Look out! He's got a knife!

Movies seen

By fuck, but I've been busy. So naturally all I want to blog about is movies, which I've watched a lot of to chill out.

Knocked Up
Fat stoner knocks up E-channel presenter in one-night stand. Genuinely sweet gross-out romatic comedy starring Ken from Freaks and Geeks and the little girl from My Father the Hero. The funniest movie I've seen in years. Great to see F&G alumni in supporting roles.

The Parallax View
Warren Beatty stumbles upon a privately-run conspiracy of assassins, and spends the whole movie obsessed and on the run with no time for nookie. I'm sure I know people who would find this movie chillingly plausible. I thought it was absurd, and that Beatty's character was a dunce. Entertaining enough though, in a goofy way.

The Woods
A new entrant at a girl's boarding school encounters bullying, weird teachers, and supernatural spookiness. This is the second film directed by Lucky McKee, after the superb May. This is just about as good despite obvious production problems - it really didn't deserve to be held up for years and then dumped direct to dvd. The tone and atmosphere are reminiscent of Dario Argento (particularly Suspiria) & Lucio Fulci, but McKee is much better with story, characters and (particularly) actors than those Italian horror stars. Agnes Bruckner stands out as the main character. Don't be fooled by the Bruce Campbell cameo - this is a serious horror movie based around character relationships. Angela Bettis (the title character in May, and McKee's muse) plays the voice of the woods. Highly recommended.

National Lampoon's Animal House
I'd seen this before, and wanted to watch it again after seeing Harold Ramis's cameo in Knocked Up (he co-wrote this one). It holds up pretty well - it's probably nowhere near as startling as in 1978, but it's still funny, clever and edgy, with good performances and some surprisingly dark humour. It's great to see a young Karen Allen in the cast in what I think was her first movie. Recommended, even if only to see how shallow its modern equivalents are by comparison.

All About Anna
A young woman tries to get over the love of her life by maintaining an active sex life without getting emotionally involved. This is basically a romantic comedy with hardcore sex scenes. The cast is certainly game and some of them are quite talented, particularly star Gry Bay. Unfortunately they're let down by a rambling script and production values a lot closer to porn than rom-com. Still it's a nice try, and I definitely approve of the concept. It's a Danish movie, filmed in English with a cast from Denmark, Britain and France.

More soon.

Posted by pearce at December 17, 2007 11:23 PM