CareySandwich

I generally don't consider myself the biggest fan of thrillers, but it seems that it may be due to my American upbringing. This makes me real bitter that intelligent, thorough, and stylistically unique films are being made elsewhere, but the American market doesn't seem interested because... why? The subtitles? The acting and writing are still better even if you do have to read the translated subtitles. You know what, I should boycott American movies for a while because I really haven't had much experience with foreign films, but of the last three films I saw, two of them were French, and one was from Hollywood. Guess which two were wonderful, and which one was God-Awful...

Cavale was one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. It was dark and shadowy and very well shot. It was full of humanity, which is another thing that American films seem to be lacking. One of the things I liked best about it was the underlying subtlety in the characters. They had tones and textures that really drew me in.

If you haven't seen Cavale, do so, you're going to love it.

The Girl Next Door might be even worse than it looks. By watching the trailor, you think, "Oh man that looks pretty bad". Well frankly you have no idea. This flick starts out as a sappy gimmick-romance, turns into some kind of dumb porno-heist, and then eventually ends up as a pretentious slice of the American dream. Puh-leeze. I really want to contact director Luke Greenfeild and tell him that just because you add a whole 2nd plot to your movie, making it seem hours longer than it needs to be, and then in the conclusion play Baba O'Reily while a medley shows how your protagonists end up, that doesn't make your movie a coming-of-age epic.

I guess it hurts worse that it wasn't funny. You can forgive Old School for the mediocrity of its serious side because the film happened to be hilarious. The Girl Next Door--apart from an amusing performance by Timothy Olyphant--is almost completely devoid of any funny material. Which leaves you to hope that the movie will be good in other ways... which it isn't. God, it was awful. I mean really bad.

Tomorrow I have to write my review for my university newspaper, and I have to figure out how to tell a young American audience why they should see this film. And now that I think about it, why should they? They're not all film buffs, they haven't all traveled alone to foreign countries by themselves, they don't live in a revolutionary climate, and they don't have open minds regarding many aspects of sexuality. So why should they see it?

Roger Waters once said, "The only thing that matters is weather or not it moves you..." Well if that's true, then it doesn't matter why they should see The Dreamers, because they will all either love it or hate it, depending on how thoroughly indoctrinated by American culture they are. Personally, this film moved me for similar reasons that High Fidelity moved me... for similar reasons that Lost in Translation moved me... for similar reasons that Punchdrunk Love moved me... You have a media-obsessed American putting his life in perspective during the culture-clash shock of his lifetime, and navigating his emotions the best he can, albeit awkwardly.

This film spoke to me as a recent first-time traveler to Europe, as a "film buff", as a person who is dealing with the philosophical implications of relationships and politics, and most importantly, as a 20 year old. I found this film hypnotizing, despite the awkward, and far-more-graphic-than-I'm-used-to nude scenes.

It wasn't perfect... There were moments that seemed very contrived, as well as an ending that was a little more abrupt than I was hoping for. But mentioning the ending just goes to remind me to mention that this movie was very well shot. The camera shots, at times, get just as intimidating as being in a completely foreign country.

The acting was top notch, especially by Louis Garrel, playing Theo (the brother). The soundtrack was groovy, featuring a quality mix of American rock from the late 1960s. All things considered, this study of ideological contrast is worth seeing. You might want to make sure you know an thing or two about French history during the late sixties (not essential, you can still figure out basically what's going on if you--like myself--happen to reek of world-history ignorance).

One last note: this film seems to have potential to be a big conversation piece, at least from an American's point of view. I, unfortunately, happened to not have any peers with me at this screening and now feel a slight deficit of the banter that this movie is likely to produce. Feel free to email me if you saw The Dreamers, and want to chat about it.