catslash: (docslash)
([personal profile] catslash May. 29th, 2003 07:44 am)
Sorry, Hoedogg, I just can't do it. Try Mulholland Drive again, I mean. As it is, I woke up in the middle of the night after watching it and had trouble getting back to sleep. If you won't tell me what happens after Rita opens the box and the camera guy falls into it, I'll have to search somewhere else. Of course, if you tell me what happens so I know what's coming, I may be prepared to try watching it; it was the not knowing that was killing me. I handle suspense poorly sometimes.

I did watch it partly on your rec, but also because I was fairly certain that I remembered thinking during The Ring, through my haze of terror, that Naomi Watts is pretty hot, and I wanted to test that hypothesis. I was correct. Maybe someday she'll be in a movie that doesn't scare the crap out of me. (Also, I thought Treat Williams was in it. See, I was reading his filmography, but not very closely, and he was in a movie called Mulholland FALLS, so I got all mixed up. What are the odds of there being two movies with that word in the title?) Also I think Laura Elena Harring was in a soap I used to watch. I'll have to check IMDb.

Moving on to movies that don't profoundly disturb me.

Down With Love = Best. Movie. EVER! Holy CRAP. I knew I would love it about fifteen seconds into the opening credits, when I was utterly charmed by the sly cheesiness of it all. I can also see why the reviews are generally divided into gushingly positive and blisteringly negative. This is a love-it-or-hate-it movie: You love it for its subtle parodic qualities and its overwhelming cheese-but-in-a-good-knowing-winking-at-the-audience-but-not-in-a-painfully-obvious-way factor, or you fucking hate it for its plot and perkiness and excessive innuendo and randomness.

I was the first one. What a wonderful, giddy movie. (And for the record? I hate romantic comedies. HATE. And am a very hard sell on straight romance flicks in general. The number of straight movie couples that I've cared about I could count on one hand and still have enough fingers left to pick up a pen and write them down.) I spent most of it with this ridiculous grin on my face. Ewan and Renee are both so incredibly adorable; Ewan in particular is lickable, and keep in mind that I've never been especially attracted to him. He just pours on the charm in this movie with devastating results. Swoon.

And then! During the credits, they sing! There's a music video thingy where they run around and sing and for someone who loved both Moulin Rouge and Chicago as much as I did, this is the most amazing thing in the world! Two of my favourite movies collide! After it was over, I just sat there and giggled manically and all the people at my table (I was in a group from school, remember) were laughing at me. I like to think they were doing so affectionately. Of course, it just made it worse, so it took me a few minutes to calm down.

So. Yes. See this movie. Now. Today. Go to the theatre after school or work and get a good seat. And prepare to love it or hate it.

From: (Anonymous)


Hoedogg again. Heh, fair enough. I'll spoil the scary parts for you because, as I mentioned, the last half hour is really the key (no pun intended) to unlocking the movie, and I'd love to hear your take on it.

So, for everyone else's benefit, I'll just post a WARNING: MAJOR MULHOLLAND DRIVE SPOILERS BELOW!

After Rita opens the box, it falls to the floor and she vanishes from the room just like Betty did earlier. Aunt Ruth, who was supposedly in Canada, comes to inspect the room, thinking she heard a noise, but she finds nothing there. Not even the box. Then we get a mildly creepy scene where the camera flickers from Ruth's apartment to the one where Betty & Rita found the dead girl. The cowboy (remember him?) walks down the dark hallway and tries to wake the girl up, but he sees that she's dead and leaves.

Then there's a not-excessively-creepy, but definitely angsty and sad (and, for most first-time viewers, exceptionally confusing) half hour that explores what at first glance appears to be an AU starring the same faces from the first part of the movie. It would be wrong of me to taint your first impression by explaining what I think this final half-hour means, so I'll leave it to you to watch and decide what it means for yourself.

But then the ending is pretty creepy. You'll know the creepiness is coming when the camera starts moving down the pathway to the alley behind Winkie's Diner. There, we find the monster/homeless-dude/whatever-it-is putting the blue box into a paper bag. It drops the bag on the ground and these two tiny, demented spirits pop out of it. (You'll recognize them as the elderly couple from the beginning of the movie.) I have to admit, the spirits are truly frightening. They sneak under the door of the dead girl's apartment, blow up to full-size, and chase the girl into her bedroom. (What's that you say? How can they chase a dead girl? I told you it was hard to explain.) She freaks out and shoots herself. (It's not a graphic shooting, so if you're bothered by bloodiness or messiness, don't worry.) This is followed by a final montage of non-creepy images.

So there. Now I've totally spoiled all the remaining spooky parts for you. If you think you can make it through all that -- and I certainly hope you can -- then I'd love to discuss the film further with you.
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