Bridesmaids (2011)

4/5

Bridesmaids is easily the funniest movie I've seen this year. Like Knocked Up and The Hangover, the humor is raunchy bordering on vulgar. And best of all, it is non-stop. The movie is about preparing for a wedding. More specifically, it is about how all the pre-wedding traditions (dress-fitting, bridal shower, bachelorette party) get butchered by the maid of honor. Annie (Wiig) is the awkward but kindhearted best friend, too exaggerated to be a real person but genuine enough that her downfalls can pull at your heartstrings. Lillian (Rudolph) is the bride-to-be, caught between the nostalgia of her humble past and the allure of a lavish wedding. Annie is, of course, the maid of honor, but after a few botched jobs, the friends have a falling out and Lillian's new best friend Helen (Byrne) takes over the wedding planning.

I neglected to mention the rest of the cast, all unique and memorable. But the one that stands out the most is the groom's sister Megan (McCarthy). She is amazing. She carries the humor and the heart in this movie as much as Kristen Wiig does. She absolutely blew me away. Her character and her portrayal adds a whole new dimension to the movie that elevates this film above most other modern comedies. I loved her.

As for the technical aspects of the movie, I was impressed that the cinematography and editing was not terrible, but not actually impressed with it at all. The writing, as you can tell by my profuse praise of the comedy in the film, is right on point. The actors add impeccable timing to make this film a riot. The story is a good length and it touches on some finer points of friendship and female-female interactions that I didn't think it would touch on. When it comes to movies, Bridesmaids has just about the whole package. I recommend it 100%.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478338/

The Town (2010)

4/5

The Town is a movie about a lot of things. What it tries hardest to be about is a certain community in Charlestown, MA. It is a community of bank robbers, into which protagonists Doug (Affleck) and James (Renner) were born, and how its way of life is similar to other cultures and other communities. It is also about people escaping from their past and about uncertain, sacrificial love (both man-wife and parent-child). The movie starts with a bank robbery in which Claire (Hall) is taken hostage and blindfolded. She is eventually sent free without a mark on her. She is approached by the FBI (Hamm), but offers them very little except suspicion of criminal involvement. Doug starts following her to make sure she doesn't confess anything incriminating to the FBI, but soon develops a profound and all-encompassing love for her. He wants to quit his career to be with her, hoping that she will never find out the truth between how they met and how they know each other. But of course this wouldn't have been turned into a movie if life were that simple.

The directing is more than competent, with sharp cinematography and efficient editing, although a few times it felt trite or simplistic. Similarly, the script was well-written with a few concepts made overly obvious to the point of numbing bluntness. The acting was all around fantastic, although nothing really blew me away. All in all this is a technically competent movie with tense action scenes and a complex set of relationships. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of excitement and/or crime.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840361/