Eden Lake

Never did I think that this film - of all films - would evoke an emotional response in such a sharp way. Even thirty minutes into the movie. Thirty minutes into the movie, and I turned it off. It was a crawling Sunday evening and I was looking for something to get into. It happens that Eden Lake has been sitting in the collection for some time, pre-judged as being a bit of a light, typical horror film. The poster gives it away: our distressed female protagonist is being chased through the woods by a group of menacing shadows. Nothing particularly supernatural, but you never know.

And the first thirty minutes, well, it lived up to expectations. We follow Jenny and her husband Steven (I love the plain names) played by Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender (admittedly a big reason I put the movie on in the first place) as they travel to a small, remote town situated on the aptly titled Eden Lake. They make sure to let us know that the towns people are a bit off, but it's all good as they advance down to the beach, get into their swim wear and start relaxing.  The lake itself is pristine, and the beach is gently nestled between the water and incredibly rich forest. It's a nice locale.

Things go quickly downhill as Jenny and Steve are interrupted by a group of teenagers doing decidedly bad teenage things: they are loud, obnoxious, disrespectful and downright rude. That's an understatement, but it doesn't escalate right away to more horrible things. Steve confronts them, asks them to turn down their music and perhaps find another spot on the beach. But of course they don't, and the hooligans start actively screwing with our lovely couple, to a point where there car is stolen and I turn the movie off because I was just invited over to dinner at a friend's house.

Fast forward three weeks or so and the poster enticed me again. I pop it on and the movie has a different feel. Jenny and Steve are in for a ride of their lives, as events escalate between them and the teenagers to a horrifying degree, with an end that is sure to leave you upset. After checking out reviews, I find it's not uncommon for people to hate the movie, and I can easily see how this is the case. It doesn't end with a great note. After we take the journey with Jenny, the credits roll and we're left with a bad taste in our mouths.

Isn't this the point though? If it was run through the Hollywood cleaner, the film would be lost. What we end up with is a movie - and ending - that sticks with you for a bit, just like The Mist did years ago.

I sat there and wondered if things like this could actually happen. For a movie that is grounded in reality, it certainly seems unbelievable as you watch. But I know exactly how seemingly nothing can escalate into something, and the result is horrifying. It's happened in my life before - an event that I can't stop thinking about all the time, nearly eight years after the fact. We hear about social experiments where people are put in seemingly normal situations and things escalating into an unpredictable series of events that will leave you dumbfounded. People are crazy and there's no way to prove otherwise. Unfortunately one aspect of this film is reassuring you that it only takes one: in this case, the alpha male who acts as the ring leader in this circus of horrors. He pushes the others, and punishes any who question him or his actions. The others follow suit and do as they're told. When will they stop and help the victims? Peer pressure is an amazing thing, and I think it gets captured here, although I like to believe that people would tap out before the depictions in the film. Optimistic is something that I can pretend to be, but this movie is going to push me right back down.

It's also making me think of how easy it is to prey on "small town people." I understand that movies are made for the masses, and the masses are condensed into cities. These people - myself included - can't comprehend the life of someone who may live on the outskirts. We know what we know. And it's easy to demonize the unknown. Remotely isolated people are cannon fodder to horror movies, and this is no different: the people depicted in this film are unrealistic but serve the film for what it is. Anyway, that's all a bit of an aside/response to some things I read online about the movie after watching it.

While Eden Lake wasn't a master stroke of film making, it was surprisingly shocking and interesting, elevating it above other lesser, more forgettable movies.

Heavy Rotation: Singles 2013

As I mentioned in my previous Heavy Rotation post, I started a new job that wasn't really music friendly. That is, I can't really use headphones and playing music through speakers isn't going to happen when some people are in the room (my office is a large, window-less room with three people in it, including my immediate supervisor). So Rdio takes an even bigger hit, and listening to music at home typically involves putting on MP3s (or whatever format they are in - I like to collect FLAC). As this downturn in office listening occurs, an upturn in mobile listening comes out. I've put together a "Singles 2013" playlist on Rdio which is composed of any singles that I've taken an interest in. I think it's a pretty awesome mix, if I do say so myself. It comes on in the car all the time, in the house while I'm doing chores, and whenever I want to listen to some seriously solid songs.

