Leaves of Grass (2009–105mins) Edward Norton, S. Sarandon, Kerri Russell

   This is the lesser known indy of the night. Usually every Red Box night has one of them when we watch 3 movies at work. Leaves of Grass is a funny well written comedy which is a bit all over the place and has elements of the absurd. I tend to think that Tim Blake Nelson was doing an ode to the Coen brothers type of movie b/c the story reminds me of a Fargo quite a bit. Norton plays a pair of twins, one an Ivy league professor, the other a pot growing drug dealer back in their home state of Oklahoma. With a kid on the way the drug dealing brother Brady hatches a scheme to get out of the business for good. He needs his twin brother’s help in the scheme so he tricks him into coming home but home isn’t what he thought it would be.

   Now and then you need a movie like this to break from the norm. We tend to watch a ton of blockbuster action movies and a lot of romantic comedies as well, but sometimes you need some off the main path movies to enjoy. On main gimmick of the movie is Edwarn Norton playing the main characters Bill and Brady Kinkaid. I thought he did a great job playing off himself with the dialogue. Sometimes you see people playing multiple roles in these movies but they just fall flat, and seem like there is the planned pause. Here Norton is able to make it all seem seamless and often fools us into thinking they are really twins. It would be even more seamless if not for some bad film effects which in some scenes just look like norton is infront of a projection screen, the only thing missing is a script in his hand. Of course this is both nit-picking for the fun of it and also could be contributed to the increased quality of TVs these days. The better they get the easier it is to find flaws in some effects.

I like little movies like this that throw rediculous premises at us and then proceed to throw guest cameo’s in there as well. We get Keri Russell,Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss all in small parts but all putting in good performances here. The thing about indy’s is they might be a bit weird have unusual premises or not the best made movies around, but they always seem to wrap it all up at the end of the movie. They don’t tend to leave us hanging wondering WTF when the end credits are rolling, and that’s a big plus in my book.

   Verdict–> It’s a funny movie with actors doing things you prolly wouldn’t normally think of them doing. (Keri Russell Noodling!) If you like wacky premises and the Fargo type of movie you will like this. If you take things a bit too serious and can’t take ridiculous ideas in movies then it won’t be for you. I do recommend this movie, it’s light on thinking and will make you laugh. If you get a bit uneasy on pot references then be careful, but it’s not a “stoner” movie in the typical sense at all.

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