The Long (Movie) Weekend

If you look way down in the side-bar under the heading "Watched" you'll see that, between this past Friday and Sunday nights, I watched eight movies. Only one was in the theater; the rest were thanks to the wonders of Netflix. I usually don't watch quite so many in such a short span of time, but the boyfriend's away again and it was really effin' humid on Saturday... what can I say? Ah, but I can say something, because for a change I feel like actually saying something about each of these movies! I know! Shocker. Anyway, here are some mini-reviews of what I watched.

Supserstition (1982) - I watched this after reading Final Girl's write-up of this early 80's supernatural spook-house bload-soaked chiller and am really glad I took Stacie's advice - Priests run through by berserk saw-blades! Pastor's slutty-teenage-daughters having slap-fights in tube tops! ("Shut your bitchy mouth!") Decapitated heads exploding in sinister microwave ovens! Seriously though, all silliness and campiness aside, I actually found the final scenes of the movie effectively creepy.

Stage Fright (1950) - I've only got a few gaps to fill in until I'll have seen all of Hitchcock's films, and this was one of them. Marlene Dietrich was a hoot as the is-she-or-isn't-she Murderess with a never-ending supply of sexy-widow-outfits, but this fell into the camp of middling Hitch for me, and mainly because of Jane Wyman - she was supposed to be English, right? Both her parents were old Brits, and the movie was set in London, but she came off as if she'd justs tumbled in off the prairie. And as soon as her character fell for the detective I already knew the outcome of the plot. Still, any Hitch is worth seeing, though this one lacked a single one of the set-pieces one expects from his films. Couldn't there have been a showdown on Big Ben or something?

Seed of Chucky (2004) - This I caught on TV and found myself completely paralyzed, unable to change the channel. How much fun is Jennifer Tilly having here? And if Jennifer Tilly is having fun then the movie can only follow suit, cuz that chick lights up the screen. Favorite moment: John Waters' cameo, getting his face melted off with acid. Glorious. Second favorite moment: Doll-Jennifer telling someone on the telephone that Real-Jennifer's screams in the background are the TV - "I'm watching Bound. Gina Gershon is diddling me."

Orlando (1992) - Finally caught Orlando after it sitting on my queue for ages now. I think I'll forever love director Sally Potter for, with this and with Yes, making two films that just frolic in the wonder of two of my favorites actresses, Tilda Swinton and Joan Allen. One caveat though: Billy Zane? Seriously? No.

Izo (2004) - Oh Takashi Miike. I missed the first ten minutes or so of this film because the DVD was skipping at the start, but I think that even if I'd seen the beginning I still would've had no effing clue what the hell was going on. There's a warrior, who's morphing into a demon and killing everyone in sight, going through nonsensical levels all video-game like; one second he's fighting in ancient Japan, the next they're fighting dodging futuristic trucks on a bridge, then there's this lady in a kimono following him around - after melting out of an underground iceberg, natch - and she's his never-met love and then she's a secretary in a fifties office still in her kimono and ghost-makeup, and then the warrior is killing gods and butterflies and/or caterpillars are coming out of necks and... sigh. To give credit, though, I couldn't turn it off, and there were some amazing gorgeous compositions and sights to be had.

The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) - Now this is the Miike I love. A musical (!) about a family-run guest house where the customers keep dropping dead and the family keep burying the evidence! And it made sense! From start to finish! I mean, I can handle allegory and dream-logic and so on, but sometimes it's nice not to stare at something incredulously and just have the joy of seeing a little girl performing a sunny song with decaying zombies, ya know?

Reservoir Dogs (1992) - No, I'd never seen Reservoir Dogs before. The shame, the shame. Now that I have though, I can say that it's good, basic Tarantino, but hardly a dent in the genius of Jackie Brown, mkay? But the real revelation here, for me, was Tim Roth, whom I've just never really "got" before. He was fantastic as Mr. Orange (see "Today's Mood" below); his long scene relaying the fake-story about the cops in the bathroom, and how we watch the story spin from practice to reality, was amazing; this was the kind of magic that Tarantino starts hitting out of the park soon after.

Dahmer (2002) - Jeremy Renner's performance as serial-killer Jeffrey Dahmer is fucking incredible. The film lives and dies (heh) by his performance, and it's a total knock-out. The period details are well-done too, and the film's refusal to demonize the character is both awesome and totally unnerving at the same time. A hard watch, but incredibly worthwhile, and I am officially obsessed with Mr. Renner now. And creeped out by how... attractive... I found him here. Sigh. Add another one to the pile o' perviness I'm racking up.

Dedication (2007) - Mildly disappointing. I kept wondering if director Justin Theroux had actually watched The Baxter, the film he was hysterical in last year, and learned anything, because he returned to the rom-com tropes made fun of there and took them seriously here - the whole "running through the streets of New York to catch your spurned-love" thing? It's done for real here. Like, huh? But Billy Crudup, for the first time ever (I had a lot of that this weekend) made me understand "the Billy Crudup thing" (of which my boyfriend is a firm subscriber). Maybe it was that I really felt like he'd been styled like and was acting like Justin Theroux that made me find him appealing for the first time ever? But I really enjoyed him. Mandy Moore was fine, but honestly a little on the boring side. Amy Sedaris showed up for five seconds to make me smile, and Dianne Wiest lights up the screen in about three small scenes as Moore's very New York mother, but a very specific kind of New York mother I'd never seen on film before.
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