Two movie reviews today:
The first is Garden State, a feel good romantic comedy about about a twenty-something who returnes home for the first time in years to attend his mother’s funeral. He forgets his behavior altering drugs he has been taking since childhood and learns who he really is. On Netflix I rated this one ★★★★☆, but 余艾蕾 pumped it up to ★★★★★.
Natalie Portman stole the show as the quirkily deep female side of the romantic relation. Her and Zach Braff’s character end up taking a mental and physical trip around much of New Jersey. While 余艾蕾 questions the title of the movie, and wonders why it needs to be in New Jersey, having grown up along the keystone/garden state’s border I think I see where Mr. Braff is comming from. I think the title is also a pun on the state of mind Mr. Braff’s character was in when the drugs finally wore off.
余艾蕾 also loved the music, and already has the sound track.
The second movie is The Manchurian Candidate with Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. The two most surprising things in this 1962 thriller is that Mr. Sinatra can act, and that Ms. Lansbury is a great villain. I didn’t think about a singing tea kettle the entire film!
The main problem with this movie is that it made me think some other films are worse, I now realize how unoriginal they are. At the Oscars, when a film I’ve seen gets nominated for best editing I rarely understand why, this film’s editing was brilliant. The specials on the DVD said that Mr. Sinatra was offered any character he wanted to be on this film, he made the correct choice as Laurence Harvey pulled off being “brain dry-cleaned” better then I think Mr. Sinatra could. Both 余艾蕾 and I gave this ★★★★★.
