Particles of Truth

I watched an intriguing movie this weekend, a little indie written, directed, produced and starring Jennifer Elster. I watched it because I just finished the final season of Queer as Folk, and wanted to see some more of Gale Harold, aka Brian Kinney. It's a really original story, very well-written and acted, and, since I'm still thinking about it days later, I guess it's also memorable, unlike so many other movies these days. Oh, yeah, it was called "Particles of Truth."

Other movies of note viewed recently:

Cowboy del Amor, which was a Netflix recommendation. A documentary about a cowboy cupid who sets up lonely American men with lonely Mexican woman for possible marriage. The guy is a real character, and the movie is a hoot!

Marilyn Hotchiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. Robert Carlysle of Full Monty fame is a grieving widower who finds life and love again at the D&C School. Has a cast chalk full of great actors, like Marissa Tomei (love her, see The Guru, among other things), Cameron Manheim, Donny Wahlberg, John Goodman, Sean Astin and many more great character actors you'll recognize. You'll also learn something about dancing, and the current instructor, Marianne (?) (Mary Steenbergen) Hotchiss, daughter of Marilyn, articulates well the bliss that comes in dancing, something about magenta tones, wish I had written it down.

Everything is Illuminated. I liked the title, and I knew it was a best selling book first, but I was a little turned off when I found out it was yet another story about survivors of nazi brutality, but it turned out to be lovely, a little different than the rest, and well-acted by a mostly unknown cast - except Elijah Wood as the lead.

Mad Hot Ballroom. Saw that one a while ago but still makes me smile thinking about it. Along those same lines - movies with kids I actually liked - was Spellbound. Those are both documentaries, maybe that's why they were tolerable, the kids were real, not overly precocious or adorable.

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. An Indian movie that was slightly corny (in true Bollywood fashion) but beautifully written and not too preachy.

I love movies with dancing in them, and recently I bought my very own copy of Strictly Ballroom, and Dirty Dancing ("Nobody puts Baby in a corner!") I would also consider buying Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights - great dancing in an otherwise lame movie. I got Brokeback Mountain as soon as it came out on DVD and when mom was here we watched it with subtitles; I have to admit I got some of the dialogue I'd missed the first couple times.