A month's worth of movies

I've watched an unhealthy number of movies since getting my Netflix account. I thought I'd save you all the wasted (in some cases) hours I've spent and give a collection of brief reviews for your own Netflix-ing interest.

In the order I watched them, here's the last month in movies:

Julie and Julia - As everyone predicted, I liked it a lot. Meryl Streep was amazing, Amy Adams was adorable and not annoying, and that guy who plays her boyfriend was adorable. And I love food. Plus, two unexpectedly precious love stories...very cute and very worth seeing.

The Constant Gardener - Evil pharma exploiting desperate African villagers with sinister drug trials. Man that looks like Liam Neeson but isn't (Ralph Fiennes) investigates after his young, independent-minded wife is killed suspiciously. Nothing wildly unpredictable, the usual villains, lots of Hollywood-style moral outrage, but pleasantly entertaining enough.

Food Inc. - I've been buying organic co-op milk and farmer's market meat since watching it. It didn't make me a self-righteous food Nazi, but it made me go "Yuck," and was fun to watch.

About a Boy - Hugh Grant + small awkward British boy with a mentally unstable hippie mom + "jerk-is-changed-into-nice-guy-through-charms-of-a-child" plot = happy ending, very cute, but not really worth watching again.

Moon - A movie with essentially one visible actor, living alone on the moon. Kevin Spacey is the voice of a HAL-like robot. Creepy things ensue ... ooo, what's real and what isn't? A little bleak, but actually pretty good.

The Machinist - Talk about bleak. Christian Bale's holocaust-victim body (I think he weighs less than I do in the movie) makes you want to take a shower or puke or something. Eerie, twist ending, loads of creep factor, and all the shots are dark, gray and dirty looking. Did not love it.

Punch-Drunk Love - Weird-ass movie, allegedly a romantic comedy, with Adam Sandler and the girl who plays Chloe on 24, and some British girl. There's something involving a lot of cups of pudding, and something involving a small piano, and none of it really made sense. I loved Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, but did not love this. It was quirky and had promise...but was just kind of odd.

Wonder Boys - I'd seen it before, but forgot how good it was!!! Michael Douglas is great, Tobey Maguire is great, and Katie Holmes doesn't suck. Oh, and Robert Downey Jr. is sexy and hysterical. Aging college professor, writers and academics, weird kid with a talent, dead dog in a car trunk...lots of good stuff.

Notting Hill - This was lame. Everyone loves it, but it was lame. I did not like Julia Roberts' character, and there were the corniest songs interspersed throughout the whole things, and some really gag-inducing scenes that made me ask "Seriously?" out loud. Lame-o.

Wilby Wonderful - Ellen Page and Paul Gross and a bunch of other Canadians in a small town with something secret going on and lots of unique small-town-ish characters and sweet little relationships and stories. Not perfect, but I liked it.

Sweet Land - LOVE IT. Second time watching it, and it's still one of the sweetest, funniest love stories I've seen in a movie. It's also one of the most beautiful movies I've seen - just visually, with open fields and big skies and farmland. Really just a beautiful story. It's about a Norwegian farmer and the mail-order bride who shows up and turns out to be German (set some time after WWI). You begin the movie knowing they grow old together, and then get to watch their story from when they first meet. Love it, love it, love it.

Boys Don't Cry - Hillary Swank acts the hell out of a pre-op transexual teenager who is biologically female but passes as a boy. Mix of oddly sweet love story, brutal, unpleasant violence, and some damn good acting. And based on a true story, which I did not know. Definitely worth seeing, although not a particularly happy movie.

9 Songs - Uh, yeahhh. Watched part of this and stopped. It consists of the following: 1. Concert footage of a full-length song by some underground rock band. 2. Non-simulated sex scene between two people who don't say much and who you don't really like (read: porn). 3. A few minutes of uninspired dialogue about something banal that doesn't tell a story. Repeat nine times (see: movie title). Only I didn't watch all nine repeats because the music sucked and I'm not a fan of porn.

Ondine - Colin Farrell is gorgeous. He is gorgeous as an Irish fisherman. The mysterious girl he pulls out of the water in his big fisherman net is also gorgeous. His small, precocious child is gorgeous. The story is a little bit magical, a little bit romantic, and very satisfyingly happy. And Colin Farrell is gorgeous. You will be happier for having seen it.