2008 Viewing
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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in theaters (November) --
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Star Trek: Nemesis on cable (October) --
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Gym Teacher: The Movie on Nickelodeon (September) --
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Iron Man in theaters (August) -- Susan and I saw this one at DSU and, although the conditions
weren't ideal (college students who took ten or fifteen minutes into the movie to stop talking,
tall and wide people choosing to sit directly in front of us), the price was right (free)--and the
movie was great. I didn't know anything about Marvel's Iron Man character, so I had no
preconceptions or particular expectations. Robert Downey, Jr., portrays Tony Stark, a
charismatic, rich, playboy whose fortune has come from the weapons industry and who has
no regard for the collateral damage caused by his corporation's products . . . until he is
captured while overseas and commanded to recreate for terrorists his corporation's most
recent missile technology. His genius and recklessness enable him to create a high-tech
suit of armor instead, which he uses to escape--and rile--his captors. Terrence Howard and
Gwyneth Paltrow portray Stark's friends (and Paltrow and Downey have great chemistry),
and Jeff Bridges is unrecognizable but very effective as a longtime power player in Stark's
corporation. Susan and I enjoyed the super special effects (Iron Man's armor, Stark's lab,
the battle scenes) and the unfolding mystery surrounding his kidnappers' motives. The
student in charge of starting and stopping the movie barely waited for the first closing credit
to appear on the screen before slamming on the light and shutting off the film . . . none of
the gradual illumination of the room or complete showing of the end credits as we're used to
in mainstream theaters. Consequently we missed an important scene that the director
included after the credits. Thank you, Internet, for allowing us to view it once we got home!
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The Dark Knight in theaters (August) -- What a great sequel to a great first installment! I
went to this one with Susan, who hadn't seen the first one (Batman Begins from three years
ago); so we did a little review beforehand, which was beneficial to me, as well! Susan's not a
fan of Heath Ledger, so she was predisposed to dislike him--which probably worked out just
fine considering his psychopathic character, the Joker. I, on the other hand, found him
mesmerizing: his physical choices, his vocal delivery, his overall physicalization of the
character were all spot-on. I thought all the actors were great, really. And I love how the
script ties together the circumstances, choices, and fates of the Joker, Batman, and
Two-Face and makes clear that their hero/villain alter egos may be results of what life has
dealt each of them, but they're also reflections of their own decisions about how to deal with
life's unfair events. Christian Bale is a great Batman, and Aaron Eckhart is good, too, as
Harvey Dent/Two-Face.
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Young Frankenstein on TVLand (July) -- Susan and I are huge fans of this movie and often
quote it liberally when moments of silliness arise in our own lives. That was always terrific
when around our friends, who recognized our allusions when we'd say, "Why, sank you,
doctore" or "Ztay close to ze candles; ze staircase can be treacherous" (among numerous
other favorite lines from the movie). However, our daughters never knew what we were
talking about when we'd offer a line from the movie by way of joking around; we'd get blank
stares, tumbleweeds, crickets chirping, pins dropping. So we rectified the situation by
watching the movie with them, and they laughed heartily throughout. We did have to do a
little background explanation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster and the cinematic
legacy thereafter that served as the inspiration for Mel Brooks' 1970s parody. Also, Abigail
and Hillary alternated between responding to the movie as a comedy and as a horror
movie; they squirmed and bit their fingertips and hid in my lap during moments that to them
seemed suspenseful but to the rest of us were clearly setups for punch lines and visual
jokes. All in all, it's nice to have the girls, too, now "in on the joke" and able to spout, "You
take the blonde, and I'll take the one in the toiban" or "Taffeta, darling" as they live their
daily lives and finally know what they're in reference to!
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Brokeback Mountain on Bravo (July) -- Despite (because of?) all the hype around this movie
when it came out (ahem) three years ago, I had never seen it until I ran across it on cable
recently. I found it to be much simpler (in a good way) than I had expected that it would be;
my impression from all the acclaim when it was released had been that it must come across
as A Very Important Movie, but the script, the acting, and the filming were anything but
self-important. It's really just a heart-breaking story of two people in love but trapped in life
circumstances mostly beyond their control. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger give
subdued, realistic performances as the ranchers who fall in love on a Wyoming mountain in
the 1960s and continue their relationship in secret (mostly) for decades. It's heart-breaking
to watch the men maintain public façades of strength when they must part, only to break
down privately when their emotions overcome their stoicism. That includes the movie's
very sad ending. I found myself able to appreciate the choices made by the artists
responsible for this movie: the beautiful location shots, the simple reactions and line
readings of Gyllenhaal and Ledger, the less-is-more dialogue of the script, and the effective
background music.
