Pumpkin (***1/2)
review by Joe Swanberg of FilmBrats

Pumpkin is the best kind of great movie. The kind you don't expect to be great. Nothing beats a pleasant surprise.

Christina Ricci plays a sorority sister bent on winning the trophy for sorority of the year. Unfortunately, she falls in love with a mentally retarded boy named Pumpkin and her sorority's hopes and dreams teter on the brink of dissaster.

Yes, there are plenty of cheap shots at sororities, deserved or not, and enough cheap shots are retarded kids that some may be offended, but underneath it all, there is Romeo and Juliet. The story works because in this day and age, it is unthinkable that an attractive sorority girl would break up with her star athlete boyfriend to date a retarded guy. These are societal boundries that just aren't crossed very often, and they work perfectly for a modern update of a doomed love story.

Pumpkin, the film, is smart about filmmaking. If you pay attention, and know your film history, there are plenty of inside film jokes to pick up. There are also subtle filmmaking devices used to convey to the attentive audience member a little more than what's on the surface. I will not give anything away, but pay close attention to color, and, believe it or not, Christina Ricci's nipples, because within these two devices there are character traits being revealed.

The good news is, if you hate paying attention to filmmaking, don't care either way, or simply refuse to be intellectaully challenged by anything you are watching, Pumpkin delivers on the most basic level as well. It is just a funny film, plain and simple. There are hot girls, hunky guys, retard jokes, college jokes, good music, and plenty of other things to sit back and enjoy. So please do.