Admission (2013)
[5] A Princeton admissions clerk takes a chance on an 'alternative school' kid when she discovers he may be the child she gave up for adoption many years ago. Despite the intrinsic charm of both Tina Fey and Paul Rudd,…
Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
[5] A business man (Paul Rudd) is invited to a clandestine 'dinner with idiots' in which he's encouraged to bring the weirdest, most bizarre guest he can find for the rest of the business partners to gawk. Everyone brings a…
Role Models (2008)
[8] Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star as disillusioned men sentenced to community service via some sort of Big Brother program. Scott may be a one-note actor, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as he plays his…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
[8]
Logan Lerman (from the Percy Jackson movies) stars as Charlie in this coming-of-age drama/romance about a socially awkward high school boy who finds solace among the ‘freaks’ while overcoming a past trauma that left him hospitalized. Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) and Ezra Miller co-star as Sam and Patrick, Charlie’s newfound friends. Together, the trio bond over music and star in a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show — very much the counter-culture sort of kids. Things go swimmingly until Charlie starts to fall for Sam, and Patrick’s secret relationship with a member of the football team is exposed to the whole school. As these and other dramatic entanglements threaten to destroy his new friendships, Charlie also begins having painful flashbacks surrounding the death of an aunt.
This Is 40 (2012)
[6]
Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd star as two 40-year-olds struggling to balance the demands of their marriage, children, parents, and jobs. This Is 40 is billed as a ‘sort of’ sequel to Knocked Up, where Mann and Rudd originated the roles. Both films were directed by Judd Apatow, and both take a more pastiche approach to their narratives. On one hand, I like the fly-on-the-wall approach. It favors character over formulaic story structure. On the other hand, without that trusted structure, Apatow’s movies just seem to go on forever and ever and ever. This one is two hours and fifteen minutes, and I stand by my rule that no comedy should exceed an hour forty five.
Clueless (1995)
[9] Director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) serves up a winning Valley Girl spin on Jane Austen's Emma, reinforced with a terrific cast, a uniformly solid collection of songs, and a plethora of catchy one-liners that are now…