Extremely Shallow Film Reviews, Part One: Stranger Than Fiction, Starring Will Ferrell
So the movie was fairly enjoyable, providing you were willing to suspend disbelief entirely, overlook several large plot flaws and loopholes, and admit to yourself that you were basically watching the poor man's Adaptation combined with the Cliff's Notes to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but what I really loved about Stranger Than Fiction---aside from the fact that it landed in my mailbox with minimum effort on my part, thanks to whichever handsome geek invented Netflix---was Maggie Gyllenhaal's hair.
Seriously, I couldn't stop staring at it for the whole film, wondering if I could get mine to do the same. I also wanted to know how they made that real-looking tattoo on her arm, and why it was so integral to the plot that a cupcake store owner possess such mind-blowing body art. I bet she wasn't allowed showers during filming, only baths, and then only with her arm hanging over the side of the tub.






















Mar 15, 2007
Check out http://www.sleevesclothing.com/
The owner got the idea while doing tattoo makeup on movie sets - you know to make clean cut actors look like scalawags :)
Mar 15, 2007
Ooh, I like Maggie Gyllenhaal (and her brother, too, actually - him I like quite a lot...) I might have to put this in the Netflix queue (which, I agree, is awesome) just for the hair, since it was that good.
Mar 15, 2007
I spent that whole movie focussed on her tattoo! Also I came home and baked cookies!
Mar 15, 2007
Yeah, Maggie was totally hot in that movie. Anytime a girl can pull of white, boy-cut, ribbed tanks and multiple tattoos and STILL look super feminine and sexy, she's done something seriously, awesomely right.
Mar 15, 2007
OFF. Ugh :)
Mar 15, 2007
So, is this to be your take on a cinematic genre called 'extremely shallow film' or are you simply going to write superficially about films of indeterminate shallowness?
Well,somebody has to ask. You were more forthcoming on the stuff about all the people in your hallway in the last post...
Mar 15, 2007
i beleive that you must be prepared to do exactly that: "suspend disbelief entirely" when watching anything involving Will Farrel
have you seen the new one coming, the ice skating one?
(secretly cannot wait)
Mar 15, 2007
also, i can't decide if Saucepan Man is inviting dissent or if he's just a big ol' meanie
Mar 15, 2007
Love love love Maggie Gyllenhall - Sherry baby is yet another example of her wonderful acting skills. Will Ferrell was OK but, and yes I will admit this publicly - that I cannot wait for the ice skating movie with him and Jon Heder. Not deep by any means but it looks hysterial!
Mar 15, 2007
I haven't seen Stranger than Fiction yet, but it's in the ol' ever-growing Netflixs que.
I had to leave a comment though and tell you that that sound you hear? Coming all the way from Boston? Yes, that would be the sound of my credit card being charged AGAIN through Itunes for another song I've discovered (and become obsessed with and then need to purchase right. this. minute.) once you put it up on your site.
Seriously, I fall in love with every song you put up here. It's my favorite new addition to your site...and you have such great taste in music!
Mar 15, 2007
Faerie, Saucepan Man is in no way a "big ol' meanie".
Mar 15, 2007
Good point, Saucepan Man -- I wasn't very clear, and this being a particularly shallow film, it was hard to discern. But the plan is to write superficial and shallow reviews about films, mostly ones that aren't superficial or shallow themselves. Like Babel -- I watched the whole thing wondering why they felt the need to give Brad Pitt a salt and pepper beard. Or how Cate Blanchett could look beautiful even after having been shot and (ostensibly) peeing herself.
Mar 15, 2007
And speaking of films - they're filming something in our former pink fortress. Of course the fortress is now brown, of all unfortunate colors, so I'm certain it will look awful. Whatever it is.
Mar 15, 2007
I loved her hair in that movie too. I think she's great. And so is her cute, cute brother- HOT!
Mar 15, 2007
I loved the movie and cried (this is not a surprise, actually, I cried at Troy and not, as a friend asked, because I had seen it. No, it was because I don't like it when people die. Usually the response to that is "Dana, why did you go to a war movie?") but I am often able to suspend disbelief and just run with the plot and also I have secretly wondered if perhaps this is the whole reason behind my life - that maybe someone is writing a story about a short fat woman who just turned 40 and has no love life worth mentioning. But who would want to read about that?
Mar 15, 2007
DM, I cried in Click. You know, that Adam Sandler movie with the remote control that can change lives? What's more, my strapping 6"1 rugby-playing brother Tom cried too. Like a baby.
Mar 15, 2007
What I loved was how they made M.G. (a good actress, yes) wear a g.d. brassiere for once. So few of the pictures you see of her in real life include that article and it transformed her into someone I could look at without screaming, "UNDERWIRE! SUPPORT! They are your friends, Maggie girl!" Also the tattoos. And the cookies. Wrote about this one a few entries ago and agree: So long as you suspend/overlook, its very enjoyable...a veritible cream tart of a movie.
Mar 15, 2007
I love it when men get sentimental over films. My boyfriend hates movies where people cheat on each other. It really makes him uncomfortable. So cute!
Mar 15, 2007
After I saw the movie in the theater, I totally told my stylist that Maggie's hair was what we needed to make my hair look like.
She didn't listen, though.
Mar 16, 2007
Faerie, Holly has known me long enough to recognise one of my feeble jokes based on a need to scratch the itch of verbal ambiguity. She does it too and I've no idea where she gets it from!
Thank you , Thespian Libby (blows kiss)
Mar 16, 2007
Adding to Netflix queue immediately. I am a glutton for punishment -- and stupid movies.
Mar 16, 2007
i just couldn't decide!
Mar 16, 2007
you know, on my own LOL
Mar 27, 2007
buying alamast online...
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