2/15
American Teen (2008, Nanette Burstein, DVD) - 7.0
Documentary about five high school kids, each fitting into a particular stereotype, like jock, nerd, popular girl, outcast, and another jock (or a heart-throb according to one of the posters). It did a great job of taking me back to the drama, awkwardness, and all-around bullshit of the high school experience. On one hand, I found this to be an impressive acheivement for a documentary. But on the other hand, this made it not especially enjoyable to watch. So I have mixed feelings. I guess it’s good.
2/18
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008, Darren Lynn Bousman, Blu-ray) - 4.0
It’s the future and there’s an epidemic of organ failures, and some corporation is able to fix everyone, but if they end up not being able to pay, then their organs get repossessed, and it’s a musical. The music was ok, the story was ok, and some of the actors were good, but mostly this was fucking awful. The worst was the obnoxious goth narrator.
2/19
IndieFest
Deadgirl (2009, Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel, digital projection, Little Roxie) - 8.0
Two guys go wandering around a creepy abandoned building, and in one of the rooms, find a barely alive naked girl chained to a table. One of them is freaked out, but the other realizes the obvious potential of this free pussy goldmine, who as it turns out, is unkillable no matter what is done to her. Maybe takes itself a little too seriously, but a good movie nonetheless.
2/23
BURN-E (Short, 2008, Angus MacLane, Blu-ray) - 8.0
A robot tries to fix a light on the outside of the ship that WALL-E is on, and keeps running into obstacles. Really cute and good.
Snow Angels (2008, David Gordon Green, DVD) - 9.0
Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell are separated because he’s an alcoholic, and she’s sleeping with Amy Sedaris’ husband, and there’s also a story with teenagers. The first hour is somewhat dark, but also really funny. The scenes with Sam Rockwell and his daughter are really amazing and hilarious. Halfway through, though, the movie takes a very bleak turn, and it’s all drama from that point on. I wasn’t as in love with it as I was with the first half, but it was still fucking awesome, and I appreciated the fact that it would even take such a turn. I love David Gordon Green’s style, he’s one of the best at making simple stories about regular people really fucking compelling. Also, this dancing scene was fucking amazing:
2/26
Seven Days to Noon (1950, John & Roy Boulting, 35mm, Stanford) - 6.0
An English scientist disappears with an atomic bomb, and sends a letter to the Prime Minister theatening to blow up an important building if he doesn’t end all research having to do with bombs, and so some detectives try to track him down. Pretty good movie, but didn’t stay with me much.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel, 35mm, Stanford) - 8.0
A doctor starts getting complaints about family members and loved ones not acting like themselves, and it turns out it’s because they’ve been replaced by pod-grown aliens. It left me with some questions, like what the fuck happens to the original bodies, and at the end of the movie, it seems like the aliens are actually able to take over the original body, as opposed to just replicating it? I don’t know. But aside from that, it’s a fucking swayze thriller, and Kevin McCarthy is awesome as the lead.
2/28
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2009, Mark Hartley, 35mm, Vogue) - 8.0
Documentary about the brilliantly unrestrained exploitation films being made in Australia in the 70’s and 80’s. A great movie that mostly just made me depressed about how there’s yet another amazing fucking genre filled with amazing fucking movies that I haven’t seen yet, and will seemingly never even get to because I live in a nightmare world of loving all movies and thus being constantly swamped by thousands of choices of what to watch.
February Top 10
1. Adventures in Babysitting
2. Snow Angels
3. Home Movie
4. Never Too Young to Die
5. Mother of Tears
6. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
7. Tokyo Gore Police
8. The Killers
9. Not Quite Hollywood
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Bottom 3
1. The Soul Detective
2. The Cat and the Canary
3. Repo! The Genetic Opera
BOOKS
1/25
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell - 9.5
Bruce Campbell tells his life story, from his upbringing to meeting Sam Raimi to making Evil Dead to where he is now. For a biography about making movies, it was amazingly compelling and always hard to put down, not to mention inspiring and useful for aspiring filmmakers. Fucking loved it.
2/10
Make Love!* the Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell - 7.0
Bruce Campbell is an actor who gets cast as a doorman in a romantic comedy with Richard Gere and Rene Zellweger, and goes to absurd lengths to research his minor character, as well as bringing a lot of new ideas to the film. Not nearly as great as the less fictional If Chins Could Kill, and occasionally there are chapters that seem random and pointless, like they were inserted in after the book was finished to help pad it out. But overall, it was an easy, fun read.
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