Saved!

I saw this movie on Saturday night, but I waited to write about it because I was still deciding how I feel about it. Its parody of Jesus-freaks and high school back-stabbing is way over the top, and its characters are as stock as the characters of a Roman comedy...but oddly enough, I think it's not terribly unrealistic. Jesus-freaks really ARE that crazy, and high school personalities really are that flat. I might take objection to the grossly delirious happy ending, but it's pretty consistent with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Mandy Moore, surprisingly, is delightful. This is the only kind of role pop princesses should ever attempt, because "mean-spirited narcissist" is the only character we'd believe them playing. The cub reporter from Almost Famous also reinvents himself, this time as the heartthrob; it was convincing enough that I couldn't place I where I'd seen him before until I looked it up on imdb. Macauley Culkin as the crippled teenage rebel...we'll, it's nice to see that he's still acting.