High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Dir: Kenny Ortega
Writer: Peter Barsocchini
Starring: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale

Some movies in my collection are "social movies." They are movies I've curated only to watch with certain friends. This is the perfect example. By far the best film in the High School Musical trilogy - yes, I can call it that - because it was the first one to be released in theaters as opposed to premiering on the Disney Channel. My girlfriends and I love this movie because of two words: Zac Efron.

Let's be honest: Zac Efron's good looks and rising stardom (made by Disney ventures such as this as a teenager) is the reason this movie got a bigger budget and everyone was able to see their favorite tv actor on the big screen. As corny and sophomoric as this series is, there's no denying Efron's star quality. He's confident even when he's singing by himself in the hallways of his school, choreographed with moving walls and a basketball, literally screaming out his emotions about whether to choose basketball or drama as his college career focus. Yes, seriously.

But that's the thing, the movie is all schlock but competent and positive in its message. There's no harm here (this isn't Twilight) -- it's all good fun. And some of the songs, I have to say, are pretty catchy. Though you'll never find me watching this alone, because it's best shared with those who understand the power of the Efron. I'm pretty excited for his next (adult) venture, too.

This movie is definitely not recommended for everybody.

The Best: Efron's solo song 'Scream,' - it's amazing.

Fact: Holds the record for best box office opening for a musical, ever. Previously Mamma Mia! held the record.

Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Dir: Bryan Singer
Writer: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwait, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollack

There is probably no other movie that I've seen more than The Usual Suspects. I know the script by heart, the beats of the music as it coincides with a beat in the editing (coincidentally, I just found out the editor was also the composer on this movie - no wonder it works so beautifully!), and nearly every intricacy in the plot. I use the word 'nearly' because this movie is more rewatchable than any other movie: there's always something new to ascertain.

In fact, when I sat down to write this the line running through my head was when Verbal Kint looks up at Dave Kujan with his bad hand and says, "How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?" How am I supposed to write a review of one of my favorite movies of all time? How do I get it right?

For starters, my thirteen-year-old self watched the rented movie in the basement of our family's house in Leavenworth, Kansas. I remember following along raptly, sometimes confused, but always curious. When it ended, I was dumbfounded. I rewound it and watched it again. I probably said something to myself like "That was the best movie ever!" I saw this movie in the midst of my introduction to Hitchcock, and it makes sense since this movie has a very updated 'noir' feel to it. There's no icy blond, but there is something dark to unravel at hand.

Kevin Spacey gives one of the best performances of his career as Verbal Kint, and along with his other 1995-starring roles in Swimming with Sharks and Seven, I became a bonefied fan. For a time, there was nobody more chameleon-like than him. This movie also marks major debuts for director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie; unfortunately I don't think either of them have topped this masterpiece since.

This maze of a movie is taut, sometimes funny, and always mysterious. It also has one hell of a twist ending. It was great rewatching it with a friend who had never seen it (but the ending was spoiled for him). It still hasn't lost it's power nearly 17 years later (woah!), and because they keep on releasing different version with new extras, I currently own three copies of The Usual Suspects on DVD. Rewatchability is always a major factor for owning a DVD--I know I have some movies that have little rewatchability factor.

The Best: the final scene. It's perfect. And also? The eerie ghostlike presence when the name 'Keyser Soze' is uttered in the film. The lines are great! The art direction, too! The music! The editing! Fenster's unintelligible accent! Seriously, everything is great.

Fact: Al Pacino read for the part of Dave Kujan (Palminteri), but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts. Pacino has since noted that this is the film he regrets turning down the most.

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)

Bridesmaids (2011)

Dir: Paul Feig

Writers: Annie Mumolo, Kristin Wiig

Starring: Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne

I remember seeing this movie in the theater last year on opening weekend with a group of my best girlfriends, all of us giddy at our recently engaged friend choosing us to be her bridesmaids. We all laughed to the point of crying, and I noticed many other movie-goers were busting up as well. I left the theater thinking, yes, finally a good comedy that isn't filled with a bunch of man-boys who refuse to grow up (Apatowian film culture).

Last weekend I watched it again with the one bridesmaid who didn't come with us that first time, and hadn't seen it yet. And though it was perhaps my tenth time watching the film in the past year, I still laughed to the point of hysteria.

Annie (Kristin Wiig) and Lillian (Maya Rudolph) are best friends--and Annie is floundering in adulthood with a failed bakery, creepy roommates, and the worst 'friend with benefits' situation ever (except for the fact that he is played by, and therefore looks like, Jon Hamm). Lillian just got engaged to some nothingburger and has asked Annie to be her Maid of Honor. Cue the hilarity.

The group of bridesmaids, even called by Lillian at one point as a "stone-cold group of weirdos," brings on the laughs from the engagement party to the wedding. Rose Byrne's treacherous Helen serves as a threat to Annie, but comes around by the end. Melissa McCarthy's Megan steals every scene she's in.

The Best: Kristin Wiig, hands down. Not only for her wonderful script, but for her acting. The airplane scene alone in which she becomes inebriated midflight and thinks she sees a colonial woman on the wing? Priceless. (I also have to mention that her impression of a penis had me gasping for breath.)

