so for the past few days i've been seeing movies, thinking about blogging some kind of review, and then not getting around to it. as it happens i liked all 3. here's a truncated version of the longer reviews i probably should have written:
inside man--a spike lee caper bank caper movie that manages to tell a story we've basically all seen before (with a couple of extra twists) and keep it really interesting the whole way through.
the syrian bride--an israeli/french film about a druse woman who lives on the golan heights and who is arranged to marry a syrian man. the israelis well let her leave, but once she crosses she losed her israeli identity. meanwhile the syrian government will let her come in and give her a syrian passport, but then she can't cross back into israeli-controlled golan ever again. i tend to like films that portray ordinary people who get screwed over by larger political intransigence. it wasn't a completely apolitical movie, but the focus stayed on the effect of the situation on the family
the last kiss--on thursday evening i went to a sneak preview of this film with a friend. it's the new zach braff picture, but unlike his last one ("garden state") braff didn't write or direct it, he just acted and did the soundtrack. anyway, it didn't have much of the wacky humor of garden state, and mostly consisted of watching several different relationships fall apart. it's ultimately worth seeing, but not as entertaining as i found "garden state" to be. the soundtrack was not as good as "garden state", at least i didn't come out itching to buy the CD. in fact, my friend who saw the film with me noted that part of the soundtrack seemed to be intentionally mimicing "garden state," picking a different songs from many of the same bands.
in other news i went to a bachelor party of sorts, went to a work-related party for clients, and got a nasty stomach virus. actually, i guess i would rank the entertainment value of those three events in roughly that order. but the long and short is that i now doubt i will make it to anything in the fringe festival this year. doh!