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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in theaters (June) -- Our family thoroughly enjoyed the
first Disney Narnia film a few years ago (scroll down for details), in part because we had read
together the book upon which it is based. I think Susan and the girls read together Prince
Caspian, too, but because I hadn't, this movie was full of surprises to me. I cannot, thus,
judge it on its faithfulness to the novel, but I found it to be engaging not only for its
edge-of-your-seat action but also for some fine acting and incredibly realistic special
effects. The magical creatures and events in Narnia are so realistically done that they come
off as completely real and plausible. But the disconnect between their visual realism and
their obvious fantastical nature was jarring to me; I couldn't stop searching for signs--any
signs!--that this talking animal or that walking tree had been computer-generated. I found
no such evidence, which is terrific--but if only I could have let go completely and just
watched . . . Anyway, the actors portraying the children (particularly the two playing the
brothers) have aged well and do a fine job, and we loved the film oveall.
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in theaters (June) -- We loved it! Having just
watched/rewatched the previous three installments in the Indiana Jones series (see below),
we Mobergs were ready for this version and easily caught the frequent allusions throughout
to events and persons from the previous movies. Harrison Ford still has the same charisma
as his younger self, but he and the movie makers do a credible job of balancing his action
sequences with his age (both in verbal and visual references to his not being so young any
longer). Bringing back Karen Allen (from the first film) as his former lover and introducing
Shia LaBeouf as their illegitimate child is not only a nod to continuity but also a setup for
possible future installments featuring Jones: The Next Generation. Cate Blanchett's
performance is, as usual, good, but her wig is cartoonish, as is much about her plot to use
alien skulls to gain control over Soviet enemies' minds. Oh, well; one doesn't watch Indiana
Jones expecting a documentary. It's historical fiction with an emphasis on the fiction . . . and,
of course, on the adventure.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade on cable (May) -- After the recent Star Wars marathon (scroll down a bit for details),
the Mobergs were up for another round, this time in anticipation of the theatrical release of
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Susan, the girls, and I DVRed and watched
all three Indiana Jones movies from the 1980s, which I'm not altogether certain that I ever saw
in their entirety before now, meaning I enjoyed them this time around as much as the girls
did. We found them fun and funny, adventuresome and suspenseful, and thoroughly
engaging. The girls had moments of needing to grab onto Daddy as Indy faced certain
doom (only to find a clever way out of a seemingly inescapable dilemma), and we paused a
few times to remind the girls that everything on screen is "make believe," the product of
special effects and creative movie making (e.g., the moment in Temple of Doom when one
man approaches a hostage and gouges out his still-beating heart). But we're all well attuned
now to the "history" of Indiana Jones and ready for the big-screen version on its way into
theaters.
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Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith on Spike (May) -- Go to the "2005" page to read my reactions
to this movie when I saw it in the theater. It was a fun experience to rewatch it now with our
kids, now that they're fully engrossed in the mythology of the characters and their world
(see my comments below on watching the other five Star Wars movies with them recently).
It's quite a dark movie compared to the others, but the action and special effects are great,
and the dramatic irony is pleasing in that we viewers who know how episodes four through
six turn out can clearly see how events in this movie set up the events to come in later
installments. A very pleasurable stroll down memory lane.
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11:14 on IFC (May) -- This movie had my attention throughout! It opens with a startling
incident (at 11:14 P.M. in the characters' lives) involving a driver who has been drinking, a
car accident, and a dead body, setting of a chain of events involving a well meaning
passerby, a police officer thinking he's investigating a car-hits-deer incident, the escape of
criminals in the cop's custody, and a chase that ends up in a cemetery. Then the movie
backs up and examines the events leading up to and following 11:14 for another set of
characters connected to the first incident. Over the course of five rewind-and-replay
sections of the movie, we learn increasingly more about what each character has done that
has been a cause of effects in another's character's life that night. Apparently random
events turn out to be directly interconnected, and by the final scene, we have come full
circle and now understand just why the opening incident on the highway happens at all.
Very suspenseful and clever!
