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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A&E / Culture

Race Out and Rent

Posted By on September 22, 2009, 11:20 AM

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Which was the bigger misfire: Seth Rogen, playing something completely different from the role he always plays in Observe and Report? Or Matthew McConaughey, playing the same part he always plays in Ghost of Girlfriends Past? Hmmm ... ---

If you're looking for something genuinely interesting on the New Releases shelf, you're going to have to stretch a little. Familiar faces like Alec Baldwin, Cynthia Nixon and Timothy Hutton fill the cast of Lymelife, but chances are you blinked and missed its local theatrical run. Mostly it's a surburban coming-of-age story, with Rory Culkin as a 15-year-old dealing with his parents' disintegrating marriage. Familiar territory, sure, but brother Steven and Derrick Martini handle it with skill. And there's a virginity-losing scene here that immediately goes in the Fast Times at Ridgemont High memorial pantheon of painfully realistic virginity-losing scenes.

Not so many familiar faces in O'Horten, a droll Norwegian drama about a veteran railroad engineer (Baard Owe) trying to figure out what to do with himself after his mandatory retirement. Don't expect the kind of "you're never too old to start anew" platitudes an American drama might throw at this premise. Look instead for a lot of endearing weirdness, even if it doesn't always cohere.

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About The Author

Scott Renshaw

Scott Renshaw
Bio:
 Scott Renshaw has been a City Weekly staff member since 1999, including assuming the role of primary film critic in 2001 and Arts & Entertainment Editor in 2003. Scott has covered the Sundance Film Festival for 25 years, and provided coverage of local arts including theater, pop-culture conventions, comedy,... more

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