What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[pedromonkey]

nice review, sound pretty cool.

[42ndStreetFreak]

It's well worth a look. Picked it up at W.H Smiths for £7.99.
Impulse buys! Damn them!!!

[vincenzo]

In The Realm Of The Senses

No more boiled eggs for me for a while.

[pedromonkey]

Originally Posted by 42ndStreetFreak

It's well worth a look. Picked it up at W.H Smiths for £7.99.
Impulse buys! Damn them!!!

there's another film that looks like this that seem quite interesting called Valhala Rising, from Nicholas Winding Refen who made bronson,

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Just finished watching Critters! An excellent film that rivals Gremlins and is almost better.

[42ndStreetFreak]

Originally Posted by pedromonkey

there's another film that looks like this that seem quite interesting called Valhala Rising, from Nicholas Winding Refen who made bronson,

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Seems to be a totally mad bloodbath.

[horror4life]

last few I saw are happy birthday to me with the original score.
and edge of darkness

[Philleh]

Saw Rec 2 last night, great sequel!

[42ndStreetFreak]

"Antichrist"

http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvantichrist.php

After the accidental death of their little boy a grieving couple try to come to terms with their loss.
As the mother (Charlotte Gainsbourg) slowly unravels her psychiatrist Husband (Willem Dafoe) decides to make her his patient and tries in vain to get her to come to terms with her loss.

The Husband decides to go and stay a few days at their holiday cabin.
And it is here, in the dark woods, where both of them will face their fear and loss and where things will change forever in a most terrible way......



Lars von Trier has perhaps his highest profile film to date...and proceeds to find it becomes the biggest millstone around his neck as far as many critics (and certainly mainstream press) go and soon hate and derision are flying.

But amazingly he (and the film) seem to have weathered the storm and come through the other side into the calmer waters of virtual acceptance.
This is probably because despite the extreme content and controversial depiction of the female sex "Antichrist" is actually a pretty damn good movie that is exceptionally well crafted and is at the end of the day a serious work.

Is it perfect? No.
There is stuff here that seems like padding and perhaps the film is too obscure and allegorical to fully satisfy as an essay on madness and loss that it could have been.
But that would ultimately not have made it “Antichrist” I suppose. Certainly not Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist”.

Nothing is made explicitly clear in “Antichrist” and soon multiple possibilities for motivation and reason concerning Gainsbourg’s mental state and her past and present actions open up before us.

As such the film is never left unsatisfying as the many theories are all valid, all work for each viewer and all ultimately lead to the film‘s conclusion no matter what, thus we have a movie that never feels like a confused work despite these diversions we are free to take as individuals to reach our ultimate destination.

The extremity here that caused so much fuss and even outright hate from some quarters is actually a very small part of the film and takes a long time to appear and it is a shame that so much of what went before these scenes has been lost in all the hype and vitriol.

What we have is explicit nudity wise for both Dafoe and Gainsbourg and Gainsbourg has a strong, frenzied, masturbation scene.

Violence wise it has it’s tough moments but really it’s more the idea of what is happening than what we truly see.
Gore is kept at a minimum but it is the truly infamous scene near the end that repels but impresses with it‘s uncompromising audaciousness.
The effects are also very well done from a technical perspective which is essential in selling such moments and keeping the audience in the movie.

But amazingly none of this tough gore and violence ever seem gratuitous.
Even the most infamous scene never comes across as just there to shock. It does shock, but it does it in context and it does it in a serious, defined, justified way.

The film looks stunning (there are some truly amazing and powerful images here), is well scored, is extremely well acted, well directed and is ultimately a work to be taken very seriously.

Perhaps Lars’ self -indulgence and need to be just that bit too obscure smother some parts of the basic, effective drama that comes from such worrying, heartbreaking, events, but ultimately I was impressed and moved by “Antichrist”.

As such this tough, multi-layered, work comes highly recommended.

[42ndStreetFreak]

"Orphan"

First off my problems with this.
I can't see why they even need to adopt a THIRD child so badly.

The Mother says she has love to spare...well give it to your 2 other, actual, children then!!! *sheesh*

The parents clearly had a dubious past (Mother especially as far as child safety and booze went) and still had marriage issues...plus two of their own kids anyway...would they have been deemed suitable for adoption?

Would the young deaf daughter STILL not say anything even after she has already gone against Esther...had decided to warn her parents when she noticed Esther had vanished in the hospital...and had now seen that her Mother believed what she already knew to be true anyway and had even attacked Esther publically.
I don't buy the fact she would still have stayed stay quiet at this point.

All this really kind of annoyed and frustrated.

BUT......

It has to be said that this film featured some damn fine moments, a truly superb turn by the young Isabelle Fuhrman that impresses on every level, some really nasty and bloody (if only occasional) violence, some well handled action (although perhaps the old cliche of the 'keeps on coming' psycho seemed old fashioned) and a damn fine twist that actually improved on the film and made everything that had gone before work better.

This reveal at first seemed like a cheat...until the very subtle and extremely well done make-up came into play and amazingly sold it all as at the same time Isabelle Fuhrman skilfully tops even what has come before as far as her uncompromising, terrifying, performance goes.

Great ending scene as well.
And in a rare case the alternative ending also works just as well (and is far more unsettling) in a different way.

Has some big frustrations and some hard to swallow contrivances but "Orphan" still manages to be a genuinely tough watch in places (it was damn hard to see the cute as a button little deaf child go through all these things and the opening sequence is really horrible), is very well made and features one of horror cinema's most impressive performances ever