As of right now, Singles 2013 stands at 21 tracks. It took some effort to clock in over 15 or so because of a lifetime of limited CD capacity. It was a mental barrier that I broke through now and feel pretty good about it. It's also evolving. There are tracks that I have removed for a variety of reasons, mainly because they weren't good. Here's the list:

1. Justin Rutledge - Out of the Woods
2. City and Colour - Thirst
3. Young Galaxy - What We Want
4. Iron & Wine - The Desert Babbler
5. Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey
6. Small Sins - Where There's Gold
7. Metronomy - The Look
8. Broken Bells - The High Road
9. Cold War Kids - Miracle Mile
10. Half Moon Run - Full Circle
11. Rosie June - Sound it Out
12. Dustin Bentall & The Smokes - You Are An Island
13. John Grant - Black Belt
14. Woodkid - Run Boy Run
15. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
16. Razorlight - Wire to Wire
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads will Roll
18. Cold War Kids - Lost That Easy
19. MGMT - Time to Pretend
20. Ellie Goulding - Lights
21. Katy Perry - Roar

We still have a bit of time left in 2013 so there may be some further additions. It's also worth noting that not all these tunes were released in the title year, they're simply songs that I have discovered for myself and started listening to now. That was another hurdle for me to overcome. Mission accomplished.

Oh, and a YouTube playlist with just about all the songs above: Singles 2013

And if you're on Rdio:

The Hangover Part III

You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

The first iteration in The Hangover series came out but a few years ago, in 2009, and has since spawned two sequels in an absurdly short time. The thing is, it's not absurd anymore. This stuff happens all the time, and it's inevitably going to happen more often with popular, easier (re: cheaper) to produce films such as these. Piecing together a major sci-fi epic or super hero special effects demo reel like The Avengers takes a lot of resources, including logistics and processing time, and least of all (this is perhaps unfair) time spent on a good story.

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the original Hangover was a pleasant surprise and entry in the comedy genre. It wasn't completely dumb. That is, to say, it had a great storytelling mechanic and presented some really great, morally ambiguous characters that were easy to cheer for but also easy to wish they would just fall on their faces and figuratively eat it. The Hangover allows us to take pleasure in their pain and laugh at their misfortune without feeling guilty or bad about ourselves. The film, while seemingly grounded in reality, ventures into the absurd fantasy enough that we can all lazily reach toward it. It represents a fairly modern-day 20 and 30-something year old male's fantasy of what Las Vegas has to offer: opulence, alcohol, drugs, women, Mike Tyson and ludicrous adventure. It's a solid consensus that we all enjoyed it.

In today's modern movie landscape, any successful movie will inevitably spawn a sequel. It's practically a law. In this case The Hangover managed to turn a $35 million investment into nearly half a billion dollars (worldwide). You can't pass up an investment opportunity like that, and all parties involved in the making of the film can't pass up the opportunity to for various reasons. In this case the sequel cost more than double the original but grossed just a fraction more.

It was doomed to fail, but fail it did not. People were against it - at the very least, in my social circle: it didn't warrant a sequel but we're all in the for the ride anyway. We missed it in theatres, which I swear was more out of rebellion than anything else. The sequel saw our group of fools repeat their adventure in Bangkok. The formula was the exact same: one of them is getting married, they're enjoying a bachelor party of sorts, and they all wake up the next morning with no memory of the night before. They find one of their own is missing, and they set out on an adventure to piece together the night before. If it worked the first time around, then it surely must work on the second, right?

Considering how well the movie did financially, I can't find anyone who actually liked it. One of the complaints is how rigidly it stuck to that formula: why not do something a little more original? But come on, people like the formula. They watch the same show every week in the form of CSI and any of those other countless shows. What really happened was that the film tried to masquerade as the formula but it was drastically different in unnerving subtlety. The first element was the city of Bangkok. Nobody watching this movie knows what it's like there or has an inkling to visit. It can't compare to Las Vegas, which is so heavily promoted and idolized as the dream getaway. Bangkok doesn't stand a chance. Our group wakes up in a premium suite in Caeser's Palace. In the sequel, they wake up in wretched hole in the wall in what looks like the slums. The Hangover Part II has a level of grittiness that you don't want a part of, so it makes you feel uncomfortable. Well, it did for me, at least. But that was part of the appeal. I felt like the stakes were raised even though I knew the ending well in advance - it was, after all the same plot.

The other element is how the film dismisses Doug, the groom in the first film. Well, somebody has to stay behind and he's the least known actor amongst them, so why not make him disappear in the second too? I can't help but think that if this movie was actually following that formula, it would have been forced to exile another. But, we're talking about the machine and we can't afford to lose one of our main stars for the duration of the film. Part II also focuses quite a bit Mr. Chow (in large part, I'm sure, because of his appeal from the first film). The first movie took us from absurd location to absurd location, loosely connected with clues that would bring us to a conclusion. Part II does a bit of the same but quickly leads us into an extended chase with and for Chow. Part III focuses 100% around Chow, and that's not where it differences end.