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Bully on IFC (April) -- This über-disturbing movie is based on the nonfiction book Bully: A True
Story of High School Revenge by Jim Schutze. Not having read the book, I can't judge the
movie on its fidelity to the source material (or, for that matter, the book's fidelity to its source
material). I can say that the movie effectively portrays the pathetic-ness of its characters'
lives (if that was even one of its goals to do). Amongst a horde of teens who smoke, drink,
have sex (a lot), do drugs (a lot), play video games, work dead-end part-time jobs, drive
recklessly, and have parents who don't parent them well or at all (is this just another of
cinema's stereotypical portrayals of late-20th-century American teens, or is this really the
sad, aimless life that the actual models for these characters led?), one boy stands out as a
particular jerk. Bobby has bullied Marty since childhood, physically and mentally (e.g.,
forcing Marty to strip at a gay club and give Bobby the money he earns, demeaning Marty
in front of their peers, making Marty watch while Bobby forces himself on Marty's girlfriend
immediately after she and Marty themselves have had sex, etc.). He bullies other teens,
too, not the least of which includes coerced sex (see previous parentheses), another act of
outright rape, and general disrespect to the females with whom he interacts. When Marty's
girlfriend becomes pregnant (with Marty's child? with Bobby's? who knows?), she declares
her commitment to him ("I would do anything for you"), persuades him that he doesn't
deserve Bobby's bullying, and convinces him that Bobby must die. One by one, they involve
their group of peers in the murder plot, each one enlisting as casually as though they'd just
been invited to join a group outing to the movies ("Help you murder Bobby? Sure! What
time?"). It's disturbing to see how the events lead up to the murder and how things unravel
afterwards. More disturbing are the screen captions at the end of the movie telling what
each character's real-life counterpart's sentence was in the actual murder case.
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Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones on Spike (April) -- Read
the entry below this one to know why these two movies were on my viewing queue. The
first time I saw these flicks (earlier this decade), I remember being impressed with the
special effects and appalled by the horrible acting--especially from people reputed to be
good actors otherwise. Now, viewing them again many years later, the movies had the
same impact. Natalie Portman? Samuel L. Jackson? Hayden Christensen? Jimmy Smits?
Wow, are they bad in these movies (although Natalie's performance grew on me from one
film to the next). Better performances, though, come from equally famous actors: Ewan
McGregor, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Liam Neeson, Terence Stamp, et al.
Ultimately, though, these are not movies about great acting and excellent writing; they're sci
fi/action movies intended to tell the back-story for the original three, and they're pretty good
at that. It's sad to watch little Anakin Skywalker in Episode 1, knowing that he will grow up to
become evil Darth Vader by Episode 4; it's interesting to see Anakin as a young man in
Episode 2 experiencing major traumatic life events that must contribute to his eventual turn
to the dark side of the Force. It's interesting to see how the androids R2-D2 and C-3PO
exist/interact with characters long before the events of the original movies. Besides the joy
of dramatic irony (knowing things about events to come that the characters themselves do
not), there's the fun of the suspenseful action sequences and the joy of the imaginative
special effects. It was also a blast to watch these with our daughters, who were totally "into"
this alternate universe and the interweaving plot lines of these characters. Only one more
to go this weekend, and we will have watched the entire six-movie saga.
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Star Wars IV: A New Hope, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars VI: Return of the
Jedi on Spike (April) -- A few nights ago, the fam was all hunkered down in front of a warm
TV, and I was changing channels when we happened upon the last 15 or so minutes of Star
Wars II: Attack of the Clones. It was in the middle of a climactic battle scene, which caught the
girls' attention immediately. They recognized it as Star Wars, were drawn in by the special
effects, and wanted to know just what had intrigued Daddy all those years ago when but a
child. I wanted to keep clicking; I didn't know if it was too violent for them or if it would ruin
the experience for them to see the ending before seeing any of the rest of the movie . . . or
of any of the others in the series, for that matter. But I relented (albeit with my thumb
hovering over the "pause" button the entire time lest something too scary should pop up on
the screen), and the girls were sucked in. Hillary (age: six) was so squirmy throughout the
battle scene that she hardly knew what to do with herself: Should she sit on this foot? on that
foot? move onto the ottoman to sit on my legs? scoot up onto my lap? Should she shove her
hands into her mouth, or use them to wrap my arms around her? Should she watch or look
away? or do both in rapid succession? As it turns out, she did it all. When the movie ended,
all three girls un-tensed and cheered and begged to see another Star Wars movie. As luck
would have it, Spike is showing all six movies in the series in their recently re-released
versions, so I recorded the first three movies made (which, in the chronology of the movies'
plot, are the last three installments in the saga), and we watched one per night this
weekend. I was amazed at how well the movies still hold up, even though cinematic special
effects technology has advanced over the past 30 years. It has been long enough since I
last saw the movies that there were plenty of surprises in store for me, too, while watching.
