November

Courtney Cox-Arquette has been trying to lose her other surname, Courtney Cox-Schwimmer-Aniston-Perry-
Kudrow-Leblanc, by taking movie roles that will reawaken the parts of her persona which sat in mothballs for ten years while she appeared on Friends. In The Longest Yard remake, she wigs out on Adam Sandler, sports a new pair of biggity boobs, then disappears from sight before the opening credits have even finished. In November, Cox gets in touch with her inner-Run Lola Run, though here it's more like Slouch Lola Slouch or Frown Spinster Frown.

Cox is very good in this role of endurance (she's in nearly every scene), her character a typically dowdy female artist, shuffling back and forth between the apartment she shares with her boyfriend and the photography class she half-assedly teaches at a liberal arts college. First-time screenwriter Benjamin Brand has done an excellent job not only with the structure of his screenplay, but in creating three-dimensional characters to fill that structure.

Cox's beau is played by James Le Gros, an underrated, underused actor, who stills looks every bit the impossible genetic spawn of Brad Pitt and Bill Paxton. November's story revolves around Brad Paxton getting shot in a convenience store, told differently over three short films (in one of the stories, I think he's Bill Pitt). Cox waits in the car during the first tale, but he's right there in the bloodshed by the final tale.

A pair of commentaries, one by director Greg Harrison and cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, the other by Harrison and composer/visual effects designer Lew Baldwin, detail the incredible feat of shooting this movie in 15 days. Additional features provide slideshows of photos used in the film and a making of feature that promotes the hell out of a Sony mini-DV camera used by Baldwin throughout the shoot (which captured many of the cool, Seven-inspired inserts placed throughout the film).

On Friends, Courtney Cox-Arquette was sort of bitchy, sort of whiny, sort of a lot of things. I guess that's what makes an enduring sitcom: sort of feeling a bunch of things but never getting too carried away. Judging by November, Cox-Arquette is committed to stretching her range as an actress and this is a great start. -- Jason Woloski