Last weekend I spent a mini-fortune in Blockbuster on movies and peripherals (isn’t Haagen Dazs expensive). We watched the French thriller Cache (The Hidden) first. I’m not sure what the moral of the story was but I am sure that it had one. There was one truly shocking moment involving suicide and a razor blade but apart from that I was left unsatisfied at the conclusion.
Next we watched Me And You And Everyone We Know which was an American indie with the spirit of those early Todd Solondz and Todd Haynes films. This wasn’t directed by a Todd but it was right-up-my-strasse being funny and uncomfortable and thought provoking.
Next up was Thumbsucker directed by Mike Mills. I’d seen a 10 minute portion of this movie at the Beautiful Losers show (soon to be a movie/docu-drama) in LA last year and enjoyed it but it turned out that those 10 minutes were the best bit. Despite having Tilda Swinton, Keannu Reeves and Vince Vaughn as it’s stars this movie sucked. Teen angst dressed as art. Boring. Incidentally, Mike Mills directed a shorter movie a few years ago called Architecture Of Reassurance which had nothing to do with the fantastic book of the same name which details the technical aspects involved in designing Disney’s theme Parks.
Heartlands was a great British film from a few years ago about a fella (played by Michael Sheen who was stunning as Kenneth Williams in that recent BBC4 drama) trekking across England (gorgeous scenery) on his crappy motorbike towards Blackpool where his wife had run off with someone from the darts team. He finds her but then decides he doesn’t want her back. Lovely film.