Friends with Money

Saw it in theater with Marco. And what a perfect fit that was, aside from the fact that I really enjoy hanging with Mr. (Former Ms.) M, I also really missed watching a movie like that in his company. There was a lot of synchronized gasping and ooh'ing, whenever we pretended shock and awe at what the on-screen characters were saying. It was a lot like we were watching Six Feet Under or The Sopranos on our old couch. Wait a second... It was a little too much like that. The movie, although brilliant and never with a slow moment, resembled a lot what today is the typical HBO/Showtime fare. Nicole Holofcener has proven before to be a talented director and writer. "Lovely and Amazing" was truly lovely, if not amazing. But the world has changed around Ms. Holofcener, and a lot of great TV has become a standard of our sunday nights. In fact, the most revolutionary thing about "Huff" or "Big Love" is that they made an entire segment of indie cinema irrelevant, if not just plain obsolete. "Friends with Money" is thoroughly enjoyable, with a couple of memorable lines (gasp!, ooh!) but you leave the theater with the feeling of having watched a great Pilot Episode of a brand new series, that you can't wait to know more about next sunday. I feel slightly cheated: I wanna know more about the Joan Cusack character, wanna see her shopping at Fred Segal. I want to see Jennifer Aniston's blissful first sex date blossom into a meaningful relationship, with the comfort of wealth the fat guy hints about.
And definitely I wanna see more shots of Scott Caan, possibly in humiliating situations (and shirtless, thanks!), so that we can feel even more vindicated for poor doormat Jennifer. What was great about the movie was the mental links I was drawing with my autobiography, feeling all along like the Janiston, minus the happy ending. But that's too intimate to discuss here, you emotional voyeurs! All in all, these friends were worth the money, but Nicole Holofcener should try a career in TV. Say what? Come again? How did I miss that? She already has a television history, a long one indeed. She directed episodes of Six Feet Under, Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City...
I swear I didn't know until I IMDB'd her. Well, I'm a sensitive ignorant apparently... it feels like I knew it all along.