Two very different movies, both enjoyable

Last weekend in Seattle I took in two movies -- two films that will never come to my little town. While they were each entertaining, they were significantly different.

"The Aristocrats" -- This film about how comedians tell an old joke was rip-roaring funny, It's not that I actually thought that what the comedians were saying was truly funny, it was that the material was so astonishingly outside what people generally accept. It was vile, inappropriate, disgusting, offensive. Funny. A friend of mine from way back in my student leadership program days developed a pyramid for humor. He consulted a bunch of actual comedians in his quest to determine what was funny, why and how to avoid offense. At the bottom of the pyramid is the self-depricating humor that rarely offends. At the peak is the racial and sexual humor that almost always offends someone. It is this type of humor that can be shared by people in similar groups. I sometimes get to this level with my friends -- making fun of things simply for the effect of the joke, not because we actually believe or value the sentiment. Friends at this level understand that the humor can be just an exercise. So it is with this film -- the humor is just an opportunity to get outrageous. The downside to this film is a slow middle section and the production quality, which is low-quality digital video. If you can appreciate outrageous humor, see "The Aristocrats." If you're easily offended, skip it, which is what the two people who walked out after 20 minutes should have done.

"Junebug" -- I would have probably overlooked this film if not for a recommendation from friends who had seen a trailer. A Chicago art gallery owner travels to her husband's native South to woo an undiscovered Appalachian painter and see his family along the way. It would be easy to show the urbane sophisticates from Chicago returning to the husband's roots and showing how much better off they are to be out of the dead-end lifestyle of the country. Instead, it simply shows life and relationships -- much of it through close-up angles and slight changes in facial expressions that communicate more than a page of dialog. It's a delightful look at people from different walks of life whose paths cross and who try to understand each other. The film portrays the Southerners not as flat stereotypical bumpkins but instead as complex and developed people. As the plot continued, I found myself increasingly drawn to the characters, especially Johnny, the loner with a stunted career and his wistful pregnant wife, Ashley. Ashley steals nearly every scene with her eagerness to be something, anything, that she is not; it's an attempt to alter the reality of her situation in any way possible and every way she can. My verdict: Absolutely worth the price of admission.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.