Dear Zachary

I just watched the documentary Dear Zachary because I vaugely remembered reading the review on Pajiba. I... I can't even explain. I was so emotional. I won't talk about the plot, but there was one point in the story that I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for ten minutes. I just sat there on the couch with my hand clasped over my mouth, completely numb. My entire body was pins and needles, it was very strange. Then I sobbed. Not like a few tears you get at the end of a sad movie, I was actually sobbing. I thought I was going to be physically sick.

I don't know if this is a positive review or not. It was very well done, but Netflix's star rating system doesn't really apply in a case like this. I can't really recommend it the way I would normally recommend a movie, but ... you should watch it. Look up the story on wikipedia if you don't want to go into it blindly the way I did.

Review

I've been putting off doing this latest round of Netflix reviews, partially because I'm really lazy. First of all, I want to say that I'm glad I stuck with TrueBlood. It's gotten really good. There's a serial killer on the loose and a compelling love quadrangle that doesn't seem forced. I upped my rating on Netflix from 3 stars (Liked) to 4 (Really Liked). Now, back to our regularly scheduled reviews:

"This is so bad it's almost good." Rebecca, Ghost World.

Ghost World is a really, really fantastic coming-of-age movie. It follows the summer after best friends Enid and Rebecca graduate from high school. The above quote is Rebecca's comment on their senior prom. Neither are going away to college, and while Rebecca follows through on her plan to get a job and an apartment, Enid rebels. She doesn't know what she wants to do, but she knows what she doesn't want. Their friendship slowly dissolves without the common bond of high school, as so many friendships do. Enid latches on to and bonds with a middle-aged loser played by Steve Buscemi. It's hard to explain the plot of the movie because it's really a series of events that lead to Enid being forced to make a decision about what she wants to do with her life. It's a really great movie, funny and honest. I highly recommend it.

And heading into the next review, I feel I need to use a quote from Ghost World. Enid's response to Rebecca's prom commentary: "This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again."

So one night after a rough day at work I wanted to watch a movie but I didn't want anything that would make me have to think. I decided to try out Netflix's online movie player. Ok, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I watched The House Bunny. I only laughed out loud once during the whole movie. It was during a scene in which Anna Farris's Playboy Bunny character is teaching the "loser" girls how to do makeup properly. She tells them to highlight their eyes because "the eyes are the nipples of the face." Yeah, that made me laugh. Other than that I was really confused by the "message" of this movie. I think the point of the movie is that it's ok for women to be smart as long as they're pretty and sexy also. The actual plotline of the movie is that the "loser" sorority house has to get makeovers so that the fraternities will want to come to their parties and they can get new pledges. It's basically saying that the girls and their sorority are worthless unless boys think they're sexy. And that's offensive. And Kat Dennings plays a Women's Studies major with a short "butch" haircut, men's clothing, and a face full of piercings. Because of course she does. No wonder young women don't like using the word "feminist" when this is the type of feminist Hollywood presents. Excuse me, I need to go read The Purity Myth and get some healthy feminist theory into my brain.