Director : James Toback
With : Robert Downey, Jr., Natasha Gregson Wagner, Heather Graham

If you just picked up the box, recognized the cast and then read the brief plot synopsis you’d probably have prepared yourself for a much different movie than the one you saw. More a “filmed play” than a movie, “Two Girls and a Guy” has one of those razor sharp, David Mamet meets Hal Hartley sensibilities where the characters deliver sharp measured dialogue back and forth throughout the entire movie. In a way the language sounds a bit forced and unrealistic, but that’s also part of the charm, believing that people actually could maintain such interesting, articulate and probing conversations.

Beginning with the film’s first scene where you meet a Carla (Graham) and Lou (Wagner) while they are both waiting on a SoHo stoop for the same boyfriend, you can tell that this will not be your standard romantic comedy. After a comical exchange with an odd passerby, the two figure out that, inevitably, they have been “used” by Downey like real-life acting roles for him to perform one of life’s most difficult roles – being in love. If this were a Hollywood film, this would be the end and not the beginning, but thankfully its not. Instead the girls break into Downey’s “trust-funded” loft and hide out waiting for him to return.

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Director : Paul Weitz
With : Jason Biggs, Natasha Lyonne, Eugene Levy, Tara Reid

After 82 years worth of films the likelihood of a movie about teenagers preparing to lose their virginity stands a very small chance of being original. After a slew of classics such as “Porky’s,” “Losin’ It,” “My Tutor” and “Revenge of the Nerds,” what more can American B-cinema actually have to say about bumbling adolescents and their pursuit of the Holy Grail? Like surprise classics “Kingpin” and “Rushmore,” there is always room to elaborate on such issues as the state of high school band members, masturbation, and the awkward first purchase of rubbers.
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Director : Susan Skoog
With : Liza Weil, Chad Morgan, Gary Wolf

In what could be described as an even darker, bleaker, fusion of “River’s Edge” and “Dazed and Confused,” the acclaimed indie film “Whatever” is a refreshing look at the hedonistic world belonging to a few rebellious teenagers in the 1980′s. The world is seen through the eyes of Anna who dreams of going to Cooper Union to continue her painting, and her best friend Brenda who has shamelessly pursued the reputation of school slut. The story is set in suburban New Jersey, within dream reach of New York City, but too far away to actually know all that much about it.

On the surface Anna and Brenda are merely simple caricatures of that chain smoking, hard partying, boyfriend’s-got-a-suped-up-rebuilt-Mustang bad crowd that dresses to fit the part as hippyish/stoners. However, beneath the clothes and habits are people genuinely looking to discover some sort of lasting substance to their lives. Both girls predictably come from broken fatherless homes, and both of their mothers have had to find pathetic breadwinning replacements further clouding their daughter’s perspectives on life and love.

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