tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post4623215887609539926..comments2023-10-21T03:28:00.596-04:00Comments on Mad Minerva 2.0: DVD Movie Review: "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (2011)Mad Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01649780647476573087noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post-58354884455200688922012-03-22T11:40:14.986-04:002012-03-22T11:40:14.986-04:00Wow! What a fabulously detailed review of your ow...Wow! What a fabulously detailed review of your own!<br /><br />Yes, I *am* Liza Lapira, hahahahah, nor really, but I did laugh out loud when I saw her response to meeting Jacob. I laugh ... because it's too close to what would probably if I were in her shoes.<br /><br />Overall, a great flick -- and very smart and even insightful -- that's far and away better than others of the genre!Mad Minervahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01649780647476573087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post-68011953376938088692012-03-21T00:41:01.342-04:002012-03-21T00:41:01.342-04:00MM, thanks for the review! Based on that, I rented...MM, thanks for the review! Based on that, I rented the DVD and ended up watching it twice last week.<br /><br />** Fair warning for anyone besides MM who may read this: Here there be SPOILERS! **<br /><br />I enjoyed it for many of the reasons you give, but I also appreciated the unexpected cultural comments. For example, Cal and his wife got married at 17 -- and they're soul mates! It wasn't played off as some terrible mistake, a reasonable excuse for cheating and divorce, the <i>de rigueur</i> handling of young marriage in cinema today.<br /><br />While I agree about the big scene at the end, it's difficult to see another way of resolving all of the various story arcs satisfactorily within the spirit of the film and the 2-hour time frame. Cal's speech resolves a lot of things all at once, leaving only one thread untied, and is at least efficient. Still, points off; this is a movie worth staying longer than 2 hours for and that should have been done better.<br /><br />No argument with points off for undeveloped characters, either.<br /><br />On the other hand, I'm more ambivalent about the ickiness. Yeah, there are moments of cringiness, but at the same time, I appreciated that the movie took these characters seriously and, well, sometimes life, and love, is a bit icky. At the end of Robbie & Jessica's story arc, I liked that there was a kind of acceptance of these cringe worthy behaviors; they're young, and they both appear to have learned from their experiences.<br /><br />That said, it was hard to keep the inner lawyer from fainting at the thought of Jessica actually delivering her envelope to Cal; I kept imagining someone else (like Emily) discovering it lying on a table where Cal (too distracted to open it) had left it. <b><i>That</i></b> would have resulted in a very different movie. Too, I would prefer not to have movies (or anything else) encourage underage girls or boys to take nude photos of themselves (hence some of the ambivalence).<br /><br />(And speaking of ick, in your review, <i>bromance</i>? Really? Gag me with a lightsaber. No, really, please decapitate me before you use that word again; I can't bear to see it.)<br /><br />Another positive for me were the many internal / meta references (can I say near-recursiveness?) of parts of the plot, e.g.:<br /><br />- "I know what happens in the PG-13 version of tonight ..."<br /><br />- Jessica never seems to see the parallel between her own pursuit of a much older man and Robbie's pursuit of her<br /><br />- Jessica asks a savvy girl how to get an older man and gets similarly predatory advice to that Jacob gives Cal<br /><br />- every girl seemed to want to be seen as the perfect combination of sexy and cute, and Jessica's photos in an envelope decorated like an innocent young love letter with colored letters, shiny heart stickers, etc., was just way out of bounds at both ends<br /><br />- in a sense, reflecting all of the other major and minor characters in the movie except Jacob and Liz, nice guy Cal wants to remake himself and also goes way out of bounds - "Who are you?" Emily asks for us; all of these characters go over the line, but they learn something by doing so and correct themselves<br /><br />- inversely, Jacob lives over the line and he steps in bounds as everyone else steps out<br /><br />Liz, on the other hand, never redeems herself. Hm, wasn't she also smitten by Mr. Gosling? Wait, is this the secret blog of Liza Lapira!? <br /><br />Ahem. Finally, I enjoyed what I took to be shout-outs to Scent of a Woman ("I don't know whether to help you or euthanize you" aka "I don't know whether to shoot you or adopt you") and Happy Gilmore (the whole mini golf scene w/ 80s music).<br /><br />Great movie. Thanks again!lumpynoreply@blogger.com