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Movie Recommendation of the Week
17 years ago
Some wonderful artists well worth your time:
Let The Right One In
Foreign film this time (it hails from the strange, mystical, faraway land of Sweden), and one that's actually still in theaters (in a very limited way, at least. Details on where you can see it at the bottom), but it's a damn fine one. Damn fine. One of the best films this year, as a matter of fact. I'll repeat that in bold for those of you who skim:
One of the best films this year.
Pretty good for a vampire movie. Yep, it's a vampire movie, and I defy you to find me a better one made in the last twenty years.
The plot follows a young boy named Oskar, who's bullied constantly at school (for no particular reason, really; the bully in question is just a huge dick). He dreams of taking violent revenge, but in the end is simply too passive, and just has to take the ransom beatings as best he can.
Then, one cold and snowy night, he gets some new neighbors in his apartment complex; an old man and a very strange young girl (who doesn't seem to mind walking barefoot in the snow). They don't talk to anyone, and are very rarely seen. Around this time, a series of bizarre murders begin to take place nearby. People are found hanging upside down, throats slit and drained of all their blood. I wonder why?
Eventually, Oskar meets this new girl (Eli), and the two slowly begin to hit it off. He finds someone that's actually nice to him and genuinely interested in him (and ditto for her). He gets to know her (as best he can, as she's still surrounded in mystery), and she starts to help him fight back to the bullies. Around them, things are getting hectic, as a fellow neighbor is trying to find out who killed his friend in a very strange manner.
Over the course of the movie, Oskar and Eli become closer and closer (the eventual discovery of Eli being, surprise surprise, a vampire, only throwing in a small wrench), and that's actually the whole point of the movie. While it's set in a dark atmosphere of death and violence (and the occasional dark amount of humor; and cats. Lots of cats), at it's core the movie is a love story between these two twelve-year-olds (or rather, one twelve-year-old and one god-only-knows-how-old-stuck-in-a-twelve-year-olds-body). And the way it is handled is simply beautiful; it really captures their spirit and love, and it pulls you (sometimes hauntingly) along as you follow them trying to be together.
It's very rare that a movie comes along that handles romantic relationships (not sexual mind you, simply ones of true love) with minors well. The one that pops in my mind as an example is Leon; the two films, actually, are somewhat similar. In both, one member of the relationship is young and passive, and the other is someone who could kill a whole town with ease. Only now, the genders are switched and the bodies more similar in nature.
To sum it up, it really is a fantastic film, easily (as I've said twice already), one of the best this year. Naturally, like all good foreign films, this one is already in early stages for an American remake (to be directed by the guy who directed Cloverfield no less), and it will probably not be very good. I say this certainty, as there's imply no way it could improve upon the original; it's simply too good. You owe it to yourself to see this, so go out and see it if you get the chance. You will not be disappointed.
Trailer (that tries it's best to make this look like a horror movie, but again, it's not; it's a love story with a vampire): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp4g9p_rgo
List of US theaters where you can see it (and when): http://chud.com/articles/articles/1.....TER/Page1.html
Foreign film this time (it hails from the strange, mystical, faraway land of Sweden), and one that's actually still in theaters (in a very limited way, at least. Details on where you can see it at the bottom), but it's a damn fine one. Damn fine. One of the best films this year, as a matter of fact. I'll repeat that in bold for those of you who skim:
One of the best films this year.
Pretty good for a vampire movie. Yep, it's a vampire movie, and I defy you to find me a better one made in the last twenty years.
The plot follows a young boy named Oskar, who's bullied constantly at school (for no particular reason, really; the bully in question is just a huge dick). He dreams of taking violent revenge, but in the end is simply too passive, and just has to take the ransom beatings as best he can.
Then, one cold and snowy night, he gets some new neighbors in his apartment complex; an old man and a very strange young girl (who doesn't seem to mind walking barefoot in the snow). They don't talk to anyone, and are very rarely seen. Around this time, a series of bizarre murders begin to take place nearby. People are found hanging upside down, throats slit and drained of all their blood. I wonder why?
Eventually, Oskar meets this new girl (Eli), and the two slowly begin to hit it off. He finds someone that's actually nice to him and genuinely interested in him (and ditto for her). He gets to know her (as best he can, as she's still surrounded in mystery), and she starts to help him fight back to the bullies. Around them, things are getting hectic, as a fellow neighbor is trying to find out who killed his friend in a very strange manner.
Over the course of the movie, Oskar and Eli become closer and closer (the eventual discovery of Eli being, surprise surprise, a vampire, only throwing in a small wrench), and that's actually the whole point of the movie. While it's set in a dark atmosphere of death and violence (and the occasional dark amount of humor; and cats. Lots of cats), at it's core the movie is a love story between these two twelve-year-olds (or rather, one twelve-year-old and one god-only-knows-how-old-stuck-in-a-twelve-year-olds-body). And the way it is handled is simply beautiful; it really captures their spirit and love, and it pulls you (sometimes hauntingly) along as you follow them trying to be together.
It's very rare that a movie comes along that handles romantic relationships (not sexual mind you, simply ones of true love) with minors well. The one that pops in my mind as an example is Leon; the two films, actually, are somewhat similar. In both, one member of the relationship is young and passive, and the other is someone who could kill a whole town with ease. Only now, the genders are switched and the bodies more similar in nature.
To sum it up, it really is a fantastic film, easily (as I've said twice already), one of the best this year. Naturally, like all good foreign films, this one is already in early stages for an American remake (to be directed by the guy who directed Cloverfield no less), and it will probably not be very good. I say this certainty, as there's imply no way it could improve upon the original; it's simply too good. You owe it to yourself to see this, so go out and see it if you get the chance. You will not be disappointed.
Trailer (that tries it's best to make this look like a horror movie, but again, it's not; it's a love story with a vampire): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp4g9p_rgo
List of US theaters where you can see it (and when): http://chud.com/articles/articles/1.....TER/Page1.html
