shopgirl

as steve martin tries to channel bill murray, claire danes scrunches up her face and cries...a lot. and kind of does her forlorn thing. shopgirl has no redeeming values whatsoever and if i had know that adam schwartzman would end up being the unequivocal highlight of the movie, i’d had passed on the film entirely.

capote

philip seymour hoffman, one of my favorite character actors, transforms himself into the titular role. having read the book and researched the hoopla that surrounded “in cold blood,” the movie was a near can’t miss for me from an interest standpoint. even without that bias, the film itself delivers on all levels, even if some audience members may be a bit confused with the lack of background and context provided in the early parts of the movie.

i'm not a fan of praising actors who play/imitate real people, but hoffman does an amazing job with the role of capote.

wallace and gromit

there's really nothing to say about the wallace and gromit movies. they're great. this is their first feature length film (aside from the hilarious "chicken run") and it does run a little long, but the humor holds your attention all the way through. if you haven't seen any wallace and gromit films, now's the time to start.

a fire at the warehouse where all the sets and characters for wallace and gromit are stored was a huge tragedy for claymation fans everywhere.

the corpse bride

i've not seen "the nightmare before christmas," but by all accounts it's a classic. corpse bride is not. the claymation and animation is done very well, but there's nothing memorable about the plot, the characters, or really, anything. sorry tim burton, next.

mirrormask

despite a less than captivating story, mirrormask is such a unique experience that to fault it for plotting seems to be complaining that works of art aren't accompanied by enough informational text. mirrormask is the work of "sandman" creator neil gaiman and his longtime artistic collaborator dave mckean -- with help from jim henson's creature shop. mirrormask follows in the tradition of "labyrinth" and "the dark crystal" to tell a tale of escape from the mundanity of everyday life to the excitement of a fantasy one.

elizabethtown

the last time cameron crowe went semi-auto-biographical, he made the glowing "almost famous." this time around, crowe's film about his father fails to impress. elizabethtown felt like a knock-off cameron crowe movie. there are two redeeming things about this movie, and neither are named orlando bloom (pretty but not charismatic enough to handle this type of role) or kirsten dunst (nice front teeth). just disappointing all around. sigh.

a day on the force

a documentary about women's professional tackle football. what?! yeah, this film is no joke. originally created as part of the 72-hour feature project (72 hfp), "a day on the force" has been re-edited and re-cut to exciting results. it's hard to describe how amazing and perplexing this movie is. just watch it if you get the chance. see she-ra (or is that he-man?) kick ass on the gridiron.

only the brave

an asian-american production starring a who's who cast of asian-americans, "only the brave" tells the true story of a segregated japanese-american battalion who fought in world war two while their friends and family were interned. while the tale of the 442nd is powerful, the movie is a bit heavy on the sentimentality, and as a stand-alone film, it's a poor man's "saving private ryan." however, writer/star/director lane nishikawa's passion cannot be denied.

we got to see tamlyn tomita of joy luck club and karate kid two fame. along with jason scott lee (dragon, jungle book), mark dacascos (crow, iron chef, brotherhood of the wolf), and the ultimate sighting, yuji okumoto. you know, the bad guy from karate kid two.

thumbsucker

in what is possibly his finest acting job to date, keanu reeves co-stars as a spiritual orthodontist alongside an angsty thumbsucker. on one level, this movie is kind of a "d.a.r.e." for the prozac/ritalin generation. but the parts of the film that i found to be most poignant were the interactions between the thumbsucker's family. a coming of age story told with humor and humanity, thumbsucker was a pleasant surprise of a film. and all of the famous faces in the movie -- hi keanu, hi vince vaughn -- do wonderful work playing tongue in cheek versions of their usual movie personas.