Long before Claire Danes started earning multiple Emmy Awards as the bipolar Carrie Mathison on Showtime’s knock-out series
Homeland, she was starring in lesser-known, independent movies like
Brokedown Palace,
Igby Goes Down, and 2005’s completely underappreciated
Shopgirl. I watched this movie for the first time back in 2008 or 2009 and was blown away by how awesome and authentic it felt. This was long before
Homeland. I have since watched every episode of
Homeland (including seasons 1 and 2 twice each), so it was cool to re-watch
Shopgirl, knowing everything that I know about the character she plays on the television show that earned her fame. Ironically I thought this was the first movie that Steve Martin (
Parenthood, Three Amigos!) wrote. It turns out he’s written dozens of films (including
Three Amigos!, Roxanne, LA Story, The Jerk, and
Bowfinger), but this was the first real non-comedy that he wrote. Maybe the difference was that with
Shopgirl was that he wrote the novel in addition to the screenplay. And let me say that he did a great job. I had a couple of problems (which I will include below), but for the most part, he killed it. I would not read this review unless you’ve seen this movie. It’s going to be chock-full of spoilers. I would love to hear what you think about it if you have seen it. If you haven’t, stop reading now and check out the movie.
Continue reading Shopgirl (2005) →
Sleeping With Other People was the fifth movie I saw over 48 hours. The Finest Hours, Anomalisa, 45 Years, and Love & Mercy were the others. While The Finest Hours was entertaining and was an excellent movie to see on the big screen in 3D, the only movie of the five that I enjoyed was Love & Mercy. As much as I disliked most of Anomalisa and 45 Years, the worst of the five movies was Sleeping With Other People. I am a big of Jason Sudeikis (We’re the Millers, Hall Pass). I liked him a lot on Saturday Night Live and thought that he had a fantastic start to his movie career, and sometimes, he can make you laugh out loud with his humor. At least for now, I think he needs to stick to strictly doing “funny” comedies. Sleeping With Other People was a comedy that was not funny and played like a dramedy more than any other Sudeikis movie I am familiar with. Likewise, this has also been classified as a romance, which I find sad and a discredit to the genre. I hated the premise of this movie and felt that it was tough for me to relate to, either on a personal level or how I observed those close to me. Perhaps this is the lifestyle for many people, but I don’t see it in my life. I didn’t know if I was supposed to take this movie seriously or if this was just supposed to be a fun 90 minutes. In either case, it failed. I neither enjoyed myself nor even laughed one time.