Change Your Image
juliemcmanus
Reviews
All American Bikini Car Wash (2015)
Something for everybody over age 18. Both men and women behaving badly!
This is a funny and fun movie for both men and women. From the title, it looks a bit sexist, and it is full of girls wearing bikinis, but truly, none of them seem to mind, and there is not an atmosphere of exploitation. Well, there's a wink at how bad it is running a bikini car wash, but it's balanced out by the love interest, Brittany (Ashley Park), who is taking a feminist film class and questions it all throughout the movie. If you are all about girls washing cars in bikinis, you will get your fill of that and some sexy sex scenes too- there are tasteful and funny sex scenes, but it also has a plot, setting, and great music. The characters are original and funny, esp Vex (Jason Lockhart) the side kick to mild mannered and lovable lead character Jack (Jack Cullison). The scenario of a house full of partying college students desperate to hook up, and also desperate to make a buck is a recurring theme in American sex comedies, and yet, it doesn't get old for college aged students who seem to love to see it- All American Bikini Car Wash feels more like a hip TV series than a film- you can imagine it in several episodes. Viewers who enjoy movies like American Pie, and Something About Mary, will like this movie. I liked the fact that the girls get theirs too- they are on the make and after some fun as much as the boys. There are plenty of happy endings in this movie. If you don't take it too seriously, you might just have some fun.
What Maisie Knew (2012)
The movie lingers
I saw What Maisie Knew months ago in the theater, and yet I keep thinking about it. They got to the heart of the material. The casting and emotional tenor is perfect. I keep thinking about the characters as if I knew them. This is a haunting movie of the break up of a family and the resilience of a child. I highly recommend it. Having had a mother a bit like the Julianne Moore character, I was profoundly moved by the caustic effects of a selfish parent. She was wonderful. To think it was adapted from a Henry James story is interesting, that there could be parents so self centered one hundred years back. Sad, yet Maise finds what she needs and holds the moral center of the movie. The settings were poignant and poetic. Somehow the entire production gets to the heart of the heartbreak of a child.