April 28, 2003
movies movies movies
Bend It Like Beckham
This movie is a lot of simple fun. It's about a girl from an Indian family, living in London, who has a dream to play soccer. She is recruited to a female soccer league, unbeknownst to her parents, who only want her to live a traditional Indian life and think about being a proper Indian young woman. The movie follows her as she plays soccer, sneaks away from her family, deals with her elder sister's eccentricity and wedding plans, and starts to fall for an Irishman..
Bend it like Beckham is full of music, both pop and Indian, and Indian-pop! It features a lot of scenes with soccer moves, and a lot of scenes with Indian celebrations, yet it also manages to just be a sincere, heartwarming story about a young girl who has to decide whether she wants to live her life for her parents' values or her own. I love how the movie is a balance of showing family values and individual dreams, and not assuming that one has to be more important than another....
If you've got the time, I'd recommend seeing it. It's light, yet not as formulaic as you'd think. I think the British have it right - instead of fairy princess stories like What a Girl Wants or the Lizzie McGuire Movie like the U.S. is always pumping out, here is a story with third-dimensional characters, real problems, a lot of culture, a lot of family, and a lot more of a sincere heart.
Anyway, I enjoyed it, and am glad I took the time to go see "some movie about an Indian girl who wants to play soccer."
A Mighty Wind
A Mighty Wind is another great mockumentary brough to you by Christopher Guest, famed with Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show. This movie focuses on the reunion of folk singers who are playing in a tribute show in New York. The cast is filled with a huge ensemble of people - basically anyone who's ever been in a Christopher Guest movie.
I thought it was enjoyable. I have to say I found the previous mockumentaries a bit more amusing, but that doesn't mean A Mighty Wind wasn't fun. I loved the huge cast of characters, the outfits, the makeup, and the songs. I had a really good time and got a couple of big laughs here and there.
Better Luck Tomorrow
Story: Four friends are bored with their suburbia-lifestyle of boring times at high school extracurricular activities that involve clubs. So they start doing "business", beginning with cheat sheets, and getting way worse. Trust me, if Academic Decathalon would have been like this when I was in high school, I so would have been there! Heh heh. We mainly follow from the perspective of one of the guys, who is also dealing with having a crush on a girl who has a boyfriend... a screwed-up preppy boyfriend.
I was very impressed with the fact that this film was a product from a first-timer. In the very beginning, I felt a little iffy about the dialogue, but as the movie progressed, it started feeling better. The directing was great, the acting was very good for a bunch of no-names, and the story was always moving, always changing, and always getting more in-depth with all of the characters involved.
The movie never got extremely gritty with its reality. I almost felt like it held back a little bit... but then again, this did take place in suburbia, so I really didn't mind.
Overall, I'm glad I went. I'm happy to see that MTV and Paramount picked up on this movie and promoted it. It's worth seeing, and if the group of kids who made it (acting,directing) keep making movies as good as (or better than) Better Luck Tomorrow, I'll be even more impressed.
Posted by wendytime at April 28, 2003 02:04 PM | TrackBack