Cynical Cinema

Hi, it’s Jen, Eric’s girflriend. He recruited me to do a review of Sex And The City for him, because he felt that he could not in good conscience review it himself. He is, after all, not the target audience.

The movie takes place three years after the show ended on T.V.

Charlotte and Harry have their adopted Daughter Lily, Miranda and Steve are living in Brooklyn, Samantha and Smith are living in Hollywood and of course Carrie and Mr. Big are moving in together in New York.

While Carrie and Mr. Big are looking for an apartment she calls him the boyfriend and he asks the same question that I often do.” Aren’t I a little too old to be introduced as the boyfriend?” (Or in my case, “the girlfriend?”)

I digress. They then decide to get married but it’s not a romantic proposal, it’s more like a ” Hey why not, I want to be with you so let’s do it.”

With that, the movie begins, with high fashion, wedding gowns, shoes and of course all the gratuitous sex. Lots of eye candy for the women…not so much for the men.

During the two and a half hour run time of Sex And The City, the women go through emotional rollercoasters. With Mr. Big not showing up for the wedding Carrie is heartbroken again, Steve has a one night stand on Miranda,

Samantha gains weight because she and Smith aren’t having sex, and Charlotte is now pregnant. The movie has everything - tears, laughter and of course romance. For those who loved Sex And The City it ties it up in a pretty package.

For those of you who haven’t, this movie is about friendships that we as women have with each other and our relashionships.

With the extended scences and special features on the two disc DVD, this is a Sex In The City must see. And for the men they would learn more about why women are crazy and why they love us for it. The special two-disc edition of Sex And The City comes out tomorrow, September 23rd, from Alliance Films.

When I first started watching The Babysitters, out today from Peace Arch Entertainment, I was worried.  It’s the story of a bunch of high school girls who get together and form a prostitution ring through babysitting.  Their adult clients hire them for lots of money, they look after the kids, and then they have sex.  I was worried that it might be dumbed-down, and not very sexy, because it’s high school girls.  Then I was worried that it might actually be sexy, which would be creepy because it’s high school girls.  I was also worried about the casting.  Much as I enjoy the works of John Leguizamo, I just didn’t see him as the attractive father who sleeps with his attractive babysitter and gets this whole ball rolling.

I was wrong to be worried, at least about Leguizamo.  He is actually very believable, both as a father who is losing touch with his wife (played by Cynthia Nixon - the one who was pregnant on Sex And The City), and also as an older man who might well fall into the arms of a young teenage girl and who may well have that girl throw herself at him as well.  And there isn’t a lot of sex actually shown, so it isn’t too creepy.  But it’s not dumbed down either.  It’s fairly smart, in terms of the dialogue, and well-acted.  Katherine Waterston is very convincing as the proprietress of this organization of ill repute. 

The big problem with the movie, however, is that it’s very one-sided.  It is (sadly) very easy to believe that all these creepy men would exist in the city, willing to pay for sex with young teenagers.  But this movie also seems to make the supposition that just about any high school girl would be willing to sleep with a forty-something father for money.  And although I have never been a high school girl, and I know very few of them these days, I would like to hope this isn’t the case.  If it is, it’s rather disconcerting.  And that sense of unease stayed with me for the rest of the movie.  I couldn’t really shake it, and that made the movie difficult to enjoy.