Running with Scissors

This movie is like watching a hilarious train wreck: cringingly funny, disgusting, sad and you won't believe that it is based on Augustin Burrough's actual life. I will never again roll my eyes at my family's quirks (like when my dad painstakingly calculates his miles per gallon after filling the tank on his car every time). Instead, I will thank my lucky stars that my family is so completely normal.

The cast is pretty stellar. Annette Bening stood out among the actors, who all did great, but she nailed her part perfectly.

This movie has my favorite new word from a movie this year: Masterbatorium.

Marie Antoinette

I had really high hopes for this, because I loved Lost in Translation so much. But Sofia Coppola didn't do it twice in a row.

This movie is fluff. Will someone please turn off the annoying 80's soundtrack? Rolling my eyes about that makes me forget that I was already rolling my eyes about the dialog and plot. Highly stylised and very glossy, but empty. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? Oh poor aristocratic girl...why are you so rich and so mean to the common people?

Ugh. We almost left.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

My favorite thing about this movie was watching the development of John from a goofy boy musician into a "dangerous" anti-war activist. There are obvious parallels drawn between the Nixon administration and Vietnam and today's administration and Iraq. As the movie progresses, you feel more and more angry that we are being lied to and we're being told that this war will "solve" problems, but instead of being angered into action, we're left feeling lost without a leader to inspire us to take to the streets. We are in a different time, John's dead, but we can't blame that for our silence.