Part III diverges from the formula entirely in ways that must make everyone uncomfortably, because it was the lowest rated and made the least money but a couple hundred million (and cost more than the second as well). If they were criticized that Part II was too formulaic, they overcompensated and went way off path for the third and final installment. So far off the path that it wasn't enjoyable on nearly any level.

Now, instead of marriage bringing our group together, it's death and mental illness. This is entirely way too serious. We don't have a scene where our group wakes up with no memory. No, they're kidnapped and forced to find Chow. They're now on an entirely different type of mission that nobody wants to be a part of. But hey, we go back to Vegas - and instead of living large in a luxurious room, we're hanging off the roof of Caeser's Palace this time and parachuting through the city streets. The absurd fantasy that allowed us to enjoy the previous two films has now been crossed, and exposed for being a thin line to begin with. We were just too busy having fun before. Now that the actual movie has been darkened, we can't relax and let ourselves go.

To add insult to injury, the final scene (spoilers, I guess?) is a huge tease for the movie we actually wanted to see. One of our group is getting married, and we cut to the morning after the bachelor party. It amps up the scene we fell in love with from the first film, then rolls the credits. Our trilogy has ended, and we were robbed of a great story.

This is what we get though. This is what we wanted and demanded. We can take some pleasure in knowing that there wont' be any more of these, right?

Movie Diary

Not sure how many of you click on it, but I've had a link pointing towards my "Watched Movies" for a while. It's also been the source of some of my favourite posts where I compile useless numbers and post graphs regarding the number of movies I watch over a six month time period:

Six Months of Movies

Six Months of Movies: Part 2: More Movies

In case you don't see, that's a solid year of film right there. As we come up to another year of movies (including a full calendar year of January to December - a first in my log), I began to evaluate how I'm keeping track of these films. The platform of choice has been IMDb, but I've hit certain limitations on it. The major one that I just can't get around is not being able to add a second viewing to the list. IMDb allows only one film per list, so it's not that good at a movie diary. In the past I've manually entered things in for the odd film here and there, but that's not going to be viable long term. 

IMDb was also a bit plain looking.

So I spent a morning taking a look around to see what else was available, with the most important feature in mind. I stumbled across Letterboxd, which was described as a social network for movie lovers. You could make lists, add movies to them and share your reviews and ratings. You can add friends and keep a diary of films you've watched. I checked it out right away, opened an account and tried adding a second viewing of a film. It worked, and it worked really well. You can add any film, record the day you watched it, add any comments/review and submit it handily to your movie diary. And because the site is geared towards social, it's quite easy to share everything (all your lists may be public by default). 

Which brings us to the Watched Movies link. You'll see that it now points directly to my Movie Diary on Letterboxd, and you'll find the Movie Collection link brings you to a list I created to keep track of what Blurays I own. This one I'm a bit more hesitant to use, as it doesn't keep track of actual releases, only movies. So I may look for another service for that. Right now, I'm still using the Google spreadsheet, but will publish this list as it's much nicer to look at.

I'm also updating the link to be called Movie Diary.

And since I love you all so much, I subscribed to the pro version of Letterboxd, which allowed me to import my list from IMDb in, so none of that date is lost. It also provides me with a "Year in Review" page that I couldn't resist. This page brings some nice stats, including some that would have been impossible for me to compile on my own, including most watched genre, actor, director and how many hours of movies watched. Which can be a scary number to think about.

Year in Review: 2012

Year in Review: 2013

So that's it for now, I hope you all enjoy the updates! I'm definitely having fun putting this stuff together!

Melancholia

This one's been sitting in the collection for a little while, mostly due to my system incorrectly reporting the time of the film as clocking in over four hours. Seriously, it was preventing me from watching it for ages. The past few years it's been difficult to commit to anything longer than two hours, let alone four. If I wanted to see something verging on four hours I would finally get around to watching Seven Samurai.

Earlier this year I took a trip across province to see Cale. He gave me some homework a while before the trip that I completely failed: to watch Lars von Trier's Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Hesitation is a bit of an understatement when it comes to my reluctance to undertake such a thing, as last year, he tasked me to watch Salò. I did, and I was disturbed. At the same time, my idea of what movies could be - and have been - were widened. When I arrived at his house we immediately began discussing which film to undertake and upon discovering my failure the film was on before I could object.

