Movie Review: The House Bunny (2008)

An empowerment comedy, The House Bunny makes the grade thanks to an above-average script and two committed lead performances.

Abandoned at an orphanage at birth, Shelley (Anna Faris) blossoms into a beauty and finds a home at the Hugh Hefner (playing himself) Playboy mansion. Just after her 27th birthday party she receives an eviction notice presumably because she is too old. Out in the real world for the first time, Shelley stumbles onto the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority house on a university campus, and finds seven misfit girls themselves facing eviction because they cannot attract any new pledges.

The Zeta girls include the brainy Natalie (Emma Stone), who gets tongue tied in front of her crush Colby, and the piercings-happy Mona (Kat Dennings). Shelley installs herself as the housemother and proceeds to rejuvenate the residents, encouraging them to express their sexuality and organize parties. She also meets and develops an attraction towards Oliver (Colin Hanks), who volunteers at a seniors' care home. The reinvigorated Zeta girls take the campus by storm, antagonizing their prissy adversaries at the Phi Iota Mu sorority.

Directed by Fred Wolf and co-produced by Faris and Adam Sandler, The House Bunny occasionally carries the whiff of cheap Sandler productions, with some stiff supporting acting, scenes that just don't work, perfunctory directing and unpolished first-draft dialogue. The story about campus eccentrics struggling to fit in, coupled with strong echoes of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is out-of-the-box stale.

And yet the film often clicks, thanks mainly to the two lead actresses. Anna Faris brings just the right touch of self-deprecating innocent bewilderment to Shelley and convinces as a woman who may be much more capable than she thinks she is. And Emma Stone, in an early career role, adds plenty of zest as the smart cookie who just needs a nudge to develop better social skills. Together Faris and Stone propel several scenes towards excellent comic territory, helped by a periodically sparkling script.

Elsewhere the film avoids vulgarity, nudity and body fluid jokes, and marches purposefully towards a predictable non-judgmental message of celebrating individuality, with all the mean antagonists finding their harmless comeuppance. Even the folks back at the Playboy mansion turn out to be not so bad after all. The House Bunny is an altogether better than expected wholesome happy hop.

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Movie Review: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is a teen romantic comedy that has a lot going for it, including two appealing leads in Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, and a vibe that welcomes moments of awkwardness and avoids over-saturation with fake irony.

New Jersey senior high school student Nick (Michael Cera) has long since been dumped by his cheating self-absorbed girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dzeina), but he is far from over her. He phones her and records long-winded messages that she automatically deletes, and he gifts her CD mixes of his favourite music, which she promptly tosses in the garbage. Down-to-earth classmate Norah (Kat Dennings) shares Nick's music taste and retrieves and enjoys his CDs once Tris discards them.

Nick plays bass in his otherwise all-gay band. Over one long and frantic night in New York that starts with a concert by Nick's band and ends early the next morning with a concert by the hip but elusive band Where's Fluffy, a romance finally ignites between Nick and Norah, as he finally gets over Tris and she fends off a creepy "friend with benefits".

Complementing Cera and Dennings, the third star of the movie is New York City at night. Director Peter Sollett avoids most cinematic cliches and captures a city that never sleeps in all its quirkiness, focusing on tiny corner restaurants, ethnic groceries, grimy bus depots, and clubs half-full of people not sure why they are there.

The movie does not fully avoid all the genre's cliches, and after a most tender off-camera orgasm is enjoyed by Norah, there is an unnecessary confrontation between Nick, Norah and their exes as the film appears to muddle the sequence of its concluding scenes to contrive some needless conflict.

But in general, the movie hits most of the right notes, and there is enough going on around the blossoming romance to add welcome texture to the film. Norah's friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) is drunk about 15 minutes into the movie, and spends her night staggering through New York creating her own natural disaster, including some terrific moments involving her chewing gum and a toilet seat. The search for the mysterious Where's Fluffy is a useful plot device to emphasize the focus on music and keep everyone racing around New York. And Nick's yellow Yugo, mistaken for a taxi to great effect, is an extra character in the film, as is the lumbering van used by Nick's band.

In a genre too often beset by yawning predictability, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist offers some refreshingly original tunes.

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