Gary Wolcott's "Mr. Movie" column has appeared in the Tri-City Herald since 1992. The Tri-City native now lives in Portland, Ore., and watches about 250 movies each year. This member of Portland's association of movie critics, Far From Hollywood, believes movies are made to be seen on theater screens and should be seen there and not on television screens. Have a question for Mr. Movie? Click on "Add Comment" below. Mr. Movie has joined Twitter. Follow him here.
Junos Ellen Page, who is one of the better teen actresses, is Bliss a kid stuck in a dinky Texas town and whose life is anything but. Her mom wants her to be a beauty queen and Bliss, who is not even close to bathing suit modeling material or up to politically correct speeches, isnt remotely interested.
Doing beauty pageants is a duty. So is going along with her not-so-nice domineering mom, done nicely by Marcia Gay Harden. Her dutiful Dad is played by Home Alone alum Daniel Stern.
On a whim, Bliss tries out for a womans roller derby team and finds it is more her thing than anything shes ever done.
Soon, shes the hottest of the leagues hots. Keeping her double-life a secret from you-know-who comes next. Then, her first love. Mom and Dad eventually finds out, blah, blah, blah.
This is total angst with a mild comic twist. Mom wants you to be her. You want to be you. No surprises.
With lesser talent, the movie flops. Barrymore, however, does a good job of casting, and Shauna Cross screenplay based on her book is decent. The roller derby team features Barrymore as a total ditz and talented actresses Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig and others.
As always, Harden is outstanding and its a treat to see Stern who now does more narration than acting on the screen again. Too bad the role doesnt have much meat.
Best of the bunch is Alia Shawkat, formerly of TVs Arrested Development as Bliss best friend.
Though its a ball bearing or two shy of relating to guys, Barrymores flick will hit the target audience.
Her point: its tough to be a teenage girl.
Mr. Movie rating: 3 1/2 stars
Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It opens Friday, Oct. 2 at the Carmike 12 and at the Fairchild Cinemas 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
Anna Faris is the insecure Ally Darling, and relationships never seem to work out for her.
On her way home after just being fired from a job — and just before the pathetic Ally ends up sleeping with the boss that fired her — she reads an article about the number of lovers women have for their entire life.
Kudos to Battelle Film Club for bringing 'The Hedgehog'
The Hedgehog is a subtitled French film from 2009 that finally got released in the U.S. last year, and thanks to the Battelle Film Club , it will be seen in the Tri-Cities.
The story centers around Paloma, an 11-year old girl whose interests are philosophy and art.
No one in her family can relate. Her parents barely speak to each other much less to Paloma. The disconnected mom talks to plants, and the psychiatrist but can’t talk to her daughter. Dad is nowhere to be found.
Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson lead We Bought a Zoo's cast. It is a highly fictionalized but based on a true story film about a widowed writer who buys and refurbishes a small zoo.
Reality and fiction meet in just two places, the name of the main character and the zoo.
When a movie calls itself "The Vow," you know it takes its love and its relationships seriously. And that's certainly the case with the new romantically and medically challenged weepie starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum.
'I Don't Know How She Does It' or why they made it
I not only have nothing nice to say about this movie, but it also is so bad it is a struggle to say anything about it at all.
A better title: I Don’t Know Why She Did It . Could it be “she” has no options other than getting cast as a cliche TV-like character. What else can you do after being stuck for years on TV in Sex and the City ?
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