Week in Review-Aubrey

Elliot and I have decided to try a new format for the blog; more of a "week in review" style in which we will list all that we've watched in the previous week (or all that we care to 'fess up to) with a shortish blurb for each, instead of our long loquacious essays of the past (except unless a film really requires more).  Plus maybe a Pick of the Week highlighting the best of the best, or the best of the worst as it may be.

So, without further ado,

Aubrey: Week in Review, May 4-10

Gomorrah (2009):  

I'm going to go ahead and disrespectfully disagree with Elliot on this one.  I too, was looking forward to this, despite my usual dislike of mobster movies.  I went with Boo, who normally loves mob movies, and we were both pretty disappointed.  It was nicely shot, and had its moments (the storyline Ell mentioned of the two teenage boys is the only thing that really sustained any interest at all for me- if that subplot had instead been expanded to a whole movie I would have probably liked it much more), but was overall a dud.  What Ell found to be deliciously detached cinema verite just struck me as boring and too disconnected.  About 30 minutes of good solid storytelling out of 2 hours of meandering nonsense does not a "What To Watch" for me make.  Grade: 2.5/5

The Haunting in Connecticut (2009): 

The pro's: Virgie Madsen.  The con's: everything else.  This was perhaps the worst horror film I've seen in a long time, and that's saying a lot.  Remember how hilarious the increasingly decomposed corpse/best friend in An American Werewolf in London was?  Well, that guy (or someone looking suspiciously like him) is in this movie too, but here, he's supposed to be....scary?  Mmm, nope.  If you want something about a big scary house with a dark past, a sick child and a hot mom, check out The Orphanage instead.  Grade: 1/5

The Devil's Backbone (2001): 

"What Not To Watch Blog" favorite Guillermo del Toro helms this little gem, backed by Pedro Almodovar. Strong shooting, script and cast, this film's meditation on war, death and salvation (yeah, I know, I know.  What film isn't a meditation on war, death and salvation these days) all told through the eyes of a young boy, a ghost and a one-legged revolutionary orphanage matron is definitely What To Watch.  Grade: 4/5

Pick of the Week

The Fall (2006): The whole time I was watching this film, I kept thinking that the visuals were strikingly similar to those of The Cell (which I love); turns out they are directed by the same Tarsem Singh, a man known for selling eye-candy out the back of his van.  Although The Fall isn't nearly as perverse as The Cell, it is just as engaging.  It's been a long time since I could turn off the little critic in my head and enjoy a film for simply what it is, but this story-within-a-story (think of the device used in Neverending Story) allowed for just that.  Set against a lush 1920s backdrop, the storyline flits back and forth between the reality of two patients' experiences in a hospital and a make believe world of masked bandits, dredlocked mystics and a young Charles Darwin himself's (see pic above) search for an elusive breed of butterfly.  The opening credits sequence alone is mindblowing.  And guess what?  Not an ounce of CGI: it's all real.  If you have Blu-ray capability, this is will be the creme-de-la-cream your pants.  Grade: 5/5

Also watched this week: BASEketball (yeah, yeah, yeah SHUT UP), and The Foot Fist Way (moderately phun if you've ever been in tae kwon do, not sure if people can relate otherwise cuz it is pretty awful, considering).

-Aub