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In case I don't get a chance tomorrow, happy early birthday to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xnera!!
I got a mouth full of bling! *flashes new gold tooth* Finally I got the damn crown put on, and I've been promised it should last until I'm old and grey or dead.
I rented four movies over the past few days, and will now speak a bit about all of them.
Crash
I wanted to see this in the theater and never got a chance. I liked it. It's nice watching a good movie with sold performances throughout. There were times when it got a little too artificial with the created situations, but I was willing to go with it since the actors were. Don Cheadle never gives a bad performance, Matt Dillon reminded me how underappreciated he is. There was a wonderful performance by an actor I didn't know playing a Hispanic locksmith that was a big surprise it was so good, even surrounded by these established actors (he has one of the best adult/child scenes in a movie I've seen). Ludacris, the person you usually see in clips, is also great (probably the most enjoyable). Mentioning these guys is just making me realize that everyone was good so there's no point in singling people out.
I'd been warned this movie had been compared to Grand Canyon and that worried me, as I hated that movie. Grand Canyon is about a lot of yuppies having annoying crises of faith and sudden, violent accidents that are so frequent that by the time they actually get to the Grand Canyon you can't even listen to them pontificate because you're so sure somebody's going to take a header over the barrier. Happily, Crash was not like that and it did have a theme that held it all together--racism, which was often done really well, meaning believably. I liked the way that, for instance, while Matt Dillon is a racist who's also brave and a good son, the one side of his character wasn't there to make up for the other. In fact it just made his racism seem even more petty and meaningless because it obviously wasn't making his life any better. Also I must say, since I usually dislike Sandra Bullock, she's much more likable as an unlikable rich white woman who declares her best friend the cleaning lady (without ever considering if the cleaning lady likes her).
Jules et Jim
This is a famous French movie I'd never seen. It's exactly the kind of movie not made for me. It's one of those stories based on the premise that if a woman is so annoying I can't see how anyone can stand her for 5 minutes, she is therefore irresistible to men. Seriously. The second this chick dresses up like a boy with a fake moustache and walks around with a cigar (and supposedly actually does fool people into thinking she is a man) I knew it was hopeless but no, it gets worse. She goes on to be consistently irritating for years, following such womanly philosophy as "If your mother insults me and you didn't notice and so didn't stand up for me the way I think you should have, I have to sleep with your friend so we're even!" Her hobbies include wanting to have children without caring too much for raising them.
Jules and Jim for some reason find her irresistible and are willing to be go-betweens for her. Their friendship is a lot more interesting than anything she does, and although they kind of find themselves in a threesome there was nothing homoerotic in their relationship, at least to me. I honestly felt like they'd have been happier if they could just go out for coffee or hang out at a bar together, but I guess part of what made them both such good friends is neither one of them ever said, "That bitch is whacked." I am probably revealing my lack of sophistication by having this reaction, but there it is.
Deadbirds
This was another movie with a really good cast. Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Mark Boone Junior, Isaiah Washington. I can't exactly say that's it's good. It's the story of a group of bank robbers who hide out at an abandoned plantation surrounded by dead corn during the Civil War. Unfortunately--wouldn't you know?--the former owner did some sort of Satanic ritual that's turned his family into demons, and now it's turning our heroes into demons too. Sort of. Something like that.
While the explanation there fell flat I admit I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, which mostly consisted of people walking around a big empty antebellum house very slowly. Call me crazy, but that appeals to me. I think it's because I have that long history of dreams about isolated houses--my friend calls it my "Hansel and Gretel fixation." This house was great for that, especially since everything is lit with lanterns so you can barely see anything ever.
Henry Thomas, as the leader of the gang, sort of grounds the movie--he's exactly the guy you'd want to be with in one of these scary house movies. He's so focused on his gold he barely notices anything scary going on at all. So the demons just don't see to torment him as much as they do, say, his little brother Patrick Fugit.
Wishing Stairs
Surprisingly, this was the most interesting of the four I rented. It's a Korean horror movie, the third in the "Ghost School" trilogy. I did not know there was a ghost school trilogy, much less that I had seen the second movie already, Memento Mori. The first two movies in the trilogy, Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori I think tell the same story from different points of view. It concerns a secret lesbian affair between two girls at a girls' school. Wishing Stairs takes place at another girls' school, this one for the arts, and at the center is again an intense girl friendship. I don't think the girls were lovers, but if they weren't they might as well have been, you know? The title comes from a flight of stairs outside the dorm. Legend has it that if you wish very hard and count the 28 steps as you walk up, a 29th step will appear and "Fox" will grant your wish. Unsurprisingly, these wishes always come with nasty side effects.
