Let’s get real here people, up until the last year, not a single person beyond black make up and death metal fandom knew who or what the Twilight series was. I mean at least with Harry Potter I had some sort of preamble leading in to viewing the first four movies, but “Twilight” snuck out nowhere in the cinema scene and was destined to be a hit in spite of the slight obscurity. Just gazing down at a large picture of emo females with black lipstick, black digital cameras, and their own fan club I knew that this cliché, clunky mess of a story would bring in the big bucks. Because regardless of how passionate and antipathetic I or other critics feel, the movie will break the box office because author Stephanie Meyer knows her audience better than we know ourselves, don’t they?
Tag Archives: Drama
Shutter (2008)
Here’s what I learned from watching the remake of “Shutter”:
1. Even purely Asian women look Caucasian only because they should.
2. There are such things as spirit photography magazines.
3. There are experts in spirit photography.
4. Ghosts love a good game of piggyback!
5. And Maya Hazen is a stone cold fox.
The Stepford Wives (1975)
An “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” for the feminist era, novelist Ira Levin’s horror science fiction thriller is an ode to the fear of feminism, the unwelcome reception it received by old fashioned men who grew up in a society predominantly ruled by subservient women and a bit of a paranoid fantasy that takes the best of feminism and matches it with the male ego that ultimately attempts to snuff out the girl power movement enacted by women after the sixties and take it in to an era where women were soon relegated to tools and props as status symbols for men unwilling to submit to a woman who was well spoken, intelligent, and always anxious to give their men hell for making decisions that they didn’t approve with. Sure it’s an anti-male diatribe, but so what? “The Stepford Wives” original as directed by Bryan Forbes is a reflection on a society that wants to have it both ways.
Awake O’Sleeper (2008)
I was watching “Awake O’Sleeper” on my computer, in my room, in the end of a boring day, half asleep, and ready for a quick film. And what I got at the end was a pretty damn great short musical from Brandon McCormick. And when I say pretty damn great, I mean this is probably one of the best indie musicals I’ve seen in a long time and you can only say that about the 5% of indie filmmakers daring enough to try their hand at the genre.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
In the days of overexposed, computer heavy FX extravaganzas, horror films that go for a more subtle build of terror are usually dismissed as cheap throwaways that just don’t have the budget to compete with the big studio thrill rides. It’s no secret that the “less is more” philosophy is the independent filmmaker’s best friend, but occasionally there comes along a movie that embraces its sense of mystery and uses a building sense of menace to its advantage.
The Happening (2008) (DVD)
People say that M. Night Shyamlan is the David Blaine of filmmaking, a man with parlor tricks and elaborate illusions of creativity and imagination but I dismiss those claims and still stand by M. Night proclaiming him one of the better storytellers of modern film. Sure, there could be other horror films out there, but in a year generally devoid of horror only with remakes and quasi-horror in theaters and on home video I say that M. Night’s dabbling in the R rated arena was an utter win.
LA Confidential (1998): 2-Disc Special Edition (DVD)
By my money, I consider James Ellroy’s “LA Confidential” to be one of the greatest crime dramas ever made. It’s an elaborate, morose, and brutally intelligent display of respective talents and truly keen storytelling that gets better with every single viewing. “LA Confidential” was not a real hit with me upon the first viewing; in fact I found it painfully mediocre once the credits began to roll. Suddenly, I found myself watching it repeatedly and soon discovered that it was a stellar piece of filmmaking that grew on me once I opened my mind a bit.