Smiley Face, Night of the Living Dorks, Shortbus

by Bake Snaker February 15, 2008

3 DVD rentals that I will now review……

As you guys may know, I’m not a Gregg Araki fan. I reviewed
“Mysterious Skin” last year… and I think that is still far and away
his best film. “Smiley Face” is his 2nd best.

Basic plotline – Hollywood aspiring slacker actress eats a box of pot
cupcakes by accident and has a crazy day. First off, Anna Faris is
great. I’m positive she’ll be around awhile, take on bigger profile
roles and eventually become a highly respected actor. I can’t imagine
how bad this film would be without someone of her talent.

Okay… so as far as stoner comedies goes… this ain’t bad. Ten
times better than that insult called “Half Baked.” Has a few laugh of
louds and some inventive visual gags… but it left me thinking a
couple of things:
1) Gregg should continue in the direction he was headed with
“Mysterious Skin.” It was a maturity that worked well for him.
2) Watching stoners act stoned for 90 minutes does not a good stoner
film make. This has been proven again and again.
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Night of the Living Dorks

German lensed teen comedy about three dorks who are killed and become
zombies because of some goth kids’ magic. There is no difference
between this film and any American Pie piece of crap except that it’s
in German and there are zombies. As far as parodies go, it doesn’t
even begin to come close to Shaun of the Dead. There is one hot
German/Indian chic in it though that of course the guys don’t realize
is hot until the end of the film…and there is a close-up of her ass
(in panties mind u) that is almost worth the rental. Oh…. just did
a google search on her. Her name is Collien Fernandes. She’s a Maxim
girl over there.

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Shortbus
Wow.. what a disappointment. And this got in to Cannes? OMG, this
feels like a slightly more competent Gregg Araki film. Biggest
problem with this film… John Cameron Mitchell is trying to make a
celebration of sex and love…. yet his sex scenes make me want to
vomit. As you may know, 90% of the sex in the film is real… why he
shy ed away from the male on male penetration, I don’t know. Very
unappealing actors, bad improv, and lackluster cinematography. What a
gay film in every sense of the word.