Four of Them

johns (spelled like that): Starring David Arquette and Lukas Haas, this little film is about a hustler named John (Arquette), living in LA, trying to get enough money to spend a night in a fancy hotel for his birthday and Christmas, which fall on the same day. Lukas Haas is his best friend, Donner, who is, apparently, new to the thing and in love with him. A silly, low-budget, but watchable movie, Arquette is ridiculous, but not necessarily bad, Haas fairs a bit better, but that's because he tends towards this type of role often. Some loud chick who sounds like the birds from Brandy and Mr. Whiskers shows up for a couple scenes, basically there to be annoying, likewise two stereotypical gay guys, one of whom is the gay guy in My So-Called Life. Often leans towards emotional manipulation, shitty editing, and a smug condensation of the main characters.

Playtime: Jacques Tati's fourth major film, a two-hour ode to old Paris and condemnation of the new one, parodied as lavishly square cubicles and ridiculously elaborate machines (like the process it takes to get someone buzzed up in an apartment building). I got twenty minutes in before I fell asleep, and when I woke up I just put on something else because, fuck you, I only got two days in the week to watch movies. I'll come back one day, maybe after watching more of Tati's films.

Wendy and Lucy: A young drifter (Michelle Williams, a touchingly honest performance) heading to Alaska for work loses her dog after getting jailed for shoplifting. Car broken in a small town, she spends a couple days looking for her tirelessly, helped by a kidnly security officer. Beautiful and simple and heartbreaking, but it's not like that's a very original sentiment.

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And now I'm watching a Czech film called Alice, by a prolific director who's name I can't spell. To be added later.

Off to last-minute sciene homework and essays about I, Robot, Harrison Bergeron, and The Pedestrian, which I do not know whether to type of handwrite, and I don't want to have to do it over, so I'm confused. Fuck high school essays on shitty movies I slept through, and two awesome short stories that are, like, five pages. And science homework.