Ready to Serve!

Imran H. Khan

Frankly speaking, I am a huge fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean series and cannot wait for the third sequel to hit the big screens. The previews have all been excellent and the graphics simply out of this world. This week, new to enter the charts is Keri Russell's Waitress. This comedy surrounds the life of Jenna, a waitress and a "pie genius," who names her alluring confections after the tumultuous events and emotions of her daily life. Her dream is that one of her bakery items might one day change her life, and that just could happen if she could win the $25,000 pie contest. One of her prize pies' is the "Kick In The Pants" Pie which she baked after her own emotion. But when Jenna discovers that she's pregnant, she immediately bakes an "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" Pie. Earl, her husband, is a jerk and is simply not ready to have a family. But the pregnancy eventually changes the course of events in her life, giving her an unexpected and newfound confidence via letters to her unborn baby. The movie is sure to touch the hearts of all: old, young and the unborn.

The next movie Bug is directed by none other than William Friedkin. Having escaped her abusive ex-husband recently released from state prison, a lonely waitress Agnes played by Ashley Judd, leads a life of solitude. Haunted by a tragic past, she is introduced to a Gulf War veteran Peter (Michael Shannon), a peculiar, paranoiac drifter and they begin a tentative romance. She soon starts to experience a claustrophobic nightmare reality as the bugs begin to arrive...

William Friedkin began his career in the mail room of a local Chicago TV station and quickly worked his way up to the rank of a director. Friedkin loves traditional lighting and blocking and to film the events before them as if they were news reporters arriving at the scene of the crime. The resultant "induced documentary" style was perfect for the gritty, urban drama, which catapulted him to the front rank of American directors. Perhaps best remembered for its renowned car chase, considered by many to be the most exciting chase sequence ever filmed, "The French Connection" garnered five Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hackman), Best Screenplay (Ernest Tidyman) and Best Editing (Jerry Greenberg). His next picture, "The Exorcist" (1973), ushered in a new kind of horror film and is one of my all time favourite horror genres. The best thing about the movie is the fact that there is no fancy special effects, but rather simple suggestive sequences that sets the brain waves into motion. One starts thinking of all possible answers, whereas there is no real question. That should be the base of any horror, not blood, decapitation or sunning through the forest sequences. But then again, that's just me talking.

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