punishmentpark A romantic story, but also tragic. The nasty ways of Jay are hard to watch, though there is a history to it and in another way he seems to be trying to... change? be good? I don't know, but Jason Patric does make some humanity shine through at moments. In the end it isn't enough and when Claire (wonderfully played by Samantha Morton) discovers his internet porn habit, she (after one last 'try') feels whatever little magic there was or may have been, it's surely gone now...I found it all - this second time around - hard to watch, again. Sometimes such an effort pays off, but I'm not sure that 'Expired' really does. This slice of life, combined with the day to day practice of parking ticket officers and some sad stories going on in their private lives, is a bit (too) much.Another thing I must mention is the camera work; was it a financial 'thing' to use just one camera switching from character to character and event to event, or an artistic choice? In any case, for me that didn't really work and distracted me from the actual drama going on.6 out of 10.

Chris Mackey (guestar57) Starring: Samantha Morton,Jason Patric . NOT your typical 'love story', But perhaps that makes it more in line to our lives. Jason Patric (Speed 2) absolutely steals this movie with an performance that is real and thought provoking as too "Alpha Male".Samantha Morton is a good girl and worth more than what she has been given,And may finally coming into her skin. This is a romance comedy about parking ticket officers and their prey,Unlawful car parkers.The "Making Of " is amazing when you see what into this Sundance/Cannes favorite.

cjaye This movie was absolutely wonderful. At times hard to watch because it was so honest, it had humor, sadness, well rounded characters and was unique. Jason Patric was fantastic, the best performance I've ever seen from him. How he managed to get us to like him even though he was such an awful human being is a testament to his fine acting. I was not as impressed with Samantha Morton's performance but they work off each other so wonderfully and have such chemistry that you can't help but love them together and it works. Illeana Douglas was terrific too... you wonder why you don't see her working more.Just loved it. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't like this movie other than they just don't get it.

quizick The movie Expired is really unlike most of the feature films you'll see these days. It has an intensity, a committed vision that grabs you and holds you in its grips for the entire hour and a half or so. Of films in recent years that share this quality, I can think of Todd Solondz' "Happiness".Expired is the story of two L.A. parking officers, or "meter maids", one female and one male, who meet on the job and have an increasingly dysfunctional, mercurial relationship. Samantha Morton plays it extremely sweet, wide-eyed and gentle as Claire, a meter maid who lives with her stroke-incapacitated, essentially mute mother and hates having to ruin peoples' days with tickets. Jason Patric is Jay, a taut, seething, bull-shouldered ball of defensive machismo in a blue uniform with a ticket-gun and a hilarious dark mustache. He likes slapping parking tickets on folks the way some LA cops like cracking heads.The first two thirds or so of the film especially are darkly comedic, and the purposefully stylized elements- lighting, dialogue, supporting actors, visual action, set design, musical score- create a very sharp, bittersweet, somewhat tragic kind of comedy, like the best of the Coen Brothers films. This isn't broad American multiplex comedy, this is comedy that comes from true pathos, sadness and the small calamities of life. While Morton's face shows sensitivity and vulnerability- two of her big strengths- Patric's Jay character is fantastic because he offsets the angry disciplinarian guy with loose moments of real charm and also sarcastic, almost whimsical humor.The film progresses with a few traditional "plot points" that serve to accelerate the conflicts and create moments of challenge and decision for the characters, but really the film is also greatly a close-up examination of the attempted close relationship of two equally extreme opposites- the "naive, yearning do-gooder" and the "previously injured, prickly, defensive bully." At its core it's just a film about human beings- what they have, what they want and need, and the different places they're coming from emotionally.Visually, the film was shot in a crisp, almost beautiful way, at once seeming straightforwardly no-nonsense and yet heavily atmospheric. A lot of the production design strongly complements the film- from the richly hued, antique-laden apartment Claire and her Mom live in to the various LA coffee shops and streetscapes. The musical scoring is also highly evocative and appropriate- with the best of it reminding me of great melodic work Michael Penn and Jon Brion did in P.T. Anderson's film 'Hard Eight'.Ileana Douglas is perfect as Claire's decent-hearted, energetic busybody neighbor and Teri Garr is rock solid as the mute, wheelchair-bound Mom but hilarious and deliciously campy in a second role as the Mom's crazy sister in Pomona! With its strong vision and execution, 'Expired' should certainly put writer/director Cecilia Miniucchi on the Hollywood map.