The Greatest Movie in the World

...is not Crossroads. But Crossroads is damned close. It has everything: A cast full of newcomers who couldn't get through a junior high talent show without giggling about the chemistry teacher's bow tie; a plot that a coked-up Paris Hilton would find "endearing;" a soundtrack so incompatible it seems like a sick joke; a plot aimed at pre-teens that involves rape, child abuse, abandonment, and abortion; and best of all, a wonderfully miscast, confused-looking Britney Spears as a geeky, introverted valedictorian. Crossroads could possibly be the basis for the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode ever made. As it is, it's easily worth the ten bucks you can probably get it for at Target. I can't WAIT to hear the DVD commentary.

In serious, non-ironic cinematic news, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the best film I've seen all year. Really. Jim Carrey finally nailed a dramatic role head-on, after near-misses in The Majestic, which was good but just too boring, and The Truman Show, which was aimless and condescending. Eternal Sunshine has everything. There's just no categorizing this movie. It seems like a drama, then a dramatic comedy, then a romance, then an abstract indie. Then it turns out to be all at once, and that's something you just don't find in American cinema. I checked out my copy of the DVD from the Raleigh branch of the Memphis Library, and that is exactly where this film belongs: in a library, where anyone with a face and a driver's license can find out what filmmaking is supposed to be about.