Celeste and Jesse Forever: a good movie that probably isn't playing at a theater near you...

I finally got my library friends together to watch "Celeste and Jesse Forever." It opened on August 5th, but only started showing at a local theater last week.   I was also a little apprehensive recommending this movie, because the previous movie we watched, "Ruby Sparks," also labelled as a "romantic-comedy" (a point I could argue about), was a let-down, we all agreed and should have been skipped. I should have followed my instinct, when I saw the trailers, it didn't click with me.  It didn't seem interesting at all, but I did give it a chance and $12.50 ಠ_ಠ

Needless to say I went in the theater with low expectations, I mean this only opened on 4 screens.  And it's not like this is a home-brewed movie with unrecognizable names: Rashida Jones (I LOVE HER), Andy Samberg, Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts.  But I had to send out a YouTube link of the trailer because most of my friends never heard of it.

We were all laughing within the first 5 minutes and thankfully it didn't fall off from there unlike other movies: when I started watching "Friends with Kids," I kept thinking to myself, "Why the hell didn't anyone tell me how funny this movie is/was!?!"  After about 30 minutes I realized why, it fell flat on its face and ultimately let me down.  Rashida and Andy play their parts well --- the funny and serious.

You know how these romantic-comedies always have their funny and bright moments but inevitably end up in that dark and serious place, some movies take a deep nosedive and some stay there too long and can never dig themselves out.  "Celeste and Jesse Forever" has its serious moments in spurts and it quickly comes back to normal so you don't end up feeling all bummed out for the characters and what they're going through.  Let me be honest, some of the humor is immature and crude, but you don't feel like it's out of character, so it's natural.  Hell, the older lady sitting in front of me with her adult son was laughing the loudest.

Walking out of the theater we all turned to each and unanimously agreed that it was a good movie.  Which was such a relief for me, because if it was another crap-fest, I would have been ridiculed until the next movie outing.  Later in the day, I ended up watching "The Five-Year Engagement," boy, am I glad that I didn't recommend watching that movie...