Ah, the joy of another holiday season has come upon us. In Michigan we don't celebrate much except the onset of the six months of snow and freezing winds and horrible weather, but as the holiday season besets me, I find that one benefit of this horrendous cold is that it forces me to stay inside and watch more movies, which is one of my favorite pastimes. Being a reviewer has taught me to cast a critical eye on these films, often judging them more harshly than I would otherwise, and I admit it, I get so caught up in this practice that I find myself arguing and screaming and pulling my hair out debating with other critics like myself and running my enjoyment into the ground so much so that I sometimes forget why I love movies so much at all. Looking back over the lot of my reviews this year I can see that I trudged through a lot of cinematic dreck this year in an attempt to find something worth my money and my time. Reading back over my columns this year, I had a lot of negative things to say (I even managed to find some time to bitch about toys, of all things) but I really wanted to end the year on a more positive note, more for myself than for anything else. It's true that I bitch a lot but sometimes I think my bitching masks my true purpose in writing my columns and reviews. The simple fact is that I love writing about things I love. Even when I'm bitching, I write because I love writing and analyzing things, even when those things and my words about them are negative.

I've certainly been a snippy little curmudgeon this year, but because this is what I love to do, I thought I'd find something to write about that would showcase that love and not make it look so much like hate. I kicked around a few ideas before settling on a simple concept: I saw three movies this year that truly made me remember why I love to watch movies so much, and so I decided to give these movies a shout out. Of course, it hasn't escaped my notice that these three movies were almost universally panned by other critics. This is common in my world. I love the movies that everyone else loves to hate (or hates to hate, as the case may be). But for me, these three movies surprised me so much and made me so glad that I got the chance to see them that I don't care what anyone else says. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed seeing them.
 

Now maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this (and here is where I start spoiling the plot for those of you who care about such things) but I had no idea that this movie dealt with the subject of incest, so I was hit with that out of the blue when I found out that Lindsay Lohan's character was sexually abused by her stepfather, but I was even more floored when the movie actually had the balls to paint a realistic portrait of what that kind of abuse can do to someone's personality. Lohan's character doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie; between right and wrong, and the movie doesn't play the simplistic route of having her "let go and learn to love." She's still pretty screwed up when the movie ends, and her ways of acting out sexually and relating to men ring true in a way that a lot of movies don't want to touch. I get that sexual abuse is such a difficult subject that a lot of people either want to ignore it or sanitize it by showing all problems solved and forgiven by the end of the film, but this movie allowed enough gray areas to make it interesting. Lohan uses her sexuality to get to all the men she encounters, and she's told numerous times that this is wrong, but in the end, we see that she still doesn't really understand why. That confusion is a dark side of an abusive history that many movies would just like to glaze over. This movie lets it be, and that surprised me. There's enough on display in the film that is melodramatic, but still, seeing the grandmother rally behind her granddaughter and want to protect her was refreshing, and the ambiguous ending of the film, where everyone is still messed up, but they are together, so there's hope...that was touching in a way I didn't expect. I think people saw through this movie's facade and pointed out all its flaws from a different perspective than the one I used. I was happy to see certain affects of abuse played out in a way that not many films have the balls to attempt, and by the time this movie ended, I was just grateful that I'd gotten the chance to bear witness to some brutal honesty that I'd never have expected to see in a movie like this.

Saw V

Yes, I know that the critics hated this movie too. Yes, I know it seems horribly out of place when compared with the other two films on this list. Perhaps I should explain. I'm one of those weird little sadistic people who liked Saw III. I was hooked by the internal conflict and struggle of its characters. I thought it was the best of the Saw movies. This is coming from someone who didn't like the original Saw very much but who loved the sequel and was excited to see the Jigsaw mythos develop. This is also coming from someone who watched Saw IV in theaters and hated it so fiercely that I wanted to punch a baby in the face as I walked out of the theater. I thought it was a jumbled mess with WAY too many plot threads and characters crammed into its running time, and even the awesome gore couldn't salvage my shitty experience seeing this film. So I swore I wasn't going to watch Saw V when it came out, but I was lured by the siren song of a cool movie poster and a cool looking trailer, and I love horror movies so much that I gave this movie a shot, sure that I was going to be disappointed. So what about this movie made me love it so much? Well, for starters, the filmmakers remembered to take their Ritalin this time around, so the frenetic pace of throwing ten zillion plot points at the audience at once was slowed and we actually got time to know the characters in this movie. The shitty acting from Costas Mandylor was just as bad as it had been in previous films, but at least he doesn't speak as much this time around so we don't have to deal with his atrocious line delivery. The characters in this movie did a good job of showcasing a range of human emotions, from fear to selfishness to determination, and because of this I actually gave a shit about the people coiled in Jigsaw's nasty trap, so whoever wrote the script did a much better job this time around, and the ending was a lot of fun. Despite what the tagline of the film said, I DID see the end coming, but it was cool nonetheless, and I had such a pleasant surprise loving every minute of this movie that it renewed my faith in the series. Contrary to what one critic said after reading my review, I didn't LOWER my expectations in order to enjoy this film...I never have to LOWER everything. My first and foremost expectation of any movie is that it will entertain me consistently throughout its running time and that it will provide an ending that makes the trip worthwhile, and this movie delivered on both counts. Everything else is just gravy for me, but Saw V had enough gravy for me to actually be excited to see this series continue, so I love it for that, no matter what anyone else has to say.
 

 While this movie does have its share of sap, it also has enough sass and sarcasm and attitude that I was never overly distracted by its sappiness. The friendship between the two dying old men was powered by moments of genuine tenderness and a plethora of snide remarks, so that even the subject matter (two old men trying to complete a list of things they want to do before they die) didn't become boring or overly depressing. Sure, the characters had a certain lack of depth, but considering that the two main characters really only knew each other for three months or so, that rang true to me, and even though I almost drowned in a river of tears and snot during the last twenty minutes of the movie, I appreciated the experience anyway. Why? Well, because I watch movies because the entertain me, yes, but I also watch them because they allow me to FEEL things. When I watch a horror movie, I find a way to safely feel fear and perhaps learn to overcome it. When I watch a comedy, I can laugh at things that I normally wouldn't (sometimes I even learn to laugh at myself). When I watch a movie like The Bucket List, I can both explore my own feelings about death from a safe distance and cry about the movie at the end (or in this case at various points throughout this tear jerkoff of a movie) and perhaps release some pent-up sadness while I'm at it.

Ultimately, movies give me a safe way to look at and think about life, and when those movies also surprise me and give me an unexpected jolt or laugh (as did the final line of this movie) I'm truly surprised and happy. The day I stop enjoying movies is the day my life becomes a lot darker and far more joyless, so I'm grateful to these three movies for giving me something to enjoy.