Project X, Friends with Kids, Detachment

Project X - 1.5 cookies


It's exactly what you would expect it to be from the trailer: occasionally hilarious, more often than not really stupid. Shot in the same shaky cam style as The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, or the recent Chronicle, Project X is the first comedy to use the hand held camera technique. I do not like it. I gave it a pass in Chronicle because the story and acting was  good enough that the filming did not detract from the movie, but in X, the shaky camera just gives you a head ache.  Plus, the characters are basically ripped straight from the pages of Superbad, except they're not even half as interesting or funny. It looks like the movie was way more fun to make, than it is to watch. Project X does deliver laughs and lets you imagine what it would be like to have a party as insane as the one in the movie, but it's mostly just repetitive and forgettable.

Friends with Kids - 2 cookies


Writer, director, and star Jennifer Westfeldt (Jon Hamm's girlfriend of 10 years), does a decent job writing, a less decent job directing, and even worse job acting, in her new comedy Friends with Kids. She has zero screen presence and her face barely moves, that it's no wonder her first movie in six years is one that she had to write and direct herself. Her performance oozes of television quality, where she has mainly worked throughout her career, and it's only the very talented supporting cast and a few touching scenes that actually makes Friends with Kids a better than bad movie. Adam Scott gets a shot at his first leading man role after a career of support, and he does a pretty solid job coming off as an arrogant jerk, which is what he was aiming for I think. The supporting roles are played by a bunch of people from Bridesmaids, including Jon Hamm himself, Maya Rudolph, Chris O'dowd, and a vastly underused Kristen Wiig. Also, Megan Fox shows up giving a surprisingly good performance, as well as Edward Burns. The end result of Westfeldt's work is a very good effort, that just misses the strike zone, but it's worth a look when it comes out on DVD.

Detachment - 2.5 cookies


Adrien Brody gives the best performance of the year so far (which isn't really saying much, but it's something) in this very dark indie-drama about America's public school system. There are some gripping scenes and the message of the film is strong and painful to absorb, but unfortunately director Tony Kaye's pretentiousness gets in the way of this movie being great. It has to settle on being almost good.  It is very interesting though, and worth a viewing, as it is in theaters now but also available on Video On Demand.