Movie review(s)

I saw a whole bunch of movies recently.

Last week I saw (NETFLIX) "In America," about an Irish family who moves to New York so the father can get acting gigs. They're very poor and move into what is basically one step up from a crack house with their two young daughters, and life is hard, but it's less about the fact that they're living in squalor than the fact that the family is trying to get over the death of their son/brother Frankie. The daughters befriend a scary withdrawn artist neighbor from downstairs who is dying of AIDS, and the whole family is sort of healed by him. It was good; I watched it by myself while Ben was teaching, and cried. A lot.

I also watched by myself (NETFLIX) "Ponette," a French film about a little girl who gets into a car accident with her mother and her mother dies. The girl is four years old and I have absolutely no idea how she could act so well! She was really good, and apparently won a best actress award in I think an Italian film festival. A wonderful movie. Ben might have watched "In America" with me, but not Ponette, since it was subtitled. I watched the movie with the laptop on my lap, thinking I was going to do work while watching the movie, but because the movie was so good and I needed the help of the subtitles (especially for understanding the little girl), I was transfixed to the television. I definitely recommend that one.

I also went out with Ben (E STREET THEATER) on Friday to see "Jesus is Magic," a stand-up/show thing that Sarah Silverman put together. She's over the top. I wasn't a huge fan of the way the show was done, especially her dumb singing, but her standup is so totally politically incorrect that you are horrified by her, but still laughing hysterically. So, that was good.

We also watched (NETFLIX) "The Village," another M. Night Shyamalan movie, which seemed to drag but turned out well, with the much anticipated interesting twist at the end, like in "Sixth Sense."

This weekend we saw (TV) "Meet the Fockers," which hit a little too close to home for us! But nonetheless, it was a good comedy, like "Meet the Parents" was. The best part was the look on Ben's face when the Barbara Streisand character (exuberantly) reacts to her son telling her that his fiancee is pregnant. Ha. Priceless.

We also watched (NETFLIX) "O Brother Where Art Thou," which was awesome. Ben says it didn't do well in the theater, but that's probably because no one got the background on it. It's an allegory of The Odyssey by Homer. Ben pointed out the parallels (he made sure to point out the Isle of Lesbos reference--ha), and so I enjoyed it on several levels, though I probably would have enjoyed it if I hadn't realized the connection. Actually, one of the main characters was also in "Meet the Fockers."

Yes. We've watched a lot of movies lately!

On Netflix tap: Merci pour le Chocolat, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, The Triplets of Belleville, Il Postino, Strictly Ballroom, and the Aeon Flux animated series (to review before the movie comes out!).