10 Things I Hate About You: Again, I was pleasantly surprised by this teen re-working of The Taming of the Shrew. Julia Stiles's Kat would fit right in at Bryn Mawr, with her bitter, humorless conviction that the entire world is a conspiracy to keep women subservient. Of course, all she really needs is a man to snap her out of it. Actually, the movie isn't that facile, which is one of its most pleasing aspects. It's also pretty funny.
Run Lola Run: I was disappointed by this movie, but I'd heard so much hype it would have been hard not to be. I mostly enjoyed it -- a sharp, energetic pace keeps you from getting bored, at least. But the animated bits were just stupid and without any logical reason for being there, and worse were the bits in between each iteration of Lola's race to keep her boyfriend from doing something dumb, where they're lying in bed talking. I fast-forwarded through them; I avoid those kind of insipid, mawkish conversations when I'm actually in a relationship -- why would I want to hear these two shallow kids prattle on, especially in German? And while I liked seeing how little variations in Lola's run affected the people she passed, some made no sense at all, which wouldn't have been such a notable failure if the gimmick hadn't worked so well in the other cases.
The Dream Life of Angels: Again, a case where excessive hype disappointed me. I'd been hearing that this was a movie that changed people's lives; some critics were saying this was the best foreign film ever. I liked it a great deal, but I didn't see anything exceptional in it. It's a nicely done, engaging, but not especially profound look at two young women drifting through a less-than-dreamy life. It's definitely worth seeing -- just don't expect it to change your life.
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