Movies

I've gotten back into the swing of movie watching lately. I suppose this is the time when studios release their more interesting or "prestige" fare. Anyway, a few I'd recommend:

• Lars and the Real Girl. Not your typical "guy falls in love with a sex doll" movie. While Lars holds down a job and functions within the community, he is agonizingly shy and winces away from human touch, preferring to hide away from everyone in his apartment next to the garage of his brother's house. He's delusional, but also caring and harmless, so those around him are at least willing to play along while Lars concocts this relationship he considers to be real and goes through whatever he needs to go through to reconnect with the real world. Anyway, it is completely heartfelt without being overly sentimental, and it never crosses the line into cheap humor at Lar's expense.
  
• Michael Clayton. Great movie with a great script, and I really loved the last scene. George Clooney is one of the more charismatic and entertaining actors out there these days.
  
• The Darjeeling Limited. Written and directed by Wes Anderson, the same guy that did Rushmore. Three brothers go on a spiritual quest in India to find themselves and reconnect with one another. For one thing, he gets the subtlety of how brothers act down, and the three actors have great chemistry, so it works on screen. Everything works. I think it's one of Wes Anderson's best, and I'll be sure to get it on DVD when it's out.