Tetro

Would you believe Hud picked this movie? It's the kind he would normally make fun of me for choosing. I'm really not even sure what made him think he would like it. He saw a preview for it and made his decision based on that. I haven't seen the preview myself, but I saw absolutely nothing in the movie that might have caught Hud's interest. Wait, I take that back. I suppose I saw a few of pair of things. But Hud usually chooses his movies based on the number of guns and explosions. I only remember one gun in this movie, and no one even shot it.

I really wasn't in the mood for this movie. In fact, I'm probably not in the mood for anything but a nap. But I can think of two things about the movie that interested me. First, the cinematography during the black and white sequences was beautiful. At times it got a little over-the-top artsy-fartsy, but most of the time it was subtly stunning. Second, the actor who played Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich--never heard of him) reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio, except slightly less suave and without an abnormally large head.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I can recognize a tad of French, a smidgen of German, and a fragment of Spanish, but Swedish? Heck no. That's a whole 'nother ball of spit. I did recognize a few words that sound just like their English counterparts, but that was as far as it went. Anyway, thank goodness for subtitles once again.

I read this book just a few months ago. Once I've read a book, I am frequently eager to watch it come to life on screen, though it doesn't always do so successfully; sometimes it may flop around jerkily like a revenant, sometimes it may be unrecognizable in its new incarnation--but in this case, the adaptation was excellent. I had hoped the movie would eliminate a lot of the blah blah blah that I found at the beginning and end of the book; for the most part it did, although the ending seemed to be a little stretched out--but it had to be, to complete the story.

It's a shame that all adaptations can't follow the book as closely as this one. Evidently Sweden has more respect for their own son than Hollywood has for most authors. A few parts were left out, some others were streamlined, but overall the movie was very faithful to the book. (Well, what I remember of it, anyway). Speaking of Hollywood, of course they want a piece of the action and a remake is already in the works. I don't see how they can improve upon the original, though I bet the new version will reveal the dragon tattoo much sooner than this one. American audiences won't be patient enough to wait an hour and a half to see it.

I really needed to wash dishes and iron clothes tonight, but the only thing I managed to do while watching this movie was to drink wine, since I didn't need my eyes for that. The evening was more fun that way anyway. Though it does mean tomorrow will be less so. But there's a tradeoff. I picked up a cooking tip from this movie: the secret to making meatballs is to wet your hands first. I don't remember that from the book. Will have to try it.

I must admit I don't know much about Sweden. I mean, I know it's between Norway and Finland, and I assume it gets pretty cold there, and my parents and sister have vacationed there (without me, I might add), but that's about all I know. So I looked up Sweden online and learned a couple of facts that I will now pass on to you. The country is a little bit bigger than California (which surprised me--I would have guessed it was the size of Florida--I was way off) but its population isn't much greater than that of New York City. There, don't you feel smarter already?

Gone Baby Gone

This movie was directed by (as my husband calls him) Ben Afflicted. His little brother Casey stars. (Nepotism, anyone?) Between the two of them, I didn't know what to expect--but, as it turns out, they did a pretty decent job.

I totally think that Patrick made the wrong choice. I mean, if I were Amanda's mom, I would probably disagree with me, but then again, maybe not--since I'm not a white-trash crack ho. It definitely brought up the always interesting "what would you have done?" question. On the other hand, I was annoyed by the, shall we say, "epilogue" which proved me right. It would have been much more interesting if we had been left to wonder.

Paranormal Activity

Least scary "scary movie" I've ever seen.

Horror is not my usual genre, but I saw previews for the sequel which made me curious enough to watch the original. Maybe I built it up too much in my mind, but this was nowhere near the creepfest I imagined it would be. What did not happen was that necessary suspension of disbelief. Perhaps if I were a fan of reality TV this movie would have given me more of a fright, but as it was--with all unusual activity announced by that "paranormal hum," and no creepy music to set the mood--the subtle "scariness" going on was too easy to dismiss as someone off-camera jerking on fishing wire. I even watched this by myself, at night! Of course, I locked all of the doors in the house before starting the movie to avoid any unpleasant surprises, and I left all of the lights on, but I think those were unnecessary precautions. The doors are unlocked now and I have no fear of anything unusual opening them.

Of course, I haven't tried to go to sleep yet tonight . . .

Full Metal Jacket

Hud forced me to watch Full Metal Jacket even though we both know I don't like war movies. The whole thing made me want to cry. I didn't, because of my heartless cruelty, but now I just feel like crap. The only good thing I can manage to say about this movie is that it had some decent music.

If you like war movies, I guess this is a good one. But if you're like me, maybe you'll be smarter than I was and you'll skip it.

The Lives of Others

Here's a movie in German for a change. It's actually a pretty good one. It was fascinating to watch the character development of Wiesler (he's the guy in the headphones), who starts the movie seeming to be a mindless socialist who does his job well and without conscience, and sees the world only in black and white, but through a series of decisions proves himself to be a truly good man with a heart for altruistically choosing right over wrong.

I think you should watch this movie, only maybe not when you need to iron your clothes, because (unless you know German and you don't have to read the subtitles), you may find yourself ironing wrinkles into your clothes rather than out of them.

I couldn't help but, once again, notice the differences between some of the spoken lines and the English subtitles (even though it seems, when it comes to French, I can't tell the difference between deuxième and dixième). My favorite was when the subtitle read, "We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot," but I distinctly heard the actor use the word hintfleisch. I guess Germans tend to shoot themselves in the butt rather than the foot.

Henry & June

I watched half of this movie a week ago and only just now got around to watching the other half, if that tells you anything. It's about real-life people: writers Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, and their respective spouses. It probably doesn't help that I've never read anything by Nin or Miller, but oddly enough, watching this movie didn't make me very interested in trying. Although perhaps if I did, I might understand Nin and Miller's mutual fascination for June that allowed her to be a muse for both. It seems inexplicable in the movie; maybe it comes through better in their books.

Most notable to me was the wooden performance of Nin's husband Hugo. I couldn't figure out if this was with purpose, to showcase the passion and life in the writers and artists he was surrounded with, or if he's just a really bad actor.