Miranda Bailey
Occupation
Actor
The Diary Of A Teenage Girl Trailer
Minnie Goetze is a bright and bubbly teenage girl just beginning to experience certain changes within herself. The speed of these changes lead her to record a diary on a cassette tape, detailing her altering life and sense of self after losing her virginity to her mother's dashingly handsome new boyfriend Monroe Rutherford. This feeling of burgeoning adulthood and an obsession with this older man provokes artistic revelations within her, as her passion for drawing develops. This new romance begins a definite sexual awakening, dooming Minnie's mind to nothing but thoughts about boys and sex. Meanwhile, her self-absorbed mother remains naive to Minnie's inner changes, as much as she believes that Minnie is going through something, but can't fathom that they're to do with relationships.
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The Oh In Ohio Review
Bad
First, there's that cast that looks pretty good -- Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Keith David -- even though it's being distributed by some no-name outfit. Then there's the title, a sad little bad joke that announces the filmmaker's sex-comedy intentions right up front. You're filled with trepidation but also hope: Maybe this is that rare gem that slips through the cracks, just maybe. Finally, the film starts and all hope is lost; yes, it is going to be just that bad.Posey stars in The Oh in Ohio as Priscilla Chase, a prissy Cleveland advertising executive who's wrapped so tight that she could snap in two at any moment. Hubby Jack (Paul Rudd) is an overweight, bearded mess of a high school biology teacher. Friction in the home comes from Jack's inability to bring Priscilla to orgasm in bed -- of course, it may not be his fault, since she's never had one in her life. And since Adam Wierzbianski's script is just that advanced, the film then proceeds, via Priscilla's stumbling and vaguely comedic quest to open herself up sexually, to locate the source of all her worries in her crotch. Attain orgasm: Life's problem solved.Mirroring Priscilla's quest is that of Jack, who has decided that Priscilla's frigidity has thoroughly unmanned him, and so moves to the garage and ultimately a bachelor pad, finding his sexual fulfillment in the arms of an amorous student (played by Mischa Barton, with all the color and nuance of an unusually thin robot) who, unlike all other such girls in recent films, actually doesn't seem to have an agenda besides romance. Since the film spends most of its time showing us the selfish, sexist pig side of Jack, it's strange that it then gives him such a fulfilling, Maxim-friendly relationship. But then, Oh in Ohio doesn't have much of idea where it's going anyway, straining for sincerity and depth one moment, and slapping us about with purportedly bawdy humor the next.In a better world, this would have been a marvelous star vehicle for Posey, who too rarely gets the spotlight and more often gets shoved off into supporting character roles. Here, she's an excellent choice for Priscilla, with that brittle laugh and snappish way of movement -- watching her navigate the unfamiliar waters of sex therapists and one-night stands should have made for some easy lifting, comically-speaking. Unfortunately, this is a first-timer for both the director Billy Kent and his screenwriter, Adam Wierzbianski, neither of whom show themselves to be up to the task of crafting a film worthy of their cast. It isn't just the sloppy camerawork and lack of comedic timing that dooms the project from the get-go, however, it's that there simply isn't enough material here to carry a short, much less an hour-and-a-half-long feature. Which is, in the end, inexcusable. If you throw frigid housewives, vibrators, the strangely romantic Danny DeVito, a perky lesbian Heather Graham, and a thoroughly nuts Liza Minnelli (playing a whacked-out masturbation therapist in one of the film's few scenes that actually gets a laugh) into the mix, than something worthwhile should come out the other end, right? Sadly, no.Oh no.
The Squid And The Whale Review
Excellent
One feels pretty easy predicting at the start of Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale - after a scene in which a family of four plays tennis and the father keeps hitting the ball so hard that the mother finally gives up in disgust - that divorce is not far away. Note to husbands: Do not try to hit spouse with tennis ball. Be especially wary of said aggressive behavior if that spouse is Laura Linney.It's Park Slope, Brooklyn, circa 1986, and the Berkman family is splitting up at the mid-swing of the pendulum of the adults' professional lives. On the downswing is the father, Bernard (Jeff Daniels), a professor and once-celebrated writer. Linney plays the mother, Joan, a blossoming writer coming out from under Bernard's shadow. He's been distant and awful, she's had affairs and been generally resentful, so now Bernard is moving to a falling-down house on the far side of Prospect Park while she gets to keep the gorgeous brownstone. The kids, of course, get screwed, with split custody keeping them in one house for half the week and the other house for the rest. Ensuring that things will stay nice and dysfunctional, the kids choose sides, with teenaged Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) sticking with Bernard and even picking up his mannerisms, while younger Frank (Owen Kline) throws in with Joan.
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