Aaawwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

I was monumentally annoyed by (500) Days of Summer:

Aggravating and cloying from minute one, (500) Days of Summer feels like it was written by a bunch of marketing executives who just took a class on indie quirkiness at the Learning Annex.

I found The Stoning of Soraya M. to be icky:

Death by stoning, of course, is a thing that happens in the world—a true story, if you want—but Soraya M. paints the circumstance with such a broad brush that it tells no truth at all.

Paul Constant highly recommends Audience of One:

Virtually everything about this documentary, from a quietly disgusted aside by Gazowsky’s mother to the enthusiasm of his churchgoers as they try to make a big-budget blockbuster with no actual moviemaking knowledge or experience, is a perfectly entertaining study in awkwardness.

Gillian Anderson loves Unmistaken Child:

The entire movie is from the outlook of the young monk—there is no outside commentary, history, or Buddhist theology lessons. The disciple's quest is completely engaging, but it brings up questions about the heartbreak of giving up a young child to a religious life for the greater good. It is also a fascinating look at a remote part of the world and the Tibetan Buddhism that survives there.

And $9.99 is so-so, I say:

$9.99 is a slow, unsettling film, but feels excessively writerly: as though Keret sat down and donned his Now I Shall Write Some Stories and They Shall Be Meaningful cap.

Also playing this weekend: Army of Darkness at the Fremont Outdoor Movie; Camille 2000, Downhill Racer, and Family: A Webisodic Program at Northwest Film Forum; Central Cinema has Mars Attacks!; Julie Darling a.k.a. Daughter of Death and War of the Worlds at the Grand Illusion; the Wallingford Meaningful Movie is Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in an Age of Intellectual Property; and 911 Media Arts has the first annual Hot Rod Monsters Film Festival

Finally, of course, there's that wizard thing. And speaking of wizards:

Have a good weekend!