Diablo Cody’s second screenplay is full of great ideas and a number of good lines but something keeps Jennifer’s Body from gelling into a well paced and entertaining picture that seems to be hiding in there like the demons inside our title character.
The story follows the school’s hottest girl Jennifer and her best friend Needy whose unlikely friendship is probably based on Jennifer’s insecurities but the two are friends nonetheless. The two decide to attend a rock concert of a band, Low Shoulder, who are from the “big city” and Jennifer dreams of hooking up with their lead singer. The band though is a bit odd and is in search of a virgin which they think they should be able to find with ease at this small town gig. Jennifer lies about her sexual purity to the band and seeing that they have found their virgin an oddly suspicious fire erupts in the bar killing many local patrons and Low Shoulder uses the tragedy to lure Jennifer into their van and off into the night. Later when Needy gets home, Jennifer shows up in her house looking rather messed up, puking black goop all over the kitchen, and leaving as mysteriously as she arrived. Jennifer shows up at school the next day seemingly fine and as the school mourns the students and citizens lost in the fire more people end up mysteriously killed and we learn something seriously weird has happened to Jennifer. [Read more...]
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Review: The Messenger
Oren Moverman’s The Messenger is a great honest look into the side of war we rarely see, the deceased family dealing with receiving the news of the passing, and the results are a film filled with sadness, anger, and humor surrounding this delicate and vulnerable situation.
The messenger in question is a staff sergeant, Will, who has returned home due to injury and is assigned to finish out his enlistment to deliver death notices to the bereaved families of the local area. His commanding officer, Tony, has been doing this for years now and is rather good at this potentially troubling work and the two bond over there experiences, clash over lack of experience, and try and deal with the loneliness and issues that surround their military lives.
Now there are plenty of deeply sorrow moments in this film but they are done with class and are dignified recreations of many people’s worse moments. You can’t help but be affected by these sequences and the actors involved all do amazing work in that you almost feel like you are watching a documentary on the subject and Moverman’s camera work really gives these moments a raw and real feel. With that said there is a lot more to this picture than trying to depress us as more and more bad news is delivered. The relationship between Will and Tony is compelling, funny, and always engaging [Read more...]
