More Indie Films - For Someone's Enjoyment

This is what happens when I'm home alone: I start looking over my Netflix queue for something to watch and I start thinking, "no one in my household wants to watch this crap but me, so I should just knock all this stuff off my queue while I can and be done with it." As though getting through all the movies on my queue is some sort of personal challenge or something. What? You know it is. Everyone does it. Right?...

Anyway. This week's buffet of pointless indie movies included the following gems.

Rid of Me

I'm pretty sure the best, no, the only way to describe this movie is - an awkward movie about awkward people.

The plot can be summed up as: Shy girl marries popular boy. Things are great until they move back to his childhood home. His friends turn out to be mean people who make her so uncomfortable that she has a breakdown and he eventually asks for a divorce. She meets the town freak, acts out, and finds herself in the end.

Hooray?

I will say this: Either Katie O'Grady is (literally) the most awkward human on Earth OR she's a pretty good actress.

This movie is exactly why I hate small town life and is a pretty great representation of how I feel about some of the people I've known. Group of friends "live it up" during high school, never move away, get adult jobs, BUT CONTINUE ACTING LIKE THEY ARE IN HIGH SCHOOL. It's absolutely pathetic to watch. These people are grown ups who are completely, socially stunted.

Seriously. If you know me, you've probably heard this rant before.

Trailer? I've got a trailer for you:

The Giant Mechanical Man

This movie lands solidly in two buckets I typically avoid: "Quirky" and "Adorable". I'm kicking myself for having to write this but, this movie was pretty endearing.

The plot can be summed up as: Starving artist and shy girl meet when they both apply for jobs at the zoo. They form a friendship and eventually fall in love. More importantly - they like each other.

I think this one got me because the lead is struggling with things like, "what do I want to do with my life?" and "what makes me happy?" and even "what do I want out of a relationship?". Maybe these are questions people always ask themselves, and maybe they are things we ask ourselves at various milestones, or maybe I just don't have my shit together in the way other people do. Whew.

Getting back to the movie, I'm actually kind of fond of Jenna Fischer (perhaps because of my unholy love for Blades of Glory). She plays a great "girl next door" and a believable "genuine, nice, human being." Her costar, Chris Messina, is terrific. He always plays such a serious guy but, he was immensely charming in this role.

Finally I would be remiss if I didn't mention how impressively douchy Topher Grace is. His character's advice? When there's nothing to talk about, talk about yourself.

Amazing.

For your viewing pleasure - here's the trailer:

The Details

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but this one felt like the biggest budget flick out of the three. It certainly had the most well known cast who, for the most part, were really good. Laura Linney was especially hilarious as this paranoid hippy type.

The plot can be summed up as: A string of bizarre, escalating events turns a marriage upside down, drives a man to murder, and somehow has a happy ending.

I don't write this next sentence lightly: This movie totally wants to grow up to be a David Lynch movie. If Blue Velvet were a comedy, it would be the Details. In that way, it kind of reminds me of Very Bad Things - someone pitched it as a comedy, but it's really the Shakespearean version of funny (by which I mean, "quite tragic"). The characters are all wrestling with doing immoral things, and while those who choose to be evil seem "forgiven" in the end, no one will ever forget what's happened.

And now - the trailer:

My final words on this indy film adventure: I've seen worse.

Rebuttal: 17 Disturbing Horror Movies You Will Never Watch Again

When I'm not watching movies, I'm reading about movies. I stumble across all kinds of articles, blog posts, book excerpts, etc. in my quest to absorb as much movie knowledge as possible. Now, I'm snotty and loud-mouthed and opinionated but I'd never begrudge another human their opinion. Seriously. You're absolutely welcome to have any opinion about any thing you want. However, I must warn you, if I think your opinion is stupid, I'm absolutely going to say so. I've recently stumbled on an article completely brimming with so many idiotic opinions that I'm actually compelled to craft a response. Here's the gist of the original article: there are some horror movies out there that are so disturbing , you'll only ever want to watch them once. I've have taken her original list and refuted her claims without pulling her entire article over. You can read the original article here . Let's start at the beginning, with her opening statement

Escape From Tomorrow

I love creative people who are willing to take risks with their art. I appreciate the refusal to do things by the rules. I'm also terribly impatient with mediocrity. Enter Escape From Tomorrow . Created by a team of rogue filmmakers, the movie was shot in the video mode of high-end still cameras. Actors shared scripts and shooting locations across their smartphones. Shot on location at Disney World, the parks were completely unaware this was all going on right under their mouse ears. I wanted to love Escape From Tomorrow. More than that, I wanted to be completely taken with its ingenuity and creativity and - oh yes - its originality. And there is really a simple brilliance to their covert plan; all families are roaming around the parks, taking videos and chatting on their phones. Just blend the fuck in, act like you belong, and you won't get caught. Too bad the movie can be summed up as: ambitious but Rubbish. As you can imagine (or possibly know), there was a ton of con

What Is Genre And Why Should I Care?

There are terms that always seem to come up when talking about films: director, actor, plot, theme, score, etc. These terms are all self-explanatory; no one ever asks, ‘what’s a director?’ However, there are other terms that are equally common but less clear: genre, sub-genre, auteur, oeuvre, etc. These terms are more abstract then ‘director’ or ‘actor.’ It is entirely likely that someone will ask, ‘what is genre, anyway?’ This question specifically is what I will be answering with this paper. The answer to the question ‘what is genre,’ is multi-layered: genre is a means of classification. Genre is a means of communication. Genre is a means of understanding films. Genre is a means of relating to films. To one person all movies rated “PG” are a genre – possibly one also known as “children’s movies” – while to another all movies with similar topics treated in similar ways are a genre: i.e. movies dealing with frontier life depicted in a nostalgic manner are a genre often kn

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