El Orfanato (2007)

Guillermo Del Toro presents El Orfanato, written by Sergio G. Sánchez and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Its tagline "A tale of love. A story of horror" sums up the film perfectly. With the darkly whimsical opening sequence of wallpaper being strategically torn off a wall by unseen children's hands to reveal the credits, I was slightly scared that I'd be in for another Sweeney Todd or other Tim Burton-esque film - something with lots of style but not much substance. But thankfully the rest of the film didn't follow through in the fashion of the introduction.

Laura (Belén Rueda) and her husband Carlos return to the home where Laura was raised, intent on making it into an orphanage for disabled children with special needs. Her son Simón soon makes an invisible friend, which at first seems innocent enough for a lonely child. But when Simón finds the locked drawer with the papers saying he is adopted and infected with HIV, he claims his invisible friends told him to look there, much to the growing agitation of his parents. Soon after the incident Simón disappears, during the opening party of the orphanage. Laura sees a boy wearing a sack mask and thinks it is Simón, but no one else at the party recalls seeing a boy of that description. A few weeks earlier, a strange woman claiming to be a social worker had bothered the family with obscure information about Simón's condition, and after dismissing her Laura found her later that night skulking around the grounds. The identity of this mysterious woman is a key to deciphering the disappearance of Simón as well as other strange goings-on.



This isn't your typical horror film, with cheap scares and incoherent plot points. The story is gracefully calculated, as the audience follows a mother in pain from losing her child and desperately trying to get him back. In fact, the main theme of the film is about suffering of the mother for her child, and the great lengths one would go to to ensure her child is safe. The film suffers slightly in its effort to deliver the creeps and unsettling factors that give El Orfanato the charge of being a horror film, just in one scene that involves a grisly death. Otherwise the rest of it is taut and direct in its storytelling, with no gimmicks, just psychological and supernatural occurrences.


I was successfully very, very creeped out by the specter that is Simón's invisible friend, Tomas. The setting of the huge, dark and cavernous mansion also contributed greatly to the mood of the film, as it didn't take much to imagine what could happen within those walls. The sound editing for the film ended up with a minimalist score, which relied mostly on the sound of silence to heighten the tension of many a scene. Overall, throughout I was very pleased with seeing this film, delightfully scared, and I didn't leave disappointed.

Idiocracy (2006)

I was seriously hesitant on seeing this film. But to the urging of one of my good friends, whom I completely trust when it comes to movies, I sat down and had it start off my New Year's Eve movie marathon.

The plot is simple. Humans become progressively stupider and stupider because the educated, driven couples hold off on procreating as their careers blossom, while the uneducated, redneck masses, with the absence of birth control, keep having lots and lots of babies. Thus intelligence gets weeded out of the gene pool and rather evolving, humankind devolves.

The main character, Joe (as in average), played by Luke Wilson, is simple, and prefers to keep things the way they are, and doesn't seem to want to pursue anything higher than his job as an army librarian. He agrees to be a subject in the Human Project, a secret operation by the U.S. Army, meant to have reserves of able soldiers ready for combat in the future in case of impending disasters. Something goes wrong and Joe and another test subject Rita awaken 500 years into the future, where society is so dumbed down by television and advertisements that they are now the smartest people in the world.

What ensues is utterly hilarious. As Joe tries to make his way around, people make fun of his "faggy" way of speaking, as their language now consists of a hybrid mish-mash of "hillbilly, south-central," etc. It's on the darker side of comedy, mostly a social commentary on how society's really dumbed-down, at least, I guess, in the United States.

Unfortunately the copy of Idiocracy I had was scratched, so I inevitably didn't get to finish...but what I did see I loved, which I didn't think would happen.

Domino (2005)

Rashomon (1950)

Fong Juk (Exiled) 2006

At the behests of my sister I finally watched Exiled, a Johnnie To film (embarrassingly enough I don't know who that is), also I'm unfamiliar with any of the actors, but anyway...

For a film taking place in Macau I strangely got an old-west vibe from it, which I really really liked. This is probably ignorant of me, but for an asian movie I'm glad I didn't have to watch overly choreographed fight scenes that were ridiculously unbelievable. Sure, some parts were still exaggeratedly epic gangster showdowns but all so artfully executed that I couldn't dismiss them as cheese.

In retrospect the plot was pretty familiar and nothing too out of the ordinary, but I enjoyed this movie nonetheless.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

To think that I'd never bothered to watch a Coen Brothers film until now. Oh. My. God.

Enchanted (2007)

I didn't know what I would expect from watching Disney's Enchanted, which I was able to catch at the El Capitan Theatre. I'd always been so disappointed with Disney's live-action films, but absolutes are dangerous, and so Enchanted was able to break this spell (don't mind the pun).

As the story goes, an evil stepmother would do anything not to give up the kingdom (Andalasia) so is intent on preventing her stepson Edward from finding his true love and marrying her. The obvious princess-to-be, Gisele, lives in a fairy-like cottage deep in the woods where we first see her constructing a sculpture of her "true love" whom she dreamed of the night before. This scene is reminiscent of when Sleeping Beauty and her woodland animal friends sing about Prince Phillip in "Once Upon A Dream." The film is awash with all sorts of references like this.

