Finding a Jewel

I've recently been criticized for only seeing movies that are based on comic book characters. But I have some movies sitting on my shelf that I picked up cheaply in DVD sales and that I still haven't seen. So this morning I pulled one of them out, popped it into the DVD player, made some coffee, and sat down to watch Breckin Meyer and Anna Paquin in Blue State. I expected it to be a light-hearted comedy like Garden State, but I was instead rewarded with a much more complex story. Meyer really brought the goods as the leading man; I was expecting a high-energy comic turn from him, but he really found depth and soul to his character. I usually think that Anna Paquin plays things a little too... juvenile... but I was impressed by her work in this film. Again, she finds subtle and complex shades to what could have been a straightforward role. The film is only laugh-out-loud funny in a few spots, but the whole project walks a great line between comedy and drama.

For me, the film is even better because of the sense of finding that diamond in the rough. I picked it up at a local comic book store(!) that sells used DVDs, and I only got it to take advantage of the "But-One-Get-One-Free" nature of the sale that was going on. The movie sat on my shelf for almost a year before I got to watch it, and now I know that I'll be pulling it out more often. It's a beautiful, almost perfect indie film, and I would consider my filmmaking career a success if I could make just one movie like it.