{Bridesmaids opened in Seattle on Friday May 13th, and is playing at The Big Picture, Pacific Place, the Metro, and Oak Tree Cinemas}

Hi, my name is Rich and I'm a big fan of romantic comedies. But even if you don't have this particular personal problem quirk, I think most people will find something to laugh seriously at in Bridesmaids. If you're male and in a dating situation it also has the benefit of appearing to be a chick flick while (I'm pretty confident) appealing to a broad population.

Guys - don't worry, this isn't like Sex in the City 2, where you went to be nice and spent the next two and a half hours deciding if the downside of clawing your eyes out outweighs the benefits of not having to see what was going on for the rest of the picture. That said, Bridesmaids isn't is a film to bring your young daughters (or sons) to...unless you want to expand their vocabulary a bit, and not in the workplace acceptable way.

Even the most casual film viewer from the last hundred years will recognize the story and the milestones along the way. Annie (Kristen Wiig), a woman without a lot of luck in love or business, struggles with emotional baggage while serving as her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) Maid of Honor.

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{Louder than a Bomb opened at SIFF Cinema on Friday, May 6. Director Jon Siskel and artist Lamar Jorden are expected to attend both the Friday and Saturday screenings}

Louder Than a Bomb is an annual team poetry slam contest that began in 2001.  The contestants being students representing around sixty Chicago area schools. It's also the title of a dynamic and uplifting documentary about that event.

On the surface it feels as though the picture closely follows the template of other docs about schools kids challenging themselves via a unique after school activity (think Spellbound or Mad Hot Ballroom). That's a formula for a reason, so there's no reason to hold it against them. But in reality, the film peaks in a way that's somewhat different and is dramatically very effective.

The filmmakers followed four teams, and this film absolutely shines due to the energy and raw skill of the high school age participants. This isn't quite the poetry I remember from my high school writing club (and not just because of the lesser focus on death and suicide). It's raw and powerful, and chronicles both the joy and the anguish in the students' lives. The film gets the feel so right that there are moments where it's an act of will not to jump up and cheer along with the slam audience onscreen.

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{Something Borrowed opened in Seattle on Friday, May 6, and is playing at the Metro, Meridian, and Oak Tree Cinemas}

I'd like to tell you that Something Borrowed takes a gutsy stab at making something painfully unfunny, funny - but honestly, there's just no way to spin "sleeping with your best friend's fiance" into something hilarious, no matter how hard you try to pad it with stereotypes and OMG! LOL! moments.

This packed-with-cliches rom-com is dependent on many unbelievable things. The first of which is that best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson) is so smoking hot that no one would take a second look at Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) - which is of course, incredibly ridiculous. Even if you stick Goodwin in plain clothes and bad hair, hi. She's still GORGEOUS.

That doesn' t really matter though, because Rachel is such a sad-sack doormat that she let Darcy steal the man of her dreams years earlier because "hot guys don't go out with girls like me". Uh. or something.

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{Bill Cunningham New York opened in Seattle on Friday, April 29 at the Harvard Exit}

If you've spent much time in New York it's not unlikely that you've come across New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. He's hard to miss, sporting his signature blue jacket (and sometimes, when mobile on the Schwinn he rides 'round on, an orange safety vest) while energetically snapping photos of the fashion-forward -- whether they like it or not -- as they walk the streets of Manhattan. For Mr. Cunningham, the best fashion shows take place on the concrete runways there.

The chipper octogenarian is equal-opportunity about who he snaps -- uptown to downtown, from socialites to bicycle messengers -- and it's clear he thrives on the variety of life in his city; his four-plus-decade career chronicling high and low fashion has made him a New York fixture. And thanks to his Sunday Style columns "On the Street" (those fabber-than-average citizens) and "Evening Hours" (chronicling the city's high-brow gala events), and, now, the absorbing documentary portrait Bill Cunningham New York, he's officially a legend.

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{Zero Bridge opened in Seattle at the Northwest Film Forum on Friday April 22, and screens through the 28th}

Zero Bridge, the debut film by Tariq Tapa is a small, small film that punches significantly above its weight class in terms of emotional wallop. Set in Kashmir, it both introduces us to the core character's lives at a pivotal point and, without saying anything about it forces one to consider the challenges of day to day life in such a disputed region.  The film perhaps won't be winning any cinematography awards anytime soon - but the low budget digital photography fades into the background rather quickly.  And for whatever reason the low tech look of the film complements the themes.  Especially when it zooms in very close on the two subjects faces.  Director Tapa really seems to like to get in close on his leads Mohamad Imran Tapa and Taniya Khan (to the point you'll be asking yourself if this is really a mumblecore flick).  But it works as the camera loves both of them - for differing reasons.

