movie night!

[ellen_datlow]

Last night I caught up with all my netflix movies at home, which means I was up till 2:30am!!!

First up, Time, is a Korean movie by Ki-duk Kim recommended by Lucius. Initially, I was worried it would be gory and horrific because of the opening scene of plastic surgery, shown in gory detail. But it's not. It's about an obsessively jealous young woman who is sure her boyfriend of two years is tired of her looks. She decides to have plastic surgery so that she can present a new face (and presumably new body, but that's not clear) to him. It's similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but here the memories are not erased --and therein lies the problem. The boyfriend truly loves her and when she disappears for six months is devastated....I won't say more about it but it's very interesting and also reminds me (which it did when Lucius told me the basic plot) of Garry Kilworth's wonderful story "Songbirds of Pain."

Then I watched Michael Clayton which I loved. It's a very entertaining thriller with wonderful acting (Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton were indeed excellent)--I adore George Clooney and I'd watch him in anything but I think that because he's such a movie star his "acting" is best appreciated when he's doing something different and small. I'd like to watch and re-watch a bunch of his movies in a row to figure out what I actually DO think of his acting.

I've now seen three of the five nominees. Will get to Juno and Atonement when they're available on netflix.

And what kept me up really late was watching the first four shows of Dexter. Because I knew the basics--sociopathic serial killer channeling his murderous tendencies to kill those who deserve it-- I was not very surprised by the first episode and didn't start really liking the show until the third or fourth episodes. More next week. I'll watch the rest of the first season and see if I want to continue.

Comments

[golaski.livejournal.com]

I'll be very curious to hear what you have to say about "Dexter." I watched the first season via instant download--was compelled to watch it through because of some moments: real humor, some excellent images (the first corpse, for example). But: there's quite a lot that has to be overlooked, and some big problems the show creates for itself. The biggest, of course, being the hero serial killer--the very conceit that undid Hannibal Lector in the kissy-smoochy sequal to "The Silence of the Lambs" (since when does Lector only kill people who deserve it? Since "Hannibal," apparently). So yeah, if you get through the whole season--and I'm predicting you will--I'll be interested to read your report.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well, Dexter starts off from a different position entirely: the idea of "channeling" his natural inclinations into useful murder.

I'm actually finding the political interplay at the police station as interesting, if not more so than Dexter himself. I'll definitely get through the first season but it'll have to get a lot more interesting for me to continue after that, I suspect.