comment #1

Hakken says ...

she was in Brokeback Mountain..

comment #2

Imogen says ...

She was in Lost In Translation.

comment #3

D.Z. says ...

Hakken: Where?

Imogen: Jeff rests his case.

comment #4

JT says ...

Give her props for BM, which she brought some needed humor to. She did a great Diaz impression in LIT and except for Murray, it's a shitty, shitty film.

comment #5

D.Z. says ...

Funny that I was just sayin' the same thing regarding her stupid dress-up flick a year ago, and everyone acted like I just didn't "get" her.

comment #6

Arran says ...

You see? YOU SEE? NONE OF YOU LISTENED TO DZ.

comment #7

Imogen says ...

.JT: Lost In Translation is at 95% at Rotten Tomatoes. Saying it is a "shitty shitty" film was a "stupid stupid" thing to say. You might not understand it but that is your loss, as it was the best-reviewed picture of the year!

comment #8

EDouglasCS says ...

I've been a fan of Farris back to the first Scary Movie but she really lost me with The House Bunny, which is ironically where so many others started noticing her.

comment #9

actionman says ...

she is so fucking hot.

the house bunny was CRAP but she was cute in it

if you really want to laugh, check out the surprisingly funny (but very dumb) comedy Just Friends. It's a low-low-low expectaction comedy but for some reason I was in stitches.

oh yeah, her work in Smiley Face is on par with the work Franco did in Pineapple

comment #10

JT says ...

Imogen: If being a film fan teaches only ONE true, honest lesson, it is this: Reviews, no matter who they are from, don't mean shit. That is the G'd's honest truth. THe only review that matters is your own. The RT site means nothing to a true cinephile as myself. When I saw LIT in the theater, my jaw dropped at how mediocre it was (not counting Murray's greatness, which could not save it). The reason why critics loved it is because they are all over 50 white men who fantasize about getting laid by SJ or chicks her age. Fact.

comment #11

Imogen says ...

Well I am a cinephile too and I loved it and I am not over 50 or white or a man and I do not fantasize about getting laid by SJ or chicks her age. Fact. .

comment #12

JT says ...

I'm sure you are (a cinephile). I'm just saying that people like things and they have to be their own judge. Case in point, if I have a gun pressed to my head, I'll say that 2001 is my fave movie of all time. But if you know and have read Pauline's Kael's review, you know she didn't like it, to say the least. Hael was the first film critic I read at length. But upon reading her review, I knew that my opinion was the only one that mattered.

comment #13

cinefan says ...

Just based on my own judgement and opinion, I feel that any film which opens with a shot of SJ's glorious ass can't, in this world or any other, be described as "shitty, shitty".

comment #14

mutinyco says ...

"Just based on my own judgement and opinion, I feel that any film which opens with a shot of SJ's glorious ass can't, in this world or any other, be described as "shitty, shitty"."

Unless she forgot to wipe...

comment #15

cinefan says ...

touche, mutinyco.

comment #16

JT says ...

A tired touche, if that. Take that opening shot and stick it on the front of Ace Ventura or 88 minutes or some other shitty movie and let me know if it plays better.

comment #17

Jeremy Fassler says ...

I saw The House Bunny twice, mainly because I had a friend who wanted to see it really badly, and I figured "It's not so painful to sit through twice." The main reason it wasn't so painful: Ana Farris was great. The movie itself is just terrible, but she definitely redeems a great deal of it.

comment #18

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Well, I was fine that you were ragging on LiT, but now you're going after Ace Ventura? Ohhhh, it's on!

comment #19

JT says ...

CKfCG FTW!!!

comment #20

jesse says ...

So basically, Jeff, you're saying that you won't be on the Anna Faris bandwagon until she stops doing exactly what's terrific about her: being funny in broad comedies. But if she ever decides to appear in an austere art-house flick (besides the indie movies she's already done, of course, because she was funny in those, and that's horrible), you'll watch with an open mind. Wow, that's great to hear. In related news, I don't particularly like Inarritu, but if he ever makes a goofy comedy, I'm there.

And yes, lot of her comedies have been on the low-rent side (hopefully she's escaped the Scary Movie vortex), but I'm guessing you won't be particularly cheered by something more comedically ambitious either, like Observe and Report, which I think looks terrific. People recognize great dramatic performances in middling movies all the time, so I don't see the problem with watching a silly movie like House Bunny and saying, hey, she is *terrific* in it, which she is (as she is in Smiley Face).