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{Kill the Irishman opened in Seattle on Friday, April 8th, and is screening at The Metro}

If you love them mobster movies featuring up-and-coming wise guys in the 70s- then have I got a film for you. It's like a slightly gentler Goodfellas, but without Joe Pesci...and not quite as good. Though on the bright side, lots of character actors who may have been hurting after the Sopranos finale got some work out of this decent (if not standout) film.

Based on a true story, Kill the Irishman starts with our protagonist Danny Greene (played by Ray Stevenson) tooling around town in his sweet 70s ride. Then we see smoke from the cassette player followed by the car exploding. But wait - it seems somehow Danny, the "Irishman" of the title has survived, and he's shouting to the winds about how it's gonna take more than a bomb to kill him. Then the flashback starts, and Val Kilmer begins to tell the tale.

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{Hanna opens in Seattle Friday, 4/8 and is playing at the Metro, the Majestic Bay, The Big Picture, and the Meridian}

Hanna has some beautifully shot moments, but at the end of the day it's hard to recommend an action adventure road movie where the predominant questions I'm asking myself as I watch are:
- can someone please get that girl a bottle of conditioner for her split ends, and
- Marissa Viegler - the villain of the piece, which came first - her name or the character's accent?  It seems to me one was chosen to enhance the other.

Before I get any farther, I should say that even though I didn't really dig this film it's still way more interesting than Sucker Punch if one is stuck ranking recent films with violent young women. Pretty much the entire film's story is covered in the trailer - which while making it more likely you'll see the film in the first place, pretty much guarantees that the few genuine dramatic moments will be ruined for you.

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{Happythankyoumoreplease opened in Seattle on Friday, 3/25 and is playing at the Metro}

There's a point where a movie can be just a little too indy and a little too cute for it's own good.  Happythankyoumoreplease skates right up to that line but never crosses it, resulting in an experience that was actually rather enjoyable.  Like a more serious episode of When I Met Your Mother with  artsy photography, considerably better music, and none of that bullshit where they pretend to be a comedy but kill off someone's dad when the ideas start to run dry.  Also Ted kidnaps a kid…

In addition to being the bane of spellcheckers, the film Happythankyoumoreplease was written/directed, and starred in by Josh Radnor.  An actor familiar to many as the character Ted who each week tells horribly inappropriate tales to his children on the TV's show How I Met Your Mother. In point of fact other thant it being the same actor playing men of the same life stage, the film bears little resemblance to the TV show.  Other than both have something to with friendship, love, and growing up. The comparison is mostly just a cheap way to start - but seriously, why did they have to kill off Marshall's dad?!?

Anyhoo…

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{Jane Eyre opened in Seattle on Friday, 3/18 and is playing at the Egyptian}

Not to be cliche about it, but this ain't your (great great grand)mother's Jane Eyre. Hipster director du jour Cary Fukunaga took this classic tale and spun it into a great big fat Gothic thriller complete with physical assault, fire, blood, and so much sexual tension I thought *I* might need smelling salts just to recover.

For those that might not be Charlotte Brontë nerds, the title character is a girl who's been punished for not being pretty enough and treated cruelly all her life. She's outspoken, headstrong, and bluntly NOT ladylike. In other words, Jane is ahead of her time.

Thank god she learns to speak French at her hellish boarding school, because that allows her to escape to a giant castle-like estate way out in the middle of nowhere called Thornfield Hall that was clearly made for ghosts - and indeed, it seems like broody man of the house Rochester has plenty to hide. I can't say much else without ruining the plot for anyone who doesn't know it, so I'll just skip ahead to the brilliance of the film as a whole.

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{Paul opened in Seattle Friday, March 18 and is screening at the Metro, AMC Pacific Place, and Oak Tree Cinemas}

To paraphrase a popular T-shirt,  there are 11 types of people in the world:

- Those who are confident in the belief that they who would NEVER enjoy a road movie about two guys picking up a wisecracking, foulmouthed, pop culture-obsessed ET hitchhiker (personally I think such people are weird - but I'm sure they exist).
- Those who are now sort of curious, but are unable to view the idea of attending Comicon in a non-ironic light, and
- Readers who both get the joke that started this list, have attending Comicon on their bucket list, and have now probably stopped reading to check their local theater listings for when they can catch a screening of Paul.

To those in the first group - all I can say is: how far has this alleged self awareness really gotten you? In this case, it's going to keep you from seeing one of Seth Rogen's best performances since Freaks and Geeks. Those in the second segment - I feel pretty confident saying you're going to get good comedy value for the money. As an added bonus, you'll finally be able to point to folks from SNL in a movie that doesn't at all suck.  

But for those in the last group? Bottom line is: you sort of have to go. This is the movie you hoped Fanboys was gonna be.

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