Now, I happen to love that kind of idea--the extra step appearing, the clock striking 13, a door appearing where there was none before. When I was a kid I was constantly looking for that sort of thing, so the idea already grabs me. But what I really liked about the movie was, supernatural stuff aside, what's really scary are the ways the girls treat each other. The same is true in Memento Mori but, perhaps because this is the first of the trilogy directed by a woman, this somehow rang more true to me. The central friendship is troubled by the fact that the one girl is the best ballerina in the school (it's got ballet too--woo-hoo!) and the other girls is...second best. And extremely jealous. There's also a very weird girl, the first one to believe in the Wishing Stairs, who wishes to lose weight. She's a sculpture, as is the really mean girl who torments her.
Watching the making of video the director said that she, too, went to an arts school and that what's scary at those places is everyone has the same dream, so they're all competitive. I think I really liked seeing her grab on to that--so often movies about girls in high school center around romantic rivalry, but here it's all about being the best, and while the outcast in particular wishes for love, it's in the form of female friendship.
To give an idea of what I mean, the scariest scene in the movie, to me, is where the one girl has gotten a scholarship to a Russian ballet school. Her letter from the school is missing, so she goes to see the teacher about it. It seems like she's been tricked into walking into a trap--but no, it's the other girls who have set up a surprise party to congratulate her as her friends. They give her a cake. She blows out the candles and thanks them, that was really nice...
...and then they throw the cake in her face. Because it was all a big gang up to show they hate her. Yeah, it's scary being chased by the ghost of a dead girl or a live girl wielding a knife, but damn, that's cold!!! And the girls aren't just ganging up randomly, they're making a statement about something they sense about the competition--this girl got the scholarship under mysterious circumstances.
So yeah, I don't know if I'd say this movie was especially brilliant or whatever, but there was some interesting stuff in there.
xnera!! I got a mouth full of bling! *flashes new gold tooth* Finally I got the damn crown put on, and I've been promised it should last until I'm old and grey or dead.
I rented four movies over the past few days, and will now speak a bit about all of them.
Crash
I wanted to see this in the theater and never got a chance. I liked it. It's nice watching a good movie with sold performances throughout. There were times when it got a little too artificial with the created situations, but I was willing to go with it since the actors were. Don Cheadle never gives a bad performance, Matt Dillon reminded me how underappreciated he is. There was a wonderful performance by an actor I didn't know playing a Hispanic locksmith that was a big surprise it was so good, even surrounded by these established actors (he has one of the best adult/child scenes in a movie I've seen). Ludacris, the person you usually see in clips, is also great (probably the most enjoyable). Mentioning these guys is just making me realize that everyone was good so there's no point in singling people out.
I'd been warned this movie had been compared to Grand Canyon and that worried me, as I hated that movie. Grand Canyon is about a lot of yuppies having annoying crises of faith and sudden, violent accidents that are so frequent that by the time they actually get to the Grand Canyon you can't even listen to them pontificate because you're so sure somebody's going to take a header over the barrier. Happily, Crash was not like that and it did have a theme that held it all together--racism, which was often done really well, meaning believably. I liked the way that, for instance, while Matt Dillon is a racist who's also brave and a good son, the one side of his character wasn't there to make up for the other. In fact it just made his racism seem even more petty and meaningless because it obviously wasn't making his life any better. Also I must say, since I usually dislike Sandra Bullock, she's much more likable as an unlikable rich white woman who declares her best friend the cleaning lady (without ever considering if the cleaning lady likes her).
Jules et Jim
This is a famous French movie I'd never seen. It's exactly the kind of movie not made for me. It's one of those stories based on the premise that if a woman is so annoying I can't see how anyone can stand her for 5 minutes, she is therefore irresistible to men. Seriously. The second this chick dresses up like a boy with a fake moustache and walks around with a cigar (and supposedly actually does fool people into thinking she is a man) I knew it was hopeless but no, it gets worse. She goes on to be consistently irritating for years, following such womanly philosophy as "If your mother insults me and you didn't notice and so didn't stand up for me the way I think you should have, I have to sleep with your friend so we're even!" Her hobbies include wanting to have children without caring too much for raising them.
Jules and Jim for some reason find her irresistible and are willing to be go-betweens for her. Their friendship is a lot more interesting than anything she does, and although they kind of find themselves in a threesome there was nothing homoerotic in their relationship, at least to me. I honestly felt like they'd have been happier if they could just go out for coffee or hang out at a bar together, but I guess part of what made them both such good friends is neither one of them ever said, "That bitch is whacked." I am probably revealing my lack of sophistication by having this reaction, but there it is.
Deadbirds
This was another movie with a really good cast. Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Mark Boone Junior, Isaiah Washington. I can't exactly say that's it's good. It's the story of a group of bank robbers who hide out at an abandoned plantation surrounded by dead corn during the Civil War. Unfortunately--wouldn't you know?--the former owner did some sort of Satanic ritual that's turned his family into demons, and now it's turning our heroes into demons too. Sort of. Something like that.
While the explanation there fell flat I admit I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, which mostly consisted of people walking around a big empty antebellum house very slowly. Call me crazy, but that appeals to me. I think it's because I have that long history of dreams about isolated houses--my friend calls it my "Hansel and Gretel fixation." This house was great for that, especially since everything is lit with lanterns so you can barely see anything ever.
Henry Thomas, as the leader of the gang, sort of grounds the movie--he's exactly the guy you'd want to be with in one of these scary house movies. He's so focused on his gold he barely notices anything scary going on at all. So the demons just don't see to torment him as much as they do, say, his little brother Patrick Fugit.
Wishing Stairs
Surprisingly, this was the most interesting of the four I rented. It's a Korean horror movie, the third in the "Ghost School" trilogy. I did not know there was a ghost school trilogy, much less that I had seen the second movie already, Memento Mori. The first two movies in the trilogy, Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori I think tell the same story from different points of view. It concerns a secret lesbian affair between two girls at a girls' school. Wishing Stairs takes place at another girls' school, this one for the arts, and at the center is again an intense girl friendship. I don't think the girls were lovers, but if they weren't they might as well have been, you know? The title comes from a flight of stairs outside the dorm. Legend has it that if you wish very hard and count the 28 steps as you walk up, a 29th step will appear and "Fox" will grant your wish. Unsurprisingly, these wishes always come with nasty side effects.
Now, I happen to love that kind of idea--the extra step appearing, the clock striking 13, a door appearing where there was none before. When I was a kid I was constantly looking for that sort of thing, so the idea already grabs me. But what I really liked about the movie was, supernatural stuff aside, what's really scary are the ways the girls treat each other. The same is true in Memento Mori but, perhaps because this is the first of the trilogy directed by a woman, this somehow rang more true to me. The central friendship is troubled by the fact that the one girl is the best ballerina in the school (it's got ballet too--woo-hoo!) and the other girls is...second best. And extremely jealous. There's also a very weird girl, the first one to believe in the Wishing Stairs, who wishes to lose weight. She's a sculpture, as is the really mean girl who torments her.
Watching the making of video the director said that she, too, went to an arts school and that what's scary at those places is everyone has the same dream, so they're all competitive. I think I really liked seeing her grab on to that--so often movies about girls in high school center around romantic rivalry, but here it's all about being the best, and while the outcast in particular wishes for love, it's in the form of female friendship.
To give an idea of what I mean, the scariest scene in the movie, to me, is where the one girl has gotten a scholarship to a Russian ballet school. Her letter from the school is missing, so she goes to see the teacher about it. It seems like she's been tricked into walking into a trap--but no, it's the other girls who have set up a surprise party to congratulate her as her friends. They give her a cake. She blows out the candles and thanks them, that was really nice...
...and then they throw the cake in her face. Because it was all a big gang up to show they hate her. Yeah, it's scary being chased by the ghost of a dead girl or a live girl wielding a knife, but damn, that's cold!!! And the girls aren't just ganging up randomly, they're making a statement about something they sense about the competition--this girl got the scholarship under mysterious circumstances.
So yeah, I don't know if I'd say this movie was especially brilliant or whatever, but there was some interesting stuff in there.
