(Amanda)
I was sick most of the week and spent a solid three days in bed. For whatever reason, I ended up watching a bunch of movies I've owned for a long time, have been excited about from the beginning, but have never watched. I rarely actually watch full-length movies, and having so many hours to kill while barely moving made this a prime movie-watching health event. Why I finally felt the need to watch these movies I've been putting off (often because I'm so excited about them I never feel like the moment is perfect enough) ~ well, who knows. Here's a list, though I might be forgetting some ...

Elephant
This Film is Not Yet Rated
Z Channel ~ A Magnificent Obsession
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Brick

Elephant
I had been strongly warned that this movie was incredibly disturbing, so I suppose I went into it with a purposefully blackened heart. It was definitely disturbing, and it did make me cry (though, to be fair, so did that great VW bug commercial of 2002), but I found it much easier to take than I expected. AND ~ wowzers, what an amazing film! Gus Van Sant, director of many famous flicks, managed to entirely surprise me with some enchanting creativity. This film is basically about a school shooting, Columbine-style. Most of the film ~ well, all of the film, is made up of extremely long tracking shots of students going about their mundane days. We follow, maybe, a dozen characters through long, surprisingly low key, shots as they wind their way through the halls, darkrooms, playing fields, cafeteria, and on and on ~ having brief or long interactions with their friends and classmates. Does that sound boring? Because it's absolutely not. I often find extreme realism to be the most fascinating TV or movie material (hmmm, that's why the first season of Friday Night Lights is so good I can hardly handle it). For filmmakers to capture something that is truly realistic and familiar ~ that's apparently rare enough that when you really see realism, it's goosebump-inducing.
Anyway ~ Elephant ~ a truly unique and spectacular movie.

I'll keep the rest of these short...

This Film is Not Yet Rated
A very great documentary about the messed up movie ratings system. Really entertaining, funny, interesting, and maddening. Good combo, no?

Z Channel ~ A Magnificent Obsession
Another fantastic documentary. Anyone interested in film should absolutely watch this. It's about the obsessive programmer for an 80's LA cable channel. Aside from the Murder/Suicide/Mental illness drama, this movie is just filled with Love-For-Good-Filmness. It makes any film buff even more excited to be what they are. And what are we? Film buffs! Embrace it! Watch this movie, people!

The Secret Lives of Dentists
This was given to me by a friend (and by friend, of course, I mean a middle aged gay meth-head from Connecticut I met once and bonded with instantly) ~ I mainly watched it so I could say I'd watched it. It was quite good, though it's kind of one of those random very-indie dramas that doesn't seem entirely necessary. But, no, it's really good. Filled with essential indie actors. Interesting look at a family going through things. That sort of movie. But, again, very high quality. And enjoyable.

Brick
That strapping young chap from 3rd Rock from the Sun, Joseph Gordon-Levitt(?), is in a lot of fantastic movies these days. Pretty much reliably fantastic, a movie with this guy in it. Brick was on lots of critics 'Best of 200?' lists and, man, what a curious film. It takes place in a modern high school, but it's a straight up film noir. Like, with this fast pulpy talk, the standard characters, all that. It's really pretty spectacular! Imagine Shakespeare dialogue dumped into a SoCal High School setting. Kinda like that, but, you know, the Noir version.

And ... post!