Quarantined at home with not much to do? Now is as good a time as any to catch up on movies released a decade or so ago.
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (Judd Apatow, 2005). Irrevent and fun, this movie is about Andy Stitzer, a 40-year-old who hasn't had any sex yet, ever. When his horny male co-workers find out about this, they teach him tricks and ways to finally get around his first time. Things don't seem to go as planned though, until Andy meets Trish, a 40-year-old mother of three. Soon, both are in a mutual no-sex relationship and fall for each other. They get married eventually, and Andy's first time after 40 years proved to be worth the wait to merit the most incredulous song and dance sequence ever.
PARTICLES OF TRUTH (Jennifer Elster, 2003). This film chronicles the difficult lives of a temperamental artist with a tragic background and a writer with a manic aversion to germs. The two inevitably end up in an unlikely relationship. Directed, written, and starred in by Jennifer Elster, it's a testament of coherent narrative, although there's room for improvement for the sometimes pretentious, over-the-top dialogues.
AKEELAH AND THE BEE (Doug Atchison, 2006). After a brief moment of exhileration, things turn a wee bit ugly when Akeelah, a 12-year-old girl initially reluctant to join the Spelling Bee, becomes eligible for the Nationals. Suddenly having to deal with newfound fame, pressure, and family and personal issues, Akeelah ponders whether snagging the Spelling Bee crown would be worth all the stress. Don't let the Spelling Bee awaken the anti-geeky in you though: although dragging at times, "Akeelah and the Bee" does have its own moments, highlighting its simplicity and heartfelt sincerity.
ELEPHANT (2003). It's arguable whether Gus Van Sant intended "Elephant" to bear loose similarities to the Columbine shoot-out tragedy, but the movie's storyline is uncannily familiar. What seems like a regular, yet another boring day at school suddenly ends on a tragic and bloody note when two high school misfits execute an eerie plan to open fire and shoot their classmates and teachers to death. Replete with strangely angled shots and snippets of campus life that seem almost voyeuristic, "Elephant" is a haunting work that poses important questions on violence, media, social displacement, and family relations.