Oh, but she lacks depth, she seems shallow. I guess you're right -- most actors are exactly who they seem to be from their broadest, silliest roles. Especially comedians. Good call. Good film criticism.

comment #21

George Prager says ...

For the record, JT's bravery in liking a classic film directed by Stanley Kubrick that Pauline Kael didn't like was responsible for the saving the lives of several women and children trapped in a burning building.

comment #22

Phatang! says ...

Bennett Miller? Really?

comment #23

Glenn Kenny says ...

I'm rather disappointed. The post jumps just at the "This columnist will never get on the Anna Faris cult bandwagon until she..." point, and I was hoping that when I clicked "Read more..." I was really hoping you'd continue with "appears in a bukkake video" or "gets into a strap-on and reams Seth Rogen," but no, instead it's just the standard issue look-down-your-nose complaint about how the films she's in aren't worthy of your refined tastes. BO-ring!

But seriously...Faris is a comic actress of a certain stripe; a stripe they don't make movies for any more. She'd be even more poorly used, I think, in a crap rom-com such as "He's Just Not That Into You" than she increasingly is in the "Scary" movies. As for the three directors you named, I think only Alexander Payne is an apt one. To suggest that she hook up with Cauron and/or Bennett is, essentially, to ask her to stop being a comic actress, or an indication that you just don't like comic actresses, or, I dunno. That said, she reached a particular apotheosis with "Smiley Face," a film whose quirkiness was all but sui generis.

comment #24

corey3rd says ...

Smiley Face is worth creating the cult of Anna. We put a picture of President Garfield on the mantle in her honor.

comment #25

MilkMan says ...

Bennett Miller? The friend of Seymour Hoffman? Who was less qualified to direct Capote than Seymour Hoffman himself? When did this guy become the next great white hope?

comment #26

George Prager says ...

With any luck she could be the next Lee Remick.

comment #27

Gordon27 says ...

"This columnist will never get on the Anna Faris cult bandwagon until..."

Jeff -- then why did you quote a thing which says ""It is easy to appreciate Anna Faris" with the title "Exactly"?

comment #28

Gordon27 says ...

Wait, you don't mean "exactly" at all. This is an article *defending* all of her shitty movies as inherently worthy of some sort of attention if only because they provide her the stage to do something. Did you read this article before you posted it?

comment #29

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

Anna Faris did some great work in MAY -- it used her comedic ditz persona well but took it to slightly darker places.

comment #30

D.Z. says ...

Imogen: Critics like Lost in Translation for the same reason that red-staters like it when people like Coulter label anyone from the coasts as "elitists"-to feel better about themselves.

actionman: She's kind of average to me. I did want to see Smiley Face for its own reasons, though.

cinefan: No, just desperate for ideas.

Jeremy: If she's that great, then she can pick better movies.

jesse: They're not broad comedies, just comedies with broads.

comment #31

George Prager says ...

I love it when people like D.Z. psychoanalyze the why people liked what they liked. It's never because they liked it. But that is how D.Z. watches movies. Poor guy.

comment #32

cinefan says ...

D.Z. cinefan: No, just desperate for ideas.

That doesn't apply to Coppola but it certainly fits you to a tee.

comment #33

corey3rd says ...

People liked Lost in Translation since it opened with a shot of her ass in those sheer panties and featured Bill Murray being Bill Murray. No need to go any deeper than that.

comment #34

D.Z. says ...

George: Well, it's true. Half the people who watch crap end up lying through their teeth about liking it.

comment #35

Gordon27 says ...

"Half the people who watch crap end up lying through their teeth about liking it."

Since psycho-analyzing always reveals a lot about the analyzer, I assume that you have been lying and actually love Quentin Tarantino movies. Well played, sir. The joke's on us!

comment #36

D.Z. says ...

Gordon: Nope. I don't pretend when I hate a form of entertainment to make other people feel better about themselves.

comment #37

D.Z. says ...

Actually, I should re-phrase that to "conning people into being disappointed, too".

comment #38

George Prager says ...

If this misunderstanding about how humans behave gets you through the day, D.Z., well then you are welcome to it.

comment #39

jamesD says ...

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