Monday, October 24, 2005
GANGLY
Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Film is so charming that I wanted to replay it immediately; but I know that the charm would wear off with repetition. That is not a bad thing. It is just that 'charm' has a very short shelf life. So does 'cute'.
is a Bill Forsythe film and these are always fun to watch.
It is very funny. Gregory is very awkward and physically maladept. No surprise there. He has grown five inches in just the last year.
He falls for a girl on his soccer team. All the rest of the story follows from that.
Everyone in this film is just perfect; Gregory's buddies, the teachers, the very seldom seen parents. Like I said. Charming.
Here, Gregory, on a date, dances lying down.
The best thing about this film is that it does not insult our intelligence. It does not stoop low to get laughs. It uses our intellect. It is not your standard Hollywood teen comedy by any means and yet there are tits and there is sex of a sort. There are also zits and those awful yawning silences on a date.
Nevertheless Gregory, and the boy who plays him (John Gordon Sinclair), is utterly winsome and delightful.
The other nice thing is that nothing bad happens in this. No teens are hurt during the filming; no one in the audience either.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
