I liked Juno. You liked Juno. We all liked Juno, okay, but I had some issues with it...mostly I felt it was thisclose to being too clever for it's own good. Last night, I watched Rocket Science which was everything I wanted from Juno...funny and quirky, but still wholly believable and "real."
Rocket Science (written and directed by Jeffery Blitz, who also made the terrific documentary Spellbound) is about a young high school kid named Hal Heffner who is dealing with a stutter and a crap home life. Hal joins the high school debate team at the behest of the adorable and fast talking Ginny, the Queen of Debate. Hal promptly falls in love with Ginny and their partnership seems like a perfect situation, if only he could "find his voice." Finally, with some help from Master Debater Ben Wekselbaum (played by Nicolas D'Agosto, aka West, Claire's adorable flying boyfriend on Heroes), Hal grows up and conquers his fears. Typical coming of age stuff, but, like, really well done.
Upon further refection, Rocket Science reminds me more of The Squid and the Whale or Rushmore than Juno in it's ability to balance the humorous and the tragic. Check it out and decide for yourself.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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5 comments:
I loved The Squid and the Whale, if only for the perfect view of a dysfunctional family. It was so eerily true to life. I'll have to check out this movie.. thanks for the heads up!
Rocket Science is quite good indeed. A bunch of my pals worked on it, and it's the only thing any of us have ever worked on that we actually wanted to see/recommended to others.
That's not saying much, because we've worked on some crap, but still...kudos.
So your comment begs the question, Pistols. What do you do?
Red, these days, I mostly just swindle elderly women out of their fortunes by romancing them. But time was, I worked in what the kids call the biz, and since there are like 30 people in Maryland who do so, if you work on one feature, you pretty much know them all.
Dude. In my imagination now, you totally, like, co-created The Wire. Awesome.
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