A Lot to Talk About IX

Kenny. Is. Gone! It's the first time I've actually stood up and cheered at a filmmaker's departure.

I didn't see Mateen going. Although, I complained last week that Shalini didn't deserve to go home based, not on her one stumble but on the body of her work. Logically, you could say the same for Mateen. If you are going by his body of work, then he was ripe to go. Now the entire "cast" of filmmakers are young, white guys. Shame.

I enjoyed all of the films last night though I can't get gushingly excited about any of them. Which hurts, especially when it comes to Zach.

There is nothing I need to say about Zach's Bonus Feature that the judges didn't already say. Yes, the movie was more ride than film, a danger for all effects laden fare. And yes, while the film homage was fun, it was...skewed, shall we say, toward Speilberg and Lucus' oeuvre. I love the fact that Zach wants to make modern day fantasy films, but as incredible as this film was visually, it is perhaps my least favorite of his work. It simply didn't stick with me as his other films have done.

Adam's Girl Trouble (with more homages!) was funny, with a great pop at the end, but, like Zach's film, it didn't stick with me once the lights went up.

I thought Will's Unplugged was charming and darling. Hey, if a hopping lamp is good enough to launch Pixar, it's good enough for Will.

Andrew's Keep off Grass was hilarious and well written, but needed to be bigger and more varied. Funny as the dialogue was, there was just too much of it--or at least not enough going on while the words flew. Still, it was a fantastic original idea.

Sam's American Hoe was funny and eerily spot on for how little things in a relationship tend to spiral out of control. While I didn't adore the film, I didn't dislike it like the judges seemed to.

Jason's Old Home Boyz was well acted and ridiculous, but Jason's love of his work and his persistently positive attitude is always infectious, winning you over.

It's so hard at this point to predict who will go home next week, especially when none of the films sucked. Still, my bet's on Adam and Sam.

Next week's topic is America's love affair with the automobile. Gee, do you think Ford could have something to do with that?