Paranormal Activity

Up until I saw this last night at 11:30 I hadn't even heard of it. I'm not really into horror movies, to many stupid cliches and red corn syrup. You can see the scares from the parking lot, and they just are mostly....stupid. This movie though....was a nicer change of pace.

But even though it was a nicer change of pace it also was barely scary. I felt gooses bumps once, and yawned through out most of the rest of it. The story is really simple, two people (Katie and Micah) think that their house is haunted so they buy a camera and start trying to record as much of their lives as they can looking for any sort of proof that it isn't just their imagination. It stays pretty slow for a while as they play with the camera and we get to know a little about their relationship. So that's when the weird shit starts going on, creaks as they sleep, the door moves a little, you get the drift. Well of course it starts escalating to the point that Kate is pulled out of the bed and down the hall by an unseen force.

The theatre was surprisingly quiet during the scary scenes, I was very impressed with the crowd. The screaming and hollering were kept to a minimum, but I couldn't help feeling like a sore thumb. Everyone in the theatre was freaking out a little, and I looked around as I heard people gasp and scream. I didn't get why they were so afraid. Now I know when seeing a movie such as this you have to suspend your disbelief, and I do that regardless of the movie, but this just wasn't all that scary. I was much more upset by "The Exorcist" or "The Broken" than I was by this.

Ill give it to the film makers though, they made this for pennies and still impressed me. They knew how to use negative space and make a slight shadow on the wall seem extremely ominous and threatening. They used darkness well, and if I hadn't known it wasn't real might have bought it...for a while. It wasn't necessarily a "smart" horror movie which I would prefer, but it also wasn't stupid. It was a nice middle ground, there were things I thought they could do to make it more scary. There were things the two actors were doing that made it better. Katie at one point smiles and does something with her eyes that chilled me a little.

If your into scary movies you'll most likely enjoy this. If your like me and expect a little more out of a movie you might leave somewhat disappointed. Knowing that ghosts and all that isn't real made it hard for me to freak out, when I know its a string, or a fan they are using to do some of this why would I get scared. 7/10 stars.

Director: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

Away We Go

In the fallout of Little Miss Sunshine came Juno, and out of that spawned a whole slew of cute, mostly over written indie comedy-dramas. This looked good, but I mostly expected it to disappoint, and to my surprise it didn't.

A couple both in their mid thirties (Burt and Verona) find out that they are having a baby. They are of course excited up until his parents who are their closest living relatives tell them they are moving to Belgium for two years. So they start traveling around the country looking for a place to live since they have to reason any more to stay near his parents. As they travel they meet a lot of different friends and family who have much different takes on child rearing and the family dynamic than their own.

It is quirky and funny, but also at times incredibly sad. In particular a scene where they are in a bar/strip joint and one of their female friends is dancing and her husband tells them that she just had another miscarriage, as he continues to talk it just breaks your heart. There are also the wacko and funny parents in it who you see in the trailer, and they certainly kept other parts of it moving and funny.

There were a few scenes, and I don't think I'm that picky about dialogue and sexual references, but there were a few times it seemed they talked a certain way, or did something simply because it was more indie. That makes me a little uncomfortable, but a very minor objection. The way its shot wasn't anything grand, the camera is really just capturing the action, and there isn't much character growth as the story goes on, its more viewing the world through these peoples eyes, if just for a while.

At times it was very funny, and other times fittingly sad. Like Juno its about being pregnant, but this is more about family, than the need to grow up. There are tons of cameos by bigger stars, and they are all great. Knowing that they had a short amount of time on screen you could tell they were trying to get the most out of it, which was good. It was one of the better Juno wannabes that came along, and when viewed independently of that works very well. 8/10 stars.

Director: Sam Mendes

Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph

The Station Agent

People had told me for a long time that this was a really good movie, and truth be told I had no reason to not watch it, there just always something else on that I would watch. So I moved this to the top of my list and watched it as soon as I could.

As everyone said it was good, very good. I can really appreciate character driven and character centered plots. The story is about a man who is a dwarf named Finbar (Peter Dinklage) who after his only friend and boss dies moves to an old train depot left to him in the mans will. He isn't a shut in per say but certainly just wants to be left alone. He is immediately befriended by Joe, who for the time keeps the friendship pretty one sided. Finbar is also introduced in a rather extreme manner to Olivia, who after trying to smooth out some initial problems they had together admits to him that her son died a few years earlier. Most of the story ambles along with two basic things happening, Finbar slowly starts to come out of his shell while Olivia slowly goes into one of her own, with Joe keeping the movie fairly light, while still having problems of his own.

