I’m been remiss in my blogging activities of late, and for this to my handful of faithful readers, I apologize. I’m currently working on three films as I desperately try to ignore the fact that I’m being forced from the bosom of Cal Arts into the shark-infested waters of the recession job market. Or something like that.
Yesterday, I saw Lilya 4 Ever, the new movie by Lukas Moodysson. What is it about the Scandinavians that love to fuse grim social realism with the sort of religious hokum that would make Tammy Faye Bakker blush. Like the end of Breaking the Waves, this film’s ending is sappy featuring the protagonist and her only friend playing joyfully with fake-looking angel wings. This rankled me particularly because most of the film is a terrific (if brutal) critique of global post-cold war Capitalism that never feels didactic and never loses sight of its characters. The film’s swerve into Magical Realism at the end was little more than a cop out.
On a completely different note, I also saw Bulletproof Monk which — though poorly edited — was enjoyably stupid fun. Chow Yun Fat, who I think should be the next James Bond, was charismatic as ever in spite of some really insipid dialogue. The really funny thing about the film was that in spite references to America in the script and a couple stray USA TODAY vending machines, the movie was obviously shot in Toronto. Not since Rumble in the Bronx have I seen such geographic incongruity in a film.
WITMOT? 