Oh Man Dick...

Superbad[Unrated Cut](dir. Greg Mottola)
Still feel about the same as I did when I saw it the first time, which means that I still don't buy Seth changing over night. You could make a point that he was always like that and was just being basically an obnoxious sleazeball for show, but really? He acts that way pretty much throughout the whole film even when he's with his best friend, who he should feel most comfortable around. I'll say now that I prefer this over Knocked Up because that film examined unplanned pregnancy in a too light and breezy way probably due to being told mainly from a male perspective, but this film has similar problems with it's portrayal of female characters because of it being told from a male perspective as well. This film is definitely funny, but it's hard not to feel that Seth is a sleaze and wish that Evan would find someone a little bit more decent as a friend. It's not a comedy classic like Rush Hour 3, but what is?
*** out of ****
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters(dir. Dave Willis and Matt Maillero)
As a comedy, it's not particularly good. As an avant-garde WTF-fest in a similar vein to Inland Empire, it works surprisingly well, almost too well. The plot is rather simple, it's just the trying to describe individual moments and trying to make sense of them on a narrative level that proves difficult. A movie that is filled with killer gigantic exercise equipment and cannons that make kittens explode is bound to be a little incomprehensible and the film almost achieves a sense of grace with it's insanity. It is, indeed, #1 in the hood, G.
***1/2 out of ****
Drama/Mex(dir. Gerardo Naranjo)
Raw and honest. It's almost something Cassavetes would have made if he was Mexican and into this current trend of intertwining storylines with several characters. It's essentially two movies in one and really good ones at that. It never ends up trying to unify both stories together. The characters simply visit some of the same locales and end up seeing and running into each other several times, but they never converse with each other outside of Tigrillo asking Gonzalo for a ride. The stories are rather bleak, but the film consistently looks on the bright side, which is actually sort of refreshing especially after recent bleak films like No Country for Old Men that are needlessly pessimistic. I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****
We Own the Night(dir. James Gray)
I don't understand this film's average rating on Metacritic. Maybe, I'm just out of touch with the critics and regular film watchers, but I think this film is impeccable. I would label it as great and I'm definitely going to. Critics have compared this film to The Departed and I personally think this film makes that film look like dog shit in comparison. It's understandable why the critics compared the two since this film's marketing and trailers used a similar font to the one used by that film's marketing and Mark Wahlberg appears in both, but that film wishes it had this film's sense of Catholic guilt and spirituality. In a similar vein(my phrase of this forum post) to Michael Mann and Jean-Pierre Melville, James Gray uses criminality as a way to examine the soul. When Bobby's brother(Mark Wahlberg) is almost killed, he feels a profound sense of guilt that is seriously lacking in a film like The Departed that revels in death. In this film, death has much more weight and isn't something to be used for mere entertainment value. Bobby's path to redemption is never as easy as it is in a film like Black Snake Moan, he actually makes sacrifices. It easily contains the car chase of the year despite me not having seen The Bourne Ultimatum yet, but I can't imagine that film's car chase(s) being as emotionally charged and transcendental as the one found here. It's a masterpiece.
**** out of ****