http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:16:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-7141 Ambival.net » Movie Reviews » Red Eye Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:12:29 +0000 http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-7141 [...] Rachel McAdams really deserves kudos for bringing such a relatively simple character to life as well as she does – it’s one we really don’t see enough of in movies, the kind of role actresses talk about all the time on the chatshows, and I don’t think I’d realised quite how much I missed seeing such a character until seeing her version of it. When McAdams tells the annoying patrons of her hotel, “Shove it up your ass,” at the end, I don’t think that phrase has ever stood for so much – she deserves that moment so much it’s incredible – the way, before that, she spends at least 10 minutes (and this in a movie that barely breaks 70 of ‘em) checking that everyone else is okay – like, literally, everyone – even though it’s evident she is ready to break down after what she’s been through, everyone else comes first. Like I said, she’s a girl who gets shit done. Okay, I’m not gonna try putting the movie as a whole on such a high pedestal, but Rachel McAdams, definitely, is up there with Katie Holmes in Pieces of April, Maggie Gyllenhaal in SherryBaby, Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets, Jodie Foster in … everything … y’know … I know some of those names won’t trigger the same admiration in others, but what I’m saying is, just the great female characters in movies, think of your faves, she’s up there, I promise. I think so anyway. I’m gushing now, I should stop. [...] [...] Rachel McAdams really deserves kudos for bringing such a relatively simple character to life as well as she does – it’s one we really don’t see enough of in movies, the kind of role actresses talk about all the time on the chatshows, and I don’t think I’d realised quite how much I missed seeing such a character until seeing her version of it. When McAdams tells the annoying patrons of her hotel, “Shove it up your ass,” at the end, I don’t think that phrase has ever stood for so much – she deserves that moment so much it’s incredible – the way, before that, she spends at least 10 minutes (and this in a movie that barely breaks 70 of ‘em) checking that everyone else is okay – like, literally, everyone – even though it’s evident she is ready to break down after what she’s been through, everyone else comes first. Like I said, she’s a girl who gets shit done. Okay, I’m not gonna try putting the movie as a whole on such a high pedestal, but Rachel McAdams, definitely, is up there with Katie Holmes in Pieces of April, Maggie Gyllenhaal in SherryBaby, Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets, Jodie Foster in … everything … y’know … I know some of those names won’t trigger the same admiration in others, but what I’m saying is, just the great female characters in movies, think of your faves, she’s up there, I promise. I think so anyway. I’m gushing now, I should stop. [...]

]]> http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-1608 Ambival.net » Movies » 2006 Movies Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:37:14 +0000 http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-1608 [...] SherryBaby Laurie Collyer [...] [...] SherryBaby Laurie Collyer [...]

]]> http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-1496 Ambival.net » Movies » Secretary Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:52:22 +0000 http://ambival.net/movies/sherrybaby#comment-1496 [...] In the end, this movie is all a little too inconsequential to me, but hey, I’m no dom/sub (well, not much …). However, it is worth watching for two of the strangest performances of all time. Maggie Gyllenhaal is miles away from any other role she’s done – comparing her here to her appearance in last year’s SherryBaby is nearly as good an acting tutorial as comparing Russell Crowe in Gladiator to the Crowe of The Insider – while James Spader almost obliterates his self entirely, creating a persona somewhere between Robert Downey Jr. and Rik Mayall (just look at some of the faces he pulls in his first scene) with a little Kevin Spacey from Swimming ... truly, his performance here deserves as much praise as Gyllenhaal’s, I personally didn’t know who to keep my eyes on more. [...] [...] In the end, this movie is all a little too inconsequential to me, but hey, I’m no dom/sub (well, not much …). However, it is worth watching for two of the strangest performances of all time. Maggie Gyllenhaal is miles away from any other role she’s done – comparing her here to her appearance in last year’s SherryBaby is nearly as good an acting tutorial as comparing Russell Crowe in Gladiator to the Crowe of The Insider – while James Spader almost obliterates his self entirely, creating a persona somewhere between Robert Downey Jr. and Rik Mayall (just look at some of the faces he pulls in his first scene) with a little Kevin Spacey from Swimming … truly, his performance here deserves as much praise as Gyllenhaal’s, I personally didn’t know who to keep my eyes on more. [...]

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