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Let the Right One In [Låt den rätte komma in] (Alfredson, 2008)
IMDB Link
When it comes to horror mythologies, I’m not too keen on vampires. They were some rich, posh, suave snobs in the film industry for a while, and then turned into trendy, hip, attractive young people recently, and neither incarnations interest me. Give me zombies any day.
The surprising thing is that the Swedish film, “Let the Right One In”, seems to take the vampire mythology, give it to us in a familiar storyline, but take out all the annoying parts that are so constant in your average vampire movie. The movie is about the relationship between a young loner boy and a female vampire girl, and it almost seems like the story of “Twilight”. I have not seen “Twilight”, but I know enough that the while the basic concept of a lonely outcast finding solace with a vampire is similar, the execution is vastly different. The female vampire is not a politically correct vampire, tailored to fit in the audience’s moral codes. Vampires kill and drink blood, and that’s what she does. She doesn’t drink from blood bags, she doesn’t target bad people only, she doesn’t drink the blood of animals, and she has no moral dilemmas about her habits. She does what she does, because that’s the type of creature she is, and the film does not apologies for her. It is then to the movie’s credit that we still find the relationship between the two preteen characters so sweet and moving.
The film does not reinvent the wheel with the mythology, but decides to approach it in a fresh manner. The special effects are almost non-existence, but somehow the director has made an excellent use of editing, camera angles, and sound to give it a realistic feel and atmosphere. When something occurs out of the ordinary, it appears so seamless and devoid of any grandeur, that it makes it extremely realistic.
Easily the best vampire movie in a long, long time. Hopefully, this would have garnered some interest in portraying vampires in a more unapologetic, uncool manner, but I wouldn’t count on it. Apparently, the movie is being remade by “Cloverfield” director, Matt Reevs. I’m not one to automatically bash Hollywood remakes, but I would be very surprised if it doesn’t try to be closer to “Twilight” than “Let the Right One In”, if only the studios would desperately try to capture the success of “Twilight”.
4/5
Triumph of the Will [triumph des Willens] (Riefenstahl, 1935)
IMDB Link
Probably the most infamous documentary films ever, “Triumph of the Will”, is still a fucking bore to watch. Made in Nazi Germany in 1935, it is interesting as a film that portrays the grandeur of the Nazi movement. I will admit that it is very impressive to watch the rows of the organized marching German men and the hundreds of cheering crowd saluting Hitler. If I was a German in 1935 watching this film, I’d probably have the most gigantic boner in my life. Germans were probably not feeling very proud of themselves at that time. They had lost the first World War, had to pay huge reparations to the winning side, had lost territory, and had a political crisis for the last few years. But now, here was a film that was showing what Germany was becoming. If I was watching something like this by Iran, I’d be FUCK YEAH. Everyone likes to feel that their country is organized, compassionate, united, forward-thinking, and is under the guidance of a great leader. That is what this film shows.
Unfortunately, watching it in 2008 is not that thrilling. While the movie has a lot of impressive footage, watching it for two hours can be a chore. Majority of it is parades, cheering crowds, and marches. It is easily called one of the best propaganda films ever, but I’m not sure if I can agree or not. It certainly helps a lot if a person was watching it at that time and was already leaning towards having support for Nazism. But it is a bit of a simplistic approach to propaganda. I’m more impressed by something that hides its propaganda better. To make a fictional movie and subtly have undertones that manipulate the way the audience thinks. That is impressive. Leni Riefenstahl’s camera work is impressive, but as a propagandist, she doesn’t do much. I bet you can find thousands of documentaries that are about the achievements of a political party, president, or country, and either commissioned or encouraged by the group that it is focused on. The difference between a lot of those films and this one, is not necessarily how better this one is, but how much more impressive Hitler’s party was.
The Nazi party really was something else. And admittedly, it is still kind of cool to watch them.
3/5
Air Guitar Nation (Lipsitz, 2006)
IMDB Link
"To err is human, to air guitar...divine"
It is going to stale very soon, but I still enjoy the recent crop of documentaries that are about eccentric competitions. People like me do not get very interested in your average competition, such as dance or sports. But a documentary on people who are obsessively into crosswords or 70s arcade games? That is a lot more enjoyable. As long it is presented in an interesting, humorous, and respectful manner, I love it.
"It is almost like any Olympic event, the way it is judged like figure skating. And it is probably less absurd to watch than figure skating, if you think about it."
