Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.

Mean Girls

A comedy staple! My generation's Clueless! Mean Girls is a slightly exaggerated, though mostly spot on account of high school and all the gossip and social climbing students encounter through that four year minefield of high school.

What an amazing performance from Lindsay Lohan. This role firmly established her as a talented young actress and I'm sure opened up a world of professional opportunities. But we all know what happened, and it's a shame. She really is talented. She's believable as the likable and naive girl next door from Africa and the "regulation hottie" who has been influenced by the Plastics, the cool/mean girl clique at her high school. With more of the right roles, Lohan could've (and maybe still could) had a bright career. Her comedy skills are definitely on point.

Mean Girls gives me reason number 537873 to love Rachel McAdams. The girl is amazing, talented, flawless and so on. She shines as the glamorous mean girl Regina George. She has a knack for comedy. Even though Regina George is so awful, I can't help but like her because Rachel McAdams is just so good. Rachel McAdams can do anything.

The rest of the cast are as exceptional as the leads. Lacey Chabert gains audience sympathy as the desperate Gretchen Wieners, whose hair is full of secrets. Great debut from Amanda Seyfried, an actress who's creating a great career for herself. Her dead pan humor brings the laughs. Amy Poehler is a goddess and is not used enough. Her spot on portrayal as a (wannabe) "cool mom" is kind of horrifying but simultaneously hilarious. Finally, we have the current queen bee of comedy, Tina Fey. I just have no words. Fey is practically perfect in every way.

Tina Fey's script is genius. There are so many great lines that my friends and I recite to this day; my roommate is always looking for an excuse to say, "You can go shave your back now," while I take pleasure in saying "And none for (insert name), BYE!" And I don't know any girl who doesn't laugh at "I can't go to Taco Bell, I'm on an all carb diet. God Karen, you're so stupid!" Rachel McAdams says stupid in a very weird way and that makes the joke funnier. Even after viewing this classic countless times, the jokes are still hilarious.

Not only do the jokes continue to be funny, but the depiction of high school always amazes me. Mean Girls IS high school, exaggerated of course. The overt and subtle bullying, the ridiculousness of people's behavior, the desire to find yourself and fit in along the way...all true. There's a darkness to high school that Tina Fey shows but accompanies with comedy, but we get the point. This movie spoke to my generation. It might not define it, but Mean Girls definitely rings true.

The serious line that always stuck with me is at the end, after all the chaos with the Burn Book and the "girls going wild." In a voiceover, the Lindsay Lohan character says, "Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you." Why do we call each other fat then? Does it really make us feel better about our weight? There's this competition between girls that is just alarming. We put each other down to feel better about ourselves but the feeling goes away. We have to be better and we can only be better by making other people lower. This competition is at its worse in high school, but it doesn't always end there. One just needs to be comfortable with oneself, not comparing them self to others or putting others down, and just solve the problem in front of you.

Mean Girls joins Clueless and Heathers as some of the finest comedy and teen cinema. They help the genre get taken seriously. Mean Girls is intelligent, funny, and eye-opening.

Claire Danes in Temple Grandin
I've never been a Claire Danes fan. I've ripped her apart when I've had the chance. But she is in fine form in Temple Grandin. Playing a real person is a challenge, but a real person with autism, that a whole other level of challenging. Claire Danes truly shows her acting chops in this HBO original movie. Throughout most of the movie I forgot I was watching Claire Danes. If you see any interviews or footage of the real Temple Grandin, you see how amazing Danes' performance is. She needs to turn out more work like this.

Netflix

Winter's Bone-Jennifer Lawrence is getting Oscar buzz.
Robin Hood-Missed this in theaters.
Some Kind of Wonderful-Netflix Instant. A John Hughes film not mentioned as much as his Molly Ringwald projects.

Times change, we need to change as well.

Invictus

I had wanted to see Clint Eastwood's inspirational sports movie starring God and Will Hunting last December when it came out but it was one of the couple that I missed. After seeing Invictus last weekend, I'm glad I saw it on DVD and skipped paying $11.00

Morgan Freeman is absolutely amazing as Mandela. It's the role he was born to play. Not only do the two resemble each other, but Freeman completely embodies the South African leader. We are so used to seeing Morgan Freeman play a wise man and say, "Ah, that's Morgan Freeman doing his Morgan Freeman thing, he's great." But there were times I forgot I was watching Morgan Freeman. He takes his typical wise man role to the next level. He's magical, authoritative, and engrossing. I've always found Nelson Mandela fascinating and seeing one of America's most beloved actors portray one of the world's most beloved people adds an extra emotional layer to the role. One negative, Freeman's accent faded in and out a few times, but that's easily forgivable. Definitely one of Freeman's best performances.

Matt Damon does the best with what he's given but so much of the writing and focus is on Freeman. They are both leaders leading broken people and while Matt Damon does portray his character's motivation clearly, his character's writing isn't as strong as Freeman's and doesn't really go anywhere with the role. Damon maintained a solid accent though.

Beyond the performances, the film has its highs and lows. Apparently, pretty much everything Invictus showed really happened, so good for Eastwood for trying to be authentic. The voice over of the poem that inspired Mandela, Invictus, is a great way to pull heart strings. The film is predictable as are most inspirational sports movies but enjoyable as are most inspirational sports movies.

