STOKER
Unlike some i'm actually quite a fan of the Vengence trilogy, thirst and i'm a cyborg. I was quite hesitant coming in to Stoker as a lot of top-drawer Asian directors seem to end up either working on something awful or simply have their style drained out and homogenized as soon as they hit Tinseltown. Hideo Nakata had no luck, John Woo's HARD TARGET was a hell of a lot of fun but got eviscerated by the MPAA. I was surprised then to see that STOKER is very much a Park Chan-wook film from beginning to end. I don't want to throw massive plot spoilers suffice to say Stoker is a very, deeply twisted family psychodrama that riffs of Shadow of a doubt among other things as it follows a mother and daughter dealing with the loss of the father/husband as sinister uncle charlie comes home to stay. I really enjoyed the film and it helps cement the director as an Auteur whose vision has carried over very well indeed into western cinema. It's certainly one of the best things i've seen Nicole Kidman in for a long while.
Spring Breakers
Three college girls rob a chicken shack restaurant in order to finance a trip to Florida for spring break. Taking their christian friend along with them the girls party hard until they end up in Jail. Bailed out by 'Alien' a seedy drug dealing wigger things get progressively darker and more surreal. Harmony Korine has always been one of those love him or hate him kind of directors. Here he does little to try and win over the mainstream as he delivers an acidic attack on shallow decadent American pop-culture where everything is merely surface deep. Unlike Korine's previous films this one looks f*****g beautiful thanks to Gasper Noe's DP Benoit Debie. The whole thing is probably Korin's most professional work to date. The editing and style of the film is great but sure to alienate some of its audience expecting a more cheezy straight ahead spring break movie. I enjoyed it though.
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