Arteta, Miguel

The Good Girl

Jennifer Aniston gives a career-changing performance in The Good Girl, a movie that questions whether goodness is a virtue or a trap. Justine (Aniston), weary of her dead-end retail job and her childless marriage to Phil (John C. Reilly), diverts herself with a new coworker named Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), who feels as ill-treated by his life as Justine does with hers. The empathy between them leads, all too quickly, to an affair--which just as quickly turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy Justine's marriage. But this is only the beginning; Phil's buddy Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson), the store security guard (Mike White), and a handful of other characters all have a part to play in the unraveling of Justine's life. The script and performances of The Good Girl are subtle but vivid, and the movie's emotional impact will linger long after the movie is over. --Bret Fetzer

Justine Last longs for a more fulfilling life than the one she leads with her boring husband and a dead end job, and when she meets a young co-worker who believes he is Holden Caulfield, she begins an affair with him.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-FEB-2007
Media Type: DVD

Chuck & Buck

Two childhood friends meet again as adults. Buck tries to fit back into Chuck's life but Chuck doesn't welcome the reintroduction.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 19-DEC-2000
Media Type: DVD

Despite all Sundance and critical fanfare to the contrary, this intriguing indie hit is hardly an easily digested little winner. Miguel Arteta's film is more than a bit unsettling, and scene after scene plays with intense discomfort. After the death of his mother, strangely juvenile 27-year-old Buck (Mike White) heads off to L.A. with the oblivious, obsessive intent of working his way back into the life of childhood pal Chuck (Chris Weitz), with whom he'd sexually experimented as a boy. Chuck's engaged now, which only serves to increase Buck's determination ("When it's just you and me here, it's like I'm OK," he says. "And all this other stuff makes me feel dead."). Arteta and screenwriter White (who's quite good as Buck) stretch credibility more than once--Buck's troubling emotional state is sketchy, to say the least--and some of their humor is too smirkingly ironic for its own good, but the film's edgy sadness keeps poking at you. Whatever its flaws, there's something compelling here about the fear of growing up and the more unnerving dread of being found out. --Steve Wiecking

Six Feet Under - The Complete First Two Seasons (2-Pack)

In some ways, HBO's Six Feet Under plays kid brother to stellar BMOC The Sopranos: it's spunkier, less refined, chancier, and a bit of a punk. Nevertheless, the show set in the Southern California mortuary Fisher and Sons deserves its place in the pantheon of great television series. Ruth (Frances Conroy) is the stern matriarch who has trouble expressing emotion and snaps at the slightest problem. Daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is an underachiever who cultivates a moody, mysterious loner image in high school (she's indulging in illegal substances too). Brother David (Michael C. Hall) works in the family business, and is uptight beyond belief (he's indulging in a secret homosexual relationship too). Elder brother Nate (Peter Krause) is the black sheep, who, eschewing responsibility, fled to Seattle but got lured back. And Dad (Richard Jenkins) watches it all bemusedly. Did we mention Dad's dead? Oh, and that the Fisher family business is a funeral home? It might sound off-putting, but coming from the mind of Alan Ball, the man who strip-mined suburban life to find the mordant wit underneath in American Beauty, Six Feet Under is a trenchant, stylish spin on standard family dysfunction.

This HBO series initially aspired to fits of Twin Peaks-like whimsy, with each episode starting with a death more outlandish than the previous, but soon settled into a comfortable groove that harkened back to the most familiar of TV family dramas (in fact, it's almost a mirror image of '70s drama Family, down to the three sibling archetypes). Of course, its HBO roots allowed it ample leeway with sex, drug usage, profanity, and violence. While the writing strove to be a little too clever, the overall look and tone of the show remained solid and sometimes profound (sometimes absurd too, but usually with good reason). Krause and Hall, as initially warring brothers who come to a wary understanding, are solid anchors, but it's the women in the cast who do the most phenomenal work. Conroy infuses her almost stereotypical mom with an obstinate but ultimately accepting heart, and Ambrose's Claire is by far the show's most appealing character. And stealing scenes left and right is Rachel Griffith's Brenda, a mystery woman with an outlandish backstory who meets Nate on a plane, has sex with him at the airport, and infiltrates his life. Like Brenda herself, Six Feet Under is fascinating--and highly addictive.

Slowly, the major force in season 2 is the unassuming lead, Peter Krause. Part of the long line of good-looking actors who never get respect because they make it look too easy, Krause (Sports Night) finds the perfect blend of optimism with a wonderful, bittersweet anguish as Nate, the prodigal son. The initial season's happy ending is forgotten as relationships change, the business is still under fire from the evil conglomerate Kroehner, and a lively dream sequence is just around the corner. The eccentricities of the characters are shaped, and not always suddenly. Take daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose), who sheds her bad boyfriend only to find more complex relationships on her road to discovering her own groove. One person in the mix is Ruth's beatnik sister (Patricia Clarkson, in an Emmy-winning role), a joyous embodiment of thriving--if aging--counter culture. Another new character is Nate's old girlfriend, the granola-loving Lisa (Lili Taylor). For fans who groove with the wild, serio-comedic world of the Fishers (and let's face it, many didn't), the second season goes down like a fine meal of fusion cuisine. The show shares an unfortunate family trait with its HBO big brother: although both were lavished with multiple Emmy nominations the first two seasons, both took home only token awards. But then there's always next year.

The opening two seasons of Alan Ball's series concerning the surviving members of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles, and the personal matters that arise when your life is Six Feet Under.

Thirteen/The Good Girl

Chuck&Buck [Region 2]

Despite all Sundance and critical fanfare to the contrary, this intriguing indie hit is hardly an easily digested little winner. Miguel Arteta's film is more than a bit unsettling, and scene after scene plays with intense discomfort. After the death of his mother, strangely juvenile 27-year-old Buck (Mike White) heads off to L.A. with the oblivious, obsessive intent of working his way back into the life of childhood pal Chuck (Chris Weitz), with whom he'd sexually experimented as a boy. Chuck's engaged now, which only serves to increase Buck's determination ("When it's just you and me here, it's like I'm OK," he says. "And all this other stuff makes me feel dead."). Arteta and screenwriter White (who's quite good as Buck) stretch credibility more than once--Buck's troubling emotional state is sketchy, to say the least--and some of their humor is too smirkingly ironic for its own good, but the film's edgy sadness keeps poking at you. Whatever its flaws, there's something compelling here about the fear of growing up and the more unnerving dread of being found out. --Steve Wiecking

Star Maps

The Good Girl / Kissing Jessica Stein

Pasadena

The Good Girl [Region 2]

Jennifer Aniston gives a career-changing performance in The Good Girl, a movie that questions whether goodness is a virtue or a trap. Justine (Aniston), weary of her dead-end retail job and her childless marriage to Phil (John C. Reilly), diverts herself with a new coworker named Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal), who feels as ill-treated by his life as Justine does with hers. The empathy between them leads, all too quickly, to an affair--which just as quickly turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy Justine's marriage. But this is only the beginning; Phil's buddy Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson), the store security guard (Mike White), and a handful of other characters all have a part to play in the unraveling of Justine's life. The script and performances of The Good Girl are subtle but vivid, and the movie's emotional impact will linger long after the movie is over. --Bret Fetzer