Oh Cate & Hal & Stanley...

Somersault(dir. Cate Shortland)
This movie has some scenes that are almost laughably bad and they concern Heidi when she gets mad. The first one is at a restaurant and she is mad at her "boyfriend" for not knowing if she is his girlfriend or not so she decides to eat some chiles. That'll show him. Another scene concerns her and her friend at the gas station mart where she yells out of frustration. There's another scene that felt completely unnecessary. She goes out in the cold naked trying desperately to get her "boyfriend" to come back in the house. I'm not complaining about the nudity just how it's handled. Why would a girl go out in the cold winter naked? I don't think being drunk really excuses it. This film has it's flaws, but it's definately gorgeous to look at. The actress plays most of her scenes perfectly and is beautiful in a bland sort of way. The character doesn't seem like the most intelligent person, but you still take interest in her story. This film almost seems like it was trying to be Morvern Callar, but unlike Morvern Callar, who is mysterious and bewildering, Heidi just seems like a blank slate. The ending redeems the faults I had with the film with it's simplicity and serenity. It's definately one to check out even if not all the scenes completely work.
***1/2 out of ****
Surviving Desire(dir. Hal Hartley)
The version I saw didn't have 6 minutes of it, but still, I got a good idea of how the film is. It's good, but definately not up to par with his other work probably due to the fact that it felt rushed. It also felt too lovey dubby. Yeah. It was good.
*** out of ****
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner(dir. Stanley Kramer)
This film is not graceful at all about it's subject. I guess I have to kind of respect that it is so upfront, but did every conversation really need to feel like a speech about racial inequality and how interracial relationships shouldn't be that big of a deal. I agree with what it's trying to say, but it's ridiculous in how repetitive it gets to the point where you lose all interest in the film. It keeps banging you over the head with it's message that you almost want to reject whatever it's saying. It was OK.
** out of ****