Independent Film Review

I've been diving into the 1990s animated series The Critic this last month. I never saw the show when it was running, but watching it on DVD has been a hilarious experience. Like Homer Simpson, Jay Sherman is a big, fat loser. Unlike Homer, Jay is extremely intelligent, a film critic with a PhD. As a result, it the comedy is geared more toward the educated with its remarks on literature, philosophy, and culture.

In one scene, Jay chaperons his son Marty on a date to the movie theater. Jay is looking at the posters on the wall, horrified at spending two hours with some Hollywood kitch. Finally he spots a poster for a French film and cries out loud enough for everyone to hear, "A foreign film! At last! We're saved!"

I'm not a huge movie buff, to be honest. I'll be watching a Jane Austen flick this Sunday night instead of the Oscars. But the way it's worked out is that Kevin and I have seen four independent films this month, which is usually how many times we go to the theater in a year. It's been a great cultural experience, and I am proud to support the Salt Lake Film Society in its efforts.

The first independent film we saw was U23D, which showed at Sundance this January. I've made the last two concerts in Salt Lake, and I can testify that this movie, on the IMAX screen in 3D, is the next best thing. They played four songs from their latest album, plus some good standbys. The camera shots were amazing, and the 3D additions were worth it. What made this funny was the age group of those in attendance. Seventy percent of the audience was between 35 and 42. One of the guys who sat on our row took a look at Kevin and me and said, "Wow! Look at all the 30-somethings in this theater!" That made Kevin pretty mad until I reminded him that 30 is really not all that far away. Yeah, way for me to break it to him gently.

We saw The Savages with Christina and Dave. It was pretty good, both a drama and a comedy. It's about a brother and sister who put their father in a nursing home. The brother is a theater professor, and the sister is a temp who has an MFA in creative writing. Basically, they remind me of the crazy English majors I know, and they were totally neurotic. That's what provides the comedy, but made me cringe because sometimes it was just a little too close to home.

We saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly this Friday with Jen and her partner Brian. It's definitely the most creative of the films we saw, as it is told from the point of view of a man who has suffered a stroke and is paralyzed except in one eye. This is based on a true story and the memoir he wrote by blinking his eye. Man, it was hard to watch at times. I guess you could say it was very French, with a healthy dose of morbidity, and it leaves you with a little hole inside your heart.

Tonight we saw the WWII drama Atonement. This one amazed me. It's funny, it's much more "Hollywood" than the other independent films we saw. I loved this romance, and this is the best I have seen Keira Knightley. I also thought the child star was magnificent. This movie entrapped me and brought me in from the beginning, entertaining me throughout with its bright colors and English landscapes. I was a little startled by the leap ahead in years, but it worked out for me in the end. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing this again.