Brick (2005)
Watched this with a friend last night, although my friend fell asleep at some point in the middle so he woke up pretty confused, although it doesn't take much to be confused by this movie on the first viewing. Thank god they pretty much spell out the plot at the end of the movie for the slow of remembering, but I do think it does kind of marginalize the story a wee bit. Either way, this is the fourth time I've seen this movie and I still love it.
Roger Dodger (2002)
In keeping with our neo-noir theme (the last few movies we've watched together have been
Body Heat (1981) and
Brick (2005)) I introduced my friend to this little unknown gem from early in the last decade. It's Jesse Eisenberg's first movie and it's amazing how little he seems to have grown in the 9 years from this to
The Social Network (2010) where he practically plays the same character. While his character is definitely nothing to write home about, his uncle, the titular Roger, played by Campbell Scott puts on one hell of a performance.
The general premise of the movie is that Roger is a pick up artist in the days before that Mystery douchebag ruined it for everyone. His nephew, Nick, (Jesse Eisenberg) comes to Roger and asks him to help him lose his virginity, and thus the movie is a night out on the town in New York City as Roger attempts to teach Nick the ins-and-outs of sex and the female mentality, and the imaginary war for dominance between the sexes.
It provides a very nice little window into the mindset and tackles some interesting subjects such as the "malegaze", all while using guerrilla style filming tactics that make many scenes memorable. In fact the opening diner scene is is probably on par with the one from
Reservoir Dogs. Definitely look this one up.