18. Things to do in Denver when you are dead (1995)

This movie wasn't on my list but was recommended to me. I don't mind a good gangster flick so I thought I'd give it a crack. You would think a line up like Andy Garcia, Christopher Lloyd, Steve Buscemi & Christopher mutha-fuckin Walken would be awesome. You would be wrong.
I thought it was very very average. The mooshy scenes with Andy & the sexy young girl (who looks REALLY young) are sickening.
Mr Walken is (as usual) great as the arsehole crime boss The Man. I thought it was really boring.
I didn't MIND the cool gangster talk that they do (Give it a name baby) and the sometimes storybook narration by Jack Warden but I found the movie itself very dull.
Sorry Dave (who recommended it) but it didn't do anything for me.
2 STARS

16. Beasts Of The Southern Wild - (2012)

I didn't know ANYTHING about the plot of this film.  I had only read alot of reviews. Just about all of them said that this movie was highly recommended... Poignant was a word thrown around.

It starts off pretty good and the little girl Hushpuppy is a really good little actress but I found myself holding in there waiting for something to happen. I did enjoy Hushpuppy's narrations but I found the movie itself a bit of a non-event. It was kind of an interesting insight into the lifestyle of the people who live in The Bathtub which is a town on the bayou near New Orleans. I can't believe people actually seem to LOVE living like this. It's funny... on one hand little Hushpuppy is really neglected & lives a horrible life surrounded by poverty & boarderline starvation with only adults being moonshine alcoholics and yet everybody seems pretty bloody happy living like that.

At first I liked the big pig-buffalo things (the imaginary creatures that are coming to destroy everything) but in the end they were just silly.

It was really disjointed and frankly bloody weird.
I don't see what all the fuss was about.

2 STARS

6. Melancholia (2011)

I'd read alot of really positive reviews about this film and the story seemed intriguing "Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with the Earth."  I'm not really a big Kirsten Dunst fan but all the movie mags & sites said she is great in this film.
Adjectives I would use to describe this movie: SLOW, DEPRESSING & BEAUTIFUL.
If you want a real honest look at what real manic depression looks like then just watch this film.
As a person who has Bipolar I could very very much relate to Kirsten's character in certain parts.
I had to fast forward the beginning of the movie as the 10 minute intro, while beautifully filmed and musicall the score is wonderful, was excruitatingly long and drawn out.
Even though at numerous times through the film I wanted to turn it off, I kept reminding myself of the plot which is, as I wrote above,  "a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with the Earth."
 I just HAD to see how it was going to end.
MEH.
 This is one totally fucking boring depressing film but with a fantastic musical score.
If you didn't suffer from depression before this movie you sure will for a time after.

 

2 STARS

1. HAPPINESS ( 1998 )

OK so I have chosen the most difficult film to review first.
I'll start by saying the the trailer for the film (as shown above) is really NOT a true reflection of what the movie is like or is about and I think is very misleading.

This movie was recommended to me by the little sister. She knows that I like my movies a bit "out there" and very black humour. She DID warn me that the theme is quite confronting & disturbing.
Well THAT is an understatement.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (who I love) is hideous as a big fat sexual pervert. Every single character is simply awful... not the acting... the acting is great.
But the characters are awful. You keep hoping that during the movie they show SOME trait that might make you like them a little bit but it never comes and you just end up hating them all. I think that this is actually the point of the movie though.

The lead character is a pedophile. I do not know how this actor could have played this role.
It does NOT hold back and you know damn well that he is drugging & raping those boys.
The conversations he has with his son are very very very difficult to watch.
I actually had to turn the movie off about half way because of how uncomfortable I was.
I kept watching because I was intruiged about how it would end.
If you liked the movie "The Squid and The Whale" or even "Shortbus" you may like this films very adult themes.

I am only going to give this movie 2 stars out of a possible 5 stars.
One star for the fact that I had to watch until the end and One star because the acting is amazing.

I simply CANNOT recommend this film at all as it is too depressing & pedophile character is just too confronting but I WOULD be interested to hear if anyone else (besides my sister) has seen it and what they thought about it.

Two words can sum up this film.......

FUCKED UP