen One Last Thing... yet? It is FANtastic, and I really, really cannot recommend it enough. It's difficult to get your hands on, but totally worth the effort. (And if you can't rent it anywhere nearby, just buy it online and send it to me when you're done. Thanks!)

Watched Marie Antoinette the other night -- I liked the first hour a lot, and the second hour a lot less. If the movie was about 15-20 minutes longer it would have been a lot better, there were just too many dancing/singing/drinking/eating montages, which worked for setting the mood at the beginning, but after a while, I got it. But man, I loved loved loved the clothes. Oh so fun.

See, caltrask55, I'm like the opposite of you. I really liked Kelli Garner. And I decided I liked Agnes Bruckner too.

Hee! She was really good. I don't think I've ever seen her in anything before. I'm also slowly becoming a big Justin Long fan. This role was really different than anything I've seen him in before. It was nice seeing him in a non-comedic role.

Prêt-à-Porter (aka Ready To Wear ): You know the drill: has been ensemble, wiffle ball jokes, muffled under-rehearsed dialogue, aping European movies unseen outside of Film 101, yada yada yada.

Fresh off his career resurgence from The Player and Short Cuts, Altman dove right back into the scattershot, pretentious, unfunny comedy that drove him out of the film industry.

This is the first Altman film I saw in the theatre. I remember The Player and Short Cuts were always on Showtime who went out of their way to treat him like King Shit of Fuck Mountain. Siskel & Ebert was on my VCR every Sunday, they loved him. I didn’t get it then and in my perplextion I had to delve deeper. Altman became the rental on top of the stack of porno I was renting. I never understood his reputation. I’m no closer today.

The big message in PaP is the fashion world is pretentious and shallow. The only thing I can compare that to is finding out the truth about Santa or that all redheads don't crave sex. Considering he had such an easy satirical target Altman’s customary miss is even more perplexing.

In addition to the bloated cast Altman sprinkles in gratuitous winking cameos by fashion luminaries, who unless you have a Cosmo induced eating disorder you wouldn’t know from Adam. However the gratuity of the purveyors of over-priced couture pales in comparison to the Simpsons' level “*gasp* It’s _____” cameo by Harry Bellefonte. As a rule you shouldn’t have a cameo by someone you have to announce with the only well recorded line in the movie.

Altman indulges in a “Emperor has no clothes set piece” in the finale, which is the closest we come to a plot. There’s something about Steven Rea taking pictures of editors, a murder of someone who won‘t be missed, something about Texans buying up one of the companies both elements Altman would build wobbly movies around later. There was also a running gag about everyone stepping in dog shit, which is some kind of extended metaphor for Altman's career.

Kim Bassinger gives a performence so grating, she could almost be a flesh and blood Jar-Jar Binks. How an actress from Georgia can have such a bad southern accent astounds me.

You want to know how bad Ready to Wear is? Altman didn’t even have an interview on the special features. However I’m sure his acolytes will declare this a lost classic whenever the memories of this movie fade. Hey it happened to A Wedding.

You obviously recognized them. So:

1. Put down that Cosmo.

2. Go eat a burger.

Tell them King Shit of Fuck Mountain sent you!

You know, I really liked The Player and Short Cuts, but I was really bored by Ready-to-Wear. Partly I was struck by how disposable the various plots were-- you could cut, say, Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins out completely, and have zero effect on the rest of the film. Let alone he managed to make an ending of a couple dozen naked supermodels seem dull. How do you do that?

I find the amusing meta-statement of the film when Kim Basinger basically flips out and is all, "I don't get it! This is stupid!" Yes, Kim, it really is.

Agnes Bruckner was very, very good in "Blue Car" with David Straithern, and she was in "Haven" and "Murder by Numbers" and the so bad its kinda awesome "Blood and Chocolate."