Well, I think you�ll all be happy to know that I have managed to find my life again. It�s quite a load off, I can tell you! My earlier fears that I would spend the entirety of my vacation sitting in my parents� house have been proven ill-founded. I mean, it�s not like my social life is currently lighting up switchboards across the nation (�Ohmygaw�did you hear what Dr. No was doing last night??�), but at least I was doing more than watching a really poorly made independent movie on TV.
And with that, allow me to give you the run-down on my activities of last week. By which I mean: here�s a list of all the poorly-made independent movies I watched instead of going out with friends.
1. Frailty -- This one actually wasn�t half bad. A little confusing, maybe, and some of the ends remain quite loose after it�s over, but it was entertaining. I won�t spoil it for you if you want to see it.
2. Brotherhood III -- This was a piece of shit. They took half an hour of movie and stretched it to about ninety minutes through the magic of slow motion. Seriously, half the movie is this one shot of a girl running down the hall in slo-mo. It�s basically about, like, a bunch of kids who accidentally start worshipping Satan or something. But I won�t spoil this for you either. Because that would be redundant.
3. Twin Peaks -- I figured it was about damn time I watched this, since I�d been planning to for the last ten years or so. I guess it was worth the wait, although it�s not like I was waiting because I wanted the time to be right, or anything. I just couldn�t ever find the damn thing in the video store, ever. I won�t spoil this one, but only because I wouldn�t know how. David Lynch is a kind of genius. A fucked-up, don�t-get-near-my-children, stop-looking-at-me-like-that, nightmares-for-the-rest-of-my-life kind of genius.
4. New Best Friend -- Technically, this movie sucks, but because it kind of embraces its inherent suckiness, it gets my respect. Basically, Mia Kirshner is this girl from the wrong side of town who starts hanging out with these rich, snooty sorority girls and kind of turns into a crazy, coked-up, slutty party animal. So at least it�s based in realism. Anyway, the whole movie is basically a bunch of flashbacks, because it opens with Mia in a coma from a drug overdose, but by the time it�s over, you kind of don�t like any of the characters anymore, and you don�t really give a shit what happens to them. Which brings us directly to�
5. 21 Grams -- Yeah. 21 Grams. Of crap! I�m sorry, I know this movie has gotten all these accolades, and all this Oscar� buzz, and all this blah blah blah, but damn did I want this movie to end fast and hard. I mean, it�s a great film, especially if you�re really looking for a reason to hate life and wish you were dead, but it was a smidge too heavy. The underlying message, if I interpreted it correctly, is that life is a never-ending cycle of gut-wrenching misery, and then you fucking die, and if you�re lucky, you�ll die all alone and only suffer for a little while. Hooray. Merry Christmas. The performances were excellent, though. Even if all the characters were self-involved and unsympathetic.
6. Urbania -- An odd film, pretty obviously based on a play. It was okay. Nothing special, but at least it didn�t drag on and on like 21 Grams. Holy crap, that movie was overrated. Anyway, this movie seems to have been about urban legends and this guy whose boyfriend seems to have died or something, and you kind of get it right away, so it�s not really surprising, even though it seems to think it kind of is. It was worth watching, though, I suppose.
7. S�ance on a Wet Afternoon -- Best nap I ever had. Actually, that�s not meant to be a slam, or anything. I started watching, and then I totally passed out. I have the rental till Friday or something, though, so I�ll finish it at some point.
And now, if you�ll excuse me, I have to go see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King now.
Someone Got Here By Searching For: fucking postures I�m Watching: Ringu, the original Japanese version of the The Ring. I�m Reading: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, and so far it�s pretty fascinating.