Chris' Talk

Låt den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One in)

I just recently heard about this little Swedish film within the past two weeks. I watched the trailer online, but did not see it anywhere else and thought it looked extremely interesting. After seeing the spectacular reviews it's been getting I had to head out to the theater and see it opening weekend. Hopefully it expands so everyone can see it as "Pan's Labyrinth" did two years ago because I believe this is the most original and interesting take on the Vampire film genre since it began.

The direction in this film is superb. The characters are handled expertly and they really are the best part of the film. The director manages to flesh out the characters very effectively in scenes with little to no dialogue, and by the end you deeply sympathize with the main character Oskar, and you feel sorry for his love, a little vampire by the name of Eli. Do not be mistaken, this is a little kids love story, but NOT by any means a children's film. Like "Pan's Labyrinth" it's violent, bloody and disturbing, and it would frighten most children not in their teen years. The violence is handled in an extremely unsettling straightforward fashion. This is a film with a very modern edge, however it's simplistic style gives it a sort of odd awkwardness that is not used by director's often enough. You get to actually see what happens, you don't just see a vampire jump, then a shot of teeth, then blood, and then a shot of a vampire walking away. That's what so many American filmmakers would have done with this film because they think it's cool to make a film that plays to the ADHD crowd. This film takes it's time, it's never overly gross, although at some points its quite out there, but it obviously is handled by a director who knows how to present these things in a way that is most effective and most understandable. Not to mention some of the dark humor that is injected into the film at different parts makes the extremely dark landscape of a Sweden in winter a bearable setting for this film. You'll walk out satisfied, but you'll likely want to go get a little sun for a while. Sweden in the winter time is clearly the perfect place for a vampire and the director implies this throughout all the seemingly sunless scenes of the film.

One of the other strengths that I attribute to both the writer and the director is the subtleties of the film. Many things are totally open to interpretation. After you watch the film, think about some of the characters, one great example being Eli's mysterious father figure, and then you might see what I'm talking about. This is a sweet film whit quite a bit of heart, but it might be a little less sweet then you'd originally imagined if you ponder the reason's for some of the characters actions. Think about the real meaning of the title and the answer to the purpose of the boy shall be revealed. Like "No Country for Old Men" it only gets more complex the more that you think about it, which to me is the mark of an amazing film.

The great metaphor that the author of the book who then adapted his work into a screenplay provides us with is the metaphor of the girl in the relationship being the one who's a million times less innocent than the dumbfounded, inexperienced boy. She's a vampire for christ's sake and you see his nerdy boyish cluelessness throughout the entirity of the film while she remains very mysterious and protective of the boy. She doesn't want him to see her become violent or blood thirsty, so she always try's to make sure he doesn't have to. She tries to hide him from her real self, but then really ends up accepting him as her guardian, and her as his, which he really seems to understand by the end of the film. However I don't think he knows the full extent of what that relationship will entail as he grows older.

The acting is nothing short of fantastic and it's one of the reasons the film is so amazingly effective. The director certainly had a lot of tools to utilize as he painted his vision onto the screen. The little boy, played by Kare Hedebrant, perfectly portrays a bullied and innocent kid who may go on to do something drastic if the bullying continues. The vampire, played by Lina Leandersson, does a great job of showing how much of a burden her "illness" really is, and probably would not wish it upon anyone else. All of the older adult characters in the film seem much less interesting, and are caught up with adult things too much to really intersect on an emotional level with the children. The bullies in the film do not have huge parts in terms of screen time, but effectively show how they could potentially drive Oskar into ruin if they continue their nonsense. Finally the older brother of one of the bullies who steps in after Oskar begins to fight back really does a good job of helping us empathize with the bullies as we can see that he probably was cruel to them because they are weaker than him, therfore they think its normal to be cruel to Oskar because he is weaker than them.

The film is not quick paced, but it should always hold your attention. Keeping things simple does not mean making them uninteresting. You get to see Eli's tactics of luring in or attacking her victims and the effects she has on the society that she is in. It really shows realistically what it would be like to have a vampire in any modern day society. And I certainly left the theater very satisfied by its conclusion. "Let the Right One In" explores the mythos of the vampire and manages to make your stomach turn and your heart warm all in a period of 2 hours. It's a likely candidate for Best Foreign Language Film at any award ceremony come this February, and thus far it is absolutely my favorite film of the year.

10/10

Street Kings

awesome movie... a must-see in my book.!

Arrancáme la vida

Excelen adaptation of the book by Angeles Mastretta. It's the best mexican movie I've seen in quite a few months (last one being La Ley de Herodes, but that's a whole different movie). The movie didn't altered the original story, but kinda cut off many subplots. Daniel Gimenez Cacho gave a hell of an interpretation, and the whole ambientation and production is excellent.

Burn After Reading

"Fargo" sits high up on my all time favorite list and the Coen's have not made anything close to the quality of it until "No Country" came out. That came close, but it didn't quite reach the level of originality of "Fargo". The advertisements for "Burn After Reading" didn't look to me like it would be the Coen's next "Fargo". It did however look like it was going to be one of their most fun and darkly funny films yet and being a big fan of the guys I was pretty excited to go and see it. I did not get exactly what I was expecting, nor did many of the folks in my theater.

