Saturday, November 5, 2011

Celluloid #132

In Theaters


the Skin I Live In (2011) Almodovar - Antonio Banderas plays a crazed plastic surgeon who has had a pretty tragic family life. His wife cheated on him and got in a car crash, leaving her body completely burned. She kills herself rather than look like that. His daughter is traumatized by the event, spends some time in a mental hospital, gets released, gets raped, and then also kills herself. Now our doctor is on a crazy revenge kick. This film is both soap operatic and unpredictable. It's obviously a treat to look at because it's Almodovar and I appreciate his return to the bizarre over the bourgeoisie. 4.5/5

In Home


Basket Case (1982) Henenlotter - Super campy B-horror about Dwayne, a guy who carries around a basket with him to the various seedy motels he inhabits. The basket contains his former siamese twin, Belial, who appears to be made out of whatever faulty genes Dwayne was spared from. Belial looks like a disgusting blob with teeth and gets extremely jealous of any relationships that Dwayne develops. This hit the spot at 1 am after a night of excessive drinking and dancing. 3.5/5

Near Dark (1987) Bigelow - Mae is a pretty girl who also happens to be a vampie. Caleb is a country boy who falls for her before he discovers her identity, and ends up getting turned. They roll around with a rowdy group of vampires always looking for their next kill. Caleb and Mae both have less bloodlusty ambitions about killing...it's necessary for their survival, but unpleasant. Bill Paxton plays a goofy vampire  who really enjoys his role. I really liked the Southwest setting and the unique way of getting out of their hellish situation. 4/5

1 comment:

William Russ said...

I wasn't sure about The Skin I Live In until this review and now I am excited to see it.