The Week In Movies 8/8/11 - 14/8/11

Not a very busy film watching week. We tried to watch a couple of films but neither of them really captured our imagination. Should've stuck to the noir-a-thon.


Josef von Sternber's The Blue Angel is the first movie from the noir-a-thon and was viewed in the week as preparation for the review tomorrow.

A screening of the Robin Hardy original version of The Wicker Man inspired my horror chapter of the DVD guide earlier in the week. As I mentioned in that post there are some truly horrifying moments in a very well crafted police investigation movie with spiritual overtones. Christopher Lee, despite being well known for his Hammer horror roles at the time, is extremely subtle as Lord Summerisle, the nemesis to Edward Woodward's straitlaced copper on the hunt for a missing girl. If you haven't seen this one because you saw the terrible Nic Cage remake or any other reason for that matter, please go and find a way to see it, it's odd but powerful stuff. A true classic of British cinema. For a more indepth look at why you should see this movie Edgar at Between The Sheets has a great review on his blog.


I followed up last weeks viewing of Trust with another Hal Hartley movie, this time his debut feature The Unbelievable Truth, also starring the amazing Adrienne Shelley. Recommended by Alex at Film Forager once more I am afraid to say that it wasn't as light and enjoyable as Trust yet still a good film. Essentially it's the story of a scared, intelligent, young girl finding her own path through life and the group of people who are connected by her gravitational pull. Shelley really was somethig special, the camera loves her, and everyone else just pales in to the background when she's on screen. Alex has also reviewed this one in another Hal Hartley double feature. Speaking of Alex, did you all see her review for Tabloid this week? A rather wonderful anon was happily leaving crazy all over the place in the comments. It made my weekend.

Bonjour Tristesse wrote a great review for an indie horror film called Red, White & Blue on Wednesday which sounded like my kind of film so off I went to find it. Whilst I can't agree with all of it in this instance I do agree that it is a well crafted and powerful indie film. It's not going to be for everyone. A remarkably simple film that evoked a multitude of emotion throughout it's 90 minute run time. By the time you come to the shocking conclusion you've been taken on a strange journey through the lives of some unpleasant people in small town America and seen the tone change from slow burn character study to shocking revenge payoff. Special mention for a second superb performance seen in the past month from Noah Taylor, the film is not as mesmeric when he's not on screen.

I shall now call this feature blahblahblah turnoffs. The movies which don't hold my shortened attention span for whatever reason, causing me to turn them off.
Repeaters is a low budget Canadian film marketted as a "mind bending thriller" with a trailer that makes it look like Groundhog Day with guns and drugs instead of a weird rodent thing and Andie McDowell (Leah says these are the same thing.) I gave it a go but the screenwriters clearly cared more about the intricate plotting to make a time travel concept work than making the characters believable or likable and so we gave up caring about the fact that they had to keep repeating the same terrible day in different ways. A controversial turnoff this week considering how much everyone seems to love it but Super 8 just isn't my cup of tea (strong, white, two sugars, preferrably PG Tips.) There was nothing wrong with the movie at all, it was obviously good solid film making, I just wasn't enjoying it and the train crash was way over the top. As previously stated around the place I am not a fan of Steven Spielberg movies in general. Perhaps the product of a different type of childhood but movies like ET and The Goonies just never had any appeal to me back then and sadly Super 8 doesn't appeal now. I wanted to like it, I really did. If you want a good review of it though go see Custard, he loved it.