At dinner tonight Marjorie and I were trying to come up with a term for the recent trend in movies, where the whole goal seems to be to make the user uncomfortable, by featuring good actors playing people who are a little bit nuts but still believable, putting them into uncomfortable and awkward situations, and holding the viewers faces in it until they're squirming in their seats. Films like Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl, Happiness, etc...

The best term we could come up with was cinema Solondz.

Later we went and saw a movie that was nothing of the sort. 24 Hour Party People is a dramatization of events surrounding the Manchester music scene in the late 70's through the mid-90's, particularly surrounding the bands Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays. Not bands I've ever been into, but still. Steve Coogan is superlative in the role as Tony Wilson, a TV variety-show host cum band manager/night club owner. Great nostalgic fun.