Monday, August 10, 2009

The return: What I did this weekend

This time, I have a legitimate reason for not updating. I've been abroad for over a month, and lack of time/internet has led me to be almost totally cut off from everything. It's a shame I missed out on the squeefests that resulted from David Tennant kissing John Barrowman at Comic-Con. And Scott Pilgrim becoming a video game! (Note: I do not play video games.)

This weekend, I...
--Saw Paper Heart
--Read Submarine
--Saw Funny People

Paper Heart is a pseudo-documentary featuring Michael Cera and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Charlyne Yi. (IMDB claims that she's 23, but I swear I've read that she's 33.) The film follows Yi as she interviews a wide variety of participants about what they think love is. At the same time, this alternate version of her begins to date the alternate version of Michael Cera. This is the only time in which it has been permissible for Michael Cera to be playing Michael Cera, as he was actually supposed to be playing Michael Cera. Either he knows that he is exactly the same in every movie, or he really is just that boring. But that's beside the point. The film takes a whimsical approach, using paper dolls and home-made props to illustrate the stories of the interviewees. Charming, but bordering on overly precious. I did find it enjoyable enough, but I still don't really know what to think about it.

Joe Dunthorne's Submarine is a coming-of-age story about a vocabulary-obsessed Welsh boy. Quite frankly, it didn't make much of an impression on me--I've already forgotten the ending. Other than that, it was a sufficiently compelling story, full of erratic and hormone-fuelled decisions. I didn't find the narrator to be particularly charismatic, although I don't think he was supposed to be. Between this and my June readings of Fierce People and Youth In Revolt, I have spent quite a lot of this summer reading from the perspectives of teenage boys.

The only Judd Apatow-directed product that I had seen before was Freaks and Geeks, so I wasn't sure what to expect out of Funny People. Well, actually, I didn't expect it to be so blatantly indie. I mean seriously, Jonah Hill wearing a Beirut t-shirt? Are you kidding me? Name-checking Wilco? I've never been an Adam Sandler fan, but Seth Rogen's character was definitely the eyes of the movie. Clocking in at 2:16, it did start to drag a bit towards the end, but the comedic and the serious elements blended well. Also, after seeing this, I'm satisfied with Aubrey Plaza as Julie "The Bitch" Powers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. And I want Jason Schwartzman to write at least part of the soundtrack to my life.

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