You might remember that I wrote about The Criterion Contraption last month -- a blog by Matthew Dessem that hopes to review each and every Criterion DVD. The latest in the mix is one I have been waiting for -- Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy -- one of the most contested additions to the roster (the other being Armageddon... poor Ben Affleck). I didn't realize just how long it has been since I popped it into my DVD player until reading his great review -- one that isn't necessarily full of praise, but captures enough of Smith's essence that you can enjoy it either way.

From the first image, which just happens to be of Guinevere Turner (who has gone on to success collaborating with Mary Harron and writing and acting in The L Word), Dessem points out -- this is a film that is 100% entrenched in the '90s, from it's make-up, to its plaid, to Comic-Cons without star-studded line-ups. He's pretty hard on Ben's Holden McNeil, which is a fair assessment, although it can also be argued that the character's inadequacies make him the perfect Holden -- it might be unbelievable that Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) would fall for a man like him, but it's almost suitable -- he's the mistake she can't can't quite rationalize, which makes perfect sense with the passive ending. But even if you're not up for Affleck and his wordy speeches, there's Jason Lee. From slapstick to wordless acting, the review points out just how great Lee was in the movie.

Personally, I'm thinking it's time to pull out the plaid and pop in the DVD, which is kind of like Some Kind of Wonderful for the next generation -- the guy's friend realizes she's a lesbian, but tries him out and has disastrous results. The big difference: instead of offering diamond earrings, he offers a menage a trois with his best friend. What could describe the '90s better?

We already know that Michelle Monaghan is making a name for herself, having nabbed roles in big films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, North Country and Mission: Impossible III, plus upcoming flicks such as Patrick Dempsey's Made of Honor. On the flip side, there's Mr. Nathan Fillion, who has found success in pizza places and space, but can't seem to break beyond them into the stardom he deserves. (If you agree, make sure to check out Scott's fan rant about Fillion failing to catch a break.) But now, I ask: could truckers give him his big break?

According to Variety, production has just started on the Plum Pictures film Trucker, a new independently-financed drama starring Monaghan, Fillion, Benjamin Bratt, Joey Lauren Adams and Jimmy Bennett. James Mottern, who wrote the script, will make his directorial debut with the movie. In a nice change of pace, the trucker is being played by Michelle herself, and her character leads "a careless life with no responsibility until she has to take in her estranged 11-year-old son (Bennett) after his father (Bratt) is hospitalized." The actress is so into this role that she not only signed on before they got financing, but she also became a licensed tractor-trailer driver. Either this is a meaty role, or she's been itching to entertain her inner trucker. There is no word who Fillion will play, but hopefully it will be something to give the man some long-deserved recognition.

Come Early Morning is the best student film I've seen this year. The camera set-ups are managed well and never draw attention to themselves. The music cues that begin each scene lay it on a little thick, but that's no big deal. The main character is set up quickly and efficiently -- we meet her as she comes storming out of a room at a roadside motel, pushing past a perplexed-looking gentleman standing in the doorway. This cues us that our heroine is the town sperm jar, coming off her latest one-night stand. She will have to be put on a path to mending her slutty ways if the movie is to end on a moderately upbeat note. The small town in which she lives is peopled with appropriately colorful eccentrics, including a church congregation that seems to practice Monkee-worship -- the choir uses tambourines to make a joyful noise and the minister sports a Peter Tork haircut. All of this is good knockabout stuff, but the question arises -- what is Ashley Judd doing in this film?

For a talented actress, Judd has demonstrated great oddity in her choices over the years. She's produced a small library of one-off thrillers like Double Jeopardy and Twisted, often turned up in Southern-fried weepies like Where the Heart Is, and here and there delivered a real knockout performance, such as in 2004's De-Lovely, where she played the long-suffering wife of the insufferable Cole Porter. It's possible that Judd is a victim of Tom Cruise Syndrome -- if you can consistently open a movie, starring roles will be consistently offered to you, which are probably hard to turn down no matter how much you long to unleash the inner thespian. Still, Judd would be well-advised to take on the more challenging projects she's shown herself capable of handling. In Come Early Morning, she's not exactly sleep-walking, but seems perpetually on the verge of boredom. Her character, Lucy, has little to do in the film except pick up strangers in honky tonk bars, sleep with them off-camera, and then regret everything the next day.

Apparently Joey Lauren Adams is serious about Joey Lauren Adam's movie being a movie by Joey Lauren Adams. Not only did she write and direct Come Early Morning, based in her hometown of North Little Rock, Arkansas, but now she's editing it herself, as well. Whether or not the movie will be any good will have to be determined once (if) it's released, but I do like the idea of Adams filming the movie in the South in order to maintain the film's integrity and a more genuine feel. The film has no distributor as of yet.

Joey Lauren Adams is selling off pieces of the set from her just-wrapped directorial debut, Come Early Morning.  This isn't some big-deal Ebay charity thing - at an average price of 10% of the retail cost, nearly everything has been marked to go. According to set dresser Mitchell Patterson, it would cost money that the production doesn't have to store the paraphernalia - "So we're selling it for real cheap." All you Kevin Smith nerds will remember Adams as the Amy that Ben Affleck Chased.