Tudo Azul

Had no idea what I was about to watch. Came recommended from Kennsington Video. Very entertaining and thought provoking film about doing the right thing spontaneously. Has a very surreal almost Lynchian quality through the first half ( Be patient through first 20min). Anyone who's had or babysat 4-6 yr old boys, or rode the bus will get a good laugh. A really nice mix of humor and meaning. It takes place present day with references to the war in Iraq the recession and a very believable premise. I also found the acting of the main characters superb. I guess Id describe this as an unexpected hero story or unexpected guardian story. Without spoiling anything Ill just say Kabluey is the best brother and uncle you could ask for. Cute without being corny.See it.

Quirky and unexpected are probably the best ways to describe this film. Lisa Kudrow is actually pretty convincing as the burned-out army wife and gives a pretty solid performance throughout. Mainly I was impressed at the subtlety of her acting, which was refreshing after seeing some of her other characters (the smelly-cat-singing Phoebe will always be a lingering specter for Kudrow). Scott Prendergast captured the socially-inept, guy-that-never-got-his-act-together-after-high-school character pretty well and manages to drive the story with very little actual dialogue, emotion or expression, which is kind of the point of his character. His performance was actually pretty refreshing. I think the writer/director did a good job of portraying the embellished strangeness of small town middle America without ripping off Napoleon Dynamite. The ending was well done and the soundtrack is really good and kind of makes the movie come together.

It's a film where the same person is the lead, the writer, and the director; that doesn't always go well. Unemployed salman (prendergast) moves in with his brother's family (lisa kudrow), theoretically to help look after the kids. And those kids are totally out of control... no boundaries. No discipline. Salman can't even take care of himself, so of course, taking care of the kids is a total disaster. Smallish roles for teri garr and conchata ferrell... she was berta on two and a half men. There are some funny bits here and there, but most of the characters here are just miserable, angry, and abusive. Sort of a lesson in human interaction and isolation. It's okay! Not great, but much better than some of the other small, indie films where the same person does everything. It starts a bit slow, but gets going towards the end. The storyline has some similarities to "mister mom", which, coincidentally also had teri garr. In that one, a single dad starts out doing everything wrong, but slowly learns to be a good provider.

I had really thought great slapstick comedy was a lost art, one that I'd have to go to DVD's of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd to experience. Then I saw "Kabluey." For the first half of the film I was laughing my head off, not only at the sheer outrageousness of it all but also at Scott Prendergast's brilliance at building gag on top of gag, making you laugh harder at each one until by the end of his "stack" you're literally screaming with joy. The second half slowed down a little but also proved that Prendergast could do pathos, and the ending is as heartbreaking as anything by Chaplin. There've been a few comedians in the modern era who showed they COULD have ranked with the stars of the past (Robin Williams, Jim Carrey), but Williams got stuck into too many overstuffed vehicles and Carrey seems to have been penalized by his audience every time he tried to reach beyond fart humor. Let's hope Scott Prendergast keeps making simple, unpretentious and utterly hilarious movies like this.

I saw Kabluey, and after hearing many good things about it, I have to say it probably is one of 2008's best surprises.

Technically, it is from 2007, but it came out this year. It is a very genuine little independent comedy with a lot of heart. There are a lot of films like that out there, but this one stands out. The screenplay is very well written. It has a lot of laugh-out-loud laughs, and some laughs that you wonder how much they make sense with the story. It has some flaws, but overall, it has great developed characters, characters that sometimes may not always be likable. It is a story about how a mother's brother-in-law has to help her raise her kids, and also raise some money, since her husband is at war in Iraq. Throughout this story, we see a lot of events that change her and her brother-in-law. It is, overall, a black, sometimes, dark, comedy film. It has a lot of hidden themes about how the war impacts family, and also about loyalty and responsibility. It is sometimes uneven, and sometimes some scenes are too overfilled with humor, but when its good, it's really good.

Part of the reason this film works well is because of the great acting. Scott Prendergast plays his character of the loser brother-in-law Salman very well, and he makes my line-up of Best Actor(but will eventually fall out). But Lisa Kudrow is the one that gives the monumental performance. She has less scenes than Prendergast, but the scenes she has her character is very in depth. She has to give her character of Leslie a lot, real humanity, pain and exhaustion for her kids, and also sort of depressed, stressed, and sometimes even unlikeable. She really reminds me of a lot of real life mothers that get stressed out easily. I have never seen Kudrow like this, it's really a great performance, a subtle one. As of now, she is my Best Actress winner, and I think she might stay in my line-up in the end of the year, if not then top 10 for sure. I think she deserves Oscar Buzz.

Overall, a great little movie. Better than films that really are not always that good(Juno), and just as great as Little Miss Sunshine. I think the Academy should keep this film's screenplay, and Lisa Kudrow, for consideration. For those who have not seen it, please see it, makes a lot of the films this year look bad.