The Office: Season 3

Beth: Watch it. Best comedy in the world. 

Creepy Creed should win a grammy for his contributions here.  And Stanley also a standout. Go team.

Noise 2

Beth: Another Noise movie, watched in the same week as the first.  This one's Aussie, about murders, full of dark nights and cops with issues and a scared woman.  Here's my 10 cents (there are no pennies in NZ):  

Thumbs up for:

1. Normal-looking, flawed actors.  Those on this side of the world seem much more willing to cast real humans in their films, and I appreciate that.  

2. Acting.

3. Camera work.

Thumbs down for:

Whoever edited this thing. And I guess that's also a big swat to the director and producer for putting it out there with so many parts of the plot obviously missing.  It's like someone got tired of telling the story 75% in and just said, ok, whatever, let's end this thing.  We don't understand why the cop's tinnitis is part of the story, we don't know why the guy didn't shoot the girl, what the second murder has to do with anything, and there's no clue as to the murderer's motivation, both in the initial action or the ending.  What we're left with is a 48-hours type montage.

So it was a nice aesthetic experience, but wouldn't recommend a night culminating in such confusion and loose ends.

Noise 1

Beth: so this is the Noise movie with Tim Robbins.  I like, and 100% identify, with the premise: New York is awesome, except for the constant car alarms that go on and on and on, all night long, right below your bedroom window.  I even remember a short-lived discussion with another poster of this blog on whether to alarm or not to alarm a new-to-us car, and it was my ear-ringing memories of NYC that had me arguing on the side of no fucking way.  So I was happy to view this movie with an actor i liked, acting nicely off-kilter.  At first.  Then someone decided that hollywood formulaic should be slapped into the middle of the thing, and it turned all stupid.  And then someone else must have taken over because quickly it devolved into G-rated disney-musical-predictive, gumball beyond belief.  It well deserved the stolid shunning that it got from us after that.  Sorry, Tim.  Score: 2/5, for the cause.