50/50. R, 1 hr. 39 min. Directed by: Jonathan Levine. Release Date: September 30, 2011.
Several years ago, my aunt, who was one of my favorite people in the world (something I neglected to mention to her in life), lost her fight with cancer. Originally, I didn't intend to see this in the theaters, because I thought I would see something that reminded of her own struggle, which I only had contact with tangentially. But, my star is once again on the rise, and I found myself in the position to add another new release to October's "double feature" program... although at some point I'm going to have to realize that my "mostly horror" bit is grinding down to "some horror."
I caught this in Dallas, as I search for a new favorite theater in my new home. The experience was good except for the soulless bastard in front of me constantly texting. One day, theaters will come equipped with technology that scrambles cell phone signals in the individual theaters. But, until then...
Simply put, this was an amazing movie. It was a little dark, a little sad, occasionally inspirational and totally heartwarming. The chemistry between Joseph Gordon Leavitt and the supporting cast is outstanding, and his final scene with Angelica Huston nearly brought me to tears. "Have you ever seen Terms of Endearment?" is the line from the movie, and while I haven't, and I'm guessing enough folks reading this have to know what a struggle it is to watch someone do a fine job of portraying that much suffering.
I have a few mild complaints and a single question that arose during the course of the film. The two complaints have to do with Jo-Go's choice of characters. With rare exception (The Lookout and Inception spring to mind) he tends to play a guy whose psychological makeup is more or less the same, only the circumstances are different. I found a lot of similarities between Adam Lerner here and his character in 500 Days of Summer. I also wonder if he wears his personal wardrobe on set, or if that particular style is so much a part of his public persona that no one would have him without it. The final complaint is about Bryce Dallas Howard, who never fails to play characters I hate. They are all carbon copies of each other: vain, selfish, and shallow appearing as their best qualities. Usually, I want to punch her in the face until she stops twitching, and this is no exception to that rule. My question is about chemotherapy. I had thought chemo was much more mild now, and that most people taking it didn't go through the infamous hair loss and projectile vomiting. Anyone know?
Finally, I was disturbed to realize that nearly EVERY supporting character in the movie sees Jo-Go's illness in terms of how it impacts them. I was annoyed at first, but the more I thought of it, the more I wonder how much of our emotional struggle in those circumstances comes from the ulterior motive, "how is this going to affect ME?"
Stake Land. R, 1 hr. 36 min. Directed by: Jim Mickle. Release Date: April 22, 2011. DVD Release Date: August 2, 2011.
About two months ago, I saw someone write about this movie, but for the life of me, I can't remember who and I don't really feel like going back and trying to figure it out. Whoever it was raved about it to the point where I had to add it to my Netflix. After watching it, my original thought was why the hell I hadn't heard anything about this movie earlier.
Every once in a while, I run across a movie with an absolutely ridiculous premise: in this case, an undisclosed disease that turns normal people into vampires and basically destroys life as we know it, that happens to be so well written, performed and enacted that you not only suspend disbelief, but you swallow it. Unlikely, right? Well, this is a great example of that exact situation. It starts with an awesome cast, led by co-writer Mick Damici and narrator Connor Paolo (whom I recognized belatedly as young Alexander in Alexander). Kelly McGillis has a strong part as well, but WTF happened to her? It hasn't been all that long since Top Gun, has it?
Sometimes I gripe about a movie's run time. Some are too long, some are too short, but this one was so engrossing that the 96 minutes feel like a lifetime, filled with a few fight scenes, and complicated relationships that develop between five or six characters throughout the course of the film. I had expected this to be something like Blade, where the action is the star and everything else kind of comes in second. Stake Land is primarily about the story, with the action coming second, and by mainstream standards, that action comes very low under the radar.
I have a few problems with the movie, but they're kind of incidental: the first is that there's never an explanation as to HOW this vampocalypse happens. No discussion of the disease, where it came from, or how it spread from Patient Zero. It's a common problem in this kind of movie. The second is the passively anti-Christian message in the movie. The only Christians portrayed in the film are either (1) the antagonists or (2) victims of everyone else, with Kelly McGillis being the optimum example. Without doing spoilers, I also have to wonder who it was that answered Jebediah's prayer, because someone gave him everything he wanted, and he was THE bad guy.
This will be mine some day. I need to start searching for it on DVD.
