halailah at nisheret
The Disappeared
Pretty decent British horror/thriller/suspense/ghost story. The plot was pretty predictable, as far as plots go, but I loved the film style and the score. The jumps were really good, reminded me a lot of the jumps in The Sixth Sense, and the acting was, for the most part, very believable, especially the lead actor, Harry Treadaway. I'd hoped for something scarier, but this was very satisfying, and I can't say that about a lot of similar movies.
Shank
British drama about a scally who's secretly gay, and the repercussions of how he deals with his sexuality. Very well-acted, hard to watch in parts. I really liked it.
Happy Together
Chinese gay romance. Two Chinese men in a long-term on-again/off-again relationship try to stay afloat in Buenos Aires. Meh meh meh. I didn't get the ending and there wasn't enough sexiness to make me happy. I related to both the long-suffering Fai and the capricious Po-Wing, however. And I liked a look at Chinese emigrant culture in Argentina, without a smack of anything American.
Dread
After reading zillahseye's post on this movie (she harkened a lot to how disturbing it was), I downloaded it. I am notoriously unsquickable for gore-related imagery and I don't have any triggers that I know of. However, this movie seriously disturbed me, and I'm still thinking about it and still disturbed by it, 24 hours later. It's not so much a horror film as it is a psychological thriller, I suppose, but it's brutal. It's a really brutal movie. Jackson Rathbone is one of the leads, and he's a much better actor than I figured him to be from the Twilight films. He was the highlight of the film. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, except those who, like me, want to test their disturbability limits.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
LOVED IT! Here's my skinny: the books hurt me with their badficness, the first movie cracked my shit up with its awfulness, the second movie impressed me with its amount of shirtless Taylor Lautner. The third movie was genuinely enjoyable! I actually thought New Moon was too, but it was worse and funnier than Eclipse. Eclipse was still funny in many parts, funny/bad, but I was very suitably entertained, and will happily see it again with people who haven't seen it yet. ETA: Apparently some review says "the vampires are cooler, the werewolf is hotter" - THAT IS TRUE.
Rise Up and Shout
A documentary about Rise Up and Shout, the LA Gay and Lesbian Center's youth talent show. Pretty boring, all things considered. It's hard to pull together a show; it's hard to relate to LGBT youth when you're an LGBT elder; etc etc etc. The highlight was Prince Poppycock, the glam opera persona of John Quale. His performances were great, his drag impeccable, and his interviews emotional and thought-provoking. I'd like to go see him perform sometime.
The Bubble
Israeli film about a trio of young Israelis, two gay men and a straight woman, who live in a socio-political bubble in Tel Aviv. One of the guys falls for a Palestinian he meets while on reserve duty on border checkpoint. It proceeds from there. I enjoyed this movie a lot, and I recommend it, with the caveat that you're getting into a story set in the Middle East, so you know. Be prepared for Middle Eastern politics. I love Israeli LGBT movies. I've seen them all, and I'll keep seeing them all.
La Belle Personne
So a few weeks ago, I watched The Dreamers and promptly fell in love with Louis Garrel. Louis Garrel is gorgeous, French, 27, dating Carla Bruni's older sister, and un artiste serieux. I've been watching his entire oeuvre as thepiratebay.org allows, but La Belle Personne was on On Demand, so I lucked out. Louis Garrel works often with director Christophe Honore, who tends to use the same company in all his films, so La Belle Personne was peppered with people from Les Chansons D'Amour (another Honore picture, a great French musical bisexual love story film). I didn't love the storyline (sullen schoolgirl/schoolmaster romance) but it was okay. It was really okay. I really like Honore's style, and Garrel was, of course, to die for.
Next on the queue:
Les amants reguliers - another Honore film with my love, Louis Garrel
Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo - a gay romance with demons, I think
The New World - that Pocahontas/John Smith redux by Terrence Malick with Colin Farrell. Why not?
Yeah, you watch a lot of movies when you're unemployed.
A SYTYCD sidenote: only 2 ladies left! Who are they, Lauren and Ashley? I thought Ashley was lovely last week. I'm rooting super duper hard for Robert, but I think he's my Jakob of the year, which means that he won't win because Alex will win. And that's okay, just like it was okay that Russell won! I wanted Russell to win, even though I liked Jakob the best. Same thing, different year. Oh my god, I'm so happy I started watching SYTYCD.