Celluloid #101

In Home

Blind Beast (1969) Masumura - An evil blind masseuse drugs an erotic photo model and brings her to his lair of oversized body parts. He's trying to pioneer "the art of touching" for the blind. The film wants to straddle the tricky boundary between rape and love as Aki begins to appreciate someone worshiping her body. Ultimately an unbridled male fantasy, but so absurd that it's still interesting to watch. 3.5/5

Chloe (2010) Egoyan - Catherine suspects that her husband is cheating on her, but to be sure she hires Chloe, an escort to seduce him. Catherine perhaps gets too close to Chloe and gets turned on by Chloe's description of the affair. Needless to say, some people fall off the handle. A fun, trashy thriller. 3.5/5

the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010) Oplev - An old man wants to solve the 40 year-old mystery of the disappearance of his niece. He hires disgraced journalist, Micke, to investigate before he has to serve a prison sentence. Meanwhile. Lisbeth is a talented hacker and researcher working on checking out Micke. She's pretty tough, but has to endure some evil woman-directed hatred in this film. She and Micke team up to work the case. I was intrigued and wary of the hype surrounding these stories, but I have to say this is really good for what it is: an engaging, slick, thriller. 4/5

Good Dick (2008) Palka - Really not as risqué as the title would have you believe. This is the story of a girl who likes to rent softcore from the local video store and the clerk that has deemed her the object of his affection. They both have their problems. She barely leaves the house and seems to have huge emotional walls. He lives in his car and apparently has a shady junkie past. However, he's actually really sweet and extremely persistent, and I liked their weird chemistry that often involves her verbally abusing him. 3.5/5

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Allen - Three sisters and their love lives. Hannah is the oldest and most stable, but accused of not really needing anyone else. Lee begins having an affair with Hannah's husband Elliott. Holly is the youngest and flails a bit trying to make it as an actress/caterer. Holly is also connected to Hannah's love life by getting involved with her ex-husband. Pretty typical Woody Allen themes of fear of death, and complicated relationships. 4/5

Schizopolis (1996) Soderbergh - Really, who knows what is going on in this film? (and you are warned in the intro that it is definitely your fault as viewer if you don't get it). Here are some things that happen: the main character sometimes works a boring office job where he is unfairly promoted and sometimes he plays a dentist/stalker. Sometimes characters speak in descriptions of the type of dialogue without any content (ex. "generic greeting" or "cheerful-sounding query"). There's also Elmo Oxygen, a pest controller, who seduces bored housewives by speaking nonsense phrases. The thing is, even though I don't know the point or meaning of most of this, I still actually enjoyed watching the film. 4/5