The wonderful thing about this movie is that it all throughout it lightly pokes fun at the genre of the Disney musical and quintessential Disney princess movie. Amy Adams plays the wide-eyed, animated princess-come-to life amazingly. I thought I'd be annoyed by her, but she's so sincere in acting the character Gisele that I wasn't bothered by her at all. James Marsden equally plays Prince Edward extremely well, being dashingly cavalier and handsome to begin with. Both sang their own parts which I thought was so cool.

And even better, it ended with a slightly different take on the super-typical happy ending. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Casablanca (1942)

I was afraid this one would feel dated, and was bracing myself for being bored or having difficulty following, but Casablanca was every bit as fresh and captivating for me as it could be if it were made now. Beautiful lighting and cinematography, plus excellent performances by Humphrey Bogart (I can call myself a fan now!) Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains. Given that this was made during a time in Hollywood when films were being cranked out left and right, this one sure has stuck around. I'm glad I finally heard "Here's looking at you, kid" among other quotes. And Bogey, with his conflicted, heart-torn Rick Blaine, was a leading man to swoon for.

the thing about dreams

We have seen stranger things in dreams; and fictions are merely frozen dreams, linked images with some semblance of structure. They are not to be trusted, no more than the people who create them.

--Neil Gaiman

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Sigh. Tim Burton, what's happened to you?

I expected to like this one. A murderous eponymous character (Sweeney Todd) played by Johnny Depp, the ever-ready to please Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter. I liked everyone who was cast into the film but overall the movie seemed rough and poorly played out. Sure, I'm unfamiliar with the musical, and with the subject matter I was eager enough to see it. The musical numbers were solid, though unremarkable. Johnny Depp, much as I love him, did not do anything for me with his singing. Unfortunately I could only focus on how much he just sounded like Jack Sparrow, who'd had much too much rum and was belting out a sad cabaret.

The feel of the movie was supposed to be dark, dank, dreary London. But all I felt was that someone had painted it awash with greys and blues and just used poor lighting, and although I believe most of it was computer animated, the quality was just poor and I felt like I was watching a video game unfold its events. I was impressed with newcomer Jamie Campbell Bower, who played Todd's occasional companion...

It was a nice change of scenery, seeing two of my favorite actors singing and scheming, but I didn't like the final product; just because they are amazing actors though, doesn't mean they can sing and hold their own to that. Then again, I hate hate hate musicals. So I don't know. Seeing this movie left my stomach twisted in knots and I was utterly bored during the entire thing.

Hard Candy (2005)

Millions (2004)

Danny Boyle proves his versatility with Millions, a comedy which is as much about family and ethics as it is (at times) a crime caper.

The story is about 7 year-old Damian Cunningham, his older brother Anthony and their father, who move to Manchester after the death of their mother. Damian makes a playhouse of huge boxes in a clearing near some train tracks, and one day while playing in this structure a huge bag full of money comes flying off a passing train and crashes into it. Being a religious child, obsessed with saints and helping the less fortunate, he has big plans on helping the poor with his recent windfall. However, in a few days' time the pound is to switch over to the euro, so with all this in mind the events of the story unfold.

The film explores ethics and questions who or what can be deemed as truly "good." For example, upon finding a huge sum of stolen money, is one being rightful in giving away this money that wasn't his to begin with? Throughout the plot to resolve the money issues runs also a strong vein through family. The boys cope with their mother's death and their relationships with each other and are challenged with these issues once the money appears.

Overall, I really liked Alex Etel as freckle-faced, wide-eyed Damian, because he really pulled off the wiser-than-his-years personality and his innocent, thoughtful demeanor kept me watching. The overall feeling of the movie reminded me a lot of Tim Burton - though not overtly Tim Burton. Just little things, like the use of choral voices in the score (why hello, John Murphy!) and at times the whimsical, saturated cinematography. Very Tim Burton/Pushing Daisies, but not all the way.

Then of course the movie ended around Christmastime and that really brought out the deeper meaning of family, the real worth of money, and what kind of people we are. In the end, money really does not matter. It's our hopes and dreams and the way we see things that lets everything really play out.

Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)

The Holiday (2006)

I know I proclaimed my dislike of romantic comedies a few hours ago. I don't remember how, but I actually saw this one twice in theaters when it came out. For sure someone else bought the ticket for me each time, and both times (and last night, which would make it the third time I've seen it) it did something for me. I got that cozy, warm, happy feeling...

Love Actually (2003)

I hate romantic comedies. I cannot stand sappy, ridiculously drawn-out plots and unbelievable characters. All the things romantic movies have to offer are the things I adamantly say no thank you to.

But I love Love Actually. It's such an exquisite blend of perfectly imperfect snippets of a bunch of people, their relationships and experiences with unrequited love, forbidden love, conflicted love, paternal love, all kinds of love. For love, actually is all around us.

Favorite moments from the film:
- the entire story arc of Liam Neeson's character Daniel and Thomas Sangster's Sam.
- of course the scene when Andrew Lincoln's Mark professes his undying love for Keira Knightley's Juliet with his placards. The phrase "To me, you are perfect" - heart-wrenching every time. Then after she kisses him he walks off, telling himself "Enough."
- The Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon story arc of the Prime Minister of GB and Natalie.

hell, I love every little thing about this movie.

Brick (2005)

The Chumscrubber (2005)

excerpt - The Perks of Being A Wallflower

"Something really is wrong with me. And I don't know what it is."