Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Bad Words

First there was Bad Santa, and it was a pretty great film. Then came Bad Teacher, which had its moments, but wasn't anywhere as good as Bad Santa. Finally, there is Bad Words, a movie starring, directed, produced, and catered* by Bateman. It's his directing debut, but is far from the debut of the typical Jason Bateman "smarm" character, even if he's more of a potty mouth than Michel Bluth ever was. While I only enjoyed parts of the film, I would like to see how Director Jason Bateman does going forward, as I think he has some promise.

DVD Case Pantheon: Magnolia

Some of my favorite films are tightly built. They clock in at about 90 minutes, leave absolutely nothing inessential in the story, and yet still find time to have well developed characters. There is usually one main story line featuring a minimum of characters. Urgency and consequences are the name of the game.