Gretchen Mol

The Shape Of Things
$14.98
Perhaps not quite as nihilistic or misanthropic as LaBute's "In the Company of Men" or "Your Friends and Neighbors", "The Shape of Things" takes aim at the potential psychosis that can evolve when an artist expresses more empathy and concern for the power of her own work than for human subjects. The stellar performances by Rudd and Weisz are deceptively complex and the allusions to Bruce Nauman and Godard are ingenious both formally and thematically. A postmodern version of "Frankenstein" reworked through the guise of gender wars and the horrific throes of dating, this might be LaBute's masterpiece.

Attraction
$14.98
... and along comes ATTRACTION, a tale promising to be about the exploration of four unique friends with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing to the very end.Um ... what's the guess here?These four "friends" do little more than go about destroying one another's lives. They sleep with one another, spy on one another, try to destroy one another's reputations, etc., etc., etc. ... I think you get the picture. And what's terribly disconcerting is the fact that there's never any motivation provided for them to behave in such a manner. The talent Tom Everett Scott is wasted in a predictable performance that could've been so much more ... the two-faced friend. The lovely Gretchen Mol (wasn't she supposed to be 'the next big thing' in Hollywood a few years back?) is reduced to a sex object. The talented Samantha Mathis is the only character given more than a single dimension; perhaps if the film had spent more time exploring her plight, these 100 minutes might've been worth committing to celluloid.The film's only saving grace is the gratuitous, near-full-body nude sequence of the lovely Ms. Mathis. ...On a stylistic note, the film's editor "attempted" an artistic stroke by inserting a 'cut' in the middle of select scenes where one friend is speaking with another about behavior. While it's clear that the cuts are intentional, they come off as meaningless tricks, jarringly pulling the viewer out of the film's narrative to the point of asking aloud, "What the hell was that? Did someone just drop the camera?"But, even films as bad as ATTRACTION can have some use in society. Perhaps an edited-for-television version should be mandatory viewing for high school students if for no other reason than to display the kind of behavior not desired in public or private.

Forever Mine
$9.94
The VHS that I purchased was in great shape. It played well and had the original cover to it, which goes well with my other covered favorites. I saw this movie on Dish Network and had to see it again. So I checked this site and there it was! FANTASTIC! It was well-packaged and had a quick delivery time.

Look in My Shorts
$19.95
This is a collection of five low-budget short films that are supposed to be hypnotic (that's a DVD company name) and erotic, but overall fall short on both counts. If you have a passion for independent films, there may be something interesting in here to savor in terms of the art of filmmaking. For me, that was a stretch. The first and last "shorts" held my attention pretty well, while the middle three left me bored and wondering if there was any artistic merit in them at all. This could be a big price to pay for not much entertainment.

#1: "Freshening Up" (18 min.) takes place in an exclusive lounge, and involves a guy's jealousy and insecurity about what (who) his date was doing while in the ladies room. Gretchen Mol is the big name in this "short," which gets a passable grade despite suffering from an oddly contrasted picture that distorts the color.

#2: "It's Hard" (11 min.) is an immature high school plot about a girl's tribulations over when to, uh ... "give her boyfriend a hand." [You can figure out that meaning].

#3: "Whacked" (10 min.) is about a couple of strangers engaging in a kinky spanking routine in a sex parlor. Which one is the client?

#4: "The Last Time I Had Sex" (16 min.) features a promiscuous chick who's last one-night stand leads to a bout of furniture disposal.

#5: "Six Months of Darkness, Six Months of Light" (29 mins.) is the longest "short," and the one I actually enjoyed. It stars Kelly Rutherford (Scream 3; Melrose Place) as a wife who agrees to participate in a three-way with her two-timing husband. Some serious bonding occurs between two of the participants. Aside from Ms. Rutherford, the acting was pretty bad, but I loved the way the plot progressed.