You don't like the movie. I do like the movie. That's okay. I just think it's a really important film, which is why I guess I keep talking about it. But I've said my piece.

I could be way offbase here, but I think honest--if brutal--portrayals of pedophilia could be validating for victims of that abuse. To have people made intimately and horrifiedly aware of the enormity of what was done to them, the single factor that shaped and influenced their entire lives may help them feel able to rejoin the human mainstream, if they feel more fully understood.

I could be pulling this out of my hat, but I've always felt that movies about catastrophes, whether global or private, make us more human, help put us in each others' shoes for the space of suspended disbelief, and foster tolerance and understanding.

It's when filmmaking veers into voyeurism and exploitation that I complain about "too visceral" or "too detailed, too real." Honesty is necessary, exploitation is repellent. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who is occasionally uncertain where that line lies.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is occasionally uncertain where that line lies.

Yes. For instance I would tell everyone that Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing film and that they should definitely see it but while I was watching it I found myself saying, "Wow, that character is really evil. Jeebus he's evil! OK I GET IT! STOP! STOP!"

I tend to prefer art that makes me uncomfortable, so this discussion of Mysterious Skin has made me want to see it. Plus, Joseph Gordon Levitt.

My take on Mysterious Skin is that it's a Gregg Araki film. It's designed to be shocking and crude and confrontational and unhappy. That said, it's the most professional, coherent, and pretty Gregg Araki film I've ever seen, so.

One of the things I like about it is that its premise is to debunk the stories people invent to make their lives have a narrative. Both of the protagonists are mired in their own self-fictions (one more obviously fiction than the other), and the film empathizes with the impulse to fiction, even as it strips those fictions away one by one.

I randomly caught part of MS on showtime a while back and didn't get to see very much, but was intrigued and downloaded it. i haven't yet found a time to watch it and i'm pretty sure i know how depressing it's going to be and i will have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it.

what i did watch last night was The Jane Austen Book Club. i thought it was a very well done chick flick. Hugh Dancy was so adorable i wanted to smish him.

t random

I'm really excited to see Tom Felton's acting in Half-Blood Prince. In 372 days.

And from all things I've seen, they are including the Lavendar plot line so I might be able to talk someone into making my vid after all.

Woot!

They've announced the actress who is playing Lavender:

[link]

Oh she's totally cute!!

I'm confused. Isn't Lavender black?