The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

January 31.

I really don't think I would have seen this "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" if Heath Ledger hadn't died, it didn't really seem like my type of movie – weird, gypsies running around London and then morphing into some alter-universe. But, when he died while filming the movie and director Terry Gilliam hired three actors to play Tony in the imaginarium I had to see it. And I'm so glad I did!

I would have loved the movie even if Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell didn't step into Ledger's role. The movie was visually interesting and the story of this family make-shift family was great. I was engrossed in the fantasy of Doctor Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer and his daughter Valentina, Lily Cole.

It was disturbing to see Ledger hanging from a noose in his first scene and I did think about how the movie might have be different had Ledger lived ( was he cut out of scenes? there was one where you heard him but didn't see him) but mostly I was entertained and and lost in the imaginarium.

Youth in Revolt

January 30.

I finally got to see "Youth in Revolt," which was everything I expected it to be and 100 times better than "Leap Year." It was funny, silly, and sweet. Michael Cera was perfect as romantically-challenged teen, Nick Twisp and laughable as his bad-boy alter ego Francois Dillinger. (The white pants were ridiculously perfect.)

It's really just a teen comedy but the characters are interesting and the cast is great. Jean Smart plays Nick's aging, trashy mother with a series of boyfriends Zach Galigianakis, and Ray Liotta. And I was pleasantly surprised to see Steve Buscemi as Nick's annoyed father. (I always love Buscemi.)

Although it doesn't seem like it will be the "American Pie" of the '10s(?have we decided how we're doing this yet?), I think it's a more interesting teen-sex comedy.

Two Lovers

January 24.

I missed this movie in the theater last year but really wanted to catch Joaquin Phoenix's last movie before leaving the business to become a rapper. (No, seriously. That's what he did.)

I love this movie, which centers around quirky Leonard Kraditor's (Phoenix) relationship with two completely different women. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Michelle, his neighbor in a Brooklyn apartment building where he lives with his parents. Leonard is infatuated with her from their first meeting, but she is dating a married man. Paltrow makes the character likeable even though it could have easily gone a different way for me. Leonard is sweet and wounded, I honestly thought in the beginning he might be slow, but he's not, just broken.

The other love story in the film is between Leonard and his mother's choice, Sandra, played by Vanessa Shaw. Sandra is a nice, Jewish girl whose father is trying to buy Leonard's family's dry cleaning business. She seems taken with Leonard from the beginning and lets him know she wants to take care of him.

The movie is touching, sweet, and sad. And it has the most agonozing marriage proposal I have ever seen.

I hope Phoenix gets back to making movies soon.

This is Spinal Tap

January 23.

Roger Ebert has a list on his website of his favorite movies of all time, and I decided I wanted to watch them. The list is vast and doesn't stick to any one genre, but is full of movies any movie fan should have seen. So, I thought it could be interesting, even though with 315 movies on the list so far it's going to take years to see them all and still keep up with new movies.

Ebert's list isn't in any order, so I added them all to my Netflix queue and somehow arranged it so "This is Spinal Tap" was my first. Although I knew a lot of the jokes - the 18" Stonehenge prop and the loudest amp with the dial that goes to 11, to name a few - I had never seen this movie, which came out when I was 5. I loved it just as much as other Christopher Guest mockumentaries. The absurdity of this rock band is hilarious. And I look forward to my next Roger Ebert selection, even though I know the dreaded SciFi and horror flicks are among them.

Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces)

January 16.

I haven't seen a lot of Spanish cinema, but the movies I've seen all look like they were made in 1992. The colors, character's styles, sets are all faded. This doesn't mean it can't still be a good movie, but the other thing I've noticed is although the story is interesting the movie would fit in nicely on Lifetime.

"Los Abrazos Rotos," starting Penelope Cruz and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, follows these trends. The story is of a blind director, played by Lluís Homar, who is taken care of by his friend and her son. Cruz is part of his past and only appears in flashbacks. The story is interesting, just like some movies of the week are interesting, but I don't think it's a "love poem to cinema" as one reviewer called it.

I feel like the drama was a bit misplaced, too. I know Americans and Europeans think differently about some things, but when Homar's friend, played by Blanca Portillo, tells her son that Homar is actually his father he laughs and then they cut to the next scene. I just didn't really get this movie I guess.

A Single Man

January 15.

Even if I hadn't seen the name Tom Ford scroll across the screen before the first image appeared I would have known he made "A Single Man." Every gorgeous frame looked like a glossy spread in a fashion magazine.

The fashion icon wrote, produced, and directed the movie, which takes place during one November day in 1962 Los Angeles. Each scene is another game with color. Whenever we see George's (Colin Firth) reality the colors are muted and grainy, but when he fantasizes or thinks about the past the colors grow bright and pop.

The story is about George and his struggle with day-to-day life after his long-time partner dies. The British, English professor spends his day going to the bank, visiting his best friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), getting picked up by a hot, Spanish prostitute, and making a connection with one of his students. Nicholas Hoult plays the confused but confident teenager brilliantly and gives George some much needed hope.

This is a good place to thank the movie gods for answering my movie prayers and bring more Matthew Goode to the big screen. He's more than just eye candy in the flash back scenes as George's lost-love, Jim. So, thank you, movie gods.

