American Dreamz (2006)

I don't traditionally like pop culture comedies, or political comedies, so I pretty much got this with my fingers crossed hoping it'd be entertaining. Turns out, it was. Even the political stuff didn't bug me, and the American Idol spoofing was dead-on and absolutely hilarious. This flick hit all the right notes for me while managing to be the sort of film I never enjoy seeing. Now that's pretty impressive. Much of that is due to the nearly-always-present charm of Hugh Grant, but not all of it. Most of the other actors do a wonderful job as well. Even Mandy Moore is much funnier and more interesting than usual, creating a character I could actually believe in this time around. Good stuff. 4 stars.

American Beauty (1999)

What do you do with a movie where you were intrigued by the story, kept interested all the way through, but really disliked all the characters and couldn't actually relate to them? That's what happened here. Although it was a fascinating movie and had some really wonderful moments, I never warmed to any of the characters, whose flaws all overshadowed any good points they might have had. If that was a deliberate attempt to tie in to the theme of beauty in the world - a sort of "beauty's in the world, even if the people in the world aren't beautiful," then I agree it was wonderful. But if it was supposed to be a story about the people... I think it failed for me by not making the characters anyone I wanted to actually watch on screen. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, though, and rate it 3 1/2 stars instead of 3 like I usually would. 3.5 stars.