Mo' Movies, Mo' Popcorn

Welcome to the August installment of "Mo' Movies, Mo' Popcorn". I hope you've all had the opportunity to see at least one of the movies mentioned on the July list. I saw one that I didn't include, "LittleMiss Sunshine," and it was HI-larious to say the least.

For the month of August, I want you all to explore the depths of the human condition by watching the following films. Movies will be graded by tasty ethnic dishes instead of letters.


HIT ME UP THE BIG SCREEN

Half Nelson: If you saw The Notebook and thought it was as lame as I did, then you will interpret Half Nelson as Ryan Gosling's 2006 Act of Penance. He plays a Brooklyn middle school social studies teacher who moonlights as a crackhead. Yes, I said it. Crack. Head. I know. That's movie gold right there! After he's caught smoking crack in the girls' locker room by one of his students, they strike up a friendship. (Which is the exact same thing I would do in that circumstance, especially after taking a hit off the crackpipe.) He tries to lead her on the right path, while her brother, a drug dealer, leads her the opposite way. You should support it. It's an indie and the two directors volunteer at the place I used to (826).

Grade: Mama's Baked Chicken with Green Beans and Rice

The Last King of Scotland: I think of this movie as an amalgamation of several movies and novels (however, it is based on actual events). A young Scottish doctor travels to Uganda and somehow manages to become the personal doctor of Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whittaker). Amin soon gets on the psycho train and begins to slaughter people. Scottish doctor becomes mildly concerned. Falls in love with a Ugandan woman. Realizes he should have paid attention to that very bad feeling he had about all this. Attempts to leave country. Border access denied. Idi Amin invokes the African practice of extended families by declaring, "You are my son! You cannot leave!"

It takes a village to raise a child. And one crazy ass African to kill everybody!

Grade: Tomato Goat Stew with Pounded Yam

RENT ME

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté). This Jacques Audiard film chronicles the story of a young French gangster (L'Auberge Espagnole's Romain Duris) who must decide between following in the footsteps of his property shark father, or becoming a concert pianist like his dead mother. Being a French movie, expect much sexual tension between characters who you never knew were attracted to one another prior to the pivotal moment in which they confess their desires.

Ex: "I know you feel it! We are like two shy children together!"

And since most of us don't speak French, I ask you to relish in the English subtitles, which feature phrases like,"couscous joint," and "are you flipping out? are you flipping out???"

GRADE: Charlotte aux Fraises