In America

So I went and seen this In America movie last night because I had to see something. I was in Manhattan and it was playing at Union Square. I wanted some twizz for the flick but Union Square now sells the horrible Twizzler ripoffs called Rip Cords too! Those things that look like twizz and seem just like twizz but they ain't friggin twizz! Stop them! It's insulting that they think I'm not going to notice the difference between Twizz and gross Rip Cords! Boycott! F Rip Cords! I point and say 'Disgrace'! Disgrace on you Union Square! Cheap! Chinzy! Concessional disgrace!

Anyway, on top of it the theater wasn't that crowded and this dude and his chick just had to take seats right in front of me even tho there are plenty of seats all over the place. Something about the sit-right-in-my-face like just made me freak out a bit. The dude was in front of me and the girl was to the left. I kicked the back of his chair a few times and he didn't react- so I kicked it one time really hard and the dude turned around and said, 'Can I help you?' I said, 'Have you seen they're selling Rip Cords in the lobby?' He looked confused so I explained how Rip Cords are like the fake twizz. He turned back around without saying anything. So I kicked his seat hard again. He turned back around this time sorta angry and asked me if I had a problem. I told him I did. I told him that Rip Cords were terrible and tasted like plastic, too cherry or something. I told him I was thinking about talking to the manager after the movie. The guy said, 'You do that' and turned back around again. Then I got up and stood at his aisle and pointed at the seat next to his girl and asked if it was taken. He asked me if I was serious. The girl looked nervous. I told him I wanted to discuss the Rip Cords situation further but wanted to talk more face to face rather than over the seats this way. I started shoving my way into his row even though he didn't move his legs. He shoved me back into the aisle. So I stepped away and strapped on my blue swimming goggles. Then I dove into their laps and pretended to swim. The butterfly stroke and sidestroke mainly.  I screamed and begged and thrashed for regular twizz! Then the lights came down and I got up and took a seat across the aisle from them. I goggle glared and growled at them all through the previews. They probably thought I was some sort of psycho or something.

Anyway, I didn't know much about this 'In America' movie. I saw that it got some Oscar nominations or whatever and knew it involved the Irish. I figured it was about Ellis Island or something but was happy to learn that it took place some year between 1980-1995. It was sort of hard to tell. Sometimes it seemed early 80's. Sometimes it was early 90's. Whatever. Fortunately it wasn't important when the hell it was going on. The story is about this family of Irish people (husband, wife, and two daughters) who move to New York from umm...  Canada. I found out later that it's sort of based on a true story. Anyway the family is sort of messed up because they had a son who recently died and they're also pretty much broke and the husband is dragging them all to New York because he wants to be an actor. And basically the story starts on from there.

This movie is very watchable even though it's messy and a bit sugary and sort of rough around the edges. It also shifts gears alot, as soon as you settled into it's a heartwarming story, it switches into the funny, when you settled into the funny, it goes more into the drama, then to tragic, then weirdo, then to heartwarming and it keeps sort of shifting around. Fortunately the looseness became the personality of the movie and the movie took on the personality of the family. And the various moods stick. I simply enjoyed watching this. I was weirdly proud of it. My butt didn't hurt from sitting and watching it. I didn't notice the time pass. There were some reoccurring issues- like them living in a crimefree family friendly junkie slum apartment house- and time frame issues- and choppy edits- and fairy taleishness- and some stuff jammed in- but it was ok anyway. Strangely enough it's easy to shrug off the flaws. Because it remembered to bring the funny.

The bringer of the main laughs were the kids- especially the younger daughter. I don't remember the last time I saw kids 'act' so much like real kids. With offbeat remarks and spontaneity that was truly good stuff. They sort of carried the movie. The other actors were ok too. There was the chick from Minority Report who was in the pool. Forgot her name. She's good. And Russell Crowe's co-slave pal in Gladiator who looks really cool and acts good too. The movie bounced around nicely with minor subplots until it all smushed together. Although I wasn't blown away I did get slightly teary at parts. No cry but it wasn't that far away from yanking em.. Anyway, if you're in the mood to see something that doesn't suck and has a fresh clean tone to it you might as well check this out.... Or not. It'll be good on video too.

Three Good Things About this Movie

- The messiness of it all really became endearing in a way where I felt I was rooting for this low budget flick to not f**k up.
- The younger daughter was so cute it was ridiculous.
- Visually it was directed really well. Some of the shots and moments were done just right.

Three Bad Things About this Movie

- It jumped around to the point where it disturbed its own flow now and then.
- For parents who lost a kid within a year, they sure were all reckless with their alive kids letting them run around the slummy apartment house alone and do stuff like pound on doors that have a big 'Keep Away' painted on it and all they know about the guy inside is that he screams in agony alot.
- It was a little too nice nice sweet goodness gracious.

Anyway, all in all I'd say this movie is something to see. It's a small movie focused on a small slice of life. It played well. And friggin-a, after seeing LOTRs armies of thousands crash into each other (like a big boom on the piano) and the Monster serial killer creepout (like mad tinkling of the keys) and the Big Fish overreach (like when someone drags their hand up and down the keys all fancy)--- it was refreshing to see something that seemed to hit the just the right note (a simple little one... toward the end on the right). Done and done. Nice performance. Take a bow.

<<<chyatt