You might remember that I wrote about The Criterion Contraption last month -- a blog by Matthew Dessem that hopes to review each and every Criterion DVD. The latest in the mix is one I have been waiting for -- Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy -- one of the most contested additions to the roster (the other being Armageddon... poor Ben Affleck). I didn't realize just how long it has been since I popped it into my DVD player until reading his great review -- one that isn't necessarily full of praise, but captures enough of Smith's essence that you can enjoy it either way.

From the first image, which just happens to be of Guinevere Turner (who has gone on to success collaborating with Mary Harron and writing and acting in The L Word), Dessem points out -- this is a film that is 100% entrenched in the '90s, from it's make-up, to its plaid, to Comic-Cons without star-studded line-ups. He's pretty hard on Ben's Holden McNeil, which is a fair assessment, although it can also be argued that the character's inadequacies make him the perfect Holden -- it might be unbelievable that Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) would fall for a man like him, but it's almost suitable -- he's the mistake she can't can't quite rationalize, which makes perfect sense with the passive ending. But even if you're not up for Affleck and his wordy speeches, there's Jason Lee. From slapstick to wordless acting, the review points out just how great Lee was in the movie.

Personally, I'm thinking it's time to pull out the plaid and pop in the DVD, which is kind of like Some Kind of Wonderful for the next generation -- the guy's friend realizes she's a lesbian, but tries him out and has disastrous results. The big difference: instead of offering diamond earrings, he offers a menage a trois with his best friend. What could describe the '90s better?

We already know that Michelle Monaghan is making a name for herself, having nabbed roles in big films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, North Country and Mission: Impossible III, plus upcoming flicks such as Patrick Dempsey's Made of Honor. On the flip side, there's Mr. Nathan Fillion, who has found success in pizza places and space, but can't seem to break beyond them into the stardom he deserves. (If you agree, make sure to check out Scott's fan rant about Fillion failing to catch a break.) But now, I ask: could truckers give him his big break?

According to Variety, production has just started on the Plum Pictures film Trucker, a new independently-financed drama starring Monaghan, Fillion, Benjamin Bratt, Joey Lauren Adams and Jimmy Bennett. James Mottern, who wrote the script, will make his directorial debut with the movie. In a nice change of pace, the trucker is being played by Michelle herself, and her character leads "a careless life with no responsibility until she has to take in her estranged 11-year-old son (Bennett) after his father (Bratt) is hospitalized." The actress is so into this role that she not only signed on before they got financing, but she also became a licensed tractor-trailer driver. Either this is a meaty role, or she's been itching to entertain her inner trucker. There is no word who Fillion will play, but hopefully it will be something to give the man some long-deserved recognition.

Come Early Morning is the best student film I've seen this year. The camera set-ups are managed well and never draw attention to themselves. The music cues that begin each scene lay it on a little thick, but that's no big deal. The main character is set up quickly and efficiently -- we meet her as she comes storming out of a room at a roadside motel, pushing past a perplexed-looking gentleman standing in the doorway. This cues us that our heroine is the town sperm jar, coming off her latest one-night stand. She will have to be put on a path to mending her slutty ways if the movie is to end on a moderately upbeat note. The small town in which she lives is peopled with appropriately colorful eccentrics, including a church congregation that seems to practice Monkee-worship -- the choir uses tambourines to make a joyful noise and the minister sports a Peter Tork haircut. All of this is good knockabout stuff, but the question arises -- what is Ashley Judd doing in this film?

For a talented actress, Judd has demonstrated great oddity in her choices over the years. She's produced a small library of one-off thrillers like Double Jeopardy and Twisted, often turned up in Southern-fried weepies like Where the Heart Is, and here and there delivered a real knockout performance, such as in 2004's De-Lovely, where she played the long-suffering wife of the insufferable Cole Porter. It's possible that Judd is a victim of Tom Cruise Syndrome -- if you can consistently open a movie, starring roles will be consistently offered to you, which are probably hard to turn down no matter how much you long to unleash the inner thespian. Still, Judd would be well-advised to take on the more challenging projects she's shown herself capable of handling. In Come Early Morning, she's not exactly sleep-walking, but seems perpetually on the verge of boredom. Her character, Lucy, has little to do in the film except pick up strangers in honky tonk bars, sleep with them off-camera, and then regret everything the next day.

I don't normally see films with titles like Come Early Morning unless vampires are involved. However, I was intrigued about the feature directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams, who also wrote the script, and I liked Ashley Judd so well in Bug that I thought the movie might be worthwhile. Unfortunately, Come Early Morning suffered from an amateurish script, predictable characterizations, and a lack of vampires.

Judd, as the main character Lucy, is playing almost the same exact character as in Bug, but with a little more money and a little less desperation. Lucy lives in a small Arkansas town and has a nasty habit of drinking too much at the local honky-tonk and waking up in hotel rooms with strange men. However, we know right away that she's an independent woman who doesn't want to rely on anyone -- she insists on paying for the hotel rooms herself. The title is probably derived from her habit of getting up before her bedmates in an attempt to sneak out of the hotels before she has to talk to them.

During the course of the film, Lucy starts to realize her life isn't the way she wants it to be. She takes steps to become closer to her dad, takes in a stray dog, and tries to start what might become more than a one-night stand with Cal (Jeffrey Donovan), a new guy in town. She also takes home the local honky-tonk's old jukebox, although she's not sure why, or what she'll do with it. (The old jukebox does provide the film with a fantastic soundtrack, including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Billy Joe Shaver songs.) She's a contractor, complete with a hard hat, but she doesn't seem to get much satisfaction from the job.