Gilmore Girls
So my Wonderfalls season one DVD, with nine unaired episodes quite obviously never seen by myself, has reportedly been bumped from its December 7 release back to January 18 due to "heavy" competition on the original date.
Damned Gilmore Girls and its season two DVD. Someone should cancel that show.
Actually, I was kind of figuring that, although there's no release date announced yet, Fox Searchlight would stock Garden State on December 7 as well just to screw with me. I wouldn't mind. In fact, as a Wonderfalls substitute, can I have my Dead Like Me season two DVD on that day as well? Next summer is way too far off to wait. Thank you in advance.
You've Got Mail 1998
You've Got Mail is crack, plain and simple, and Nora Ephron is your dealer. This film isn't good for you. It's a sappy romantic comedy that glorifies AOL as the height of technology and convinces you that you should dump Parker Posey for Meg Ryan. NO! BAD MOVIE VIEWER! The problem is that the movie is just SO entertaining and addictive that you want to just chop the DVD up in a blender and suck it up your nose with a rolled up dollar bill, if only so that you can avoid the encumbrances of bulky modern technology and loop the movie endlessly in your mind. Ephron has done amazing work here, creating an idyllic and utopian New York City at the end of the dotcom boom of the 1990s, which gives the film an interesting twist now that the bubble burst and AOL is a friggin' joke. Here Tom Hanks is rich and Meg Ryan might not be rolling in cash but she's got great friends, a beautiful bookstore to run and everyone here lives in the most gorgeous section of Gotham — the book district, as Ryan wants to call it. They meet online, but hate each other in real life…it sort of just writes itself. The romance is predictable and unoriginal (par for the course for a remake) but works well (it's the trip, not the destination that matters here) and by granting Hanks early knowledge of the situation the plot doesn't insult your intelligence to the extent it could. All the supporting characters are spot-on perfect; Posey and Greg Kinnear add a level of intellectualism to the proceedings, while Hanks' best friend…well, let's just say he's Rick James, bitch. If ever a film wanted to make you go to New York in the fall and hunt for Meg Ryan, well, it's this one, so pardon me while I head to Travelocity.
Almost Famous
To be Cameron Crowe. What kind of a world is it where one man gets to live through this film, Jeff Spicoli, and then grow up to be a filmmaker? Justice for none but he, says I. At least we get to share in the fun. Before the growth-stunted Crowe went back to high school undercover to write the book (and eventually the screenplay) Fast Times at Ridgemont High, he got his diploma and hit the road writing for Rolling Stone, following the Allman Brothers and others on the hard road of late 70's rock ‘n roll. Almost Famous is a fascinating amalgamation of those journeys, as Crowe (William Miller, played by Patrick Fugit) travels with the fictional band Stillwater, fronted by Billy Crudup and Jason Lee, along with a cadre of groupies called the "Band Aids" led by Penny Lane (Kate Hudson, in the role that inflicted her upon the world.) Famous centers on everyone's love of music, especially Fugit's, as an escape, a centerpiece, a glue that keeps friends and family together, whatever your poison happens to be. One of this film's (and any other film's) best scenes features Crudup rejoining the tour bus after a night of dangerous partying and rebonding with his bandmates by joining them in singing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer", a sequence that underscores one of the points of the film: music is life. All the performances here are perfect, with Fugit being an intimidated reporter yet confident in his opinions, Crudup unsure about his burgeoning stardom, Hudson addicted to the exciting life of a muse, and mother Frances McDormand strutting anxiously as her teenage son became trapped in a world of sex, drugs, and more sex and drugs. Though the film meanders at the end, it's a wild trip as Crowe shows non-believers just exactly what kind of magic a group of five guys with a bunch of instruments can create.