Happy Ending

I picked this almost at random at the 2009 Austin Film Festival. As soon as it started, I realized it was shot on video. "Oh, crap," I thought to myself. But I was amazed--this is the first thing I've seen shot on DV that actually looked beautiful. The compositions are striking and deliberate, gorgeous colors all over the place, and it's just really carefully lit. And this is from someone who rarely notices these kinds of things. Maybe the takeaway is that if you're using DV, you need to pay more attention to the aesthetics than normal, not less (which is what most people seem to do). The one real distraction was lots of shaky camera moves, but I can forgive that when a movie is a) so much fun, and b) made for 100 grand.

The performances are solid, and the script--even when conveyed through poorly translated subtitles--is sharp and fun. The storytelling is just delightfully playful, and it's such an unabashed love song to rom-coms (a genre I happen to love).