And the girls? They continued their jumpy To-Look-or-Not-to-Look? approach to viewing,
particularly when Darth Vader appeared in a scene. They also figured out the
Anakin-Luke-Leia family sitch before the characters spilled the beans about who begat
whom. We had such a good time that I even dug out all my childhood Star Wars toys, which
I kept in pretty good shape and have been storing over the years. The girls and I played
with those toys Saturday afternoon, and I was taken--as though by hyperspeed--back to the
days of me in my pajamas on a Saturday morning after cartoons had ended, acting out the
tales of my imagination on the living room floor and furniture using Star Wars figurines and
my giant Millennium Falcon space ship. Awesome!
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Tadpole on IFC (March) -- This unusual film features some famous actors--Sigourney
Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth--in roles unlike any I've seen them play before. Aaron
Stanford plays Oscar, a wise-beyond-his-years teenager coming home on break from
boarding school with the intention to romance his stepmother, who he feels is his soulmate.
Oscar is fluent in French (his mom is French) and quotes Voltaire as inspiration for his life
choices, deciding that girls his own age are too shallow but that his stepmom has everything
that he's after. It's uncomfortable to watch him flirt with her and then to sleep with another
woman his parents' age, but that leads to many moments of comedy thereafter. It's a
quirky movie, to be sure, but the actors are all appealing, making the movie so, too.
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The Bourne Supremacy on cable (March) -- This movie is the second in a series of three, and
I've seen neither of the other two, so I hesitated to start watching this one when it came on
while I was flipping channels in a hotel room in Boston. However, I'd heard great things
about it (the series, actually), so I decided to give it a try. It is an engaging movie: lots of
action as the lead character, Jason Bourne, faces one dangerous predicament after another,
all related to a non-stop series of efforts to kill him and all complicated by his own amnesia
(Who am I? Who would want me dead? What do these fragmented memories mean? Why
am I instinctively able to to achieve feats of physical and mental prowess to get out of
deadly situations?). Matt Damon makes an ideal Jason Bourne, and the supporting actors
do well, too. I hope to find the other two movies in the series when flipping channels on TV
again someday!
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Journey to the Center of the Earth on cable (February) -- Cheese-tastic! Jules Verne wrote the
novel that inspired the movie, but--just as with Around the World in 80 Days (see below)--he
would find that plenty of liberties have been taken with his plot. His own book is plenty
unscientific itself, but the movie doesn't do anything to correct scientific errors (not the least
of which is itself the basis for the movie: that the center of the planet is a prehistoric world of
lakes, dinosaurs, and temperate, breathable air!). We watched this 1959 version (many
have been made in the years since, and there's a 3-D version coming out later this year) as
a family, and the girls were "into" the adventure of the subterranean exploration and the
dangers that the explorers faced. Susan and I were busy rolling our eyes. The characters
are from Scotland and Iceland and Sweden, but the accents are all over the place (with
strong hints of American throughout). Pat Boone was cast presumably to sing a few songs
along the way and to remove his shirt. Descending to the planet's center involves walking
down pre-existing paths in the rock until arriving not at an abominably hot core of molten
rock but at a lake near the lost (and now abandoned) city of Atlantis. Flashlights give out,
but they're not needed; conveniently, the center of the earth is populated by algae that
phosphoresce. The journey takes a year, but somehow the travelers survive on only the
food they took in their individual backpacks. The movie required our willing suspension of
disbelief, but we weren't as willing as the girls were. Meh--it was safe family viewing, and
Susan and I enjoyed it, too, in our own critical way!
