Whip It (2009)

In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit Bliss finds a way of dealing with the pressure of her beauty pageant mother after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.

    What I like about this movie is its classic theme set in a throughly fun, raw environment. It enters the sexy sport arena of the roller girls and takes the viewer for a super fun ride that has us cheering on our favorite indie actress (Juno's Ellen Page). All of the acting (with the exception of very creepy, greasy Landon Pigg as Page's love interest) is perched brilliantly on the edge of rather dramatic real people and just plain theatrical acting. Marcia Gay Harden (love that woman's eyebrows, by the way, I would say they're sexy, but she's not an especially sexy person) is a scene-stealing as Bliss'  former Miss Austin or whatever beauty pageant-pushing steel magnolia mother. She made me nervous, which is perfect. She's not one of those characters you feel smug about when our heroine makes a stand for her desires in life. She was like my mother - I like rebelling as much as the next person, but that guilt of disappointing them still breathes inside me. 

     I'm a skater, so I love the scenes with the roller girls in action. I mean, what girl doesn't want to have a super cool nickname, dress super sexy and beat up on other girls while skating super fast around a rink? Seriously. It's awesome. 

    Drew Barrymore directed this, her first movie, and it was very good for her first movie. She has a funny supporting role as a girl frequently injured and who injures others. It's not exactly a chick flick, it's like a sporty chick flick, I guess. The only thing missing was that good love interest, but I guess, realistically, at 17, how good can love really be? The family and friendship love is the focus and it's good. See it. 

The Fourth Kind (2009)

Fact-based thriller involving an ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up. -IMDB.com

     First of all, this is not a fact-based movie. The marketing on this film took its cue from The Blair Witch Project and other such similar "documentaries" to such an extreme that Nome, Alaska went up in arms against the deceptive ads. I myself being somewhat a believer in alien encounters, was fooled for a while until I did more research and realized it was all just a way to promote the movie. Moving on from that however, the movie was quite fascinating.

    Because the director had access to "real" footage of interviews and such, the split screen technique was used often, one side portraying the real person with the actor miming the actual events. It was an unusual move and definitely gave the film an amateur, real-life feel (it was appropriate this was released around the same time as Paranormal Activity, a movie essentially filmed like a youtube video). The movie cut between the plot and the director's interview with our victim of the alien encounter. Honestly, she was the creepiest out of any of the movie's characters, human or alien. There was a lot of talk about owls in the movie, and when I first saw her, she reminded me very much of an owl, with her hollow, shadow-rimmed eyes and creepily whispery voice. There are several scenes where she cries, and it was quite possibly the most haunting sound I've heard in my life.

     I like the plot. It's fast, gripping, and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. It has plenty of gotcha! moments, so much that a girl in my theater screamed during an intense spontaneous levitation scene. It's not an uplifting movie however, shedding little hope to the traumatic experience of alien abduction. However, like District 9, it moves away from traditional alien movies and employs psychological horror instead of special effects - you never see the aliens, only shadows - and since the similar made Paranormal Activity profited so much, I anticipate more movies that stray away from tradition and turn classic movie food into something unique. 

Cthulhu (2007)

A homosexual Seattle history professor, drawn back to his estranged family on the Oregon coast to execute his late mother's estate, is reaquainted with his best friend from childhood, with whom he has a long-awaited tryst. Caught in an accelerating series of events, he discovers aspects of his father's New Age cult which take on a dangerous and apocalyptic significance.

This was a bizarre movie, but strangely fascinating. The plot is based on famous horror author H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," which was written in 1926. Cthulhu has since then become a media icon of Pagan horror, present in other stories, films and video games. The story is interesting, but extremely incomplete and confusing. The ambiguous ending made me very angry; the movie had succeeded in getting me wrapped up in itself, and then completely slapped me in the face. I liked the eerie atmosphere; it would be a really good video game. It's an indie film, which I'm not especially "experienced" in, but still worth it to burn a couple hours on a Saturday night when nothing's on T.V.