The Short Take: Part 3 + Bonus Explainer

Explainer: I was looking at my labels the other day, and I noticed that I have two that are sort of similar: I saw . . . this and The Short Take. I invented the latter because I had a lot of movies backlogged to review and the former because I didn't have a lot to say about a backlog of movies. Although I'd retired The Short Take in favour of I saw . . . this, I've decided to revive it and make a distinction between them. Henceforth, The Short Take shall be reserved for capsule reviews of non-classic movies that I have seen in the theatre or on DVD, and I saw . . . this for pithy paragraphs on classics if and when I manage to take them in. As always, if I have more to say, chances are you will have to suffer through a longer review.

The Host (2006)

I don't normally go in for horror movies or creature features, but I had heard so many good things about this Korean outing that I hit the Bytowne to check it out. It's a fantastic hor-com that defies a lot of the expectations that I have for either genre: we see a full view of the creature in the first ten minutes, our protagonist is neither hero nor anti-hero, the title doesn't refer to the creature. They also pulled the creation story for the creature from fact, and the monster rarely looks fake (maybe for a few seconds toward the end) and is always terrifying.
All that and a subtle hint at a possible sequel? It all adds up to a funny and scary adventure. A-

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

I wanted to see this went it first came out because it was so well reviewed (and often on Top 10 lists for the year), but I never got the chance. I liked it a lot, but you have to give yourself time to sit down with it if you are going to catch half of what is going on. Based on what's considered the first post-modern novel (written back before there was a modern to get all post-y about), Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is also considered un-filmable. Obviously the easy thing to do would be to make it a movie within a movie, right? That's exactly what director Michael Winterbottom and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce did, and it works. Steve Coogan does triple duty as Tristram Shandy, his father Walter, and, of course, Steve Coogan, but his sly humour is well suited to the role. He is only the beginning of the treasure trove of comedic actors this movie offers. If nothing else, see it for the argument Coogan and co-star Rob Brydon get into at the end about who is better at impersonations. A-

Prozac Nation (2005)

I read somewhere that this movie's release was delayed because the protagonist was considered unlikeable. It's not that Christina Ricci doesn't do a great job with the role (she does), but Elizabeth is so cruel and frustrating that watching her self-destruction barely arouses an iota of sympathy. We want to ascribe all of her bad qualities to her illness, but it's up to the script and the actress to make her sympathetic. You can see Ricci trying, but the movie never quite makes
it. As for the title as a reference to some larger idea of the entire country over-medicating, it's the medication that makes Elizabeth tolerable at the end, so . . . it's a good thing? Yay Prozac? That doesn't sound right. D