We live in a world where fantasies are manifested in the drop of a dime. We can access our fantasies online, we can purchase them, and with enough money we have the ability to live out our fantasies through any means we deem necessary. “The Girlfriend Experience” is about those fantasies and the lengths we’re willing to go to have them lived out. Soderbergh examines the man of today and what situations would indicate their need for companionship. Chelsea is an escort but not the typical one.
Tag Archives: Romance
Julie & Julia (2009)
Based on true stories, Nora Ephron’s dramedy is actually based on two novels. This allows Ephron and co. to take parallel storylines and turn “Julie and Julia” in to a bonding ground for a lost woman and a budding chef, both of whom are starting their lives out in new places when we first meet them, and are about to embark on a rather interesting adventure involving food, changing the way they and others think, and fulfilling ambitions regardless of how grand or minute it may seem. Julie is a woman just starting out in her new job as a woman who takes complaints involving 9/11 in Queens. After days of listening to people’s problems, she decides to emulate her hero Julia Child pursuing a different kind of natural high after realizing her life hasn’t been taken advantage of after a meeting with her high powered best friends. Back in the forties we meet a young Julia Child who is just beginning to follow her dreams as a professional chef in Le Cordon Bleu.
Fast & Furious (2009)
I want to live in the world that Justin Lin has created in the fourth film of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise. In it people can smash through windows like they’re cutting through paper, bullets don’t necessarily harm them, racers can speed through city streets without being pulled over or tracked by traffic cops, and they’re able to fly in stealth mode evading authorities in the loudest most conspicuous cars imaginable. That’s the world I want to be in. Probably the biggest turd of the series, “Fast and Furious” presents us with four actors with no other option than to sleepwalk through a hundred minutes of explosions, car chases and the prerequisite bad acting. Particularly from Rodriguez and Diesel whose chemistry is still there and seems to amplify their horrible acting abilities.
My Sister's Keeper (2009)
We’re told from the very beginning that young Kate has Leukemia and yes, she’s dying. This presents with it a domino effect on the family, all of whom are still in denial that she’ll be taken away from them so deep in to her childhood. Why? Because she has a sister named Anna who was genetically designed to serve as a matching donor for her. This denial has led to no sense of happiness for everyone. Mom Sara and dad Brian are basically closed off from their emotions as resentment builds, brother Jesse has basically been pushed to the wayside in spite of his reckless habit of staying out at all nights, and most surprising, sister Anna is hazy on her purpose in life and among her family.
Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
Christine Jeffs movie is one that I really wanted to love and god knows I went in to it with a shit eating grin ready for something truly unique. Instead I was given something that fails to seize anything resembling an identity. Emily Blunt and Amy Adams are pretty darn good, even in a movie that’s pretty darn flawed. Blunt handles her American accent well and plays probably the most fascinating character in the bunch. She’s a slacker but is also fiercely devoted to her family. So devoted is she that she takes part in her sister’s cleaning business, a lucrative cleaning service that scrubs blood, limbs, and any other bodily fluid left behind in crime scenes. The two have a dynamic chemistry and that reflects on screen as a pure highlight.
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
If you only knew how sick and tired I am of the same ho hum romantic comedy we get starring Hugh Grant and some other boring movie star, I tell you I could go on forever. What’s so infinitely excellent about “(500) Days of Summer” is… well everything! From the get go the movie stares you right in the eyes and proclaims “No, this isn’t a romance film.” And boy howdy do they get the message across. What also helps the anti-romantic atmosphere is the casting of the always whimsical pixie Zooey Deschanel who matches wits and lines with the always excellent Joseph Gordon Levitt who by all rights isn’t your conventional romantic lead. But as always Levitt proves why he’s one of this generations excellent young actors.
Nice Knowing You (2009)
Director Joe Burke is a man seen around these parts for the last two or three years and he’s a man who has managed to spawn some great reviews from yours truly who has been so far impressed with what his indie shorts have to offer. A man of many genres, Burke best knows how to capture that twenty something sentiment enabling his cast to work within their limits while painting the portraits of cities that are darker than our own and lives that seem to be nothing but heading for a dead end romantically and emotionally. Past efforts like “Coop’s Night In” have proven that he knows how to portray actual characters on screen without any need to exaggerate what we’re seeing.