lost weekend

I don't remember doing anything much except that I watched 2 movies in a row -- Birthday Girl and 0. I had no idea what Birthday Girl was about, except that it had Nicole Kidman in it as some Russian mail order bride and Mathieu Kassovitz was in it. Ben Chaplin reminds me of Joaquin Phoenix. I sort of expected something else in the ending. If you were a bank person who spent his entire life building credibility and you just ruined it because your girl asked you to, what would you do? Especially if you learned that it was all a sham, wouldn't you want to somehow get even? Oh well. Maybe he loved the dear girl.

I love Baz Luhrmann, and his R+J was very pretty to look at.Luhrmann retained the dialogue, transported us to Verona Beach where everyone is fabulously dressed. But the thing is, even with all that eye candy and Harold Perrineau strutting around, R+J doesn't give you a sense of dread. Okay, the lovers die. Too bad. Let's get the soundtrack.

On the other hand, Palmetto Grove gives us a glimpse of the competition in a preppy high school ball club. Everyone in Palmetto Grove is scrubbed and pampered, sure. But you could feel the anxiety, the underhanded motivations and the insecurities each of those teenagers have. Josh Hartnett played Hugo, who only wanted to soar. Josh Hartnett makes a damn good Iago. His was the most fleshed out character in there. You know what his motivations are: he knows he's good, but all eyes are on that hawk Odin. His dad is the basketball coach, but Martin Sheen's favorite is Odin, and the coach loves him like he was his own son. Ouch. Then Odin wins the MVP award and he shares the booty with Mike. Odin even gets the girl. And poor Hugo ends up playing second fiddle to everyone else. The boy wants to be noticed. He's envious of Odin, and he definitely wants to do something about it. He manipulates all the insecurities of the people around him in order to get the best results. If Josh Hartnett were in soap opera land, he'd make Amor Powers shudder.

However, even the best laid plans don't always work. People, no matter how well you think you know them, don't always behave like push button clockwork oranges. Thus begins the carnage that leaves everyone dead, and Hugo is left standing. If he had the choice, wouldn't he kill himself as well? I think I read somewhere that O floated in the ether of unshown films for a while because the ending reminded people too much of Columbine. Which is about a couple of outsider teens who want to belong. O is about the in group, popular kids who get embroiled by their own insecurities. Can two incidents of carnage ever be the same?