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Hard Candy, a review by Emma

Hard Candy
Running Time: 100 minutes
Director: David Slade
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page

Trailer:

Hard Candy tells the story of 14-year-old Hayley (Ellen Page) and the older man named Jeff (Patrick Wilson) she meets in an internet chat room, after talking online the two agree to meet in a coffee shop, after this they agree to go back to Jeff's home and photography studio. At Jeff's home a confident Hayley tells jeff she will only drink a drink she poured herself and goes into the kitchen to make them both "screwdrivers" a cocktail mixed with orange Juice and Vodka. But Hayley's warning of "never drinking a drink you did not pour yourself" is about to get a lot more important.

Hard Candy has some amazing camera angles and shots, the cinematic look and almost constant blur of the background make the two main characters prominent in almost every shot. There are a lot of close up shots that help the raw emotion in some scenes come out these extreme close up draw the audience in and help the characters seem more believable in a situation which seem far from it, Although its said that the initial story idea came from producer David Higgins who had read stories from japan about school girls who took revenge on the men that had groomed them via the internet.

What is strange about the characters in the film is both Hayley and jeff  are as guilty as each other, at the end of the film we are no closer to discovering who either character really is or what their real connection to any of the major plot points is. both actors give amazing performances as their individual characters something that those extreme close up benefit from greatly.

Interestingly throughout the entire film there is just 9 minutes of music, whats interesting about this is the backing track of the film is generally made up of ambient noise for example breathing sounds, whats more interesting is that the director (David Slade) was originally a music video director. There are just two songs in the film overall.

I really enjoyed Hard Candy, it had me on the edge of my seat, there is a lot of suspense in this relatively short film although i personally felt it could have been shorter, maybe this is because I hate waiting, there is a very long surgery scene" which I admit I thought was too long. For a film with just two characters I can't believe there is just that one point that seemed tedious. overall this film is a great psychological thriller, one id recommend and definitely a great first feature for Slade.



(From Emma's New Film Reviews! on April 15th, 2011)

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, a review by Tom

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The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia (United Kingdom) Director: Maria Maggenti Writing: Maria Maggenti (Writer) Length: 91 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Stars:
Laurel Holloman as Randy Dean
Miss Maggie Moore as Wendy
Kate Stafford as Rebecca Dean
Sabrina Artel as Vicky
Toby Poser as Lena

Plot:
This acclaimed coming-of-age comedy is the story of two teenagers who unexpectedly experience the excitement, surprise and romantic fantasy of first love. Randy (Laurel Holloman), a rebellious working class tomboy, meets the beautiful, well-to-do Evie (Nicole Parker) and the two girls discover a first love that affects their lives in ways they never imagined. Matter-of-fact, funny and sincere, The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls In Love is the perfect date movie for all.

Extras:

It has been a long time since I saw this one. Almost ten years. On the one hand I enjoyed this movie. But on the other hand it feels quite amateurish at times. There are some scenes where it is very noticable.

Rating:

(From Lesbian Movie Marathon on January 5th, 2013)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Judge Harold "Harry" T. Stone presides a night court in Manhattan where he and his team process mostly cases of solicitation, theft and other minor demeanours. Every night there are different whack jobs and weirdos that await their judgement and Harry is sentencing them unless he shows someone his newest magic trick.

"All You Need Is Love"
On the last day in office the mayor has appointed a new judge to the bench. Since it was a Sunday evening nobody was home - except for the man at the bottom of the list: The very young Judge Harold T. Stone. When he arrives there everybody is aghast and can't really believe that this man is a judge, especially since he doesn't behave that way. Instead he shoots can snakes out of a gun and shows magic tricks. But when he's in the court room he knows what he's doing even when it doesn't look like it.

My Opinion
It was a great team and I had many laughs long before Ally McBeal ever entered a court room. I especially liked John Larroquette in the role of the assistant DA Dan Fielding and Richard Moll in the role of the somewhat slow yet harmless giant Bull. The show also had a great number of known guest actors such as Michael J. Fox and Brent Spiner. Especially Spiner had a recurring role as a Yugoslavian hillbilly.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 11th, 2009)