Saturday, March 18, 2006

Millions of Aristocrats

Millions (2005) - Kid who exists in a fantasy world of saints in order to cope with the death of his mother is just hanging out in his cardboard fort in the British countryside when a bag of money gets chucked off a passing train and lands almost literally in his lap. Older brother wants to use the money to be king of the hill in their new town, but our young protagonist, in a quest to emulate his favourite saints, just wants to do good, charitable acts with the windfall. And that's just the setup. This is not the sort of disarmingly poignant film one would expect from Danny Boyle, the guy behind Trainspotting, but what it shares with his earlier work is a variation on the theme of redemption. Worth seeing.
Rating: full house.

The Aristocrats (2005) - So this family walks into a talent agent's office... You may get sick of the joke, you may be disgusted by the various grotesqueries on the way to the inscrutable punchline, but this ode to a comedy profession staple plays out like a dissection of a timeless jazz riff. The editing, which can come across as a bit scattered at first as they jump from one comic to the next, is the salvation of this movie. If you can appreciate a dirty joke and have some familiarity with the range of comedic talent in this collection, you'll probably enjoy it.
Rating: straight.

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