Still catching up from last year - Smart People

i guess i just love independent films, and i love them when they are written well.

smart people has some of the greatest, intelligent-people dialogue and it makes it so clever and witty and to be honest, one you might need to watch with subtitles to catch all the snippets of humor embedded deep. there are just some moments that are so stinkin funny...

quotable quotes:
Vanessa Wetherhold: [stressed] I'm in an after-school special.

Lawrence Wetherhold: Why would you have a baby with me?
Janet Hartigan: Because you don't know how to properly use a condom.
Lawrence Wetherhold: Point taken.

Lawrence Wetherhold: You're a giant toddler!

Vanessa Wetherhold: You should really make your bed. It sets the tone for the day.
Chuck Wetherhold: But, how do you know what tone I was trying to set?

little ellen page is a juno-wit-type character, just as snappy and fun to watch, though with an opposite set of traits: NHS, high SATs... she is a brainer, which just makes it funny. the interesting ones to watch are the Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker match up. they are so unassuming, and still when it is done you almost don't see it... but it works for what they need it too, i guess. (lets be honest though, who doesn't want to have hair just like her.. long, wavy... yummy. or like meg's in women... anyway, i digress.)

again, why i love indie films is cause they move a a closer-to-reality pace than a romantic comedy or even a drama would. they don't try to embellish more than needful. and both of these actors played roles that were uncommon to them: quaid as a pompous jerk with almost no charm, and parker as one who could melt into the film instead of bubble her way into the forefront. (not that i believe she does this on purpose, but something about her look and/or acting gives off a vibe that really pulls me out of films that she is in sometimes. she is just too jumpy or bubbly or fake or something... but i loved it. then, on the other hand, she was quirky in family stone, and i loved that one...)

anyway, that's all i had on that one.

in my humble, yet correct opinion: 3/5

don't buy it, netflicks it though- a great lazy homealoner.

Found myself an Emerald...

Lets say I am quite the connoisseur of good films. I love them independent and I love them documentary, mostly I think I love them when they tell very real stories that are chillingly accurate to life or that I can relate to as if they were.

Little Manhattan.
If you haven't heard of it, watch the trailer. So cute.


What is so fun about this little story is first the fact that a married couple—Mark Levin (director) - former writer of "Wonder Years" and Jennifer Flackett (screenwriter) of "Wimbelton" and "Madeline"— just wrote it and directed it and produced it. They just wanted to tell an untold love story.
I was giddy for 90 minutes straight. It was real, and it was my childhood. And yours.

It got me thinking about documentaries as well. In docs, we tell the untold stories, giving a voice to the voiceless. I think that is why this film was so fun to watch for me. They wrote a voice over inner monologue-type narration for the young 10-year-old to let us peek into his ordinary day. A good film should do that I think: allow us to look at the world they have created and make me believe it and care about it.

It would be perfect to show in a Media Literacy class because it is so relatable in many ways, and, because it is independent and such a simple story, we could talk about creating our own movies. What stories do we want to tell? How would we show the story? In this film, the two co-writers as a spousal unit decided that New York would be perfect. This maybe because of their own childhoods, and also because of the mirror image of adult life and love that is usually portrayed in romantic comedies in NYC. It was a great way to say, "kids go through this too, and the first cut is the deepest."

The special features on the DVD walk you through some of the creation process that could also be fascinating to watch with young students about the planning process of filming. The crew, directors, designers...etc. all walked through central park just filming and planning and discussing what they wanted the various shots to look like. I think it could give the students a good sense of the small steps and the work involved to get their movies to look like they want them to and to communicate what they want them to.

Highly recommend this fine new find. Netflix may be your only way to it unless you know a guy though. Which I do.