The Year of Living Dangerously

Tied in my head to Three Kings and Welcome to Sarejevo.

I think I watched all three on my 25th.

Slumdog, I keep rewatching. I see faults that bug, but I still can't help liking it.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire tonight.

I saw it this afternoon. Seriously, that movie went straight into my favorite Top Five. I loved everything about it.

DH and I saw Synecdoche, NY tonight. (Me for the first time, him for the second.) Loved it.

It's both a very complicated movie and a very simple one. It demands a certain amount of deliberate engagement with the text, but at the same time suffers if you overthink it. It's freaking brilliant.

I never ever want to be stuck in an elevator with Charlie Kaufman, but I am going to be grilling my neighbor who worked sound on the movie the very next time I see her.

I saw "Let the Right One In" and I liked it. The acting of the children in the film is exceptional. The direction should really be commended. Quite an accomplishment that.

I've decided that I often want more details about the fantasy worlds some movies inhabit, and I didn't feel like I got enough details about the world, but I think this is my issue that I need to let go.

This movie has gore, but I didn't think (given the subject matter) that it was excessive or unnecessary.

Lowering the tone back down, I finally saw Wanted. Fate speaks ASCII? Too funny.

DH and I saw Synecdoche, NY tonight. (Me for the first time, him for the second.) Loved it.

Oh yay! I love Kaufman's films.

I saw Let the Right One In and found it affecting in that way that it keeps playing in your head like a moody song long after you hear it. It was gorgeously filmed (the spare beauty of snow and ice), and the two main actors were perfect.

I think one of the things that got under my skin was the strange mingling of two moods: horror and sweetness, darkness and warmth. Both of the main characters are terribly lonely, and even their surroundings feel lonely. I found the ending quite satisfying, even lovely in its grim way.

The scene at the pool combined two other moods: horror and comedy. As limbs and heads flew through the water, the audience laughed tentatively, as if unsure they should be finding it amusing. I thought it was amusing, but then I'm weird.

The scene with the cats attacking the woman who was newly a vampire disturbed me more than anything, I think.

I thought this was a very unusual vampire movie. I liked it.

We're Discussing a title for Buffista Movies 7 in Bureaucracy.

Saw Let the Right One In this afternoon. It's easily the best vampire movie I've seen since The Addiction. Lina Leandersson was amazingly good at playing older than she appears. (Here's hoping she manages to hold onto her talent as she gets older—Kirsten Dunst, I'm looking at you.)

Kinky Boots was on BBCA tonight but it was so chopped for commercials, it was missing key moments.