1 - Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener has never made a movie that I haven't ended liking more than I expected to. It's been years since I've seen Walking & Talking but I remember liking it very much. Then I finally got around to watching Lovely & Amazing last year, fed by my Jake-craze, and again thought, what a nice little movie. She doesn't try to knock you over with her stories, but she gives wonderful actresses the chance to be wonderful and adored and lovely (yes, while walking and talking to their friends about money... and stuff...), and anyway, it's a nice thing to witness.
2 - Namely, she keeps giving the wonderful Catherine Keener the chance to shine, and thank the Dead Baby Jesus somebody is doing that.
3 - The cast in Friends With Money is just delightful. DELIGHT-FILLED. Delightful Frances McDormand braying and crumbling and being sorta delightfully mannish. Delightful Joan Cusack being cute and kinda whiny and neurotic and Joan Cusack-y. The forementioned Keener being her forementioned wonderful self.
4 - And the guys were great, too - who thought I'd ever find myself momentarily charmed by Pompadoured tiny-man Scott Caan? Certainly not I. And I can't quite pinpoint the moment when I began to find Jason Isaacs hot, but it arrived without my noticing and even when he was being an asshole I wanted to lay him over that computer table of his and... ahem. And I have no idea who Simon McBurney is, but he's a keeper.
5- Am I forgetting someone? I feel like I'm forgetting someone.
6 - Sigh. The Aniston. I'm swimming upstream here. I'm afraid to say it. I think... I might... like... The Aniston. Like... like? I don't want to. As a "celebrity" I find her dreadfully annoying. But then I keep not hating her in the movies I see her in. Sure, it was totally retarded that they kept talking about how out-of-shape her character was supposed to be when her toned abs can be seen from outer space, but... there's something I just keep being drawn to about her onscreen. I guess I'm sort of...
I don't know. It's kind of predetermined that I will like the movies she keeps picking. So there's that. The Good Girl? Liked it. Jake being dopey and adorable, and I thought she was just fine. And she was in Office Space! Sure, she was... just fine (those are the words I keep coming back to with regarrds to her acting)... but... she was in Office Space! Wonderful Office Space, which her just being in probably helped getting made.
It's like why I have to respect Drew Barrymore now, because she made Donnie Darko happen.
Hmm, funny that my reasonings all lead back to Jake, huh?
But seriously, she wasn't bad. She's... kinda likeable. She doesn't push the "I'm pretty" thing in her movies like she tries to on the covers of magazines where it annoys me. Because... she's not really pretty. Yes, abs from space, but... pretty plain face-wise. Which I really do think she makes work for her in the movies I have seen her in.God I'm feeling defensive about this. I don't feel good about it, see? But I do! I like her! I don't see an Oscar in her future, but I think I can deal with seeing her show up every now and again in these little type movies where she plays kinda sad and messed-up. I like her, goddamnit.
And this blasted movie made me realize it.
I wish I were dead. Thanks, Aniston!
//
Posts
2 comments:
I've liked all of Nicole Holofcener's movies too.
You don't have to feel that bad about liking Aniston. I tend to really like her sometimes too. And I think she's done a pretty good job of not being typecast as the Rachel Greene type.
I usually consider myself on Team Jolie, but I really think that's the media's fault. I don't know if Jenn actually wanted all this attention on her being the poor woman who's husband left her.
Post a Comment