Early Reviews 2: Reviewin' Boogaloo

Mister Lonely
After hating the dogshit out of Gummo, and it being one of the few movies in my life where I just threw my hands up in and ejected it halfway through, it was difficult to go into a Harmony Korine film without some serious reservations. But the trailer intrigued me, and there's the whole Samantha Morton factor going too.

And, well... I liked it. A lot actually. I dug the story, liked the acting (with Morton yet again being the highlight for me), and damn there is some beautiful imagery here. A lot of the film seems to deal with the mentality of a impersonator, or at least as Korine perceives it. In short, it's a means through which ordinary people can get achieve some sense of feeling important and special through another's identity, since they cannot necessarily find that from within. And through the commune, there's a sense of comaraderie through like-minded people. There's a sort of beautiful weirdness about the whole thing that I really ended up responding to.

There's a whole side story about Werner Herzog and some skydiving nuns that doesn't connect, at least not narratively, to the rest of the film. I'm sure it relates somehow thematically, but I haven't taken had thge time to digest it enough to connect the dots. It's not going to be for everyone, but I sure liked it a lot. IFC is releasing this one in limited release on May 2.

Momma's Man

Can't find a trailer for this one, but anyway...

so, so, so wanted to like this one more than I did. I mean, I did like it, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I thought it was an interesting story, and I liked the performances, but about a third of the way through I started getting really antsy and restless. In part, I think just the cramped quarters started triggering some clausterphobic urges, but also, I began to feel as though the mounting tower of lies should have crumbled far sooner than it did, so there was some plausibility flaws for me. I guess it's just it crossed from little white lies to some serious ones far too soon.

But, I did think it touched on some interesting issues of the provider wanting to be provided for again, even if it meant shucking responsibility aside. I think it is an interesting film, but it never hit me on too deep of a level.

On a side note, the director, Azazel Jacobs, was there was in attendance and waiting in the aisle on the side of the theater for the credits to finish before they introduced him for the Q&A session, which I couldn't stay for. Of course, I was the ONE person who got up and left, and I had to walk right past him on the way out. I felt a little assholish at that moment, since there was no graceful way to duck out unseen, but hey, daddy's gotta be at work in the morning and has an hour and a half drive to get home, so what can you do? Thinkfilm is releasing this one sometime later this year.