There were some fairly awkward moments scattered throughout Invictus. There's an incredibly cheesy and distractingly out of place song, an awkward dance sequence, and unnecessary slow motion. While I like slow motion, there's just too much of it and when slow motion is overdone, it's distracting and annoying. On top of the slow motion is slowed down grunting noises from the rugby players...lots of them and for a long time. Yeah. Too much slow motion isn't leaving me tense and on the edge of my seat.

Furthermore, there's a lot of CGI in the climactic rugby game...and one can easily tell it's CGI. Clint Eastwood is a powerful, rich, and respected director. You think he could've done a better job of making the CGI look real.

This movie does remind us of the power of sports. Besides all the race relations and tensions (perfectly depicted between the white and black security guards), sports have a powerful way of uniting people and nations. Everyone backing their nation's team creates a sense of comradery and brother/sisterhood, even just for a little while. People who might not normally get along gather around radios and televisions (as shown in the movie) with something in common. Even more powerful is that that comradery can last after the team wins, as show in the movie. Beyond all BS regarding insane salaries, team/manager politics, steroids, betting, and so on, sports are a wonderful display of athletic prowess and are more important and have more potential than we give them credit for.

Definitely glad I saw Invictus, definitely better than some of Clint Eastwood's more recent work, definitely glad I didn't spend money on it.

Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go

This sad, ethical question raising film is filled with strong performances but they were lead by the outstanding Carey Mulligan. She again shows a wisdom beyond her years and handles heavy and complex emotional material with subtlety and restraint when one's instinct might be to scream and breakdown, much like Andrew Garfield's character (who was also incredible, he's one to watch). It's really exciting to watch Carey Mulligan get started in her roles, I feel like I'm watching the early growth and development of the next Kate Winslet or Meryl Streep. Mulligan is not only one the most talent young actresses currently working, she's better than a lot of the working actresses out there right now. I cannot wait to see what roles she takes on. She's a gift to the film industry.

Netflix

Leaves of Grass-An Edward Norton comedy where he plays twin brothers. Cool.
Boogie Nights-I love Mark Wahlburg and this was his big break. Plus it was one of Paul Thomas Anderson's first films.
The Breakfast Club-Netflix Instant. Freaking love this movie. And I still think it would make a great play.

The internet's written in ink.

The Social Network

After the stunning trailer, I had very high expectations for The Social Network, David Fincher's film about the founding of Facebook. The film met and far exceeded my expectations, creating a compelling story and fascinating characters.

Jesse Eisenberg is a revelation as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Ever since I saw him in The Squid and The Whale, I didn't like him. His character was a damaged asshole and I could not separate Eisenberg from the character in The Squid and The Whale. But seeing him play a different damaged asshole in The Social Network, suddenly something clicked; this guy is unbelievable! He's not the neurotic guy we've seen in the past; he's a driven, calculating, determined genius driving an unstoppable train towards fame and fortune. He's an ass and he's the antagonist, but Eisenberg makes him incredibly human. As strongly evidenced in the beginning, the end, and at various points throughout the film, Zuckerberg has human motives for the things he does and one feels sorry for him. That's totally a credit to Eisenberg, making the audience feel bad for the bad guy.

The supporting actors all held their own against the acting powerhouse of Jesse Eisenberg. Andrew Garfield wonderfully plays the "protagonist" character. He's really burst onto the scene this year and he's got a long career ahead of him. Very, very talented. Armie Hammer took on the daunting task of playing twin brothers who were very different but were totally dependent on one another. He made them individuals through his performances. Max Minghella provided some necessary comic relief.

The big question on audience's mind is how will Justin Timberlake do? I'm pleased to say he was very, very good. There were times when I forgot he was Justin Timberlake. He worked very hard to disappear into the role. He does not deserve an Oscar nomination for this performance but I applaud him for taking on a serious and pivotal role. If he keeps going in this direction and picking movies like The Social Network, he'll have a successful acting career.

For a movie about the founding of a website, writer Aaron Sorkin sure found a way to make it all interesting. The dialogue is witty but not unbelievable. The film is an excellent presentation of greed, ambition, and friendship and how those three rarely combine and end well. It was fascinating to watch Zuckerberg come up with the elements of Facebook users have been used to from the beginning, like the relationship status and "the wall." Furthermore, watching a character freak out about a relationship status on Facebook accurately portrays the internal and sometimes external freak outs Facebook users go through. A great way to laugh at oneself.

However, it's really important as an audience member to do your research before or immediately after you see The Social Network. This is not a 100% true story. This is fictionalized account and it's based on a book from Eduardo Saverin's perspective, the guy who gets screwed. It's very bias. If one can do the research, separate the fact from the fiction and look at the film as mostly fiction, it will be very enjoyable. Dislike the "character" of Mark Zuckerberg, not the real Mark Zuckerberg.

Furthermore, Trent Reznor's score was hypnotic. The best parts of Nine Inch Nails and then some. I definitely see an Oscar nomination in his future.

In a year of a lot of movie disappointments, The Social Network is a breath of fresh air and definitely one of my favorites of 2010. A must-see, but take everything with a grain of salt.

Kristen Bell in Veronica Mars

I've been on a TV kick in this section lately. I love Kristen Bell and my love began with Veronica Mars. Bell was witty, intelligent, and lovable as the young sleuth. It's a shame that her film roles haven't been as complex or shown off her talent the way Veronica Mars did, because this show proves she can act. She created a fabulous female role model in Veronica, a strong and smart young women with human imperfections. I'll love KBell forever for this role.



Netflix
Babies-Great trailer!
Notes on a Scandal-Want to see again.
Damages-Netflix Instant. I hear good things.