Change Your Image
joby-3
Reviews
The Shrink Is In (2001)
What?!?!?!
Courtney Cox, Carol Kane and David Arquette were all victims of a badly written movie. They shouldn't get Oscar credit but they definitely made the best out of a bad situation. The virgin writers still have a lot of work to do.
This movie was a canned romance. "Loser" woman assumes role of attractive professional to get the guy who's "unavailable" either through another relationship or because he would normally be out of the woman's league, all the while ignoring the supposed "loser" who is in love with her. She finally sees the light and the "loser" turns out to be a great guy and much more perfect than the person she was chasing to begin with.
How many times has that been done? There is a reason this movie didn't release to US theaters; The revenues would not have been substantial enough to cover the release costs. There's also a reason its only on Oxygen. Its awful. It even ends with a beach scene with the two "losers" together!!! Sweep Sundance and Cannes? You gotta be kidding me. Release in North America is no prerequisite to being selected for Cannes or Sundance. The only prerequisite is that there is some talent displayed. It has to hit on all fronts to be considered and this one only hit because the three stars were passable against almost insurmountable odds. Those odds being the script.
Ghost World (2001)
Great
Ghost World is good, but I was expecting more since it has made almost all of the critics' top ten lists. Thora Birch was great as the lead, Enid. Her somewhat romantic, somewhat confused, convoluted relationship (like all relationships) with Steve Buscemi's character, Seymour, is portrayed well and with great realism. Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca, Enid's friend, is a dry, seemingly uninterested teen in search of meaning outside of what her best friend Enid believes is interesting. At first I thought the acting by Johansson was great, understated, subtle. Then I watched interviews with her. She played herself, understated, subtle. Can't fault someone for that, but its not as impressive.
An overlooked performance was handed in by Ileana Douglas as Enid's art teacher. She was flawless as that teacher who you hated in school but, at the time, seemed so good at what he/she did that you thought you were wrong to hate her/him.
However, the true gem in this movie is Buscemi's performance as the vintage vinyl collector, Seymour. The greatness reminiscent of his performances in Trees Lounge or Living in Oblivion. I have always liked Buscemi in pretty much anything, but he truly shines in roles larger than his most recent.
If you like seeing great acting in movies that explore our coming of age and our infatuation of people who are possibly weirder than you think you are, go see Ghost World.
If you want a "page-turning" plot and a less cerebral movie, check out something that played at the 30-plex for a while.
8 of 10. In this genre, for similar entertainment, I would check out Virgin Suicides, but if you've watched Ghost World, or are interested, you probably already have.