Sunah

Saw YouthAnAsia at its world premiere at the good old Parkway. The movie was about some young friends and how their lives changed in one pivotal moment. The acting, particularly that of star Justin Zachary, was phenomenal. The writing was good but I don't know why the story was told in so determinedly asynchronous a fashion. I wish I had thought to ask the writer that when he was standing right next to me. I can't speak to the cinematography, because it was transferred from Super-8 to DVD and projected from that for the showing, so it looked more or less like mud.

On the way out I ran into Justin Zachary and said, "You were so great." He high-fived me! "Is this your first film?" he said it was. I said, "Kid, you're going places." He played someone who was seventeen to nineteen in the movie, so he seemed like a kid to me.

He said, "Thankee, Baby," which made him a lot older and me a lot younger. That was fun. I hope he makes it. He's very talented, as well as smooth.

Sorry I don't have much to say about the movie because I don't know how to avoid spoilers very well. Just catch Justin Zachary on his way up, that's my advice.

I laughed all the way through the one show I saw. Catherine Tate sets up several situations...in this case a housewife who jumps at the slightest noise, a new mother who will do anything to keep from waking the baby while people try to give her a birthday party, a hateful grandmother being visited by her grandson, and several others, and revisits their scenes in turn throughout the show. The premises are skimpy, it is true, but I didn't notice that until this other reviewer pointed it out because her characterizations were hilarious. I'm a Californian so I really had to focus to make out what some of the characters were saying as she uses various accents from all over England. I would be very pleased to see more of Catherine Tate.

The little actress who portayed Eloise was absolutely spot-on. Other comments about the previous movie, _Eloise at the Plaza_, said the movie did not do

justice to the book. Because there was no boredom or inactivity in this movie, I can understand the point, but the plot of the movie is really incidental. It is a portrayal of the adaptation of an imaginative, energetic, and loving six-year-old to the straitlaced circumstances in which she finds herself, just as the book is, and it is delightful.

It was great to see Julie Andrews play against type, but we still saw that upper crust peeking through. Jeffrey Tambor was fine. However, for the most part,

secondary characters were too broad for adult moviegoers.

Other Disney movies with constant action and shallow characterization leave

me cold, but I will happily watch any others in this series.