Movie Review: American Beauty (1999)

On reflection, testifying to the inner reality

American_Beauty“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” — Ricky Fitts

This year’s (2008’s) crop of Oscar nominated movies seemed to lack in the way of uplift: the Academy deemed the best movies for 2007 to be 1) No Country for Old Men (winner… but a complete downer, violent, too), 2) There Will Be Blood (Daniel Day Lewis plays a psycho oil baron with a father disorder), 3) Atonement (a love story, but with false accusations of rape), 4) Michael Clayton (depressing indictment of corporate man… and woman), 5) Juno (this is the cheerful one, and it’s about teenage pregnancy!). Continue reading

Movie Review: Weeds (Showtime Series: 2005-2010)

Showtime series irreverently wastes the WOD __ 9/10
Reviewed by Brian Wright (originally April 2010)

Weeds, Season 5Nancy Botwin: I’m not a dealer, I’m a mother who happens to distribute illegal products through a sham bakery set up by my ethically questionable CPA and his crooked lawyer friend.

One day a few months ago, I happened to be reading Playboy—yes, it’s largely only for the articles, these days, dammit—and the video-of-the-month section featured Weeds: Season 5, showing a very sexy picture of Mary Louise Parker in a “trapped pleasure” pose per a green spider web motif. Now that’s hot. Continue reading