You and Me in a Dark Room

In my recent travels, I've become an afficionado of downloading movies to my computer, either to rent, or purchase. Talk about instant gratification!

Let me show you my recent favorites...

There Will Be Blood 

The trailer for this movie was not made by the director, or else I would've seen it on opening weekend and sat through several repeat screenings.

It's not just, "Oh, Daniel Day Lewis, what a legendary actor." Nope. This film opens with about 15 silent minutes of action, not one word spoken, and you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat. When the last line is uttered, you gasp out loud. It's not good versus evil, or Religion vs. Capitalism. It's more like two charismatic closet cases in the most vicious fight of their lives. An tomcat brawl, as orchestrated by a homo-perverse genius, and not to be missed.

In the Valley of Elah

Tommy Lee Jones, a career military man, gets a phone call that his active duty son, just home from Iraq, has gone AWOL. Jones doesn't believe it— and drives to the base to investigate for himself, where he is thwarted at every turn. It's a great mystery, and without saying a single line of exposition about "the war," it says you everything you need to know about what's happening in Operation Bullshit.

The Darjeeling Limited

I am going to ride this legendary train, to the tea plantations of the Himalayas, if it's the last thing I do. Director Wes Anderson is endlessly inspiring. I watched the movie, bought all the music, went to the "India Trains" Web site and plotted my own reservation. Then I watched all my Wes Anderson movies all over again and listened to all the soundtracks. This one is especially touching to me. Be sure to watch the "short" before the main feature; it explains quite a lot!

Margot at the Wedding

Some members of my family were afraid to watch this film because they feared they couldn't sit through a microscopic examination of a shocking dysfunctional family. Ha! I found it catnip.  This director does "narcissistic prick" forensics like no one else. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nicole Kidman are superb. Definitely gets the Mo Movie Measure Seal of Approval.

Blame it On Fidel

A little rich girl in 1960s France who's being raised as the Perfect Little Aristocrat is shocked out of her mind when her parents suddenly decide to support the Cuban Revolution, fire her nanny, and move into a revolutionary commune with atrocious food. To see 1968 through her eyes is precious, funny, and very moving.

Eastern Promises

My boyfriend, Viggo Mortensen, naked, without even a towel, fighting for his life in a Turkish spa, against two knife-wielding Russian mobster sadists. Jesus! Do you need to know anything else?

Comments

[Sandrino]

Viggo, your boyfriend? I think you might have to fight several thousand other people who want that title.

[Secondhand Nation]

Eastern Promises was a mildly okay movie, but add the bathhouse knifefight and it's definitely worth owning on DVD.

And he's in his 50's! Slurp.

[Peter Throckmorton]

Boy, but that Eastern Promise's fight scene was stunning!

I'm with you on Darjeeling as well ... that movie was weirder than tits on a duck, but it grew on me by the end of it.

[Steve]

Well, if Mortenson is your boyfriend, Tommy Lee Jones is mine! Dude! He is HOT!

[chelsea g]

Really. You liked There Will Be Milkshakes? I'll give it up for the cinematography throughout, and for that first scene in specific, but in my estimation, it goes something like this: Upton Sinclair + Paul Thomas Anderson = 2.56 hours of being beaten about the head and shoulders with a capital M "Message."

Also, just for the record, Viggo should have won an Oscar for Eastern Promises, and I don't say that because he's my boyfriend. Although he is.

kissykiss,
chelsea g.

[sasha]

Actually, Susie, Viggo is my boyfriend. Luckily I'm a swinger. And as if I needed another reason to hate the L-Word but at least now I have something interesting/scandalous to say about it. Cold comfort for you, I'm sure.
Adding to all the fun, I painted the hallway in my apartment to look like the train in the Darjeeling Limited. Makes for a fun walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

[Laurie Mann]

No, Viggo's not quite 50. Like Susie, he's a '58 baby, but his birthday's this fall.

While I think Viggo deserved the Oscar for Eastern Promises (an extraordinary movie, even for more than that sauna fight), I have high hopes for The Road, which he's finishing up in Oregon this week. He spent two months shooting most of it here in Western Pennsylvania. The shoot was kept pretty much locked down so there was very little publicity. But a French magazine just published some photos from it:

http://www.viggo-works.com/index.php?page=243

[Caitlin]

The Darjeeling Limited is one of my very favorite films ever-ever. Beautiful. As for screen crushes from the line-up above: Someone should tell Tommy Lee Jones I'm secretly married to him. Ah, to wake up every morning to that voice. But I see that Steve likes him too. Alright, alright, I'll share.

[Daniel Yaryan]

For some reason, people have a problem with P.T. Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" but I consider it the best movie that I've seen in a year (and one of his best, 2nd only to Boogie Nights but totally different). Here's a briliantly produced movie in every way -- a man obsessed with success and tormented by the void created by his inability to pass his torch on to an apt blood relative. No one shares his desire to divide and conquer the land. Then there's the religious nut (with outstanding acting to match DDLs)who equally exploits the people to build his congregation. Both men from the same ilk. A freaking powerful movie. The other flicks I haven't seen yet, although Wes Anderson is cool and I've seen all of his other movies (Bottle Rocket was his best). Although I don't get off on naked death duels in Turkish bath houses, that scene in "Eastern Promises" finally triggered the realization that "hey, I'm watching a David Cronenberg movie." Naomi Watts, although a goddess and a good actress was just wimpy in this movie. She should have been fighting Russian gangsters in the bathhouse instead and that would have redeemed her sappy, poorly conceived script (not her fault but it was her choice to play the part). As for Viggo Mortersen, he's one of the best actors in the business today and a strong poet and supporter of the literary/poetry scene -- Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, etc.
Speaking of the poetry community, Brother Antoninus (William Everson) is being inducted into SF's Beat Museum on Sept. 17th... Susie, you should come speak on Everson's poetic eroticism (I met you at my friend's class that I crashed at SFSU about two months ago and talked to you about Antoninus/Everson and Santa Cruz (my hometown). Check out his rare recordings that I wrangled from The American Poetry Archive (Poetry Center, SFSU)from 1955 and posted them on one of two tribute pages to Brother Antoninus: myspace.com/antoninusaudio or myspace.com/brotherantoninus. Especially listen to Antoninus' "Annul In Me My Manhood" from his book "The Savagery of Love" which was truly ahead of its time and to your fellow bloggers as good as Viggo in the bathhouse -- strangely different but matching in perversity. Now "The Savagery of Love" sounds like a movie worth checking out in the near future. Thanks Susie, hope to hear from you soon. --Daniel Yaryan (myspace.com/danielyaryan)

[sfmike]

I was avoiding "There Will Be Blood" like the plague but finally sat down last week and watched it on the big-screen TV, twice in a row. What an extraordinary surprise, an art film that's actually about something, especially since I'm not a big fan of the director's earlier movies.