"Soup won't be computerized."

I've rented some interesting under-the-radar movies lately, so I thought I'd offer some brief blurbs:

Me and You and Everyone We Know -
What a strange movie. It stars and was written and directed by performance artist Miranda, and is a movie about the inability to make connections with other people in today's world. One scene had me absolutely fascinated -- it involves a bag of goldfish (in water) left on top of a car, and the car is on the highway. The way the scene is filmed kept me rapt in attention, completely absorbed by what was going to happen. I have always been interested in overlapping and interlocking storylines, and the way the different stories here overlap is part of its fun for me. I was most interested in the movie because it relates to a lot of what I am studying in my Cinema & the City class: issues of postmodernism, the work of Jean Baudrillard and the simulacra, etc. A very intriguing movie.


Happy Endings -
The latest movie from Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) features Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Arnold, and Jesse Bradford in a humorous tale of love, sex, and deception. I HATE Tom Arnold and am constantly amazed that he is allowed to be on tv, but he does a good job in this movie. But I do love Lisa Kudrow, and she plays a very interesting role here. Jesse Bradford's sleazy character is excellent, and overall, I liked the film. It is good --not great -- and it has some interesting and clever filmic elements. And then there's the title . . .


Undertow -
I remember reading reviews of this when it came out in 2004, and they were all quite positive. I did not know what to expect, except that it was a story of two brothers whose lives are turned upside down by death. It stars Jamie Bell, Dermot Mulroney, and Josh Lucas, and as an added bonus, it features a boy who eats paint. The movie is intense, disturbing, and at times frightening. But it is very well acted, and the direction and camera work are wonderful. It may not be for everyone, but I recommend checking it out.