Helvetica, Grey Gardens, Gone Baby Gone, & She's Gotta Have It

Helvetica is a documentary about a font (haha, typeface nerds, I said font, not typeface, so remember, there is a comment section so complain there). There were some interesting stories in it, but 80 minutes about it were at least 20 minutes too much. I get it, some people find Helvetica a nice clean typeface. Others object to its nice clean typeface look and prefer crazy grunge fonts. The best parts were when they talked to the English guy who had a great accent and good stories about the typeface. And when they went to the archives of the company that owns the rights to Helvetica and we met the dude with the blue bow tie and the plaid jacket. Most of the others were ok, but I just felt like it was a lot about the font.

Grey Gardens is the story of two of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' relatives, first told in a documentary in 1975 by Albert and David Maysles and was then filmed by HBO and aired earlier this year, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, along with Jeanne Tripplehorn. I felt so bad for the Beales and it was basically painful to watch. They're basically crazy cat ladies who have lived together for so long that it's clear that they've sniped at each other for years over the same issues. To watch them slowly attempt to clean and be more social just makes the arguments just worse. I watched both, and while the documentary is all the more painful due to the actual characters, the movie has great performances, even from Drew Barrymore. There are certainly some differences in scenes from both notable mainly due to watching them one right after the other.

Gone Baby Gone was pretty good, especially for a film from Gigli. Mainly due to great performances from actors like Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, and even Casey Affleck. And the cast was full of some other good actors, like John Ashton, Michael K. Williams, and Morgan Freeman (not playing a magic negro like normal!). Michelle Monaghan, however, was terrible. Other than that extremely weak link, it was a pretty good story, although I have no idea how much of it was due to Dennis Lehane's novel, as Mystic River was almost an amazingly good film, until the ending few minutes which were utter crap. Really, Amy Ryan was so much better than Laura Linney that it's almost enough to note how the female characters are extremely one-dimensional. Which may also be due to Dennis Lehane's book.

She's Gotta Have It is Spike Lee's first feature length film, a feminist look at sex and relationships in the 80s. The acting is... well, pretty weak from almost everyone besides Spike Lee. That was kinda surprising, but then again, he was given the best male role in the film. But it's really Nola's film, and it's a shame that Tracy Camilla Johns never really had much of a career after this film.