Its basically about three lost souls who find each other and find a bond between them that has each of them lean on the other thus keeping them all propped up. The performances are great, everyone in it certainly puts forth their best efforts to portray these delicate and passionate characters. One thing I really liked that, and that I was very impressed with is that Finbar is a dwarf, but if you changed him to be someone with Turrets Syndrome, or a disfigurement....or anything that would make him different it would only take minor changes to the script to make it keep working. It's of course important that he is a dwarf, but it makes a very good point for anyone who is different and how their lives are.

Its funny but still really sad, and its quiet. There's even a scene where Olivia says that they don't need to talk, they can just eat. Finbar and Olivia are just naturally like that, but you get them, and Joe never seems to stop talking, but he is by no means flat, he is just as complex as the other two. Its a great indie film, and shows that you don't really need a lot of money to succeed when making a movie. 8/10 stars.

Director: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams

The Ring Finger

Just based on the cover art I had a feeling that I would like this movie. The description of it from Netflix lives up to this very strange movie.

A young woman named Iris loses part of her ring finger in an accident at a lemonade bottling plant. She starts looking for work else where which leads her to a very mysterious building where she gets a job with a man who conserves objects. People bring in the stuff that hurt them the most, or reminds them of the worst part of their lives, have it preserved in a green fluid and then left there so it will always exist, but will be separated from them. Many strange people come in and out of the story as Iris seems to have trouble figuring out whats real and whats not (that is if anything is supposed to be real in the story)

There are a ton of dead ends, unexplained actions and scenes. Metaphors that are out of the blue, and basically beyond me. The Art direction and props were great, it certainly made the story complete with its feel with the set dressing they used.

Its a very quiet movie, empty even. Mostly she is sitting alone in this office space, and the camera several times pans to find the scientist who hired her watching her as she works. There is a lot of time used up revolving around shoes, water, ships, her roommate whom she never meets. The thing is that none of this is really explained, and I think I'm pretty astute, and I don't think any of this had any real meaning. I could try and work the pieces of the puzzle into a complete picture but I'm sure if there is meaning to this stuff I would not get it right.

Its very erotic, but not in a way I'm used to. I wasn't turned on by anything I saw, I was more just caught up in the feel and the mood of the images. The story to me seemed like a mixture of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Everything is Illuminated" all in a dream world. The Cinematography was calculated and timed. We so often are watching her through doorways, or cracks in a window that you cant help but feel like a voyeur which is another large part of the story.

There is very little dialogue, one of the semi-important characters doesn't speak at all (named Costa) There are some really gorgeous shots in it. The end threw me for a loop because I honestly didn't get it. Aside from all that, which I don't consider negative, I really liked it. I like to see when someone takes a chance, but still keeps it grounded enough that you can follow it (Go home Davis Lynch, your not welcome) 8/10 stars.....but not for everyone, just be warned its an acquired taste.

Director: Diane Bertrand

Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Marc Barbe, Stipe Erceg

The End of America

Right off the bat when you compare just about anything to the Nazis you lose me. There are things comparable to the third Reich, but America in the last 8 years is far from it. This documentary takes a look at 10 issues that exist in America today, and for the last couple of years that point to a trend of a totalitarian society.

Our narrator and the author of a book by the same title (Naomi Wolf) starts off with her worst argument. It is the compare America now to Germany in the 30's road. Right away I'm sure she loses a considerable part of her audience, because nothing is like that. Once she gets into her actual argument it is thought provoking and seriously scary. People being arrested and detained for years only to be released and never charged, no explanation, no apology, just go back to your homes. The most terrifying thing about that is they are doing that to AMERICAN citizens, not the evil brown people hiding out in the desert.

Can you imagine going to the airport to get on a flight to go home, and the next time your heard of is when you return home, beat and sore 2 years later. Appalling. Once she is in her element and she goes through the ten points she had me all the way. Suspending habeas corpus, the patriot act, all of it takes the Constitution and spits on it. Bush and his gang made the office of the President the most powerful its ever been, and that's including the years of Nixon, not even he would be ballsy enough to pull the kind of shit that Bush did. In my opinion he should be arrested and charged for all the laws he broke which he did, a lot. That will never happen, but it should.

