The Killer Inside Me is an adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel of the same name. The Michael Winterbottom film stays pretty close to the book until the end of the film. The main roles are well cast with Casey Affleck as the seemingly slow-witted Lou Ford, Jessica Alba as the femme fatale, and Kate Hudson as the girls next door. The subject matter involves lots of violence, murder, and sex-so it seems it would have been nearly impossible to have made this film around the time the novel was published. Winterbottom was able to recreate small town West Texas and the artifacts of the era surprisingly well for an Englishman. I found the film compelling, however not as powerful as the novel, but well done. That being said I can see that this is not a film for everyone.
Lisa Cholodenko’s comedy/drama The Kids Are All Right was a really unexpected surprise. I have to say that the film based on a lesbian couple’s handling of a situation where their teen-age kids seek out he sperm donor father and how it affects the family. Perhaps a lot of this had to do with the stellar cast of Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as the lesbian couple and the irascible Mark Ruffalo as the laid back sperm donor. It was really a pleasant surprise.
The Runaways sounds like a good concept for a bio pic-the story of the all-teenage punk rock band that would spawn the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford. However, it is essentially the story of Cherie Currie, the lead singer, who recently wrote a biography of her early days in the rock band. The best part of the film is Kristin Stewart's depiction of Jett, but overall it follows the stereotypical rise and fall in a pretty conventional manner.
Revanche is an Austrian film that got good reviews last year and I finally got the chance to see it. It is an interesting film about the underclass in Europe where much of the sex trade is fuelled by Eastern European imports. However, it is much more complex than that it is also about redemption forgiveness and coming to terms with life’s disappointments among other things. My only complaint would be that it was more than two hours long and was slow moving in some parts.
I have been on something of a Sam Peckinpah retrospective having watched two in the last tow months and the latest was his controversial cult classic, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia. It is vintage Peckinpah in many respects-Mexico as the final frontier, gratuitous violence and nudity, and Warren Oates among other things. It is a film that has been publicly supported by the likes of Tarantino and Scorsese. I can see why the film has its detractors but I have to say that I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I finally got around to seeing the much talked about The Social Network directed by David Fincher with a script by Aaron Sorkin. Jesse Eisenberg turned in a nuanced performance as well. Although I don’t necessarily think it’s this year’s best film, it is a worthy film expertly crafted by, in my opinion, one of America’s best directors. As with most bio pics, it makes me want to circumvent the drama and find out the real story-so at the very least I’ll be reading the source material, Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires. It was surprisingly entertaining given my low expectations.
Edgar Wright has been pretty spot on with his film features so far, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise how entertaining and innovative Scott Pilgrim vs. the World turned out to be. Michael Cera is getting typcasted in sensitive hipster roles, but he excels in them. The special effects are amazing and it is essentially, at heart, a sort of “B” popcorn movie-but an exceedingly well-crafted one.
I found The American to be a beautifully filmed movie. George Clooney excels in roles like this, an international hit man for hire. But despite these facts the film is slow paced and lacks an emotional core that makes you care for the protagonist.
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