Purely Joyful Movie!

Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Riding in Cars With Boys (2001): Dir: Penny Marshall / Cast: Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, James Woods, Adam Garcia, Brittany Murphy: Convicting film featuring a boy who informs his police officer grandfather that his mother is smoking weed in the kitchen. This leads to a boy, now a man claiming that his presence, at age three crushed her dreams. This occurs when her husband irresponsibly failed to show up to watch him thus costing her a job opportunity. Drew Barrymore stars as a young woman who became pregnant at fifteen due to riding in cars with boys. The father is a drunken doper who claims that he cannot help himself. Story plays via flashbacks with Barrymore at 36 who has written a book about her struggles and seeks publication. Wonderful work by director Penny Marshall whose Big also dealt with the growth theme. Barrymore is excellent as a self absorbed woman viewing life as a tragedy. Tremendous work by Steve Zahn as her ex-husband who admits his faults despite his spiral downfall from responsibility. James Woods as her father steals scenes as he struggles to understand his daughter and eventually simply accepts his role as dad. Adam Garcia plays her son who forms a relationship with his mother's best friend's daughter. Brittany Murphy plays Barrymore's best friend who also announces that she is pregnant. Theme regards bad decisions that affect your future. Score: 10 / 10

I struggle to see what exactly this story is about. There is no drama, no humour, no extraordinary achievement, no morality, and the climax is so insipid that only the end credits indicate the film has finished. This is basically a video record of an ordinary group of people living ordinary lives in an ordinary town. If I want to see that, I can look out my window.This dullness is not aided by the performance of Barrymore, who really can't act and can barely feign interest in the job. Her character is central to the plot, but is rather unpleasant and one-dimensional.The only plus side, and without her I would not have bothered watching at all, is the fabulous and greatly missed Brittany Murphy. Nobody sparkles on screen like her, and had her character been the central one this might have been worth watching. She always gives 100% and deserves 10/10. The rest should hang their heads in shame.

This movie title was not the best because you judge it because of the title, or at least I did. My daughter wanted me to buy this movie for her for Xmas. I told her she was crazy. What mother wants to get a movie for their daughter that would be a mother's nightmare. My daughter ask me to trust her and get the movie. I did. We watched it together. It did not take long for me to relate to this movie on several areas.The Dad asking his daughter what she wanted for Xmas and then listen and not get her a bra was so sad. You could see he lost her for many years after that. The movie was filled with humor and very touching scenes. When the Dad has to leave his son was so sad. I cried. I love this movie. I own it. It is not giving up on your dreams and the struggle with relationships. We all can relate somewhere. I watch this movie when I miss my daughter. I learned to trust her a lot more after this movie. She wanted the book too. I had no problem with it. I recommend this movie to anyone. It is a real gem.

I watched this movie last night, expecting to watch an empowering movie about a strong woman. What I got was a story about an overbearing, rigid mom who makes stupid decisions and winds up in bad situations, but her predicaments are her own fault, despite a pesky conscience and caring parents. She even tells her son (not once but several times, mind you) that he ruined her life- nice parenting! Penny Marshall could have done a better job with the way she portrayed Beverly D'Onofrio (played by Drew Barrymore).What a disappointment! Not one person dies in this movie, which says a lot about how depressing this movie really is because I didn't think that a movie without a body count could be so depressing. This was neither uplifting nor empowering.On the plus side, the acting was really good. Even Lorraine Bracco, who plays D'Onofrio's mother, was good in this film, and I usually can't stand her. But even the brilliant performances by the actors couldn't save this film.