Steineded How sad is this?

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

jotix100 Alex, the aspiring artist who paints geometrical images on wood, seems to be highly influenced by Josef Albers, the abstract painter whose geometrical canvases were a rage in the fifties and sixties. Alex is not that lucky though. As the film starts he receives a rejection from the gallery owner who tells him, more or less, to keep his daytime job delivering pizzas. To make matters worse, his girlfriend Yvette, dumps him. What's a struggling young artist to do when he is locked out of the place he had been sharing with Yvette? Well, finding a new apartment in Los Angeles proves to be an easy thing; luckily Alex doesn't live in crowded and pricey Manhattan. He gets a place in a building where Ray, the super, proves to be a friendly guy. Next, we get to meet the neighbors, who include the whining Sylvia, a woman who loves to cook "junk casseroles" made with Spam, which Alex finds revolting. There is also a prostitute down the hall and a Latin gigolo who is much too cool. When apartment 11 becomes empty, a nice young woman, Lori, rents in. Alex, who is reluctant to get involved, at first, likes his neighbor and suddenly they are into a nice and cozy relationship.Alex, unfortunately, runs into trouble when he misreads Lori's invitation to meet her parents. Things go worse when Lori starts seeing a lawyer from the building where she works. In desperation, Alex, who doesn't know what else to do, and feels the inspiration to paint escape him throws one of Sylvia's casseroles to one of his paintings and that gives him the idea about what road to take to sell his newly made avant-garde paintings. And yes, Lori comes back to him when it's clear they were made for one another.Imagine a new director blessed with a dream casting! This must have been Dan Bootzin's coup in making this charming indie comedy. Mark Ruffalo, as Alex, is the main attraction for watching this neat movie. Having seen Mr. Ruffalo in the New York stage, as well as having seen most of his films, we were looking forward to watching this one. He doesn't disappoint! It appears the director had a nice rapport with his talented cast. Beth Ulrich plays Lori with a naturalness that surprises. Alan Gelfant is Ray, the intrusive super, and Mary Coleston has some excellent moments as the busy-body Sylvia.It's a shame Dan Bootzin is not kept busy directing, as he shows he has a knack for the job.

jpschapira Recently I wrote about "Just like heaven" and talked about the great Mark Ruffalo; specifically about the comedies he's making these days so people can get to recognize him. I also said that I hoped he'd get back in track soon, to what he does best. "Life/Drawing" (or "Apartment 12") is a film every fan of the actor's got to watch. Ironically, it is a comedy (with a slice of drama), but it remains far away from the big studios.Here they'll find Ruffalo at his best acting qualities; with the show all for himself, the camera right on his head, the simplicity in all its extension…An actor like Ruffalo looks for movies like this one, about frustrated artists and lonely human beings. This was four years before "Just like heaven", but his character also has a breakdown here, and stays in bed watching television and eating ice-cream.Other than Ruffalo's fantastic character driven performance as Alex, there's nothing much interesting inside this picture. Directed by a now disappeared (did nothing after this) Dan Bootzin, the piece shows the lives of several person that inhabit the same building. Ray (independent figure Alan Gelfant), the manager who's a sexist scumbag; Sylvia, the crying neighbor who cooks and desperately seeks for love and the new girl Lori (Beth Ulrich), who captures Alex's heart.A mysterious tall guy who speaks Spanish is always standing and wandering mumbling things in his own language that try to explain a lot. A prostitute who lives besides Alex goes out every night and does this with a different outfit (nurse, police officer). Bootzin observes quietly, slowly. His camera is omnipresent and not at all ambitious; it lays back, creates the environment, and moves faster in a very funny scene where every inhabitant does his thing rapidly. His edition is quick and easy; it leaves a lot to desire.Bootzin's screenplay, which he wrote alongside a female colleague, is flexible as life itself. It allows us to watch his characters sitting down in the porch with a cup of hot coffee at 10 a.m. in the morning. It allows us to see how culture and education influence a relationship; because Lori went to the army and Alex paints, and Lori doesn't know how Jackson Pollack was. In fact, as Ray correctly observes: "Nobody knows who Jackson Pollack was".This artistic side of the main character played by Ruffalo, which seems to be the core of the character piece, is not extensively developed. His painting is, as many say, "soulless"; or at least at the beginning, because then Alex finds the artistry inside his feelings.Even when in the end every character has a big smile in their face, the music inspires happiness and the whole ride has been pleasant, there's a feeling of disappointment. A feeling related to things that could have been present but weren't; to a depth that was intended but didn't appeared.

ruffrider Alex is a painter, each of whose canvases is just one big window-sized slab of yellow (or red, or whatever color it happens to be). Not only his art but his life lacks inspiration: his one-man show is not to be, his girlfriend just walked out, he's moved into a building full of oddballs and he's back delivering pizza to pay the rent. I expected this flick to turn into a sitcom, but it got better as it went along, developing characters and relationships, especially the one between artsy liberal snob Alex and his new neighbor Lori, whose magnum pistol, martial arts skills and utter lack of sophistication generate the contempt he has for her, despite the fact that they're having a physical relationship. Throw in the wacky neighbors, like the bathrobe-clad Lothario/one-man Greek Chorus who wanders the halls and delivers his observations in Spanish, the super-nosy super, the big-busted strip-o-gram girl, the horny, man-devouring Biddie and a couple of others and you've got funny and touching portraits of a by turns lovable and unlovable loser and the colorful characters in his orbit. Don't know why, exactly, but this story reminded me a bit of Steve Buscemi's terrific "Tree's Lounge" - another indie about a loser and his odd pals. This one's cute and it's got a happier ending. For the price of your admission you get "early" Mark Ruffalo (2001) in an affecting role and cute, largely unknown Beth Ulrich, who's a find.

tomtomwww The downside is that this is pretty much another indie romantic comedy about a backed-up artist who meets a girl and just can't quite get his act together.The upside is that it's at times very funny, with quirky, well-drawn characters and terrific performances, particularly by a pre-"You Can Count on Me" Mark Ruffalo.On the whole, it's worth checking out.