BLUE CRUSH * A MIGHTY WIND

Blue Crush - I remember seeing positive reviews for this movie ages ago. It turns out I'm talking almost 10 years ago, but that's how time flies. It was on last night at the same time as an old Marlene Dietrich movie, which is the one I started to watch. That one began with guys in military uniforms talking about a festival where everyone would be in costume, and went on like that with the weird costumed people partying in the square, and after a few minutes I said forget this, I'm watching Blue Crush. I'm so glad I did. It was a great movie about a surfer who qualified to be in the toughest surf competition on Oahu. She's a maid at a fancy resort, and lives with a couple of her surfer friends, and she's raising her wild younger sister, and if she can win the competition, she'll be able to lift them all out of their poverty-like living conditions. She gets fired from her job and falls in love with a handsome football player, and the whole thing is wonderful escapism and fabulous scenery.

A Mighty Wind - If you liked Best In Show, and you like folk music, then here's the movie for you. It's a spoof about a folk music memorial comeback performance by three folk music groups. The actors are all the usual suspects, Jane Lynch, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey and hundreds more. Each of the characters are interviewed about their part in folk music history and what the comeback means to them. I love Catherine O'Hara, but all of them are suitably nutty. If it drags at all, just go to the Mitch and Mickey performance at the end. There's a little suspense about a kiss.