AmyIrving Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Shelf Life: Carrie
Filed under: Fandom », Shelf Life »
In the previous two installments of "Shelf Life," we took a look at a couple of prominent Oscar winners that have been both canonized and churned up by the annals of history. Interestingly, both of them held up a lot better than we originally expected, primarily because of our own hazy memories of Titanic and American Beauty, but also because of the wealth of films their successes inspired in terms of characters, stories, styles and even spectacles. As such it seemed appropriate to go back and check out a movie that in no small way served as the foundation for literally countless imitators and rip-offs, potentially one of which, Jennifer's Body, opens this week. The film we're referring to, of course, is Brian De Palma's Carrie, and we recently rewatched this venerated horror classic to see if it's still as worthy of its classic status as it was when everyone and their insane, God-fearing mother decided to do their version of it.
Sundance Review: Adam
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports »
If I told you that Adam was about a man with Asperger syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, you would instantly lose all interest in seeing it, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. If Fox Searchlight's marketers are smart, they'll keep a lid on that aspect of the film, because it's actually a humorously bittersweet story buoyed by likable performances, and not an oh-geez-here-comes-another-film-about-a-saintly-disabled-person movie.
The Adam in question, played by Hugh Dancy, is an electronic engineer whose current job has him working on a toy company's new talking doll. Adam's father has just died, leaving him alone in the spacious Manhattan apartment they once shared, with Harlan (Frankie Faison), a family friend, to keep an eye on him
Adam can mostly take care of himself, though. People with Asperger -- Aspies, as Adam calls them -- take things literally and have trouble knowing what other people are thinking, and they tend to misread facial expressions. Aside from that, they do OK. Adam is happiest when following a routine, and he gets particularly excited by astronomy. He doesn't seem much different from your average nerd.
The new tenant in his building is Beth (Rose Byrne), an elementary school teacher who is immediately fascinated by Adam's quirky personality, not realizing it's an actual mental disorder -- and after all, where is the line between "interesting" and "diagnosable"? Adam and Beth begin a tentative friendship and eventually a romance, though both are aware that such an arrangement will be difficult at best. Beth's father (Peter Gallagher), a corporate accountant who's just been indicted for shady bookkeeping, is adamantly anti-Adam for that reason.
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Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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