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The Ransom of Red Chief on Hallmark (February) -- What a fun movie! The girls and I watched
it together and laughed out loud throughout. It's based on the famous O. Henry story, but
liberties have been taken to stretch it out into a feature-length film. Christopher Lloyd and
Michael Jeter play con men who kidnap the rambunctious son of the town's richest couple,
hoping to get rich quick. They convince the boy to stay with them at an abandoned mine
outside of town by telling him that it's all one big adventure, and he's cooperative. The
problem is that the boy is such a trouble-maker himself that not only does he make the
kidnappers regret having nabbed him, but his absence also gives his parents a blessed
reprieve. His dad, in fact, thinks that it's all another prank by his son, and he responds to the
ransom note by saying that the kidnappers would have to pay him to take back the boy! Of
course, by the time it's apparent that it's a legitimate kidnapping, the boy's parents set off to
rescue him. The chase involves the entire town as well as a couple of escaped convicts who
chase the kidnappers as they all run from the authorities. The acting is spot-on, and the
gags are in the spirit of the story (if not in the original story itself). We laughed especially at
the bits surrounding a seeing-eye "dog"! Well worth our time.
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Spy Hard on cable (February) -- In the spirit of every other genre parody movie that Leslie
Nielsen has ever been in comes this spoof of secret agent adventure films featuring--who
else?--Leslie Nielsen as a bumbling but entirely self-unaware secret agent who somehow
attracts young, gorgeous women and somehow solves the case despite his hilarious
ineptitude. Weird Al Yankovic sings the opening with credits that recall James Bond films;
Andy Griffith stars as the nefarious villain General Rancor; and Charles Durning, Marcia
Gay Harden, and Barry Bostwick play Nielsen's co-agents, each inept in his/her own right.
There are other cameos and numerous sight gags and one-liners that cause groans and
grins. It was an amusing diversion, enjoyable so long as one is not expecting Oscar-worthy
material.
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Catwoman on AMC (January) -- This movie was pummeled by critics for its awfulness when it
came out in 2004, so of course I took advantage of AMC's showing to see it (finally) for
myself. It wasn't as terrible as I had expected. Halle Berry plays a demure woman who
becomes aggressive after being imbued with mystical feline powers by some cats. Okay,
just typing that makes me cringe. That whole
I-was-resurrected-after-death-by-the-breath-of-cats-who-gave-me-special-powers thing
could have been skipped in favor of a more traditional Catwoman of comics--either the
super-villain or the anti-hero approach would have done nicely. This movie was
entertaining, though, in its action sequences and Berry's switching between personality
types when in and out of (sexy) costume. For a showing on TV, this movie was worth the
price of admission.
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Around the World in 80 Days on Disney Channel (January) -- I don't think Jules Verne would
recognize this movie version of his novel, an adaptation that changes key events and
characterizations, even making a secondary character in the novel the hero of this film.
However, he isn't the audience for this film--Disney viewers are. I watched it with our
daughters, who thoroughly enjoyed it for what it is: a funny, sometimes silly, often
suspenseful action movie heavy on martial arts and Asian intrigue (I realize that I've just
lost Verne purists) with less care for serious acting (see: Arnold Schwarzenegger as a
Turkish prince) than for elements of "the chase." Having wagered reputation and career,
can Phileas Fogg indeed travel around the world in only 80 days, eluding misguided police
and Asian criminals and the limits of 19th-century transportation? You'll know by the end of
the movie!
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Looking for Richard on IFC (January) -- It is entirely possible that I read Richard III in one or
another college course on Shakespeare, but I don't remember it if I did. Even so, I enjoyed
this documentary featuring Al Pacino and a bevy of famous actors' filming selected scenes
from the play intercut with their rehearsing those scenes and discussing the play itself
amongst themselves or with professors of history or literature. The movie is an unusual
mix: Start with Pacino interviewing people on city sidewalks about their feelings toward
Shakespeare; cut to a scholar commenting on something Shakespearean; cut to a table
reading during which actors vehemently argue over the motivation of their characters; cut
to a filmed and edited scene from the play performed in some atmospheric location with
one after another famous actor working for scale as a favor to Pacino. I found it engrossing
and am tempted to (re?)read the play now.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on SciFi (January) -- My mind is very hazy about the book,
which I read eons ago, so watching the movie was like flipping through an old yearbook
from school and re-meeting people whom I used to know. It's a silly, fast-paced romp with
wacky characters in bizarre situations--but who don't seem to think anything about the
weirdness surrounding them. The titular hitchhiker is Arthur Dent, rescued from Earth
minutes before it is destroyed by aliens planning to build an intergalatic highway through
that spot. Arthur is completely discombobulated by the unfathomable tragedy, by the
aliens' nonchalant attitude about it, and by the sudden realization that Earth was but one
miniscule part of a vast multitude of galaxies of life about which humans were completely
unaware. The hijinks include space travel and planetary species and related special effects,
but the movie is more about Arthur's travails through it all. Funny and fun because of its
familiarity; I think reading the book is a prerequisite, though.