Fact: The woman sitting next to Kristin Wiig on the plane, who talked about having a dream with Annie in it, is the co-writer, Annie Mumolo. And Melissa McCarthy's air marshal is her real-life husband.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Dir: Gary Winick
Writers: John Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Mark Ruffalo, Andy Serkis

On Saturday I met my friend Jaime for brunch and when we realized that the L train was not running into Manhattan from Brooklyn, we decided to spend the afternoon on the couch watching movies. While I was scanning my DVD collection, I mentioned, "Well, you've probably already seen 13 Going on 30..." and to my astonishment, she had not. I popped in the DVD and gleefully jumped onto the couch next to her, to watch her watch it for the first time.

I want to say that this movie was critical to my adolesence, but since it came out when I was 21-years-old, I think that statement is probably pushing it. There are many things wrong with the 'rom-com' genre, but I absolutely love some of them--usually the least offensive ones to my tastes as a woman who likes good comedy.

13 Going on 30 is probably one of the most sugary rom-coms in existence - it stars Jennifer Garner as Jenna Rink, a girl who at 13 faces all those awful mean girls, and then wakes up at age 30 in a swanky apartment with her dream job--but finds out all the things she wanted at 13 aren't as glossy as they seemed. Garner is absolutely perfect in her role; I may even use the word delightful.

I've loved Garner since the tv show ALIAS, and this movie made me love her even more. She plays the 13-year-old brain in a 30-year old body so well! Add in perennial sidekick Judy Greer (who really needs a starring role already, she's so good) and  a romantic interest played by Mark Ruffalo (hubba hubba - I am not ashamed), I'm smiling the whole way through!

The plot sure is sweet, but I enjoy the lighthearted every once in a while. Garner and cast are pretty convincing, and in the land of the woeful rom-com, it's 10 stars. When it was over, Jaime exclaimed, "Why haven't I seen that?!" in the way that one does when she's a rom-com lover that hasn't seen a good one in a while.

Best: Garner, in every scene. There are so many good scenes to love, too. The scene where she wakes up as a 30-year-old, the scene where she makes an entire elitist party of magazine snobs dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," the scene where she has a sleepover with other 13-year-olds as a 30-year-old and teaches them that "love is a battlefield," or the scene where she finds her massive walk-in closet--I can't choose!

Fact: The girl who plays young Jenna Rink is currently on my favorite new television show, Revenge, and also played the younger Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past--an example of a truly terrible, no good rom-com.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Reprise (2006)

Dir: Joachim Trier
Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge

While packing for Paris, I looked at my DVD collection scanning for something that Jesse and I could watch together. I picked Reprise because Jesse grew up watching foreign movies with his father (it's Norwegian), and there are a few important sequences that happen in Paris that I wanted to rewatch. On our third night in Paris, after three days of constant walking and exploring and reveling in the nightlife, we chose to get into our comfortable hotel bed and watch the movie.

The film centers on two best friends, Phillip and Erik, who are writers. The film opens with both of them dropping their novel manuscripts in a mailbox in Oslo, Norway. From that moment the viewer jumps to an imaginary sequence (narrated) about their impending fame from being intellectual writers with published novels, to the reality set six months after that fateful send-off. It's an interesting premise, and the characters and setting of Oslo really guide the film through it's many plots and subplots.

What's most relevant among these plots is the major theme (the titular subject) that sometimes we'd like to do things over. That perhaps we don't have regrets, because through no fault of our own, something disastrous lay in the path we had set for ourselves and we can't go back. One character tries to adjust to his new path, the other tries to repeat everything as it was when it was 'good.' It's definitely a universal feeling, to want things to turn out differently--but, sometimes it simply doesn't.

It's not the best film in the world, but it's an interesting film from a young filmmaker. It finds influences in Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave style and even Jean-Pierre Jeunet's more updated slick directing. But though it has many elements that sometimes collide over the narrative, I love it. It's sometimes frenetic, sometimes slow, but I'm always curious as to where the story and the characters will go next. The movie may have its flaws, but it's successful. I probably love it more because of it's weird nuances. And I'm looking forward to Trier's next endeavor.

On a sidenote, the subject matter of the film, and perhaps even the way it is filmed was particularly inspiring to me when I saw it a couple of years ago on a random Netflix recommendation. I was then working on my first attempt at a novel (NaNoWriMo), and I thought back to this movie frequently and believe it did motivate me and influence the narrative in certain ways.

The Best: There's really so many great elements in the film, from the interesting voice-over narration and quick cuts to the performances. I suppose the sequence I enjoyed the most was the heartbreaking 'reprise' trip to Paris that Phillip takes with his ex-girlfriend Kari, played with alien beauty by Viktoria Winge. It made me shudder with relatable emotion.

Fact:  In the movie, there is a reclusive Norwegian author both Phillip and Erik idolize and want very much to meet and follow in his footsteps. In the movie his name is Sten Egil Dahl, and apparently he's based on Norwegian writer Tor Ulven. Ulven gave only one interview in his career, but he is regarded as one of the most important writers in Norway during the eighties and nineties.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)