Monthly Archives: November 2008

Michael Cera’s quiet, shy act works well when it’s played against a strong personality — the insane family in Arrested Development, the wisecracking title character in Juno. But when Cera’s Nick is put up against a female version of himself — spineless, introspective, but exquisitely attuned to the tiniest tremors in underground music — the chemistry is absolutely inert, and both characters remain leaden, lumpen, and dull onscreen.

Which is a shame, because there’s a fairly funny movie going on around them, or at least in the same neighborhood. Maybe it’s hiding wherever Where’s Fluffy? is playing. Aaron Yoo, Rafi Gavron, and Jonathan B. Wright are effective and charming as the good fairies trying to give their buddy a shot at love, and Ari Graynor brings the only really solid (if lowbrow) laughs as an over-the-top drunk from New Jersey who gets lost in the city. Meanwhile her bubblegum becomes a character all its own, and maybe the most interesting one, as we watch it move from mouth to mouth to places bubblegum should never go and then back to mouth again. The gum gag feels like it’s from another, cruder, more engaged movie, but at least it gets the audience to say, “Ewwwwww,” which is the strongest reaction this Teflon-coated unmovie is likely to coax out of anybody.

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I’d seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers before. It still holds up, although there are a few bizarre moments — hero Miles Bennell rushes over to girlfriend Becky’s house in the middle of the night to protect her, but rather than getting out on his own side of the car as any normal person would, he dramatically slides across the bench seat and jumps out the passenger side instead. And of course, there’s the unintentionally hilarious line: “I never knew fear until I kissed Becky.”

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The Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons have always been my favorites, and now they’re the only ones I watch: There’s something really wonderful about The Simpsons freed from the need to be nice, or even realistic. And because … Continue reading →