In many ways “Friends with Benefits” is akin to a reboot of “No Strings Attached,” which came out just a few months ago, and that’s good news for conservative moviegoers.  Like “No Stings,” “FWB,” which stars the magnetic Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, ultimately arrives at the conclusion that sexual relationships are apt to get very complicated very quickly and have the tendency to materialize into love.  Or tears.

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However, this rule doesn’t really apply when it comes to gay men.  A greater percentage of male/male relationships (compared to male/female or female/female) can be purely sexual without any “strings attached,” and, to the filmmakers’ credit, that nuance is not lost in “Friends with Benefits.”  Woody Harrelson, who is very funny as an over-the-top gay character, offers this wisdom.  But the ideas that “monogamy is against our nature” and casual sex comes with negligible emotional and physical baggage–particularly when there’s a woman in the equation–has been roundly rebuked in recent years and Hollywood romantic comedies deserve a lot of the credit.

There are even a few jokes that specifically target liberals: Kunis refers to hybrid cars and local/organic/sustainable food as “bullshit” on separate occasions and Harrelson says that “no one wants to fuck Obama” because his ears are too big.  For years romantic comedies have been a haven for conservative moviegoers because they tend to glorify monogamy as opposed to loveless sex.  But now they’re also subjecting liberals to the types of barbs right-of-center folk have endured for decades!? Could Hollywood finally be turning a corner?  With the advent of new media, conservatives finally have had a megaphone to complain about these digs that typically only go in one direction (ours).  Maybe it’s having an effect! (more…)

BEST PICTURE – DRAMA

Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up In the Air

BEST PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE

Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Clint Eastwood – Invictus
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds (more…)

We know – because we’ve been told – that love is many things. Unrequited love, however, is only a few things, mainly painful and baffling. But mostly baffling, because long after the pain ebbs the confusion remains: Why didn’t she love me?  In director Marc Webb’s feature debut, the clever and charming “500 Days of Summer,” that’s the question a despairing Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) asks as he looks back and tries to put the pieces of a broken relationship together in a way that might help to make sense of it all.

Like the fevered recollections of the newly heartsick, the plot leaps back and forth through the now-haunting highs and inexplicable lows of Tom’s 500 day relationship with Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a girl he met at the office, a girl who warned up front that she’s not wired for any kind of permanent relationship. Foolishly, instead of taking that personally, Tom might have made the mistake of taking her at her word and goes all in, sure he’ll be the first to make his way through Summer’s natural defense, the ethereal aloofness that both draws him and constantly keeps him off guard.   (more…)