Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is an action loaded girl-power comedy. Bliss is an unhappy teenager who is forced to go to attend beauty pageants by her mother. When she discovers Roller Derby she falls in love with it immediately and joins a team without telling her parents.

The story could be fun but it is just so predictable. I like the idea of making a film about Roller Derby because I don’t know anything about it but it is definitely lacking in finesse. The characters are one demential and none of them are especially original. I guess the problem is that people like Drew Barrymore get to make their first steps with big budget feature films while other directors make lots of short films where they can make mistakes and then go on to direct feature length movies.

The conclusion is that even though there is a lot of talent involved (Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden and many more) and the idea is cute it just didn’t turn out to be a good movie. Lets hope Drew’s next film will be better…

I stumbled across a blog post by Miranda on Cinematic Passions where she wrote about Entertainment Weekly’s article on the 25 funniest actresses in Hollywood. When I looked at the article there I realized that I only new about 2 out of the 25. So, now I am making my own list of the 10 funniest actresses of today (classic actresses are a whole other post).

I have to admit that when I think about comedies, I think about men (Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria and the likes).

Ellen Page - Even though I have only seen her in one comedy (Juno), she impressed me enough to make it onto the list.

Renée Zellweger – I can laugh about her as Bridget Jones every single time I watch it (it’s been a few). She is also funny in Down with Love, Chicago, Me, Myself and Irene and Nurse Betty.

Reese Witherspoon – I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I love her in Legally Blonde!

Emma Thomson – more known for her dramas, she can be very funny (Much Ado About Nothing, Harry Potter). I am sure this woman can play any role you throw at her anyway…

Jennifer Aniston – She really makes me laugh (apart from Friends, she is funny in Along Came Polly, Bruce Almighty).

Shirley Henderson – She might not be a big Hollywood star but she is incredibly funny! (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Harry Potter)

Julia Roberts – (Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Hook, America’s Sweethearts, Ocean’s Twelve…)

Zooey Deschanel - I love her in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Almost Famous

Cameron Diaz – even though I am not a big Cameron-fan, I have to admit that she is very funny in Shrek (voice), My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something about Mary.

Drew Barrymore – she appears in a lot of comedies but she is normally the “cute” one, rather than the “funny” one.

Other funny actresses:

I thought about adding Meryl Streep - but even when she is in comedies, she brings drama into them (i.e. The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia!)

Jamie Lee Curtis, Maggie Smith, Blythe Danner

I miss Whoopy Goldberg and Bette Midler, make me laugh again

The Conclusion: I am sorry to say that there are no real comediennes in Hollywood. At least not in films I watch (If you like American Pie and similar films you might disagree with this statement). The actresses I listed are all funny or appear in comedies but they are, mostly, not the main character and their funniness comes more from the amusing story. Legally Blonde is the wonderful exception here. It seems strange that there is such a big gap between male and female comedians. What are your thoughts?

In 2005 the unknown (at least to me) director David Slade and writer Brian Nelson took a shot at the horror genre. Hard Candy is a film about a young girl who wants to take revenge on what she believes is a paedophile. The film is very similar to Funny Games: here, a girl is torturing a seemingly innocent man in his own home.

The story starts with the 14-year-old Hayley (Ellen Page) meeting the 32-year-old photographer Jeff (Patrick Wilson) at a café after having chatted with him on the Internet for three weeks. The audience is led to believe that the innocent girl is getting herself into big trouble by going home with the guy to “listen to some music”. She acts older than she is (doesn’t look one day over 14, though), flirting with Jeff and mixing drinks for both of them.

It soon turns out that she had planned the meeting entirely and is now there to revenge a friend of hers who was kidnapped and killed by paedophiles. After drugging Jeff, Hayley ties him up, tortures him and searches his house for clues that he is the man who killed her friend. He constantly begs her to let him go, which just amuses her more.

It is a two-man (well, one-man, one-girl) show. There are a couple of side characters (the waiter at the café and a neighbour who wants to sell cookies), but it is mainly Jeff and Hayley in the house. There is a lot of dialogue, but it is not incredibly well written. The girl is playing mental games with the adult as well as physically torturing him. It is cruel. Let’s just say, it is not a fun film to watch. I am sure there are fans of this genre, but if you are out for entertainment, this is not the film for you.

The reason I wanted to watch the film was Ellen Page, whom I had seen and liked in Juno, so I wanted to see more of her work. She must have been about seventeen while filming Hard Candy and still, her acting is good. She is quite hard core (hard candy…haha), her eyes are cold as ice, not flinching one bit throughout the film. At the same time she always keeps the childishness of her character. She really pulls off this crazy and confused girl.

I am not entirely sure what the message of this film is. Maybe: Don’t meet people for real whom you’ve met on the Internet. Or: Don’t become a paedophile or young girls will come and hunt you down and cut of your balls. Dunno…

When sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) gets pregnant from a one-time-in-a-chair-act with her best friend Paulie, she decides to give the child up for adoption. She finds Vanessa and Mark’s (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) ad in the “Penny Saver” and decides this perfect yuppie couple will be the ideal foster parents for her baby.

The film is told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno discovers that she is pregnant to summer when she has given up the baby and can start being a normal teenager again.

First off: Ellen Page is absolutely brilliant. Juno is one of the coolest girls I’ve ever seen on screen (possibly too cool to exist in reality). She is honest, straightforward, unusual and absolutely lovable. She uses her incredible wit and sharp irony to cover herself up against the cruel situation of being a teenager. Her not-quite-boyfriend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) is on the cross country team, wearing gold shorts, head and wrist bands. He is quirky, confused and sweet. Juno definitely has the upper hand with him.

Screenwriter Diablo Cody decided at the age of twenty-four that life should have more to offer for her then being a secretary and out of a whim became a stripper. After a year of stripping by night and blogging (there is still hope!) by day, Mason Novick (who later became her manager) got interested in the writing on her extremely popular blog Pussy Ranch (one of the many she wrote) and secured her a publishing contract. Soon her memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper came out which enabled Diablo to write the wonderful script for Juno.

Jason Reitman had only directed one notable film before this, Thank you for Smoking (which I have not yet seen, but which got quite good reviews). It is so refreshing to have a bunch of fairly unknown creatives coming up with such a great film. Juno got nominated for endless amounts of awards and even got a (deserved) Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

This film is a wonderful coming-of-age story. It is quick paced, full of witty dialogue and reminds me a bit of a pop song. There is no way of not feeling ecstatic after watching Juno. I hope to see more films written by Diablo Cody (will order her book) and films with Ellen Page soon.

Juno is rewarded the MovieCat Award for the really fun soundtrack and for being a film to fall in love with.