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Reviews
Morning Glory (2010)
Instant Remake
I think I'm the first to remark on this, but I'm sure it will become the standard line on Morning Glory: it's a very close "instant remake" of writer Aline McKenna's Devil Wears Prada. There are enough mild twists in the film that that characterization is no "spoiler": you can tell as much from the trailer and initial write-ups. Career girl, unlucky in love, takes on an impossible job and spars with embittered industry legend. If you liked The Devil Wears Prada, you'll like this one (it's pleasantly acted and moves along briskly), but it will contain no surprises at all. And I'll also say this: for many reasons, the fashion industry was a much better setting for the story. The TV news business is inherently "important," so even if Harrison Ford as the crusty old anchorman is self-important, you aren't really conflicted about his values. But by contrast Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada, immensely conceited about something that may or may not really "matter," had an interesting edge to it. You think more about Anne Hathaway's character and her decisions than about Rachel McAdams in Morning Glory and hers. Though that's partly the effect of having seen pretty much the same movie over again in Morning Glory.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Sweet, Clever and Modest
Little Miss Sunshine is a good-natured comedy with some decent laughs. I don't see any dark side to it, unlike some other reviewers; it never really develops true seriousness. Yet it does manage to avoid cheap laughs and stock gags. The film it most reminded me of was National Lampoon's Vacation. Not exactly Keaton or Tati, but on the other hand, if you want to make a funny family comedy you can do a lot worse than to channel Vacation. Notable performances by Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin, who are good individually and develop a lovely rapport. Also very good in the film is the running Proust-scholar business, which is exactly preposterous enough to be hilarious. Watch carefully for the vanity plates in the scene at the convenience store for an example.
Broken Flowers (2005)
Nothing There
Broken Flowers has an engaging if not entirely original premise (it's sort of High Fidelity meets A Letter to Three Wives). The problems with the film are several. The central character seems uninterested in his own life, and while that itself could be an interesting premise, that's all you get here: massive lack of interest. It's an infectious lack of interest, communicating itself to the audience. Compounding this conceptual premise, the film is just ham-handedly written, with characters delivering exposition in dull little set speeches: no wit, no joy in the language, no cleverness. I suppose if forced to pick an aspect I liked, I would name Sharon Stone, who had more energy than any other member of the cast. But the crushing obviousness of naming her character's daughter "Lolita": seriously, who could think this kind of thing is sharp or amusing?
Bobby Loves Mangos (1998)
plenty of realism here
Bobby Loves Mangos strikes me as perfectly plausible if you consider the three main characters: the "inciting" character is a bit of a sociopath, the principal is a bit of a pompous idiot, and the secretary is a bit of a principal-worshiper (which feeds his pompousness). No, the film does not work at all if we assume that people are perfectly rational logical positivists 100% of the time.
It's a well-done vignette of the *Night Gallery* variety. It doesn't strike me as having feature-film potential because there's about 20 minutes worth of story here. You'd have to package it with other material, embed it somehow in a set of other stories, to make it a decent feature.