Two Movies

I’ve seen two movies this week, Easy A and The Town. Easy A got four and a half stars from our local reviewer and The Town got four. I think those number should have been reversed, with Easy A maybe dropping down to three and a half or even just three.

Most reviews compared Easy A to Juno, for the hip dialogue of these very cool teenagers. Not even close. Juno centered on really only one socially maladjusted teen who expressed her oh so modern views in oh so cool dialogue. It seemed like all the students in Easy A were about twenty-seven years old, physically and socially much older than students have a right to be. These were no Pretty in Pink angst-ridden kids. Not that it wasn’t a good flick, just not nearly as good as the reviews led me to expect.

Then there’s Ben Affleck’s film about Charlestown, Mass, the center of the universe for bank robbers. I didn’t think he was good enough to pull it off. I mean “written by,” “directed by,” and “starring” Ben Affleck. Well, he was. Good enough, that is. This was a very good film and will probably be one of the nominees for best picture, even though its early release will weigh against it. I just can’t remember being this impressed with a film for a long time now, the last one being The Hurt Locker, in which Jeremy Renner starred and now co-starred in this one. Go see The Town. And yeah, go see Easy A also if you were ever in love with Molly Ringwold.