27 - I love your work

I'm still midway into watching this movie as I type this...I'm still trying to keep myself interested. I can see that the director is trying to craft a movie and actors at best trying to stay in their element. But there's something missing and I just can't get a beat on it.

Franka has always had this hidden power...like a solid left hook. In one scene, in a fit of rage arguing with Giovanni Ribisi, she walks and flashes a camera crew. I'd like to think that wasn't in the script and that was just Franka being Franka (boom).

Should I keep watching?
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26 - Down in the Valley

I was not too thrilled to see Tobe (October) fall too fast for Harlan...but I guess that does happen in life sometimes. The relationship she shares with her brother, Lonnie, is a typical one...that of the younger, quiet one in the shadow of the older, more sociable and rebellious sister. Where Tobe's character is confused, Lonnie's is more passive and innocent. David Morse's character fills in as a father trying to be a parent. Ed Norton pulls another psychological personality (like he did in Primal Fear) as someone who believes he's a cowboy...and maybe he's supposed to represent a few lost demeanors and realities.

Although the movie revolves around Ed Norton's character, I wish there was more depth in the other, more accessible characters that David Morse, Rory Culkin, and Evan Rachel Wood portrayed. I think it would have blended well with Ed Norton's lost world. Evan and Rory delivered their roles really well, and I believe they could have given more.

25 - Bad Santa

"I'm on my f***ing break!"

Hey...yeah...you gotta give Santa a break sometimes :). I think Billy Bob enjoyed making this movie. It's as if Billy and Tony Cox were released in to the wild and they just flat out started ambushing all the local wildlife. I couldn't find a lot of substance in the relationship with Lauren Graham (other than the fetish) but that would have been a nice subplot to give more depth.

In one of John Ritter's last performances, I saw him reprising his character from Sling Blade...god bless you, John.

24 - Little Fish

I've always had this blank image of Australian life beyond the tourist images. This movie was a real treat to watch. Even though the story was dark, just following all the characters through life in suburban Australia gave me so many memories of my own life growing up...and made me realize that wherever it may be in the world, lower middle class is basically the same. You go through the same inconveniences, ambitions, and dark territories.

It's refreshing to see Hugo Weaving in a different character and I totally forgot his Agent Smith character (Matrix) while watching this movie. Cate Blanchett's Tracy was in such torment that you can't help but pray that life gives her a break somewhere. It was funny to hear her speak some Chinese, too!...or was that Vietnamese?

And boy, Dustin Nguyen...last I saw him was in his 21 Jump Street era...jeez, its been a long time.

23 - Thank You for Smoking

I love how this movie was constructed. It's the grand buffet of debatable topics, and yet it's really telling the story about the life of a lobbyist.

The humor is smart and I just found myself bursting in laughter at all the well placed punchlines.

The MOD squad was a stroke of fictional genius. Can you imagine the top speakers on tobacco, alcohol, and gun control being friends and having regular lunch get-togethers? And somewhere amid all the chaos are bits of love...bond among friends, bond between father and son, hidden bond between parents.

....it was an argument, not a negotiation...