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I didn’t have the luck to catch Let the Right One In –which I’m sure you’ve already heard is fantastic- while it was playing at the Pickford, but it arrived at Film is Truth a few weeks ago. When I took it home, I made sure to switch the audio settings to their original Swedish with English subtitles (if you don’t mind “reading” your movies, I suggest watching it this way. Personally, anything dubbed over is harder for me to get into), then snuggled in. It happened to be during a random sleet/rain storm, which added to the mood of the movie. The story takes place in winter, which I felt really built up the isolation our main character, Oskar, lives in. He’s a young boy without friends, who is intimidated by bullies at school. It isn’t until a young vampire girl Eli (who also works with the setting of winter since she, like the world around them, is dead and cold. Plus vampires have that whole “eternal life” thing going on, leaving them frozen in one point in time) moves into the apartment next to his that he begins to form a deep friendship with a peer.
The thing about this movie that makes room for it in my heart is that the friendship between Oskar and Eli is so endearing, yet it doesn’t ignore the facts of her morbid state of being. They are friends because they both have dark sides of themselves that they keep secret, that they thought no one would understand. And while my heart was genuinely warmed, I also got what I wanted from a good ole’ vampire movie; blood, immortality, other-worldliness and super abilities! It also led to ideas of how neat it would be to have a vampire friend that came through my window to hang out.
Since its arrival to the store, it’s practically been absent from the shelves. It’s just checked out too quickly. What else is notable is that it’s not just vampire nerds or horror fans coming in and calling to see if it’s been returned yet. Let the Right One In is a good example of a movie that is so unique that it reaches beyond the audience of its genre and is loved by more “mainstream” moviegoers as well. The lasting difficulty once one has seen it, of course, is that the desire for equally fantastic vampire flicks follows. And while I can reel off a few other titles including some bloodsucking fun, (The Lost Boys, Vampire Hunter D, Shadow of the Vampire, Nosferatu, plus my latest and favorite fix Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV series) in this situation, there is just nothing quite like Let the Right One In.
IMDB.com is reporting that the Farrelly Brothers are making a movie about the Three Stooges…starring Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro.
I am having difficulty wrapping my head around this one.
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Uh oh. I don’t much buy into the whole economic collapse (call it bull-headedness, call it blissful ignorance), but it looks as though the indie film circuit has been dealt a heavy blow, as New Yorker Films, the distributor that helped introduce American moviegoers to more independent films announced on Monday that it was going out of business after 44 years.
One of the most influential distributors of foreign and independent films, New Yorker has amassed a library of more than 400 titles, and it looks like it’s all for sale. Let’s hope these films avoid the same fate as the Beatles catalog.
Read more here.
What were you watching last month? Here are February’s best-renting movies at Film is Truth!
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It’s strange while even though America is involved in it’s fair share of war and violence, we don’t see it here on the home front. We can keep our daily lives unaffected by the rest of the world’s problems and their day-to-day struggles remain their day-to-day struggles. Waltz with Bashir is clearly aimed at bringing this part of the world we would all rather forget into our scopes, and it’s a deadly, beautiful ride.
Ari Folman was only 19 when he joined the Israeli army in 1982. His time from that period however, has been completely lost to him; he has no memory of any of the events he was a part of. Once he speaks with a fellow soldier who has been remembering some of the atrocities he had committed, Folman’s memory begins to return, centered heavily around the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
The entire film is beautiful to watch, with the animation style following the likes of Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly, but also involving more hand-drawn illustration as well. The lush backgrounds and tone-perfect colors really draw you into this story, as it is constantly moving around. It is something that could only have been made as an animation. I found the animation was perfect in that it helps us stay removed from these true stories; it keeps us thinking “This isn’t real.” I didn’t even know what to believe afterward, but it is all apparently true. This is a documentary, and a chilling one at that. A must see, for sure, but be warned, it is sad.
It’s playing at the Pickford Sunday, Mar 1 - Wednesday, Mar 4 @ 1:30 PM, 9:15 PM and Thursday, Mar 5 @ 9:15 PM, and should be coming out on DVD sometime in May.