June 23rd - June 29th
The Mist - This one finally trickled up to the top of my Netflix queue. After the initial reviews, I wasn’t all that interested in checking out. But since then, I’ve heard several positive to raving reviews of the film. As a result, it percolated all the way to the top of my list and landed in my DVD player this weekend. I was enjoying it in the beginning. The claustrophobia of the grocery store shrouded in the mist was palpable. But then I was turned off by the sight of the “monster,” or rather an appendage of said monster. Only for a moment though. I was initially turned off by the extreme artificiality of the CG appendage. It really took me out of the suspense of the movie. But then very quickly I realized that the monsters are secondary. They’re almost MacGuffins Monsters. The real horror, the real monsters are very much human in nature. The Food House transformed from a grocery store to something much more terrifying–Oklahoma. Well, not really, but it did have it’s share of smitten sheep to scare the shit out of you. When you have someone raving about Biblical End Times there’s not much more need for monsters.
Still, the monsters weren’t all that bad. Most of the time, they lurked in darkness or the mist so that the artificiality was kept at bay. And when you did see of them, they looked half-alien and half-prehistoric, a nice touch. Given the ending, I’d still take the rational path over the superstitious one, even if it sometimes leads to more morbid outcomes.
RiffTrax’s of The X-Files: Fight the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark - This was my first foray into the post-MST3K commentaries from Mike Nelson and crew over at RiffTrax. I was not disappointed. Sure, I miss the silhouettes of Tom Servo & Crow and singing along to the theme song (…”if you’re wondering how he eats and breaths, and other science facts, la-la-la…“). But the funny was certainly still there even if there was no theme song. I haven’t laughed that much in a single evening in quite a while. It was therapeutic. The margaritas should probably get some of the credit, too. I can’t wait to check out some of the other commentaries, with or without a pitcher of delicious goodness.
The Savages - I loved, loved, loved this movie. Sure, it’s not the feel good movie of the year. But something–the tone perhaps–was right up my alley. It was brilliant. Maybe it was the wonderful duo of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Maybe it was the dog. Or the cat. Maybe it was the subject matter–dealing with life’s real problems. And what a damn good screenplay.
It’s not something that I want to revisit anytime soon. I mean, I don’t really want to confront end-of-life issues for myself or my parents. But sometimes a little cry with a little laugh is exactly what I want out of a movie. I don’t know. Writer-director Tamara Jenkins got this just right. She got at the subtleties of life where things are sad and funny and gross and embarrassing and disappointing but still so worth the trouble.