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The Anniversary Party on IFC (January) -- Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason-Leigh wrote and
directed this ensemble piece, which showcases a slew of famous actors portraying their sad,
troubled characters with appealingly fresh quirks and mannerisms. Their acting choices
kept me interested and watching despite the endless layers of depressing life events and
poor life choices for the characters. Cumming and Jason-Leigh portray a couple celebrating
their sixth wedding anniversary mere months after being reunited following a lengthy
separation. As couples arrived at the house for the party, I kept reacting with pleasant
surprise: Look! There's Parker Posey! and Phoebe Cates! and Kevin Kline! and John C.
Reilly! and Jennifer Beals! and Mary Lynn Rajskub! and Gwyneth Paltrow! and Blair Tefkin
(from V, but that's a pretty obscure reference for most, I'll admit)! As the party goes
on--and alcohol and drugs get consumed--relationships get laid out for viewers (and the
characters themselves) to examine . . . and it's not a pretty sight. In the end, all may not
have been for naught; the characters may be able to heal unhealthy relationships now with
secrets out on the table. It certainly is a party that none of them will forget.
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The Battle of Shaker Heights on IFC (January) -- Shia LaBeouf and the movie's writers have
created an appealing, amusing, and original character in Kelly, the main character: a
precocious teen with an adult's knowledge and interests (including re-enacting historic
battles with groups of history buffs and being attracted to women above his age bracket) but
a teenager's problems--exacerbated, perhaps, by his behaving instead like an adult! A
teenaged coworker is romantically interested in him, but he pursues his friend's
engaged-to-be-married adult sister. High school life would be easier if he were to acquiesce
to the bully and to the teacher who knows less about history than does Kelly, but Kelly can't
keep from mouthing off to both. Sadder are his problems at home, which come to a head
toward the movie's end just as other disasters befall him. All ends hopefully, however (but
not too saccharinely--the bully still gets the last punch), which is a pleasing way to say
goodbye to LaBeouf's pleasant character.
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May on IFC (January) -- Fuh-REAK-y! This movie was downright uncomfortable to
watch--but at the same time thoroughly engrossing. May is an oddball if ever there were
one: a loner since childhood whose best friend is a glass-encased doll and for whom sewing
clothes for herself and her doll collection has taken the place of healthy socialization with
human beings. She works in a veterinary hospital and isn't the least bit squeamish about
gore, even enjoying inflicting pain on herself (and others, as the movie goes on). Angela
Bettis is fantastic as the quirky May, and Jeremy Sisto and Anna Faris create weird
characters, too (apparently more normal than May but each with a difficulty with connecting
with others in a "normal" way), whose efforts to befriend May end horrifically. It's a
macabre comedy and a psychological horror film both. Weird! But in a good way.
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The 40-Year-Old Virgin on cable (January) -- Steve Carell plays the title character, a man
apparently content in his arrested development: he does not drive (instead he rides a bike
everywhere); he reads comics and plays video games; he has hundred of thousands of
dollars worth of collectors' editions of action figures; and, of course, he is celibate. His
coworkers tease him for his naïveté, but for all their worldly experience (drinking, sex,
swearing), they are more miserable than he (and, ironically, they retreat in the same
childish video games that he enjoys). When they decide to get him "de-flowered," they drag
him into their world of misery: drunken near-hookups, worries over whom to date, paranoia
about sexual performance, dissatisfaction with physical appearance, etc. The movie ends
happily for him, and the rest of the movie is filled with comic misadventures that make
Carell's character all the more sympathetic. It must have been a nightmare for the TV
censors to bleep out and record over the myriad curse words throughout, and it was
disconcerting to see the actors mouthing recognizable words but to hear their voices saying
much tamer substitutions.
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Spanking the Monkey on IFC (January) -- If you know what the title is slang for, you have
already guessed that this movie is a little offbeat . . . and you are right. The main character
is a college student frustrated in many more ways than just his attempts to "spank the
monkey." While home from school, he is frustrated in nearly every way by factors out of his
control and a sense of duty to people who feel no obligation to him: parents, aunt, neighbor
girl, old high school friends . . . he reaches out but is shut off; he tries to explain but is
over-ridden. An act of incest--shocking to him and viewers alike--drives him over the edge
and leads to ever more shocking events until, finally, the movie ends on a sad note but one
that marks some hope for him, at least. Bizarre.
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