Start Fresh — Waitress

START FRESH! This one is destined to be a closet classic.

DEPTH 3

ACTING 4

PLOT 4

ORIGINALITY 5

PRODUCTION 3

ENTERTAINMENT 5

DEMAND ON VIEWER: Easy

OVERALL HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

This is a fun film for most ages and a great date flick!

View trailer — this one is particularly good as trailers go. Very funny.

Owner Joe's words, "Start fresh," come as a welcome tonic to the beleagured waitress Jenna, played endearingly by Keri Russell in this colorful film about relationships, affairs, and pie diners.

Jenna makes pies. Every emotion, every situation can be expressed in a pie. There's the "I hate my husband pie" and a dozen others shown lovingly made in the story. There's a reason she hates him: Earl, played by the eminently convincing Jeremy Sisto, is one of those moron husbands you love to hate.

Contrast him with the charming and easily lovable Dr Pometter (Nathan Fillian), and you have the chemistry for a great storyline, complete with sarcastic commentary by diner owner Joe (Andy Griffiths), and salted with the other waitresses' flings and love pursuits.

Watch a great tribute/synopsis, with lots of pie shots!

Cheryl Hines, Keri Russell, Adrienne Shelly

The real-life untimely death (see NYT story) of actress and director Adrienne Shelly brings an interesting and nostalgic element to the film. I wish she could have made more films like this one. Its unusual blend of humor and deep emotion is rare.

The film presents a harsh and unforgiving working-class world with a light touch, where we can cheer for the underdog and enjoy a sexual tryst with Jenna and then recognize that eventually she must move beyond it and find her true self. That kind of journey is worth any film's and any viewer's time. 

If you love pie, by the end you'll be salivating...

High Altitude Hubris — Margin Call

Watch the faces. The whole range of human emotions is there, seething just below the conformism of corporate suit-and-tie glass office protocol. Rage, guilt, remorse, greed, raw power, and a deeply inhumane utilitarianism. This is the contribution of Margin Call: a sort of "12 Angry Men" look at how a room full of very powerful people interact and thereby influence the rest of the world.

View Trailer!

DEPTH: 4

ACTING: 3.5

PLOT: 5

ORIGINALITY: 4

ENTERTAINMENT: 4

DEMAND ON VIEWER: Moderate

OVERALL: Recommended

This is one of Kevin Spacey's best. The rest of the cast is, well, marginal. Demi Moore in particular is not convincing, either miscast or misdirected or both. Jeremy Irons does well at the aloof, swoop-down-from-the-helicopter heights of arrogance, but otherwise his performance isn't all that memorable.

What I like most about the film is its metaphors. In one scene they stand on a balcony overlooking a precipitous drop. "It's a long way down," one shudders. The impending collapse of the financial system seems to hover with them on that ledge.

The film ends with the sound of a shovel, as Kevin Spacey digs a grave for  his dog. That scene anchors the film in the real world and provides some physical contrast to the high-altitude hubris of the skyscrapers. The film treads a good line here, showing us a personal side of this otherwise un-empathetic portrayal of Wall Street.

Be sure to watch the clip of Demi Moore and Simon Baker in the elevator, with a janitor in between them. The irony here is delicious: it may be the best scene in the film:

 Elevator Scene

Solid plot, great storytelling, and moves along well and gets to the point of the financial crisis: the selling of literally nothing, and the digging of a large grave we are still climbing out of.