Revolutionary Road and Adventureland.

Revolutionary Road is a drama from December 2008 about an unsatisfied suburban couple. Adventureland is a coming of age dramedy from April 2009 about a kid who works in a theme park and has relationships.

Both of these are period films; one in the 50's, one in the 80's. And they both kinda deal with people panicking and being unfaithful to the ones they love as they face the shittiness of their immediate future. They just want to live their lives and have fun with their true loves, but they can't! Why? Because of social norms (or lack of money)! It's frustrating to see these characters making mistakes on top of mistakes because they're so out of their fucking minds with unhappiness. But in the end, they're very different movies with very different outcomes.

In many ways, Adventureland is an erotic thriller. Because it starts out as just a simple story about a Michael Cera-esque kid who needs a summer job, but then it becomes entirely about him hooking up with different girls. This isn't necessarily a problem, though I did find problems with the movie. For example, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the weird bosses who run the park. I deeply love these actors, but the humor in their scenes is so absurdly out of place in the unassuming world of Adventureland. It just seems like they were tacked on to make the movie look like it's primarily a comedy, which it isn't. Also, Ryan Reynolds gives the main guy advice that turns out to have some very shady, self-serving purposes, and the main guy never confronts him about it. Which would also be fine, if they explained why he doesn't confront him about it. It's just never addressed.

Revolutionary Road is just really good. Wonderfully directed and performed. And we finally see what Jack and Rose's marriage would have been like in a hypothetical sequel to Titanic. Spoiler alert: Not good.

What Just Happened and Sunshine Cleaning.

What Just Happened is an indie movie from October 2008 about a Hollywood producer (Robert De Niro) who has to deal with a lot of bullshit at his job, and also he's obsessed with his ex-wife. Sunshine Cleaning is an indie movie from March 2009 about two sisters (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) who are struggling in life until they start up a crime scene cleanup business. What Just Happened is awful and Sunshine Cleaning is pretty good.

What Just Happened is based on a book by producer Art Linson about real life experiences he had producing movies like The Edge, Great Expectations, and others. I read a part of that book and it was REALLY entertaining. Especially because I remembered the movies these behind-the-scenes stories were about, so my interest was pre-established. But this movie (also written by Linson) is complete fiction (about fake movies) loosely BASED on these real stories, and ends up being way uninteresting and boring. I feel like I've seen all this "everyone is dumb except me" shit before, in far better films (I recommend The Pentagon Wars, as well as The TV Set). If this movie had stuck to some of the real events covered in the book, it might've held my interest a lot more.

Sunshine Cleaning comes dangerously close to also just showing me a bunch of shit I've seen before, but it ends up justifying its existence with its rather fresh backdrop of crime scene cleanup and a brilliant cast. The only problem with this movie is that the end comes very abruptly, without wrapping up a lot of what's been set up, mostly involving the Emily Blunt character. This doesn't necessarily ruin the movie. I just thought it was an odd choice.

Both these movies might one day be found at Blockbuster under the "Indie movie where a bunch of shit happens and then it just ends" section. But if you ever find yourself in that section, only rent Sunshine Cleaning.