Movie #383 - Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted
1999 - Rated R - 2 hr 7 min
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy, Clea DuVall, Elisabeth Moss, Vanessa Redgrave, Jared Leto, Jeffrey Tambor, Angela Bettis, Jillian Armenante

Ryder plays Susanna Kaysen, the author of the autobiographical book detailing her 18 months in a psychiatric ward.  A colorful cast of women join her -- some greatly outshining her in fact, like Jolie's Lisa, an Oscar-winning performance.

As one of the least crazy women in the ward, Kaysen needs to do the most personal reflection.  Her depression, she realizes, can be overcome... but it takes her a while to get to that finishing line.  No thanks to Lisa, the rowdy, authority-challenging "bad girl" of the ward.  They become friends and, while Kaysen ultimately sees lessons to be learned from the friendship, at first it threatens to lead her down exactly the wrong path.

Whoopi Goldberg is fantastic here as well, playing the head nurse of the ward -- a tough woman remniscent of Chicago's Mama Morten who puts up with a lot of back-talk but knows when its time to speak up.  A great scene between her and Ryder is among my favorites.

So many great performances here -- Brittany Murphy among them -- and it's definitely a great new addition to the wall.

Movie #336 - Just Married

Just Married
2003 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 35 min
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, David Moscow

This movie did two things:

1. I miss Brittany Murphy.
2. Secretly, I'd pick Christian Kane over Ashton Kutcher. Any day.

But Kane plays the "bad" guy (darn), so that doesn't happen.  Murphy chooses the goofy guy and their honeymoon implodes on itself.  What annoys me most about this movie is Kutcher's total ignorance.  Watching this objectively, basically everything that happens on the honeymoon is his fault.  He starts the fire with that stupid plug, he drives into the snowbank, he ditches her to watch a baseball game... She should go with Kane, but she's apparently crazy in love with Kutcher. The heart wants what it wants, I guess.

The first time I saw this, I thought it was just one of those slapstick kinda comedies, with a side of romance. But watching it again, I'm a bit irritated with Kutcher.  Maybe it's because I'm now married and have survived a honeymoon and would kill my husband if he did these things.  Murphy's just too damn nice to him and he's a giant tool box.

Movie #245 - The Groomsmen

The Groomsmen
2006  Rated R - 1 hr 38 min
Director: Edward Burns
Starring: Edward Burns. Matthew Lillard, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Donal Logue, Jay Mohr, Shari Albert

My biggest beef with this movie is the misleading marketing.  The poster pictured here reads "The boys are back in town."  The DVD box reads "Till death do they party."  But this isn't The Hangover. That movie might be better served by those one-liners than this one. 

This movie is good, but it's not a party flick.  This groom and his groomsmen have a lot of things to sort out with each other.  There's a lot more drama than there is partying.  It annoys me that they didn't trust in the movie's validity as a romance/drama and tried to make it sound like something it isn't.

You won't laugh that much when you watch it.  But you will find yourself drawn in to these barely-functioning relationships. Brothers struggling to accept each other, men in various stages of their own relationships trying to remain friends, a gay son reconciling with his dad.  Doesn't sound like a party movie, does it?

Movie #124 - Clueless

Clueless
Paramount Pictures
1995 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 37 min
Director: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer

I had to skip Clue because it's out on loan, so I'll add that one back in when it's returned.  For now, onto a movie that defined a generation of teenaged girls... myself included.

As if!

I love love love this movie, especially since it's a (loose) adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. How clever and relevant to the times, how touching to bring Austen into modern cinema under the radar.  For years, I didn't even know about that. Look at that - the subtle influence of classic literature on an unsuspecting generation of girls.  Brilliant.

Anyway, Alicia Silverstone's career was made on this film, as well as Brittany Murphy's (man, do I miss her!!) And Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs) is in this too, which is weird for me now because I watch that show.  When I first started watching Scrubs, he was "that guy from Clueless" but now, watching the movie, he's become "that guy from Scrubs." Funny how that works.

As the most quotable movie ever - in my opinion - this one's hard to watch without reciting the lines.  Maybe guys don't love this as much as I do - okay, I know they don't - but I think this movie is completely awesome, probably because of how unobtrusive the wit is.  It's satire done well and even now, 15 years later, I can still appreciate that.

Man... 15 years? That's disgusting.

Movie #1 - 8 Mile

8 Mile
Universal Pictures
2003 - Rated R - 1 hr 51 min
Director: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer

*WARNING: These reviews are gonna contain "spoilers" so don't read 'em if you want to watch the movie and be surprised.*

We're off to a strong start this morning with Eminem's semi-autobiographic pic 8 Mile.

For starters, this is the kind of movie during which Ellie was not wearing her hearing aids. Every third word or so is an F-bomb, which didn't bother me before I had kids. Now, it doesn't bother me per se, just my Mom Brain.

Anyway, 8 Mile is pretty good. I remember liking it a lot in the theater, and that theme song "Lose Yourself" (which plays in the background for almost the entire movie) is catchy. I will probably be humming it for a while, or until I watch the next movie. Still, overall it's a pretty depressing flick, since it basically recounts Eminem's motivation to get up on stage and hate rap. The end sequence of the battle is the best part of the movie, excepting the awkward Eminem/Brittany Murphy sex scene in a stamping plant. Classy.

I don't know how much of the story is true to his life (or when Dr. Dre is supposed to show up), but 8 Mile could probably also qualify as a Michael Moore documentary with its not-so-subtle commentary on life in Detriot (or the 313, whatever your flavor). You can certainly understand, after watching this, why Eminem would want to get the hell out of there... and why Brittany Murphy's character would sleep with a guy named "Wink" to start a modeling career.

Yikes.

Onward and upward... Next up is the kid's movie 9. Talk about variety!