Recent Rental Roundup

I‘ve rented some movies over the last few weeks, so I thought I’d briefly comment on them. Starting with a quirky little film called Young Adam staring Ewen McGregor and Tilda Swinton. It’s a sort of mystery thriller set in 50s Scotland. But I found it oddly compelling, it’s based on a novel and it depicts another time and era quite well, but not necessarily in a flattering way. McGregor is a sort of amoral cad who goes about causing trouble to a series of women, but the movie unfolds methodically and slowly reveals his mysterious past and explains his strange behavior, as well as his position as a laborer on a river barge.

I also rented Mean Girls, which is a rarity-an intelligent teen film. Tina Fey, who co-stars as an eccentric Math teacher wrote the clever script based on a nonfiction book about teen girls and their "catty" behavior with one another called Queen Bees and Wanna Be's. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Intermission was a sort of Irish indies all-star film with producer Neil Jordan (The Crying Game-director), starring Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney (The Snapper), Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting), and Cillian Murphy (28 Days) among others. It’s sort of a dark comedy with a heart of gold, so I found it a bit uneven. However, interesting in a conventional British indie film sort of way.

Then there’s Michael Winterbottom’s controversial 9 Songs. I think Winterbottom is a very interesting director who is always trying to go in new directions and I see this as a courageous failure. It’s sort of a Last Tango In Paris meets concert film. There are several live music performances intertwined with some very intimate erotic encounters between a couple. I guess some people would consider it pornography, but I think he was trying to document the intimacy of lovers, which is a very difficult thing to do and failed in a sense, because it is different for everyone and often obscure in the sense that I don't thinkthat it has to be sexual.

I’m not a big action adventure-CGI movie type of person, but I have to admit to enjoying Hellboy. It was cool, there’s no other way to describe a very comic bookish adventure story about Rasputin, devils and demons, Nazis, etc… But it worked for me on some level, and I thought Ron Perlman was excellent as Hell Boy. Some great camera work, special effects, costumes, etc…

And I have to say that Man On Fire was another unexpected guilty pleasure. I think the story was weak, but I found the cinematography with the muted colors and jumpy hand held cameras seductive as the exotic locale. It drew comparisons to two of my favorite Latin films of the last few years City of God and Amorres Perros. It’s essentially a basic revenge genre film, but it looks sooo good-it’s style over substance here.

Comments

[phatrick]

I haven't seen the others, but I have to agree with you on the last two. I liked Hellboy quite a bit - and I don't even consider myself a comic book geek - and I was pleasantly surprised by Man On Fire. I enjoyed the bloodsoaked Mexican stylings.