Avatar

January 9.

I didn’t really want to see “Avatar” when it first came out. I heard about the effects and the special cameras and the billion dollars James Cameron spent on making it, but I wasn’t sure I cared. But, as it slowly became one of the highest grossing movies ever, I thought instead of letting this turn into a “Star Wars” situation, (“I’ve never seen “Star Wars” and whenever I tell people, they look at me like I’m crazy.) I’d better see it.

So, Boba and I decided to go on New Year’s Day, which didn’t exactly work out. A week later we traveled to Santa Fe Station to see the 3D version. And the 3D was perfect! Completely unlike the trailer we saw for “Piranha,” which had objects flying out at us for shock value. Avatar’s 3D gave us a new dimension and brought us into Pandora. Surprisingly, in two-and-a-half hours not one object was thrown at my head.

I liked the movie a lot more than I expected. The story was good and the visuals were interesting, although not as interesting as the two guys on either side of Boba and me thought. They were very impressed and wouldn't shut up. There were a few moments I drifted, but I’m not sure if the story got boring or if it was the alcohol. Either way, I’d recommend people catch the movie in the theater, and in 3D.

Leap Year

January 8.

Ehh, OK, I knew I wasn't going to like this, but my friend Gigi and I had plans to see "Youth in Revolt" at Town Square. So, we met for some wine and food at The Grape first and by the time we got our tickets and popcorn the theater was packed. The only seats left in the tiny room were in the front row. Instead of getting a neck injury we stepped into "Leap Year" (I seriously thought it was called Leap Day until just now) with a few other friends we ran into just a few minutes before.

Gigi couldn't get over the ridicolous high-heels Anna (Amy Adams, who I usually love) ran around in the entire movie, and I didn't understand why no one was wearing a coat in Ireland in February. Although, the way every scene looked as if people were standing in front of a green screen, I'm sure no one went to Ireland to film this.

The movie had a serisouly dumb story line about a control freak (Bitch as Gigi called her) chasing her doctor boyfriend to Ireland to propose to him on leap day - because in 2010 you couldn't propose to a man on say, June 3. It's also stupid to think two people who are buying an apartment together in a wealthy neighborhood in Boston wouldn't have discussed marriage at this point of their four year relationship.

The only thing goode about this movie is Matthew Goode. His character is whatever, but he is hot with his accent and sneaky smile. More Matthew Goode, less stupid Chick Flicks!

Gigi and I both thought we should have had at least one more glass of wine or brought the flask for this one.

The Wrestler

January 2.

I returned "Angus" to the Red Box and scrolled to see what else was there. It was an extensive list, but I decided on "The Wrestler," which I always wanted to see and hadn't. Sometimes I have to psych myself up to see some of these movies I know are going to be hard to watch, even if they are amazing.

And Mickey Rourke as Randy the Ram was both those things - amazing and hard to watch. Following Randy's demise was depressing and painful. He didn’t see anyway out, and neither did I. Marisa Tomei was gorgeous as Randy’s almost-girlfriend, stripper Pam/Cassidy, and even the highly-annoying Evan Rachel Wood didn’t bother me as his daughter, Stephanie. All the actors did a phenomenal job, especially Rourke who made me feel for this character, even though his decisions had created this life he was living.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

January 1.

After Orson Welles, I stopped by the grocery store for provisions and saw this movie in the Red Box rental machine. (I'd never used the box, which is awesome. Pay $1 a day for new movies and bring it back whenever you want.) "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging," - which, yes, I know, is for 14-year-olds, but so is "Twilight" and no one is making fun of anyone about that!! - was suggested to me by Netflix because I have a weird obsession with all things British. And I had to get this one because it's set in a seaside town on the southern coast of England, near where I studied abroad 10 years ago. (I will absolutley watch a movie because of where it is set.)

Angus has a really cute story that brought me back to my Judy Blume days – worrying about boys and “mean” girls. Brighton and Eastbourne are beautiful, and the girls who play Georgia and Jas (Georgia Groome and Eleanor Tomlinson) are perfect. "Angus" was directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also made "Bend it Like Beckham," another British-14-year-old-girl story that I love!

By the way, Angus is Georgia's adorable, fluffy, gray cat.

Me and Orson Welles

January 1.

"Me and Orson Welles" wasn't heavily advertised, at least not in Las Vegas where no one cares about movies like this, but I did catch a few previews and really wanted to get a glimpse of Orson Welles during his early days as a stage actor-director in New York. So, when my friend, Boba, bailed on seeing "Avatar" because she was paying for a fun New Year's Eve, I took the opportunity to catch this movie at the one theater in town where it was showing before it was gone forever.

I loved the movie, and I didn't realize until the end that it was made by Richard Linklater, director of two of my favorite movies ever, “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset.”

Although I never really got over how weird Zac Ephron, who plays Richard Samuels – the Me in the title – looks, (he looks like the woman in The L Word who has a sex change to become a man), I liked the character and the story set behind the scenes of an Orson theater production in 1937 New York.

The side story between Richard and Gretta, played adorably by Zoe Kazan, left me with a feeling of hope. But the star of the show was definitely Orson, portrayed by British-actor Christian McKay.