Okay I'm going to get caught up on films I've seen so far this year. These are my thoughts on big studio fare, indies, documentaries, what ever I see. Please comment.
AWAY WE GO--- This film was really interesting to me and a little hard to pin down genre wise. Romantic comedy doesn't seem right. Maybe just a relationship film. Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) This is his follow up to "Revolutionary Road" which I hated. I don't blame Sam as much for Rev. Road because it was his wife (Kate Winslett) that really pushed that project to be made- to stultifyingly boring and melodramatic affect. So I'll give ol' Sam a pass on that one. "Away We Go" works because of the central relationship in the film. Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski are a newly expecting slacker couple looking for their place in the world--literally. Their search, their questioning of their own existance, their easy facility with one another are at the core of this film and it totally works. Strangely it's the supporting characters that hold this film back. While the lead characters are grounded the character actors in the film play everything over the top. And they're good actors too, usually reliable character people like Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan and Maggie Gyllenhaal make these road pic side trips seem bizzare and out of place like Mendes directed the leads and Fellini directed the supporting cast. Anyway, the relationship at the core of this film makes it completely worth seeing and Maya Rudolph is still on my list as one of the best lead performances of the year.
EVERY LITTLE STEP----Attention theater people (my tribe). There is a fantastic documentary out there detailing the audition process for the Broadway remake of "A Chorus Line" and providing backstory about the creative process that spawned the original. Actually it provides some backstory on the creative process period. Even if Musicals aren't your milieu (lord knows it ain't mine) you will recognize yourself in the process. Not earth-shattering but interesting and fun.
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