Antichrist opens dramatically. I'm pretty sure the it was about ten or fifteen minutes of slow motion, black and white tragedy. Our two main characters, a married couple who are never given names, are attempting to deal with the loss of their son. He and She attempt to repair themselves and it leads them to retreat to their cabin in the woods to deal with Her depression. The movie is thick with symbolism and disturbing imagery. The imagery is explicit, violent and definitely not for everyone. Describing it as challenging is perfect, and makes me appreciative of what cinema can be outside of the typical popcorn flicks.

How does Melancholia relate to Antichrist, aside from the director? It's part of the Depression Trilogy (or Trilogy of Depression) that begins with Antichrist and ends with the upcoming Nymphomaniac - which is experiencing buzz due to the involvement of Shia LaBeouf and of course, the subject matter. Each part of the trilogy (to borrow from Wikipedia) centers around characters dealing with depression or grief in varying ways. It's said that they are representative of von Trier's own experiences with depression.

Melancholia centers around Kirsten Dunst's character Justine and her sister Claire, played by the Trilogy's one consistent actress, Gainsbourg. The movie opens in a similar, tragic way, but on a planetary level (literally). In this reality, another planet is on a collision course with Earth. It seems Earth gets destroyed, with some beautiful slow motion planetary destruction. But we're transported immediately to Justine's wedding night. The event should be happy for everyone, but tension is present between family members, and we get the impression that there is a lot of history here. We're observers, not just from the couch, or even as a guest but extraplanetary. Imagery of the Earth being destroyed puts us in a somber mood already, so we fully expect the worse.

Unfortunately at about an hour in I grew tired and decided to retire early, stopping the movie at what seemed like an appropriate spot. I wasn't sure where it was going or even how it was relating back to planetary destruction. I picked it up again the next night and it felt like a completely different movie. We were advanced a year wherein Justine is going through serious depression - aftermath of the events from earlier - all the while the planet is approaching. We switch focus a bit to Claire, who is paranoid that the planets will collide, while being reassured by her husband who is confident in the calculations that the planet is merely doing a drive-by. We travel with her through anxiety, frustration and depression in the face of certain finality.

It is an epic journey, and nothing could take away my attention. The movie is beautifully shot and well acted. It's not shocking or disturbing in the same way that Antichrist was, but it will definitely leave a feeling with you, especially if you have ever dealt with depression or anxiety. I leave with an even great appreciation for film, and look forward to being challenged again.

The Five Dollar Bill

Most lunches are uneventful aside from the event itself, but occasionally we get to see something out of the ordinary, or something extraordinary occurs. Last week was one such event.

We walked into Harvey's - the one relatively downtown - and we were immediately held up by two slow walking individuals in full business suits. I thought about passing them, but decided to let them meander forward to the cash. Even though we only have an hour for lunch I don't like to rush.

The two men were quite tall, and one significantly older than the other. The elder was standing on the right; aside from their suits there was nothing out of the ordinary about them. Well, that is except, being in suits in this part of town at this location at this time of day. Like I said.

The young man ordered food for both of them. When the cashier asked what they would have to drink, he responded with "this gentleman will have water" and motioned toward the older...gentleman. Then it caught my eye: a five dollar bill fell from the man's right hand to the ground. I leaned a bit to the right and saw it plainly: a wire attached to the bill going up to the man's sleeve. It was coiled - very long - and was glued to the bill in the centre.

Was this a magician?

I looked up at him and he peered back, then quickly snaked the bill back into his hand.

Looking back at my friend, I confirmed that he saw the same thing. We grimaced and looked back to the menu.

Then the older man turned his head around to look us in the eye. He peered into my eyes, searching for something. His expression was plain but anticipatory. Should we say something? Was he testing us?

Then he did it again. I'm pretty sure he was looking directly at me when he dropped it, and as soon as my eyes went down to the motion of the bill falling, he snatched it back up again, still looking at us. A prank. He was a magician, right?

I almost broke out laughing, then put my order in, and we proceeded to eat our meals. We had a view of the entrace/exit and took note when the two men were leaving the restaurant. The older man, still clutching the five dollar bill, stood at the end of the burger delivery system where people could plainly see him.

Another man, with take out bag in hand, started heading toward the door, then it dropped again. Directly facing him, the five dollar bill dropped from the gentleman's hand onto the ground, taking the other guy by surprise. The other guy started leaning over and saying "oh you dropped --" at which point the bill was snatched back up. The guy stood back up and just quizzically looked at the gentleman. He paused for a second, then left the building.

The men in suits left the restaurant, and we watched where they went: across the street into a red van, and drove away. They didn't use the restaurant parking lot - a bit odd perhaps, but it's alright. Were they magicians? If so that wire really needed some work: it was like thick fishing line. There were no hidden cameras...or were there? A social experiment?

We'll never know. But I'm glad we were there.