Moving Images

The Good Girl (B)

This was a good renter. Jennifer Aniston was surprisingly good in Office Space and it seems her talents are better suited for the big screen than TV. In fact, the entire cast were really solid. John C Reilly is always a fave, the actor who played Bubba (also seen in O Brother) was goofy and creepy as, and the rest of the supporting cast were also really excellent.

The fascinating thing is that the guy who played Corny the security guard wrote the screenplay. Not only that, it turns out he wrote the screenplay to School Of Rock, as well. Which we also happened to have just seen this week (to be reviewed).

The writing, the location, the art direction were all dead on. The story was fairly dark and tragic, but not overdone. A scary insight into mainstream America. It's the story of what happened to some of the people you knew growing up that never left their hometown. Which is another way of saying here's one of the bullets you dodged.

Acting: B+
Direction: B
Editing: B
Script: B
Cinematography: B-
Soundtrack: B

Camp (B)

Meatballs meets Fame with occasional moments of Mighty Wind (and/or Waiting for Guffman).

I was expecting it to be overly self-referential and smug and try-hard. Instead, it's quite earnest, naive, vulnerable and well, duh, campy. Everything gets a bit cheesy but it has been cleverly delivered so that it looks and feels intentional, and feels right.

The acting is surprisingly good. The music is surprisingly good (except for one song/scene). It has its too cheesy for its own good moments. But overall holds up.

Acting: B
Direction: B
Editing: B
Script: A
Cinematography: B
Soundtrack: A