Celluloid #79

In Home

the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) Wiene - Sleepwalkers are the worst! Always walking around stabbing people and sometimes resembling contemporary goth/emo kids. This silent film is pretty creepy and surprisingly stylish. 4/5

Diabolique (1954) Clouzot - Crime thriller where a wife and her husband's jilted mistress team up to kill the husband. At some point, the corpse goes missing, causing a great deal of stress to the two ladies--especially when certain clues emerge that suggest he might not actually be dead. I thought the quaint "reminder" at the end, asking viewers not to be "devils" about spoiling the ending was pretty cute. 4/5

Fools Rush In (1996) Tennant - Romantic comedy where WASP and Latino cultures collide! Salma Hayek plays a fiery Latina who teaches Matthew Perry about the importance of family and faith. This films includes most stereotypes that one could think of about Latinos, and basically comes off as total bubblegum. 2/5

In the Loop (2009) Iannucci - British political comedy full of creative swearing. The whole story alludes to the situation with Bush and the beginning of the Iraq War, but really just about politicians and their ability or requirement to bullshit. My Girl's Anna Chlumsky returns!4/5

Red Riding: 1974 (2009) Jarrold - The first part of a trilogy about the "Yorkshire Ripper." The audience is dropped into the middle of a situation. Three girls have already been killed, and another murder occurs during the course of the film. We also have a journalist as our protagonist (who gets laid an inordinate amount of times), and he gets sucked into some of the seedier scenes in town. It's difficult to know what characters are important, and really even what is going on sometimes (why is he getting tortured? Why do we care that some character that was onscreen 3 minutes is now dead? etc). However, despite all of the confusion, I'm willing to continue along to the next installment, because I'm still holding out hope that in the next 4 hours, some questions will receive answers. 3/5

Selena (1997) Nava - This had my class in tears! Maybe I'm just too cynical, or maybe it helps that you go into this film knowing the ending, but really I think I wasn't emotionally moved because the acting is so bad...Also, biopics are not my favorite, even if Jennifer Lopez has a winning smile. 3/5