Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two 90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are forced to play along as Bud and Mary Sue, the obedient children of George and Betty Parker (William H Macy and Joan Allen). Maguire, an obsessive Pleasantville devotee, understands the need for not toppling the natural balance of things; Witherspoon, on the other hand, starts shaking the town up, most notably when she takes football stud Skip (Paul Walker) up to Lover's Lane for some modern-day fun and games. Soon enough, Pleasantville's teens are discovering sex along with--gasp!--rock & roll, free thinking and soul-changing Technicolour. Filled with delightful and shrewd details about sitcom life (no toilets, no double beds, only two streets in the town), Pleasantville is a joy to watch, not only for its comedy but for the groundbreaking visual effects and astonishing production design as the town gradually transforms from crisp black and white to glorious colour. Ross does tip his hand a bit about halfway through the film, obscuring the movie's basic message of the unpredictability of life with overloaded and obvious symbolism, as the black-and-white denizens of the town gang up on the "coloureds" and impose rules of conduct to keep their strait-laced town laced up. Still, the characterizations from the phenomenal cast--especially repressed housewife Allen and soda-shop owner Jeff Daniels, doing some of their best work ever--will keep you emotionally invested in the film's outcome and waiting to see Pleasantville in all its final Technicolor glory. --Mark Englehart
Director Richard Linklater turned his free-range verite sensibility on the 1970s in Dazed and Confused after changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes and rockers with girlfriend and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal, overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?". It's a little too honest to be a light comedy ("If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself.") But it's also way too much fun to be just another existential-essay-on-celluloid. --Grant Balfour
In teen comedy 100 Girls, self-described "tragically glib" college freshman Jonathan Tucker finds true love in a girls' dorm elevator during a blackout, but when he forgets to get her name he has 100 suspects to sift through, one by one. It may sound like the premise of just another teen sex farce, but writer-director Michael Davis makes it the starting point of the boy's getting of wisdom. Amiable young star Tucker brings an excited and endearing innocence to his journey, and Emmanuelle Chriqui is a delight as the "promiscuous" girl who teaches him a thing or three about crippling stereotypes. Larisa Oleynik, Jaime Pressly, Marissa Ribisi and Katherine Heigl are just a few of the other girls who help him along. 100 Girls is a refreshingly frank, funny and sexy exploration of the dynamics of young men and women and the power of first impressions, reputations and expectations. --Sean Axmaker
Some Girl is the story of a group of emotionally unstable friends trying to have healthy relationships in L.A. in the 90's - if at all possible. It's a story of falling in love today and out tomorrow. Of changing relationships as often as underwear. Co-starring Juliette Lewis Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Rappaport Some Girl is a movie about relationships that will take you on a ride all for the sake of true love...
Sexy teen comedy about a college freshman (Jonathan Tucker) who meets a dream girl in a dorm elevator during a blackout. They make love. He never sees her face but instantly falls in love. In the morning the power is restored but Matthew's dream girl has vanished. All Matthew knows is that she lives in an all-girls dorm. He sets out on a a hilarious journey to find his mystery girl among a hundred female suspects. Could it be Wendy the Girl Next Door (Larisa Oleynik)? Dora th
Spencer has had a crush on the adorable Melora since he was 10 years old. Fifteen years later they meet again in Los Angeles when she crashes her car into his at a traffic light. Spencer is renting a room in a rundown mansion owned by two young film makers named Ezra and Feldy. They ask Spencer to play the male lead in their latest production in return for rent-free living for two months. Only when shooting begins does he realise that he is the star of a porn movie and has to deliver his lines with no clothes on.Melor is stuck in a self-destructive relationship with Craig an executive at the advertising firm where she works. No wonder then when Spencer steps into the triangle introduced by a loopy mailroom clerk Louis the relationship between the three becomes a crazy and funny dance of love and hate.If you want to know just how happy the ending is you should stick with every last laugh of this witty comedy.
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