Laura's Lovely Log

how I pick movies

So, Sean and Tim have been annoying the crap out of me (a.k.a. "taking the piss") by insisting that I don't like foreign films (i.e., nothing not made in the states) and won't watch movies with subtitles. This is, of course, crap. I watch movies I'm interested in. I don't care where they're from.

So, I was thinking some more about this. Like, how DO I get interested in something and follow the trail to it? And you know what? It's a complicated Laura-brain thing. But I always pick a movie based on something I know about it, like the actor or director, or if I've seen something about it that interests me, like a tv show talking about how the effects were done. I don't watch things randomly very often. So, here's some foreign films that I watched (and liked or loved) and how I ended up seeing them (alphabetically, of course):

- Espinazo del diablo, El (The Devil's Backbone, Mexico 2001): Sue and I flipping channels in Barcelona came across this, came back and described it to Sean, who obviously knew what it was and hooked us up. Review: scary, but not as scary as when we saw it without the subtitles. Gorgeous filming of the ghost. Hooked me on Del Toro and led to
- Cronos (Mexico 1993): Saw Devil's Backbone, had to see Cronos. I've now seen all the Del Toro I can get my hands on, although I need to rewatch Mimic. Review: Not scary but who cares? It's a vampire/zombie movie and the scene where he licks the blood off the floor is fab.

- Lashou shentan (Hard Boiled, Hong Kong 1992) & Die xue shuang xiong (The Killer, Hong Kong 1989): ah, Keith. Keith introduced me to these, gosh, back in high school or early in college? Anyways, spawned an immediate love for John Woo and Chow Yun Fat that's made me sit through total crap like MI II and Bulletproof Monk & The Replacement Killers. So apparently I can watch something based on pure recommendation, but it's rare and usually involves someone watching it with me while I'm at their house. Or Jerrod's house. Review: Love them both, must see the opening shoot-out of Hard Boiled and the ending shoot-out of The Killer. Of the two, I slightly prefer The Killer, which has Chow as the sympathetic bad guy (vs. the brooding good guy in Hard Boiled).

- Mononoke-hime (Princess Monoke, Japan 1997): saw an interview with Minnie Driver where she was talking about it. Trust me, it wasn't Minnie; it was the animation. It stunned me immediately. That and that it was the highest grossing movie in Japan until Titanic came along. What's funny is that I saw the thing with Minnie and ended up accidently seeing Spirited Away 'cause it came out right after and I got them confused. Good mistake. Review: I absolutely adore this movie. It's just wonderful. Wonderful characters and mythology and animation. Spirited Away's great, but Princess Monoke's epic.

- Triplettes de Belleville, Les (The Triplets of Belleville, France 2003): well, I remember when it was out in NY and Mel saw it and had a mixed review and that it got nominated for an Oscar, but I got interested when I saw clips of it on Channel 4's top 100 cartoons list. Flatmate-Kevin wanted to see it too so I rented it. Review: beautiful and sad. Great music. Amazing animation of water. Not for most people.

- Ying xiong (Hero, Hong Kong 2002): I've adored Jet Li every since Lethal Weapon 4. The football scene in Romeo Must Die is priceless and he even made Kiss of the Dragon watchable. Of course, after Crouching Tiger, everyone was on the kung fu-wire work-fantasy bandwagon, but what made me want to see Hero was Jet Li standing and waiting for the arrows to hit. One of the few times I've seen a movie based on the damn promos. Review: I love it. I've seen it twice in the last year. If you haven't, why haven't you?

It's not even close to a complete list but this post is getting huge. It doesn't count British movies (Boyle - whose name I just found out) or Aussie movies (Baz) or even Kiwi movies (Jackson). And, yes, they all tend to be easy to get and not some really random esoteric genre flick. And it doesn't tell you about silly random reasons I've watched movies, like the fact that I watched Ginger Snaps because Lucy Lawless has an uncredited part in it. (BTW, in doing the IMDB search for Lucy, I found out she's in Boogeyman, so now I have to go see it. I mean, who can resist?) But it does say a little about my brain. Here's one I saved for last:

- Mariachi, El (Mexico 1992): saw it in class my freshman year at NYU. The Spanish made me feel oddly at home, but the movie itself blew me away. I have mixed feelings about Rodriguez because he butchered Desperado (except for the blood splatter) and I haven't bothered with The Faculty (beyond the first little bit - what crap) or Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which everyone says is crap, or Spy Kids but I love El Mariachi and his room in Four Rooms and From Dusk Til Dawn. But when I read the article in Wired talking about Sin City, I got so excited that it's one of the only things I've been talking about for the last week. White blood!!! I can't wait until June 3 to watch it, so I'm going when I'm back in NY. Period. oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Yeah, I'm weird, but so are you.

posted by Laura @ 8:02 AM