The direction from the two brothers is a mixed bag. On one hand you've got a few golden scenes, but on the other you've got a ton that fall totally flat and that just aren't very funny at all. You expect the movie to be hectic and crazy, but what I personally didn't expect was for the tone of the film to be so darn serious for the most part. Some of the only funny scenes in the trailer such as many of the scenes with Pitt and maybe a couple Malkovich out bursts were quite hilarious as well (although not much of the insane amount of foul language was shown in the trailer. The film actually was quite disturbing in a few places and it jsut didn't seem like the brothers achieved exactly the feeling they were looking for throughout the film. It just doesn't work like "Fargo" did. You hate all the characters in the film except Pitt Select the black box below with your cursor to view the spoiler text
(and he dies about 45 minutes before the movie is over and probably has about 20 minutes of screen time) because they're all cold bastards and if they aren't cheating on somebody then they're doing stupid desperate things, ala McDormand's character. I suppose the parts of the film that seemed to work best were any of the J.K. Simmons conversations. They are hilarious and seem to absolutely achieve the level of laugh factor you would've expected from a decent amount of the film that you really only get in a couple scenes.

The acting is pretty solid despite what I might say about the film. Malkovich could probably be considered the character the story seems to kind of revolve around, although I wouldn't say there is any one single main character and there are many perspective changes which also was a bit of a throw off, and not in a decidedly interesting way like in "No Country". I'd say Clooney seems very oddly awkward in some of his scenes and personally I didn't really like that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Tilda Swinton does what she needs to do, but thats not much besides be a cold hearted ***** of a middle aged woman. McDormand is kind of sweet but also really far too stupid to really make her a character you can really empathize with or connect with. It doesn't have that Marge escape or connect factor that "Fargo" had. Pitt is quite naive and stupid but he's also very likeable and you don't really get frustrated by his characters actions. His character arch is very believable and he's the one I could at least sympathize with out of the bunch. Malkovich also follows a very realistic character arch and to a certain extent you can sympathize with him. His performance is very solid and he does what he needs to do, but once again, you kind of hate his character by the end of the movie. Richard Jenkins is probably the saddest of the bunch. You feel awful for the guy and he's the probably the nicest character in the film. He seems to know the risks he takes when he takes them, but he's treated terribly and it just didn't play very well at all.

The Coen's have always been very meticulous about their writing and their scripts being followed pretty much exactly while on set. They don't like to change lines or letters or anything really and they make sure their scripts are absolutely perfect before they get on set. This is not one of their best efforts. I think I pretty much stated all the script issues in the previous two paragraphs though. The characters suck and just don't work well together, and the audience really can't identify with many of them, and none of them offer any kind of escape from the films really nasty and odd sections. It seems that the whole point of the entire movie was that if you're middle aged and married you're relationship probably sucks and you and your spouse both cheat, and if you're unmarried you really want to find someone, but they're likely cheating on their wife or husband while they're with you. I honestly can't say I took away much more from this movie than that. This film is so negative and odd that it really makes you wonder how the Coen's are doing in their own relationships.

Still, I honestly can say that about 20 minutes of this film are totally awesome. There are a few scenes that are infuriating to me because they just didn't work the way they were edited or shot. Something was off during any scenes that were supposed to be darkly funny but ended up being really kind of disturbing and pretty unfunny to say the least. I don't know how anyone could consider this a straight up comedy. I laughed over the course of the film about as many times, maybe a couple more, than I did throughout the entirity of "No Country". So in conclusion "Burn After Reading" is a film that really throws you off in all kinds of bad ways and doesn't have many redeeming, entertaining, or informative qualities to say the least. I wouldn't say this is a hateable film, but its not a very likeable one.

3.5/10

The Thief of Paris (Le Voleur)

A nice and elegant vengeance. Belmondo gives another fine performance, and the whole setting was quite accurate and pretty. Even though it's a little bit slow, it's still quite enjoyable.

The Thief of Paris (Le Voleur)

A nice and elegant vengeance. Belmondo gives another fine performance, and the whole setting was quite accurate and pretty. Even though it's a little bit slow, it's still quite enjoyable.

Mamma Mia!

i loved this movie! a must-see for all who love musicals or just ABBA.!

Kidulthood

Becky: Alright, calm down, yankee.
Shop Assistant: I'm CANADIAN.
Becky: Same thing!

Gangs, violence, sex, drugs and alcohol...just another day in the lives of a group of teenagers living in London

Powerful drama, brilliantly done by Noel Clarke one of the best portrayals of inner city London I have seen for a long time...yes there are some shocking scenes but they are all realistic to urban life.

Great acting done by a young cast even if in some parts it was a little annoying and clichéd. The soundtrack from The Streets and Mike Skinner is great too.

Mark: I'm a fuckin' bastard.
Alisa: You're not a bastard. You're a cunt.

Definitely, Maybe

i was not really expecting much from this movie but it blew me away with the calm storyline . it was a excellent way to tell the story

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight