The Shape of Things
I must be in a particularly misanthropic and cynical phase right now, because I quite enjoyed this movie. It’s the usual Neil LaBute m.o., cardboard characters playing out the worst in human nature. But I liked this more than “In the Company of Men,” because that went so over the top that it was hard to grab hold of anything other than your instinctive outrage at these people’s behavior.
In “The Shape of Things,” I saw representations (unrealistic and stagy as they were) of the real ways people hurt and betray each other. And how people who allow themselves to be manipulated and taken advantage of are often complicit in their own pain.
I liked how the notions of who is a sympathetic character in a traditional movie take a beating here. The “nice” people in the story are, if anything, worse than their “mean” counterparts.
I know, I make it sound like a real fun time at the movies. But I think it’s a good thing to be shaken up a little every once in a while; it beats being lulled to sleep.
I always figure being lulled up shakes being beaten to sleep.
Let me know if I should leave.
Jesse: Are you hopped up on the goofballs? I’ve heard that’s what you kids are into these days.
I whored that great lakes eat bleating sheep. Lot may new off eye sculled leaf.
“I am a banana.” — Banana
I do believe that this was one of the most painful movies I’ve ever sat through. I see what the filmmakers were going for, but Paul (awwww, look at that quirky smile) Rudd made me want to vomit out of my eye sockets. I understand that Rachel Weiss produced it, but did she really have to cast herself as the off-beat pseudo-punkish avant-garde art student? Everyone in this movie is too old to be playing the parts they played with the exception of the sunglasses-headed best friend. He was a riot.
I wish I had been drinking during this film.
Nik: They were too old for college students, and I do think it would have been better with unknowns. I’m a little infatuated with Paul Rudd right now, but I did think his geeky schtick in the beginning was overdone. I really liked Weisz though – flinty and confrontational, with a wonderful little glint in her eye.
If there’s no sauna scene like in Your Friends and Neighbors, I ain’t seein it. At least The Hulk give us a little skin.