I dunno. Have to give Reed and the screenwriters a good deal of credit for making a movie where the two romantic protags clearly should not be together -- and, more importantly, a movie that realizes that the romantic protags should not be together -- but c'mon. This oscillation between ultraserious relationship delving (a shockingly large portion of the film) and outlandish farce (John Michael Higgins, Justin Long) simply Does Not Work. All that's really successful is the middle ground, typical romcom stuff, except even that takes on much different implications when we're not rooting for our couple to stay together. (Okay, what's most successful is Vincent D'Onofrio and Jason Bateman's dry humor, but that's a bucket-drop.) Based on what little I'd seen of him before, I thought Vince Vaughan might be one of the greatest American comic actors. Now I know: He's not.
--- Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, 2004), B+
Not since Punch-Drunk Love four years ago have I been this conflicted about a rating a film -- no wonder, I guess, since not since Punch-Drunk have I watched a movie so aggressively sui generis. Other than a couple standard romantic plot points that Hess still manages to make unique, practically nothing in Napoleon Dynamite has been seen on screen before: Not a school where even the bad kids say "darn" and "gosh," not a creepy chat-room romance that turns out downright normal, not a bust-enhancing door-to-door salesman, not...well, anything. I wish I could say it all works, but Napoleon's dance program and Napoleon and Deb playing tetherball (particularly how he keeps smashing the ball past her as the film ends) made me forget any misgivings I might have had about, oh, I don't know, certain attempts at time travel. The cult of Napoleon (and Napoleon) both makes perfect sense and no sense at all.
--- "Corner Gas" (season 1, episodes 1-2; 2004), B
Hard to judge a show based on only its pilot and one other episode, but it's clear there's a lot to like about "Corner Gas," particularly Brent's droll, sarcastic, Lorelai-esque humor. ("Arrested Development" was the comparison Ed and I bandied about when watching it, but in thinking about it more, I think "a less serious 'Gilmore Girls'" is probably more apt.) Supporting cast a little weak, or at least they are two episodes in, and like nearly every half-hour comedy in the world, it has no idea how to deal with serious moments (like the naming of the restaurant). But still: a B only two episodes into a sitcom is very, very encouraging.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
