Reprise

YYYeahhh.

Reprise was released in theatres on 5/16/08 and on DVD on 9/2/08.

Reprise is one of those films that would be perfect if I cared at all about the story. It's almost perfectly written and acted and the style of direction along with the editing kept me fully captivated throughout, but at the end, I just kinda wondered why it even existed. From about half way through I was waiting for some kind of a climax and nothing happened. It's really just the story of two guys who want to be authors.

Here is a synopsis that I pulled from Rottentomatoes.com:

As Erik and Phillip, lifelong friends and aspiring novelists, stand in front of a mailbox clutching their manuscripts, our narrator takes a moment to speculate upon their futures. Surely both books will garner wild acclaim, lead to prolific careers, and inspire revolutions. In actuality, Phillip's is published and Erik's rejected. But it's Phillip who suffers the harsher fate. Overnight success and a budding, but obsessive, romance prove overwhelming, and he suffers a breakdown. Six months later, when he returns from a psychiatric hospital, Phillip tries to put his life back together, and Erik, having adopted a more measured approach to writing, attempts a literary rebound.
Joachim Trier's debut feature is a whimsical, intelligent reflection on friendship and youthful exuberance. His portrait of two young men for whom life and art occupy the same blurry space is full of honesty and carefully observed moments. And while its preoccupations are weighty (love, disappointment, self-doubt), Reprise is buoyed by visual flourish and an infectious energy. Its splashy, self-conscious style--a throwback to the French New Wave--mixes film stocks, delights in cinematic references, and employs flashbacks, flash-forwards, an unidentified narrator, and frequent detours to Paris (surely with a wink). And with a stellar young cast to boot, Reprise hits every mark, ushering in an exciting young filmmaker. --© Sundance Film Festival

That is the perfect description of the film; if it sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend you check it out. It is, however, in Norwegian with English subtitles, so if you don't dig foreign films, this might not be for you.

RockNRolla

Eh... nah.

RocknRolla is the next film in a string of forgettable Guy Ritchie movies. I saw Lock Stock... and I saw Snatch, I don't remember what they were about and I guarantee that when the next Guy Ritchie movie comes out (The Real RockNRolla?) I won't remember what RockNRolla was about.

It all starts out seemingly complicated. I probably just didn't understand what was going on because British witty banter is almost always unintelligible to an American listener. By the time I finished my British to American Rosetta Stone audio tapes, the movie had reduced down to a quirky action comedy with no real point. Something about a "lucky painting" and double jeopardy robberies and then there's the RockNRolla. I'm not really sure why he was in the movie.

The stories all tie together at the end and while I was watching it it all felt important, but the truth is, as entertaining as it was, I feel like it was a waste of time.

Boy A

Yes.

Boy A was released in theatres on 7/28/08 and on DVD on 10/7/08.

You know how after you've been living paycheck to paycheck for a while and you finally decide it's time to start saving for your future, but then you're car breaks down and you have to spend all of the money you've saved to get it fixed? Or let's say you're really overweight and you get stranded on a deserted island with nothing to do but walk around and eat healthy food but then, mysteriously, a crate filled with candy bars, potato chips and ranch dressing falls from the sky. That's what Boy A is on a much grander scale.

Who deserves an opportunity to try again? Who gets to decide? If you have legally fulfilled your obligation to society as sentenced by the court, what gives anyone else the right to judge you? Who really is the bad guy in this movie? There are a lot of questions there and the filmmakers behind Boy A don't presume to know the answers, they simply tell a story about a two kids who make a horrifying decision that changes their lives forever.

All aspects of the film's production are exceptional from the story and the direction to the acting and the cinematography. The more you get to know these characters the more you dread finding out how and why it all started as well as how and why it all ends. Boy A is an absolutely stunning piece of work that everyone should make a point of seeing.