Let the Right One In - Classiest gore ever! Plus I have a weakness for most things Swedish, so I was happy that this lived up to the hype. Both kids, especially Eli, were about perfect in these roles. The scene where she comes in the house uninvited and the pool scene were visually perfect. I think I'm so used to seeing horror movies made with close ups and "scary moments", so this style (long shots!) was really refreshing. I also liked how they showed the infected woman (Victoria?) dealing with her transformation. Most movies just have people immediately pumped on killing, and this seemed more realistic. I also liked that they didn't try to make Eli a "good" vampire...she/he was responsible for way more violence than the bullies, but it worked within the story. Great ending.
The Room - Holy god please see this movie right now. I had read about it in this article, but thought it would be one of those bad/good movie that's mostly boring but has a few funny lines. This movie made me laugh more than most intentional comedies. I 'm not even going to try to quote the multitude of quotable quotes in this movie, just watch it, because it's all in the delivery. And the four awesome and really unpleasant sex scenes.
Snow Angels - Ugh. I've followed David Gordon Green since he made All the Real Girls, one of the most believeable love stories I've seen. Plus he makes weird comedy like Eastbound and Down. But save yourself the pain of seeing this movie. Basically, bad people do bad things to each other, a child dies, and then someone commits and murder/suicide. The End! It was well-made, and I don't mind bleak films, but what else was there here? There was a sweet relationship between two teenagers, and Amy Sedaris was good...
Synecdoche, New York - To give you a little background, this is the newish Charlie Kaufman movie. It begins with Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a playwright whose marriage falls apart. His wife takes off to Germany and takes their daughter with her. He then receives a MacArthur genius grant, and decides to stage a play in a massive warehouse about...life. His own life, and everything in it. He spends years building sets within sets and scenes of his life play out just minutes after they actually occur. Actors playing actors playing real life people inhabit the warehouse. No audience is present, but it doesn't matter...he's trying to make the purest, truest form of art he can. Cool idea, but it gets more and more tedious as the movie goes on. I think after the first hour or so I stopped trying to make sense of things and just accepted the situations that were put forth and the emotions that went with them. It's weird...I admire this movie but I don't love it...it's waaay meta and self-indulgent and was kind of a chore due to how bleak it was. It's basically about time and death. But the work that went into it was amazing...so much detail...and anything dealing with aging and the passage of time worked. Hazel, one of Caden's love interests in the movie, purchases a house that is literally on fire, expresses her concern with dying in the fire, and continues to live in it until the inevitable happens. You make your choices, time passes, and you have to live with them. We are all headed down the same path, and we're all the same. It could have benefited from subtler symbolism and a plot, but that's what made it unique...I'm torn on this one. It's been fun to think about and overall I appreciated the themes, but I never really felt connected to the characters. I should probably watch it again, but I don't really want to. But I do hope Kaufmann makes another movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion(Caden's last name)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion (Caden replaces his absent wife's cleaning lady, and sleeps in the closet of his wife's apartment, which she's subletting from "Capgras")
http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/synecdoche-new-yorkinterview-with-charlie-kaufman/ (An interesting interview that clears up a few things)
http://www.beingcharliekaufman.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1038&Itemid=103 (Stop caring so much!)
http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/synecdoche-new-york.php
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