So I saw Enchanted and Bee Movie yesterday in a happy double feature. I was going to see American Gangster too, but we decided we couldn't end the night with an 11:30 showing of a 2:40 movie that would probably be depressing.

Enchanted was wonderful. Just tongue-in-cheek enough to balance the sweetness, with a truly stellar performance by Amy Adams. I have not seen Junebug and so was only familiar with her because of her short guest stint as a Hot Girl in The Office (though apparently also she played Tara's sister Beth in "Family" - who knew?) but she's just wonderful. I'm afraid she's going to find herself stuck in this type of movie, Anne Hathaway-style, but having already gotten an Academy nod for something less childrenish, maybe she can escape. Either way, Giselle can and will certainly join the list of Amazing Disney Princesses To Be Admired. I don't think Enchanted will displace Ella Enchanted as my Favorite Tongue-in-cheek Fantasy Kids Movie with Musical Numbers, but by this time next year their DVD cases will be sitting right next to each other on my shelf.

Bee Movie was fine, but kind of boring. And that's really all I have to say about that.

FWIW, and to each his or her own, but I didn't find American Gangster that depressing. Now, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is much higher on the depressing scale, with No Country for Old Men perhaps lower or higher depending on your general orientation toward the Coen brothers.

I didn't find any of the three movies downright BLEAK. But BTDKYD isn't really the movie to see before a party.

I think I may have won the bleak movie viewing sweepstakes today. Well, if no one saw Blood Simple in an arthouse, anyway.

I didn't know Martha Plimpton was Keith Carradine's daughter

I didn't know that and I've partied with her. We used to have mutual friends in Chicago.

Well, if no one saw Blood Simple in an arthouse, anyway.

Blood Simple is HILARIOUS. How could it be bleak moviegoing experience?

Did anyone else think Beowulf was a comedy? I just read Roger Ebert's review.

I didn't know that and I've partied with her.

This would make my best friend SO jealous. She has a huge girl-theater-crush on the Plimpton. (Who, by the way, is excellent in Cymbeline but, in my opinion, somewhat miscast. She's gorgeous, but she's by no stretch of the imagination a 16-year-old, and I was close enough to the stage that the disconnect really killed my suspension of disbelief. Not that this is the theater thread. Move along.)

She's almost two years younger than me and I got carded buying cigarettes last week. (Don't worry. So far I've only smoked 2 of them.)

I found no country for old men plenty bleak. Of course I came home fro the movie to find that my power was out, so I opened my door fully expecting to be shot in the head with a compressor. Then I sat in the dark for a couple of hours, contemplating the nature of evil.

The whole time I was watching the movie, and afterwards, I couldn't help think of Tommy Lee Jones character compared to the sheriff in Fargo. Lots of paralells, both decent, small town cops who were good detectives, but TLJs character seemed totally shaken and defeated by his encounter with truly bad men, where FM character had her family and a basic faith in humanity to fall back on.

She's almost two years younger than me and I got carded buying cigarettes last week. (Don't worry. So far I've only smoked 2 of them.)

There are people her age, and older, who could pull it off on stage without distracting me. I wouldn't expect anybody much younger than her to play the role, actually: it's a tough one. But she very much looks her age. Not an insult, just truth.