Top Five Movies of Mena Suvari

Mena Suvari is next in my continuing coverage of the aging ing?nues that make up the lovely side of the upcoming ?American Reunion.? Why do these movies and the denizens of its world deserve so many words? Because, I believe January through April contain the dregs of the year?s release schedule. Until April or May, trying to find a movie that combines being interesting with being good is downright impossible. (?21 Jump Street? may be an exception to my rule, like ?Orange County? back in 2002. But, I?m not going to believe it and I doubt I?ll go see it. I am that judgmental over release dates. I saw ?Alone in the Dark? and I may be subjecting good movies to a prejudice based on Uwe Boll?s badness, but I prefer to be safer that sorry for losing two hours of my life.)

Lovely Mena

So, ?American Reunion? looks to be an oasis in the movie desert. It looks to be a bright, shiny beacon of hope that soon the summer will be here with all its bright and shiny movies filled with empty centers. Then comes the fall and then, in just a couple of months after that, there will be good movies again. But, the shiny stuff starring lovely ladies is much more apt to tide me over than ?A Thousand Words? or ?Dr. Seuss? The Lorax? or ?Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.? That?s why the DVD player and Netflix Instant are my friends in these long, long winter months when I can watch these good movies starring Mena instead of going to the multiplex.

5. Edmond

With this spot, I could have gone with a couple of different movies with some other great looking actresses ? ?Domino? with Keira Knightley, or ?Factory Girl? with Sienna Miller and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Instead, I chose the movie with one of my favorite actors, William H. Macy and written by one of my favorite screenwriters, David Mamet. Still, besides Mena, there?s Debi Mazar, Julia Stiles and the omnipresent Mamet spouse, Rebecca Pidgeon.

4. American Pie

I feel compelled to include ?American Pie,? on this list. Fortunately for you obsessive compulsives in viewing every movie I list, I don?t feel that same inclusion urge for version two, the wedding episode (which Mena skipped) and any of the direct-to-DVD movies (which I think skipped about everyone in the cast, except poor Eugene Levy.)

3. Slums of Beverly Hills

Again??!?!

2. Sugar and Spice

I know I?m in the minority of people that really liked this and the remake of ?Charlie?s Angels,? but what can I say? You put a lot of pretty girls in slightly amusing movies that have very low expectations and I?m going to enjoy them. It seems to be a formula that movie studios need to exploit more and maybe the success of ?Bridesmaids? will make it so.

1. American Beauty

We opened the list with William Macy (who gave perhaps my favorite dramatic performance in any Coen Brothers movie in ?Fargo?) and we close with Kevin Spacey?s, well, I?m going to say third best movie, since I like ?L.A. Confidential? and ?The Usual Suspects? so much. (The connection ? great 90s movies.) Even more today, the idea of falling for Mena as a plot device for middle aged men seems like a very easy to accept idea.

Agree? Disagree? Which movies would make your Mena Suvari top five?