It turns out that beneath the shiny facade of suburbia there are deep/dark cracks, who knew? Oh wait, we knew because there are ten million fucking movies that tell us all about it. And, of course, it’s always weird sex stuff, oh this guy likes to masturbate with panties on his face, so and so it having an affair (also, again with the Pedophilia, I seriously need to get away from movies dealing with pedophiles). It’s odd how suburban weirdness never manifests itself in another way in these films, like with Live Action Role Playing. It freaking dulls me out. Maybe someone who is actually trapped in a loveless marriage in suburbia actually cares about this stuff, but, I don’t know I’m a 24 year-old grad student living on the south side of Chicago, it’s hard to relate. At a certain point, these movies are just saying the same thing, over and over, it’s stagnant. Seriously, this genre needs to be redone or discarded.
Ok, now all of that doesn’t necessarily mean that Little Children is a bad movie, just that it’s not exactly groundbreaking. The acting is pretty fantastic all around, especially Jackie Earle Haley (who I believe is playing Rorschach in Watchmen and plays the pedophile here) and Kate Winslet (who is btw looking a hell of a lot older than in her Titanic days, which I guess were pretty long ago now that I think about it). The direction is competent and the story isn’t bad, but like I said we’ve seen it before. Interestingly, the filmmakers decided to have a narration running through the whole movie, which would normally come off as heavy handed. However, the film manages to pull it off and I think it added a lot to the whole ambiance. That was an icky sentence. On the negative side, this is one of those movies which doesn’t really have a real ending, which I guess is supposed to make you think or imagine what could happen or something but in reality just kind of leaves you dissatisfied (I don’t really feel bad giving away details about the end, it’s not like this is The Usual Suspects). Anyway, lunchtime approaches so this review is ending, I’d say mild recommendation, if only for the performances. If you’re not into the whole what lies beneath the mask of suburbia thing, feel free to avoid it, I won’t be upset.
I recieved a couple of movies from Netflix that I’d already seen in the last week, this plus school starting is responsible for the delayed update, sorry. Two things though: 1.) Frailty is a severely underrated movie that involves serial killers, demons, and Matthew McConaughey. Check it out. 2.) The interaction in Beautiful Girls between Timothy Hutton and Natalie Portman is way, way creepier after watching The Woodsman. Anyway, moving on to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid or Hey, remember when Steve Martin actually made funny movies?
If you’re unfamiliar with the film, Dead Men mixes scenes from classic film noir films with new scenes starring Steve Martin. Although the premise is pretty gimmicky, the movie as a whole holds together surprisingly well and, being that it starred Martin back when he gave a shit, it’s pretty damn funny as well. The editor did an absolutely fantastic job mixing the old and new scenes (especially since they would have been shot at different speeds, so yeah, super tough). Also, I absolutely love black and white cinematography (seriously far better then color) and it motivated me to add Notorious to my Netflix Queue (seriously, best Hitchcock film). Amusing joke from the film: Carlotta was the kind of town where they spell trouble T-R-U-B-I-L, and if you try to correct them, they kill you. Every once in awhile the whole “collage of old and new” kinda gets contrived but it’s rare, and, if you’re rolling with the whole premise, you can let it slide. Ok, so I think you got the gist that it’s a pretty funny movie. Recomendation = given. Your action = renting it.
Speaking of funny shit: I’ve raved about The Pirates! books before and the newest book in the series The Pirates! in an Adventure with Communists is just as fantastic as the other two. Don’t just get this one from a library, buy it and buy the other two books…they’re goddamn amazing.
Netflix just released a metric buttload of movies on watch instantly, this is awesome. This is one of those movies and boy Jesus is it awkward, insanely awkward, like dripping with awkward. Really awkward doesn’t necessarily mean bad, Me and You and Everyone We Know was pretty decent so was The Motel, those movies are both better than this one. Honestly, it’s kinda dull, mostly because the characters are just such utter losers (not even in an enjoyable way like the above mentioned films) that I really couldn’t figure out why I should care about them. Especially, the Jared character, who was utterly unlikable, mostly because he’s one of those cocky losers who just begs to be punched in the face. It’s also got this sort of plot-less meandering to it and minimalist cinematography that doesn’t really grab you either. I don’t have much else to say, it wasn’t a terrible movie but I wouldn’t really call it great either. Yeah, so if indie movies about incredibly awkward people are your cup of tea then go for it, otherwise avoid.
EDIT: You know what? on second thought, I really didn’t like this movie. Didn’t like it a lot, don’t watch this movie, it’s lame and the characters are utterly unlikable…I’m sure someone defending the movie would talk about how “real” they are but so what? Just because something is somewhat realistic doesn’t mean it’s good. Plus there were these weird stop motion scenes in the movie and they were unbearably pretentious. I’m going to stop thinking about this movie now because it’s just creating a vortex of suck in my brain.
