Riding in Cars With Boys

RIDING IN CARS
WITH BOYS

RIDING IN CARS WITH BORING

by jim

It is a well documented fact that I love Drew Barrymore. She is more then a crush, more then even a secret girlfriend. She has been elevated to iconic status in my little world. She is more like a secret life partner. Her name graces the DangerSeekers Hall of Hot, and the name of my personal production company (Darwin Run Entertainment Works), and she is even the basis of my first screenplay (for the love of drew.) In fact, just the other day, I spent my last nine dollars to buy a crappy Gertie action figure that actually looks nothing like her. It was the principal of the thing. That is why I go see every movie she's in. That is why I won every movie she's been in. There is a line to my starfucking, however. I have never, will never and could never, attempt to claim that every movie she makes is good. Worth watching? To me, yes. To the average moviegoer? No, not so much.

Sad, but true, RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS falls into the don't bother category. Drew is very good. Realistically, this may be her strongest lead performance to date (for those who care, I consider her supporting role in BOYS ON THE SIDE her best overall). Most of the cast, actually, is in top form. The problem lies in the uninteresting script and story and the monotone pacing of director Penny Marshall.

Drew plays a young woman in the late sixties, who at the age of fifteen gets pregnant by a local nothing (Steve Zahn). This throws her life into disarray and the film chronicles her journey from outcast statistic to a financial, and ultimately personally, successful person and mother. Not much there. With a powerful and touching script, this could be an Oscar contender with the talent involved. Instead it's two hours and fifteen minutes long. Everything plays in small scenes. You know they are connected, you just aren't usually sure how. Often motivations are squelched and events go unexplained. You can judge the passage of time only as you watch the children age. Even that isn't always crystal clear.

The cast is the only thing worth coming for. If you happen to be a big fan of any of the actors involved, you will not be disappointed in them. You will only find disdain for the writer and director for sailing this ship off course. Drew, plays the role of Beverly true to age from start to finish. From teenage dork, to an world weary twentysomething, to the bitter career woman in her thirties. Only Drew's youthful visage betrays her in flawlessly delivering in the third act. That, and the unfortunate casting of Adam Garcia as her twenty-year-old son. Garcia is not only the casts weakest link, but he looks far too old to be Barrymore's son. When Barrymore was cast, they had to understand that making her appear thirty would be a stretch to begin with and should have cast someone more youthful looking to play the son, someone more on the lines of James Van Der Beek. Steve Zahn physically carries the three decade aging better then Drew. However, the film resorts to cliché costume and hair tricks to make mark his transitions. Is it just standard policy in movies that if you want to let the audience know that a character in the seventies is a scumbag that you pop on a long wig and mustache? By the films climax, we see Zahn still as the ignorantly pathetic guy he has always been. He no longer has the folly of youth to blame on his behavior and that makes him all the more tragic. Zahn is perfectly cast in this role, as he plays sweetly stupid in everything he does. Let's hope he breaks that typecasting and shows us if he can do anything else. For the second time in a month I am obligate to remind you all that Brittany Murphy is no starlet of the moment. She plays Drew's best friend and fellow teenage mother in another solid and varied performance from the young actress. I hope to see her and Drew collaborate again, as the girls have a nice chemistry. In a very important supporting role we find James Woods, who is fast becoming the go-to guy for conflicted fathers. His cop is stern, but loving. Despite his coarse actions and alienating stance with his daughter, we see that he, emotionally, is no more prepared for the realities of fatherhood, then she is for motherhood. That even though they are at odds through most of the film, they mirror each other nicely and are only skewed by their own perceptions. Had RIDING IN CARS delved deeper into these emotions and themes then we would be talking about a much better film. This is one movie that I left the theater wishing they would just do it over. That they could get the same cast and the same basic story and just try again. So much was left untapped and horrifically wasted.

There is a moment at the end of the movie that it almost redeems itself. Where the pieces are there to make the whole film come full circle and make it all seem worthwhile. To a degree it does. Again, the pacing is so botched, that a scene that had the potential to bring me to tears, turned into another missed opportunity. That is what RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS is, as a whole, one giant missed opportunity.

HOTTEST GIRL IN THE MOVIE: DREW BARRYMORE

I'd be smiling if I were embracing Brittany Murphy, too.

DREW FALLS FOR THE OLD "KICK ME" SIGN HUG

Smooth moves, retro style.

MIKE DEXTER TRIES TO GET SOME ASS

She's just dissapointed she didn't wait for me.

AT THE RECEPTION, TOM GREEN DID HIS HORSE MASTURBATION ROUTINE

Judging by the costumes they must poor and in the seventies.

THE TAYLOR STREET WHITE TRASH THEATRE TROOP PRESENTS "TAMING OF THE SHREW"