Review: Orange County

Orange County is a strange movie, hard to categorize and, in a way, a tease. At times, (and sparked by the over-the-top Jack Black) it's hilarious and challenging. Then it tries to be a derivative teen movie, then a social satire on family, identity and college snobbery. As a result, it's a bunch of different kinds of movies thrown together. The movie also has generational significance, at least for Hollywood. It's directed by Lawrence Kasdan's kid Jake, and stars Tom Hanks' son Colin (Shaun Brumder) and Sissy Spaceks' daughter Schuyler Fisk (Ashley). Hanks looks and acts so much like his father it's distracting. But don't be fooled by the trailers -- Orange County is an ambitious movie, drawing nearly as much from American Beauty as from Clueless. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending.

Shaun is a brainless Orange County surfing dude until he stumbles across a novel and decides he was to use his brain and become a writer. He obsesses on Stanford, doesn't get in because of a paperwork screw-up by his moonie guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin) and, with the help of his perpetually-stoned brother (Black) and girlfriend (Fisk), sets out to gain admission to Stanford. Part of his obsession comes from a desire to get away from his hilariously and spectacularly dysfunctional family (drunken drama queen mother is played by Catherine O'Hara, remote divorced money-obsessed dad by John Lithgow).

Black is by now wonderful at playing the stoned loony, but he needs to be careful, as it's already nearly impossible to imagine him in any other role. And he's great at it. He nearly steals the movie, especially playing against the steady-as-she-goes nice guy Colin Hanks who, like his Dad, has a Jimmy Stewart quality that makes you root for him, even when he's behaving badly.

The plotting and conceit of the movie are both strange. Orange County, a wealthy suburb of LA, is held to be insipid and valueless. Although we get a peek at the dummies who Shaun befriends and who go to his high school, there is little feel at all for the actual place, one of America's early, mythic suburbs. At least at first, all Shaun wants to do is get away, though the writers eventually suggest that wanting to leave arid suburbs and go to colleges like Stanford is a mistake. Creative and interesting people should stay at home where their roots are, all the better to be inspired and keep their needy parents and girlfriends happy.

Shaun's paperwork snafu could probably have been corrected with a phone call, so all the slapstick racing around -- there's an improbably mad dash up to Stanford -- and hysteria seems a bit silly. And the ending -- well, it's original, but also goofy. It lost me.

I think for a total of 15 to 20 minutes this is one of the most inventive and original movies I've seen in awhile. In toto, it's disjointed. It seems as if Kasdan wanted to make a semi-serious, biting movie but either chickened out or was held back. Still, there are more than a few great laughs in Orange County and the parts of the film that portray a complex kid trying to figure out where he belongs while coming to terms with his insane family really work -- at moments.

Comments

I don't blame him.

[ProfKyne]

For at least as long as I've been reading Slashdot, Jon Katz has posted op/eds and stories investigating many of the social implications of emerging technology and current political trends, that have an impact on both our freedom to use technology and the industry itself. He's gone beyond speculating about the technical limits of supercooled processors, or the Quake 3 engine, to look at some of the things that actually make a dent in our lives.

And for at least as long as I've been reading Slashdot, readers have posted their opinions of Jon Katz, and why he can go to hell, or why his opinion sucks, or some other complaint. Almost all of them request that he take his writing elsewhere, that he is not welcome with their morning news and cup of coffee.

I'm not writing this to support the presence of goofy teen flick movie review on Slashdot. But judging from the way he's received, what did you expect? He's clearly come to the conclusion that, at least about important things, geeks must not like to think very much.

And I don't blame him.

The reason I click on "Read More..." on Katz stuff

[ApheX]

My god, I just realized something:

I find myself ONLY reading Katz stuff for the comments. I don't read anything he writes but I love reading all the colorful commentary that is provided down here by fellow slashdot users.

What is this world coming to...