America's Sweethearts, 2001

It's a comedy about Hollywood insiders and A-list types by Hollywood insiders and A-list types; sometimes it feels like it's for them, too. It's pretty funny, though entirely predictable, so the pleasure comes from primarily from watching the actors do things that they do well. John Cusack is the ripped-up, neurotic ex; Catherine Zeta-Jones is the imperious self-involved primadonna; Julia Roberts is the lovable good egg; Billy Crystal is the long-suffering wisecracker. Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Seth Green, and Christopher Walken are all fun, too. It's like a bag of chips -- enjoyable, but not a meal.

Directed by Joe Roth
Written by Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan

Starring  John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Billy Crystal

It's surprising, but Christopher Walken
plays kind of an oddball.

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Intolerable Cruelty, 2003

Directed by Joel Coen
Written by Robert Ramsey & Matthew Stone and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Starring George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones


This movie is a favorite among favorites (and it's in The Pantheon, of course). Along with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, this is my favorite cat-and-mouse movie.

The acting is, across the board, wonderful. Of course George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are good, but this movie wouldn't be what it is without Geoffrey Rush ("I'm in a meeting!"), Billy Bob Thornton ("Honey, do I look worried?"), Cedric the Entertainer ("You want tact? Call a tactician."), Paul Adelstein ("Baby field greens"), Richard Jenkins ("Your Honor, this is harassment, and, frankly, it's still a little arty-farty."), Edward Herrmann ("Is that possible?") and so many others.

And they obviously wouldn't be so good if it weren't for the writing. The universe of this movie is so filled with lying that it's easy not to notice how often it happens. When George Clooney unknowingly repeats the lie that someone (no spoiler here) has died in a business meeting when we clearly know otherwise, it's just a reminder that they are all filled with, as Big Daddy would say, mendacity.

The Coen brothers really outdid themselves with this movie. The pacing is great, look is great, and even the little touches are great -- things like "Living without Intestines" magazine. That's part of the reason why this movie holds up so well after repeated viewings, and I speak from experience.

A lot of reviews compared this movie to screwball comedies, but, while their influence is evident, it's a product of now. It's just as much fun watching George Clooney go through trouble as our modern Cary Grant, but those movies (The Awful Truth, for example) are about a world that isn't greedy the way this one is. That some of the main action happens at a divorce lawyers' convention in Las Vegas, versus swanky and relatively innocent apartments and nightclubs in '30's New York is telling enough. So much of this movie is about cupidity versus Cupid that the Coen brothers may have left out that pun as a sign that it was too obvious.

Intolerable Cruelty at IMDB.

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The places to hear from me:
Food - josh lubarr food stuff
Geekiness - geekiness(josh lubarr)
Movies - Old Movies and New with Josh Lubarr
Politics - Progressive Politics (per Josh Lubarr)
Silliness and comedy - Le Repository du Silliness, avec Josh Lubarr
Favorite movies - The Pantheon
Me generally - Josh Lubarr's web site extraordinaire
Also also - Josh's Part of lubarr.com

High Fidelity, 2000

Directed by Stephen Frears
Written by D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg from the novel by Nick Hornby
Starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black, and Todd Louiso

This is an all-time favorite of mine. Among its many excellent virtues:

• John Cusack's Rob, which is a non-show-offy but excellent acting job with a character who has no shortage of bad qualities and for an actor who has to spend much of his time talking to the audience and actually having a relationship with them.
• Jack Black's break-out role.
• Great supporting performances by Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Joan Cusack, the inexplicably uncredited Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the incredibly hilarious Tim Robbins.
• The music.
• The "yet" discussion.

One of the younger members of the pantheon.

High Fidelity at IMDB.