Once the film festival ended, I reactivated my Netflix account. Oh, you lucky people!
* Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Not my favorite of the Apatovian genre, but these two things I much adored: Paul Rudd being decidedly not typical Paul Rudd, and the puppet vampire musical. I swear, if people had told me earlier about the musical, I would have seen the damn thing in the theater. This probably says too much about me.
* Old Joy. Two old friends reunite for a road trip to a hot springs in the Cascades. Humpday totally lifted these character types, making Old Joy the interesting & awkward, reconnecting-masculine-friendship part of Humpday without the angry-making trading on straight privilege in pursuit of ‘art’. I actually got it because it’s from the same director as Wendy & Lucy, which is one of my favorite films so far this year. Old Joy is good, but Wendy & Lucy is better. (No, I am not just saying this because I love Michelle Williams.)
* Gran Torino is a difficult movie to pin down. It was extremely effective storytelling (also, which no one has mentioned, gorgeous cinematography), but I finished it with a lot of complicated feelings about the racial politics of it, a problem regarding which others have spoken better than I could manage in general, let alone in a capsule post.
* The Wrestler. I missed an opportunity to see this for free before it came out, and I am glad I did. I think the fighting scenes in particular would have been too intense, but at home on the TV the impact was lessened to some extent. Still compelling, though.
* Nothing but the Truth. I think this went straight to video, which is unfortunate. It’s a solid film with a stronge ensemble including the always-worth-watching Vera Farmiga, story inspired by the Valerie Plame case. Good stuff.
wicked jaws 
so with you on paul rudd and the vampire puppet musical. nobody thought to tell me about the musical, either, until the movie was out of theaters. boo!
I mostly enjoyed Sarah Marshall when I saw it (with my Mom!) but had some issues (mostly about Sarah being portrayed as such a bitch when I thought it was clear that she had tried really hard to help
MarshallJason SegalThe Main Guy through his stuff.I read a really scathing online essay about it, but of course now can’t find it.
And, I found it: http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/04/forgetting-sarah-marshall.html
It’s totally true. I am sitting it out, though. I’m too tied up in Gran Torino & Humpday — can’t get mad about everything all the time. Sigh.
It’s one of those things where I see it and am entertained and then later start thinking about it and go “HEY”.
(But I did like the Dracula puppet, and that’s a big part of what got him the Muppet movie writing gig?)