Mini Movie Reviews

Sorry to be away for a week.  I've been watching movies at TIFF in between working my jobs and being a (absent) mother* in the first week of school.  So I'm having fun but this blog was the victim. 

Mel and I have been chatting movies and here are some mini reviews I gave to her.

Redacted: The DePalma film about Iraq.  It's fiction (based on true events) but uses a documentary style with hand held cameras and video blogging and is a neat little film.  I have issues with how he chose to portray his political message about the war and how some of the primary people are portrayed but it still left a solid "war is bad" message which was the point.  The picture is in video and is so clear it looks real. 

The Exodus: A Hong Kong film--black comedy.  It was too long in the typical Hong Kong way (scenes needed some editing because there was too much talking) and I got a bit sleepy in the middle (I saw it right after Redacted and a long day at work).  But the ending was very good.  It's about a cop who thinks there is a plot by women to kill all men, but he's not sure.  Worth a watch.

Persepolis: French film which you should see when you get a chance.  It's based on the graphic novels and is animated.  Very sweet and funny without being sentimental.  But also very sad since being a girl in Iran is no picnic.  I really enjoyed this film.

Silent Resident: Apparently it took the Director 8 years to make this film.  This is a bad thing because the plot got lost along the way.  I didn't dislike this film so much as I had no fucking clue what it was about.  I don't do stream of consciousness stuff.  I stayed awake because I had to work so hard to understand what was happening.  Though the sex scene where the people wore light bulbs (red on the errogenous zones) was pretty funny (though I'm guessing it wasn't supposed to be).

Married Life: A nice, tight, well-acted story about a man in the 1940's who falls in love with a younger beautiful woman and needs to leave his wife.  Chris Cooper is fantastic as the main character and the ever-gorgeous Pierce Brosnan is great as his best friend.  It's a black comedy film noir.  I really liked this one.  And I got to see Chris Cooper up close getting into his limo.  That's part of the film festival fun--it was the World Premier screening.

Eastern Promises: Fabulous film noir from David Cronenberg.  Viggo Mortensen is fabulous (not just because of the naked knife fight) and the story is really good.  So far this one is my favourite.  It was not as good as A History of Violence (which I LOVE) but is still a good taut film.  Great performances, well edited, enough Cronenberg violence, but not too much and there's nothing sentimental about it.  Go see it.

Two more to go: The Trap is tonight and Chrysallis tomorrow.  It's been a very Noir festival for me. 

*I haven't neglected them completely and their super-Dad is taking care of lots in my absence but we noticed this week that they have both grown out of most of their clothes so they're looking a bit waifish even though they're well fed and I'm enjoying my walk to school with them every morning. 

Comments

[Angie]

It looks like you still got some good movie time. Do you knit in the dark?

[Seanna Lea]

I'm going to need to see Persopolis. I should figure out how (where, when, why, etc.) these films get shown in my area. I loved reading the graphic novels, because they did an excellent job of illustrating how life was like without focusing on the political to the exclusion of everything else.

[minnie]

i can't walk my kidlets to school. while most of the elementary schools in the area are good, the middle school and high school frighten me (i see what comes out of the middle school as it's 9 blocks from my house, and the high school is in a very questionable part of town). the middle school the younger son goes to is 6.6 miles away, while the high school is 5.8 miles in the opposite direction! fortunately, the younger can ride the bus, so i don't have to worry about getting them both to school on time, particularly since the high school starts 5 minutes after the middle school!

as for the movies, i've seen a history of violence, and it was a mind job. i want to see eastern promises. while he was a bit stiff as aragorn in the ring series, i've liked him in everything else i've seen (the horse movie comes to mind).

[Laurel]

I lost track of everything else you said before and after "Vigo Mortenson" and "naked knife fight." :-)

[Stephannie]

oh Laurel, me too.

Viggo and naked.

I thought that movie looked interesting, now I know it will be!

[marti]

Isn't it amazing that something as simple as a week can make so much difference in whether the clothes fit or not? I hate those moments when I blink and they grow so much. I am glad that you are enjoying the the festival so much.

[Kathryn]

Ok, that's three of us that now have naked Viggo images burned into out little brains.

Thanks for the reviews! I wish I was closer that I could have gone to some of these.

I'm also curious if you knit at the movies? I've tried it once and just couldn't do it.

[Rose]

I'm SO jealous! My daughter and I would love to attend the festival; maybe next year. Thanks for the mini-reviews; we do have an independent movie theater around here so there's a chance I'll get to see some of these.