(no subject)
I was going to write a very minor entry of this at facebook, but as it's all hyperactive attention disorder etc there, it wasn't any fun. Very few read this journal so responses are ghost-town scarce, etc etc, but hell, the reason I write here in the first place is cause I wouldn't want to bore anybody by talking about it aloud.
I know what this says about the worth of my entries, but... It IS livejournal, right? That's where boring entries are filed! So, without further ado or to do, movie reviews!
Martyrs- I was told if I liked the movie Inside, I'd like Martyrs. So I snatched it up totally blindly, and plugged in the dvd without any idea of the plot. And that was so completely the BEST way to experience it. This could have been a retread of all those specifically current trends that influence most modern horror cinema, but the movie subverts most all of them, taking wildly unpredictable turns that peel back layers of the storyline. The two lead female characters are also very well cast and you feel loads of empathy for them. I No Ruin Plot, but just know, it's a GODDAMNED intense movie, full of extremely brutal violence. But that's totally for a reason. And YAY, no wink-wink self referential post-Scream stuff. Now, I don't think Martyrs is the hottest shit since they invented microwavable toilets, but the interesting vastly outweighs the uninteresting. Inside was just a little better, though...
We Are What We Are- As I said somewhere else before, this is the story of a family, who happen to be cannibals, that come to peril when the father dies suddenly one afternoon. He was always the one who provided "meals". There is a mother, two brothers and a sister... What will they DO?! Who among them will now hunt and gather?! It's really quiet, bleak n' dour. You'll find your shoulders slightly clenching as it horrifically reaches it's climax. The lead actor innit, who played the eldest son. He's got a great intensity.
Mother- From the director of that AWESOME movie The Host. This concerns an elderly mother, uncomfortably close to her son, a twenty-something, mildly-retarded childlike goofball. One day a corpse shows up, and enough evidence puts him behind bars. Well now it's the Mother's mission of course to get him out, often as some kind of violent detective stockpiling clues. That reads like a generally predictable movie, but trust me, this transcends any genre catagory, be it revenge, drama, who-dun-it, thriller, action or whatever else. These Korean and Japanese filmmakers make us Americans look like chumps.
Tideland- It's hard to explain this one. I found most everyone online likes to call it The Texas Chain Saw Massacre meets Alice in Wonderland. And I can certainly understand the comparison, but it's totally superficial, as Tideland's tone is completely different, and you feel Terry Gilliam, the director, aiming for absolutely alternative textures and ideas and atmospheres. Actually, after the first few major scenes, I wasn't quite sure if I was enjoying it, but somewhere near before the halfway point, the real OOZY, glorious Terry Gilliam stuff really popped its head in, and from then onward I was quite smitten. Maybe it took me that long to "get" it. It's certainly sort of experimental, narratively. But it's WORTH the challenge.
Exte: Hair Extensions- It's really hard to make sense of how to describe this, it weirdly veers between that very spooky, 'Asian Horror' style, and a far more surreal, comically violent, almost cartoonish sensibility. It's about cruel, possessed hair extensions which can burrow through the ear and into the brain, causing the infected to go on murderous rampages. The hair can also suddenly behave as a thousand razor sharp blades, swiping doors in half and chopping off various body parts. OR, it just suffocates or strangles you. EVIL HAIR EXTENSIONS. And half the time, scenes of the violent hair are played totally straight and scary. And the movie pulls it off! It should feel disjointed as hell or just neither very creepy nor funny. But it pulls through! Very impressive. Plus it stars Chiaki Kuriyama.
*Also, Nightmare City I finally saw. A really wild and wacky zombie attack movie, part of that big wild upsurge of undead foreign-made movies produced decades back, when the original Dawn of the Dead hit it huge overseas. Forget 28 Days later, these zombies can run, pilot motor vehicles and mow you down with their machine guns! Lotto fun!
*And also Coma (1978), starring Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Rip Torn, Tom Selleck AND Ed Harris! Granted Selleck and Harris peek out for maybe 15 seconds each. But still! Bujold is the curious doctor who investigates the mysterious series of patients falling into unexpected comas right after extremely minor surgeries. Of course it turns out she just MIGHT be onto some fishy behavior. Generally predictable but completely fun too. Genevieve Bujold is freakishly hot, just in case you didn't know that. Like, "I have a lump of flesh on my shoulder with eyes that widely stare at me and cry with anguish, making a sniffling sound that echoes from somewhere within the distorted head-shape of the thing." freakishly. Only HOT!
I know what this says about the worth of my entries, but... It IS livejournal, right? That's where boring entries are filed! So, without further ado or to do, movie reviews!
Martyrs- I was told if I liked the movie Inside, I'd like Martyrs. So I snatched it up totally blindly, and plugged in the dvd without any idea of the plot. And that was so completely the BEST way to experience it. This could have been a retread of all those specifically current trends that influence most modern horror cinema, but the movie subverts most all of them, taking wildly unpredictable turns that peel back layers of the storyline. The two lead female characters are also very well cast and you feel loads of empathy for them. I No Ruin Plot, but just know, it's a GODDAMNED intense movie, full of extremely brutal violence. But that's totally for a reason. And YAY, no wink-wink self referential post-Scream stuff. Now, I don't think Martyrs is the hottest shit since they invented microwavable toilets, but the interesting vastly outweighs the uninteresting. Inside was just a little better, though...
We Are What We Are- As I said somewhere else before, this is the story of a family, who happen to be cannibals, that come to peril when the father dies suddenly one afternoon. He was always the one who provided "meals". There is a mother, two brothers and a sister... What will they DO?! Who among them will now hunt and gather?! It's really quiet, bleak n' dour. You'll find your shoulders slightly clenching as it horrifically reaches it's climax. The lead actor innit, who played the eldest son. He's got a great intensity.
Mother- From the director of that AWESOME movie The Host. This concerns an elderly mother, uncomfortably close to her son, a twenty-something, mildly-retarded childlike goofball. One day a corpse shows up, and enough evidence puts him behind bars. Well now it's the Mother's mission of course to get him out, often as some kind of violent detective stockpiling clues. That reads like a generally predictable movie, but trust me, this transcends any genre catagory, be it revenge, drama, who-dun-it, thriller, action or whatever else. These Korean and Japanese filmmakers make us Americans look like chumps.
Tideland- It's hard to explain this one. I found most everyone online likes to call it The Texas Chain Saw Massacre meets Alice in Wonderland. And I can certainly understand the comparison, but it's totally superficial, as Tideland's tone is completely different, and you feel Terry Gilliam, the director, aiming for absolutely alternative textures and ideas and atmospheres. Actually, after the first few major scenes, I wasn't quite sure if I was enjoying it, but somewhere near before the halfway point, the real OOZY, glorious Terry Gilliam stuff really popped its head in, and from then onward I was quite smitten. Maybe it took me that long to "get" it. It's certainly sort of experimental, narratively. But it's WORTH the challenge.
Exte: Hair Extensions- It's really hard to make sense of how to describe this, it weirdly veers between that very spooky, 'Asian Horror' style, and a far more surreal, comically violent, almost cartoonish sensibility. It's about cruel, possessed hair extensions which can burrow through the ear and into the brain, causing the infected to go on murderous rampages. The hair can also suddenly behave as a thousand razor sharp blades, swiping doors in half and chopping off various body parts. OR, it just suffocates or strangles you. EVIL HAIR EXTENSIONS. And half the time, scenes of the violent hair are played totally straight and scary. And the movie pulls it off! It should feel disjointed as hell or just neither very creepy nor funny. But it pulls through! Very impressive. Plus it stars Chiaki Kuriyama.
*Also, Nightmare City I finally saw. A really wild and wacky zombie attack movie, part of that big wild upsurge of undead foreign-made movies produced decades back, when the original Dawn of the Dead hit it huge overseas. Forget 28 Days later, these zombies can run, pilot motor vehicles and mow you down with their machine guns! Lotto fun!
*And also Coma (1978), starring Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Rip Torn, Tom Selleck AND Ed Harris! Granted Selleck and Harris peek out for maybe 15 seconds each. But still! Bujold is the curious doctor who investigates the mysterious series of patients falling into unexpected comas right after extremely minor surgeries. Of course it turns out she just MIGHT be onto some fishy behavior. Generally predictable but completely fun too. Genevieve Bujold is freakishly hot, just in case you didn't know that. Like, "I have a lump of flesh on my shoulder with eyes that widely stare at me and cry with anguish, making a sniffling sound that echoes from somewhere within the distorted head-shape of the thing." freakishly. Only HOT!