Difficult Difficult Lemon Difficult
January 19th – January 24th
Jennifer’s Body - Kind of disappointed with this one. As far as teen horror movies go, it holds its own. But, I was hoping for a little more from the Diablo Cody-scripted and Karen Kusama-helmed project. It just seemed kind of flat. Not really horror. Not really dark comedy. Not really biting satire. All that stuff was lying just beneath the surface, I’m sure, but only in an impotent sort of way.
Still, the reviews of this movie did get me to buy Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women & Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film which I just finished reading. While it can be a little heavy on the Freud and psychoanalytic school of film criticism at times, it was still an excellent read. The first chapter, where she presents her “Final Girl” theory, is required reading. And a Tarantino fan can’t read the third chapter without thinking of Beatrix Kiddo.
The Messenger - While not a war movie, this one certainly belongs with The Hurt Locker among the best (so far) movies dealing with the Iraqi war. The movie takes place entirely in the United States and there are no war scenes–so it’s not a war movie. But, it does seem to say a lot about the soldiers’ experience. War changes a soldier so fundamentally that he or she see things differently than their civilian counterparts. I don’t know if it’s a question of for better or worse, just simply new and different eyes. And eye drops don’t always work.
The story revolves around a couple of soldiers who are tasked with giving notifications of deceased soldiers to their next of kin. The handful of scenes we get where the news is delivered, some of which work better than others, are truly heartbreaking. To imagine those scenes repeated 5,318 times (Operations Iraqi Freedom & Enduring Freedom, to this date) is almost too much to bear.
Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton are both excellent here. And Ben Foster is a surprise after his creepy Russell in Six Feet Under.
In The Loop - A hilarious satiric take on the incompetency (both British and US) that lead us to war (and has resulted in–unhilariously–the 5,318 deaths, mentioned above). Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker is the insult king. I will not think of horses the same way again. This movie is worth watching for his insults alone. If you’re looking for good one liners, this is certainly a better pick than the Cody-isms of Jennifer’s Body.
