Man Push Cart (2005)

A study in minimalism, much of this film takes place in the dark. At 3 in the morning, Ahmed, a former Pakistani rock star turned street cart coffee seller, pushes his cart to its Manhattan corner. He doesn't get back to Brooklyn til late.

The film's inspiration was Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus", according to Roger Ebert, who friggin loved it. Man rolls rock up hill, it rolls down; repeat. The guy seems depressed. He lets a cute love interest fade away, then shoves his only chance to make it on the entertainment scene. He doesn't really try to do anything but see his kid, sell his food, and play a little music. But he might be on the right track, not letting a bunch of distractions get in the way. 

Somehow, Ahmed speaks perfect English. It seems like he would have more opportunities with that skill, but the film paints a life with little time to find better work. 

It reminded me of buying tea from a cart person in Manhattan when I interned at Spin magazine. I could've ended up in the movie -- it used hidden cameras. That helps explain how it was made cheaply. I can't see San Francisco allowing for much budget moviemaking without some subterfuge involved.

So anyway it's pretty good as a movie. Don't expect much to happen, and you won't be disappointed. There's also a Mac cameo. You wonder if Apple pays for those placements, which I see pretty much everywhere I look.

Accepted (2006)

I swear, if any of you read this site semi-regularly AND watched Seinfeld, you may come to a similar conclusion as me. There was an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine goes to the video store and gets all these art house movies based on one of the employee's recommendations. Then there's one employee who picks brainless movies such as Weekend at Bernie's. Well dear readers, that employee's name was Gene. Kind of funny since I feel, and AM, like the Gene of this site and review the most braindead movies. And here I'm back again with the movie Accepted.

This is a comedy in which a group of friends from high school don't get into college, for one reason or another, and so they start their own college. This premise is very reminiscent of Camp Nowhere (1994) in such that the kids have to build their own institution to allow their wacky antics to occur and they gotta hide that fact from their parents. SPOILER ALERT Needless to say, the parents find out; thus leading to the predictable conflict and reconciliation along with the assumption of more wacky that can occur after the credits roll SPOILER OVER

I'll say this, it was an entertaining movie and it did it's job of making me chuckle. Justin Long plays the mastermind behind this scheme and does an ok job carrying the movie, however this truly is an ensemble work. Jonah Hill is humorous as the witty/talkative friend, a roll that he's pretty much made into his usual typecast, albeit the his characters' book smarts differ in each iteration. But to me, the most entertaining character is Lewis Black because I just enjoy what he does and he pretty much does that in this movie, so it's not like he's really acting up a storm. He cracks wise, and that's all I want really.

Beyond the cliched humor that kept me entertained, I enjoyed the babes in this movie. And that's to be expected of course in a movie marketed to young adults and teens. There is no nudity in this film, but they provide just enough eye candy and innuendo to keep things honest. No watch checks on this one. However I don't recommend this unless you are really sure your brain is in the open and off position.