THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS

THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS DON'T MAKE WHOLE FILM

"My name is Tracey Berkowitz. Fifteen. Just a normal girl who hates herself." And she is not alone in the hate...

I confirmed my suspicion by checking with IMDB. This movie was released just before Juno hit. It was in "post production" for 9 months. Now we see her on the cover of the DVD and want to see more of 'Juno' but instead we get Ellen Page as Tracey. Tracey is having a fifteen year old version of a nervous breakdown, which happens to be every ten minutes or so. At first the images shot are so artsy and well, fragmented. It was a neat trick... until they used it all through the whole movie. At that point, I didn't care. The handheld camera work took me back to the same nausea I felt with the Blaire Witch Project. The plot is thin at best. Tracey runs. Tracey screams. Tracey rides the bus. Tracey goes to therapy. Tracey makes me want to bleed a slow and painful death as opposed to watching the end of the movie. It is a sluggish and damp, soggy excuse for a film.

NOT a pick: Go watch Juno again instead. Nothing redeeming in this film.

WHY DVD RENTAL CHAINS SUCK: AN EPIGRAM

WHY BLOCKBUSTER AND HOLLYWOOD VIDEO CHAINS STORES SUCK
Mind you, I understand why rental prices have increased steadily since Netflix came on the scene and changed everything. I cancelled Netflix after the second or third month because I could go through too many new releases and had to dumb down my movies in queue. So back in the stores renting for a few days despite the option of returning them 'whenever I want'. A GALLON OF GAS IS LESS EXPENSIVE THAN RENTING A MOVIE. Stew over that one a minute. It costs $5 (tax not included) to rent a "new release" at Blockbuster and $4.67 (tax included) at Hollywood Video. Mind you, their definition of "new release" has nothing to do with the actual release date. It is of my opinion that if these stores want to bring customers back to the store is to make them less expensive not more. I am grateful to the Pierce County library system and their taste in DVDs because they are free. It might take a while to get a newer movie, but it's free and still as new as the "new releases" in the stores. I've been hoping to attract movie studios with my blog in hopes of reviewing new to theaters movies, but nothing yet; everyone is a critic. Just food for thought because for every video you rent, a child in Bangladesh goes to bed with no movie at all.