[e-mail] Reviews

Little Children (2006)

Amazing!

[10/10 · 21 October 2006]

Out of all the "Oscar Bait" films I've seen this year, this film beats them all. Little Children is an unbelievable masterpiece about what it means to grow up. This idea is brilliantly portrayed through characters - while categorized as "adults" - have yet to outgrow certain adolescent stages.

Brad is a man who never got the chance to experience the spotlight in his youth, and now he desperately craves attention, acknowledgment, or admiration in any form.

Sarah is a woman who never learned how to grow past her own selfishness. She is angry at her daughter for needing attention when all Sarah wants is some time to herself.

Larry is a man who still harbors bully-like tendencies, and desperately just wants to fit in and be one of the guys. This is seen through his treatment of Ronnie - the pedophile who was just released from prison and returned to the neighborhood.

Ronnie is the dangerous man. The man who cannot connect with people his own age and seeks sexual gratification with children or with people who - like him - cannot fit into the adult world.

This isn't an action moving - it's an interaction movie. The scenes between characters have you nailed to your seat and deeply invested. The characters interact within their small community, and their actions with each other build into a climatic explosion that forces them all to face truths about themselves, and - finally - accept their responsibilities as mothers, husbands, fathers, and humans. This accepting is what separates little children from adults, immature from mature.

The tale is moving, sad, hilarious, dark, breathtaking, thought-provoking and many other creative adjectives. It forces you to reevaluate your idea of yourself and your thoughts on others. It forces you to see people you would normally loath and dismiss in a differently light. This a movie you will come out of changed. If you only see one film a higher, I cannot recommend this one more.

Her Minor Thing (2005)

Very Sweet and Original

[8/10 · 11 June 2005]

I was lucky enough to see the world primer of "Her minor Thing" at the Seattle International Film Festival. The director, writers, producers, and the two main actors (Christian Kane and Estella Warren) were also attending. After a introduction be the SIFF coordinator and a short film called "Hello" the film begin.

I won't walk you through every single scene of the film, but I will give you my overall impressions. Charles Matthau, as always, directed the project brilliantly: the editing, sound, and camera angles were all used to exploit a reaction from the audience along with the actors' performances. I went to the film with mixed feelings about seeing yet another "romantic comedy", a term that is almost used as a curse word nowadays, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

Unlike most comedies were the girl is sobbing on the couch after her so-called true love did something completely horrid and uncaring, Warren's character was a girl who wasn't afraid to take matters into her own hands without proceeding into the "b***h" territory. Warren really brought her character away from the bright, bubbly, damsel in distress area and made this girl her own. Some of the events were slightly obvious and contrived, like as soon as we saw Kane's character we knew he would end up with Warren's, and the meetings between these characters seemed to be unrealistic, but hey, it's a low-budget comedy, give credit were it's due.

Other than that issue, I really couldn't find anything else to dislike about the film. Christian Kane's character wasn't the perfect man, he had issue that he had to deal with just like a real person. The supporting cast, such as Rachel Dratch, Flex Alexander, Kathy Griffin, and David Fine stole many of the scenes in which they were in or even just standing in the background (watch out for Charles Matthau's cameo with the fork scene). The performance were all very well done, Christian Kane proved why he had such a strong fan base and Estella Warren showed that she can stand toe to toe with any well known leading man or lady and still give as good as she gets.

The main thing I really appreciated about this film was there was no "fall down" humor. All the humor was from real life situations (having to get directions to the airport), the actors' reactions (look for Kane's "is this girl nuts" look), the actual dialogue (midget porn), and just through the characters themselves (the petty fight for the basketball). No one tripped or got hit by a door, which is a nice change of pace from the current romantic "comedy".

All in all, this film is good. It's not "Love Actually", but it can certainly hold it's own next to it. If there is a wide release of "Her Minor Thing" be sure to catch it in theatres, you won't be disappointed.