Hey, so I've been away for a bit of a holiday but I have still seen some movies since my last post. It was a nice holiday although it did involve a quick trip to the emergency room at one point. Perhaps a little too much excitement than what a nice holiday warrants.

'Dead Snow' (2009) directed by Tommy Wirkola

What begins as a fairly cliche ridden horror film about a group of students alone in a cabin quickly becomes a balls-out hilarious take on the zombie film genre. This film manages to reference its filmic predecessors while also offering something new to the genre. The violence is graphic but also very comic and some of the scenes are really funny in a 'Shaun of the Dead' kind of way.

'35 Shots of Rum' (2008) directed by Claire Denis

An interesting and quite poignant film. Really nicely shot too although I probably didn't connect to the subject matter all that much.

'Dogtooth' (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

What begins as a sort of quirky, funny film quickly develops into a pretty disturbing story. I knew nothing about this film before I saw it. As the film progressed, the tone and the subject matter never really converged for me and so I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to feel empathy for the characters. At the end of the film I perhaps felt a bit alienated as a result. For me it was a film of two halves. The first half I thought it was really funny but by the second half, perhaps not all that funny at all. Highly original though and a very engaging, thought provoking film.

'The Savages' (2007) directed by Tamara Jenkins

Very good film that deals with the complex issue of two siblings dealing with their father who has dementia. The acting of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman is outstanding.

'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' (2005) directed by Tommy Lee Jones

A contemporary sort of western movie. Pretty good but felt a bit too segmented. A little difficult to get into, probably because I didn't really understand the motivations of the main character.

'Funny Games' (2007) directed by Michael Haneke

Kind of interesting dialogue and builds tension pretty well but ultimately a pretty dissatisfying movie. It never really kicked off for me, the tension builds but then there wasn't a great payoff. I thought the dialogue was pretty funny but the actual violent scenes which were mostly shown off screen lacked real impact. Haneke likes to keep the camera in a fixed position so that the action can enter and leave the frame at will. This is an effective device in creating suspense but it needs to build to something interesting and powerful. The power needs to shift in the narrative, there needs to be more at stake perhaps.