Overall its a pretty good documentary, it does show the way our government has traipsed over our right and we for the most part let it happen out of fear. And of course we should fight it tooth and nail, but what I think Ms. Wolf doesn't want to see is that America has a less than perfect past. I mean really, when has this country ever been the shining beacon on a hill that she claims it once was. When the country began white men could vote, and we held slaves, nearly 100 years later did we free the slaves. It more than another half century before women could vote. Hell, even during WWII we put Japanese Americans into camps. I think though that we are constantly moving forward, we take three steps forward and one step back. In the course of our countries existence there has always been someone doing something shitty.

See I think she doesn't want to see that there is a balance of power in our country that will always work to our favor, and its term limits. Bush can stack the deck however he wants, but once those eight years are/were up he has to give that power to someone else. So for as much damage he did and the people it hurt, we can now bounce back.

It was a well made doc. but if I had to complain about something it would be that its 75 minutes, when dealing with such a heavy and complicated issue how can you get that across in barely over an hour. 7/10 stars.

Directors: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg

Narrator: Naomi Wolf

American Pit Bull

How much can you really blame an animal for being what it is? Pit bulls in my opinion are dangerous, now don't get me wrong, I didn't say mean, I said dangerous. A gun isn't mean, but it is dangerous in the wrong hands, or when handled without the proper respect.

This documentary I had expected to go over the history of the pit bull, and at least sort of go into its present incarnation, and in a way they did. It wasn't proper though, I would have wished that they would have given a full picture of the stigma of this kind of dog instead of just the current views on ownership. A lot of the people in this documentary were just pissing me off, for example: A yuppie looking older couple didn't see why they should be forced to spay/neuter their animal. Not theirs! Their dog is good. Well they are missing the point, if your dog gets out and meets another and they have...relations...what are you going to do? A doggie abortion? These jackasses are above the lower scum that own these dogs. What a crock of shit.

Others claim to be training the dogs, but one of the "tricks" they make them do it to attack a man with a sleeve on, or full body pads. They kept saying that the dogs are naturally mean to other dogs, they are "Bully" but not to humans. If that's the case why are you teaching them this "trick" Total bullshit. Now I say they are dangerous because if I get bit by a chihuahua I think ill be fine, by a border collie, Ill survive, a German Shepard...I'm in some trouble, if its a Pit bull...if it doesn't let go....I'm lucky to live. They have a PSI bite power of 3000, the next closest dog is 1000 pounds per square inch. A Hyena is only a little above 3000 PSI, a crocodile has 4000 PSI. If these animals bite they are capable of total damage, death, easily. So like a gun, they might never go off, but if they do...they will kill.

Should they be out lawed? No. Should we stop dog fighting? Of course, and take those ass holes to court and give them the maximum. Should we put down pit bulls that might be aggressive? With out question. And I love animals, but not everyone is allowed to own a bear, or a wolf, not everyone should have this privilege either. Owning animals is not a right. The documentary goes to soft on many of these points, but does show the culture of the Pit Bull, from the fighters to the people who have them as show dogs and everything in between. It was fair to owners and protesters alike. Could have been longer and more in depth. 7/10 stars.

Director: Marylin Braverman

The Garden

Morals and the law are not the same thing, or at least very rarely. This documentary is a good example of what I mean. Its a very well done documentary that as it slowly unravels you find out who the villains are.

The story is that after some of the riots in L.A. some of the people of South Central were given a plot of land to act as a community garden, and they turn it into a lovely little green patch in an otherwise gray concrete setting. Well the city sells the land back to the old owner who wants them off the land...now. So it turns into a legal battle, and turn some of the workers of these little mini farms against one another. For most of the movie you can see both sides of the fight, the man who owns it has every right to do with his property as he wants. But these people did something good with the land, put their sweat and blood into it, all they get is a quick kick to the ass?

It shows one of the many things that is wrong with our country. The farmers aren't all innocent people, many of them are undocumented workers, so why should they get the same privileges as those who pay taxes, that I do think is unfair. It also seems that the workers have done all they can to keep other races out, but perhaps I'm wrong, they never address that point. The owner of the land shows his true colors in the last few minutes of the film, and he is slime. Its a sad state of our way of life when you see what they do to these people who are as poor as the dirt that they grow this amazing produce out of. 7/10 stars.

Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy