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.
Every once in a while, you see a series of trailers that convince you that a movie will be fantastic. Sometimes this holds to be true, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, you convince yourself that a film is going to be amazing based on the trailers alone. And then, when the critics support your belief by giving the movie high praise, you head into that movie thinking that you are about to see something exceptional. I thought Todd Haynes (