“Air Guitar Nation” is about…come on, it is mentioned in the title. Apparently, there is something called Air Guitar World Championship and is held every year in Finland, and it begun in 1996, so this is some serious business. Well, not really that serious, since it is not like it is attended by millions, but it is still a big event for basically an activity most of us did as younger teenagers on our beds (I’m kidding, I still do it, but to be honest, I enjoy air drum much more). I love rock music, and one of my major attractions of it is its showmanship. All those classic crazy acts have fascinated me, from as early as Jerry Lee Lewis, who supposedly set his piano on fire during a performance. Which was also done by Jimi Hendrix with his guitar. Or even, here is a tidbit not many of you know, but early, pre-Beatlemania Beatles playing in Germany and John Lennon coming on stage wearing a nazi uniform. Or Jim Morrison moaning and rubbing himself against the microphone. Or Pete Townsend smashing his guitar and Keith Moon breaking his drums. And that’s just the distractive nature of it, but how about the jumps and whirlwinds Townsend did?
"Like what exactly is it going to take to win this. It's AIRNESS...and I can't really explain that."
All of those examples were just to show that watching people air guitar on stage is not as silly as it sounds. Looking at some of the competitions, I’d probably enjoy this much more than the shitty local bands that play in clubs and pubs in Dubai. The two main focus of the documentary are two Americans, Björn Türoque and C-Diddy, and it is a lot of fun to watch them as they win in America and then go to Finland for world championship. C-Diddy is especially good. He is Korean-American, comes on stage with a red robe and a Hello Kitty bra/top/something and completely rocks out.
"At the heart, I believe I am a very good, loyal Asian son. But inside is Asian fury. Combined with classical technique, Suziki method, it is rock and roll."
I initially assumed this documentary would be amusing but repetitive, but I was fully engrossed in the performances. I want to go to Finland for their next competition! As an audience, not a competitor.
Hmm, maybe also as a competitor. I have no talent as a musician, but I always wanted to rock in front of people, so maybe this is the second best option. I should probably call myself “Imam Ali Metal, the Ayatollah of Rock and Roll”, and come to stage wearing a turban, long beard (dyed pink), naked except for black boxers that says “FATWA THIS”.
4/5
Charlie Wilson's War (Nichols, 2008)
IMDB Link
Everything about this movie is annoyingly plastic and fake. Tom Hank is now useless as an actor. He is just so boring and mainstream and fake. Every movie he is in, the camera has to zoom in his big fat face and have a sentimental music play in the background. I almost imagine that in real life when he talks, some aid has an ipod behind him that plays sentimental music. And then there is Julia Roberts who for some reason has been able to fool studios into thinking that she is attractive. She is not attractive and she is not even a good actress. Her stupid strong, independent, sexy character was annoying and felt fake. Then we have Philip Seymour Hoffman who was enjoyable at times to watch but even that got irritating in the context of a movie that deals with America’s support for the mujaheeden in the Afghanistan-Soviet war.
This is supposed to be a political movie based on a true story, and I’m down with true political movies, and I do not expect them to be presented in somber, serious manner. I don’t mind if it is presented in a satirical or humorous approach, but “Charlie Wilson’s War” is presented in an obnoxious manner. I’d have actually forgiven it more if it was a gang-ho, action movie, but it tries to insist that it is a subtle, intelligent, and deep political film, and fuck. It is just fake and annoying. Charlie Wilson goes to Pakistan and meets with the President (Zia as portrayed by OM PURI, a role which they care so little about similarities, that they don’t even trim Om Puri’s mustache to look like Zia’s). As I was saying, before the information in the brackets distracted me, Charlie Wilson goes to Pakistan and meets with President Zia and after some confusion over whiskey (Zia asks Charlie what he wants to drink, so Charlie says whiskey, but there is an awkward silence because they don’t serve whiskey in Pakistan har har har). Again, I got sidelined by the brackets, so let me just move forward and say that Charlie then goes to an Afghanistan refugee camp at the behest of Prez Zia, and Charlie is all teary eyed at what he sees and goes back to Washington to support the Afghanis. But the Afghani refugee camp is probably the cleanest refugee camp in the history of refugee camps. The movie is so fake that it doesn’t even have the guts to ruffle anyone’s hair or maybe put some dust on their clotehs. All the refugees are wearing clothes that seem to have just been washed and ironed by the laundry.
The war scenes are a mixture of actual footages and reenactments and while some directors are able to fuse something like that very well, here they look like actual footages and reenactments. And the reenactments are like some PC game footage, and seems to actually make the helicopters shooting the people kind of fun. I mean, you see it from the POV of the helicopters and the fires are like lasers going PEW PEW PEW and the people are scrambling like ants.
Wow, what a worthless piece of film. If you remove all the shitness and fakeness and Julia Robertness, there is possibly a good film hiding in it somewhere. Director Mike Nichols is generally a good director, so I am not sure what went wrong here. It is probably Julia Robert’s fault.
2/5
I would pay good money, or possibly kill someone, to see this happen.