The Dark Room vol.2: Life Itself

Posted by Arnprior on May 20, 2009 in Blog • 4 comments

submit to reddit

Hello everyone. Urbangiggles welcoming you to the Second Edition of the Dark Room. This week I decided to choose movies that had a little bit of something you may not have seen before. Movies hat have a different take on acting and/or directing. Movies that offer a perspective on history or life itself. These movies you may have heard of or seen, but just in case, I still want to bring them to your attention if you have not. Let’s start.

 

#1:Elephant:
This subtle movie, directed by the great Gus Van Sant, follows two high school friends who decide to go on a killing spree. It is somewhat of a parallel story of what took place at Colu mbine which did freak me out being in school and all. Nonetheless, this is a grim and yet subtle look of how things took place.

 This movie is not an all out dramatic war or something. It looks mostly like a documentary following teenagers with their everyday lives in high school. These teenagers are exactly the sort of people teenagers we all know. Geeks, jocks, queen Bs, etc. But the movie comes across two characters, Alex and Eric, who do not necessarily fit into any clique. You then learn that they plan on doing something that will definitely change the lives of the students.

If you are familiar with Van Sant’s works, you would know that a lot of movies are told mainly through the actors and their emotions. That is why I love this movie. You are put in the mind set of these students (most of which are actors that have no training and they pulled it off beautifully) and following Alex and Eric who want to kill everyone in their paths.

Now I do not recommend this movie to everyone because there are not a lot of people that like movies this subtle. I watched it because, if you were like me and you were in school when the shooting at Columbine took place, you were scared. Elephant sort of brought those feelings back and started new ones seeing that sort of fear in a familiar such as high school.

You can see it here: Elephant

 

#2: Everything is Illuminated:

This nice little gem I bought on DVD a few years back and have seen many times since. It is a beautiful story full of history, drama and comedy. I definitely think everyone should see this movie and if you have seen it, watch it again. 
The story starts off with a Jewish-American man named Jonathan, played by Elijah Wood, who is a collector. He wants to uncover his family’s history after finding an old photo of a woman. He wants to find the woman because she had helped save his grandfather in World War II. So in order to find this woman, he pays to get help from a tour guide in Ukraine. This tour guide is an old man who travels with his pretend rap-star grandson.
Now they do reach the woman who lives alone. As the movie goes, she reveals things that open the old man’s eyes, who did not really like the Jewish even though he was Jewish. I don’t want to reveal too much though.

I urge you to see this movie. It is a great story about characters who find out things about their past to open their minds for the future. It shows that even through a history of anti-semitism, there can still be peace in the end. You will laugh, you will cry, you will love.

Watch here: Everything is Illuminated

 

#3: I Heart Huckabees


Ok, there are not enough words to describe how unusual this movie is. It is nothing like I have heard of or seen before. All I know is that it is good and there is Jason Schwartzman. Schwartzman, being the independent comic genius that he is, there was no way I was going to skip out on watching this.

 Schwartzman’s character, Albert, realizes a coincidence and he wants to know what it means. So he goes to a couple of Existentialist Detectives. These detectives want to spy on his every move to see who he is and try to make him realize there is something more to everything. He is then introduced to his “Other”, Tommy, played by Mark Wahlberg, who has a different theory that nothing matters so what is the point in life. So main question is, “What is life?” This is where some of the strangest things take place.

This movie, like I said, is very weird. It raises questions I am sure people have asked. “What does it mean?” “Are we connected?” This movie is partially animated to show these characters’ fears, debates, and thoughts. I did not expect this movie to be so vivid and so out of this world. Albert and Tommy raise a lot of havoc throughout this movie that makes it an even bigger joy to watch.

I Heart Huckabees is full of popular names and faces. Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Naomi Watts and some more familiar faces play a part in this absolutely wacky movie. If you are like me and love things that are unusual, this is your movie. If you have questions about the universe or you question everything, this is your movie. If you love a good comedy, this is your movie. If you love Jason Schwartzman, this is your movie. This movie is highly recommended to everyone.

Prepare yourself. 
Enjoy the craziness here: I Heart Huckabees

 

Hope you all enjoy the movie and please leave your feedback.

See you next time here in the Dark Room 

UrbanGiggles

 

 

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

No related posts.


4 comments

» Comments RSS Feed
  1. dutchie on May 22, 2009, 1:53 pm:

    So many good films to see so little time.
    Will watch one tonight, not sure which one yet…

  2. urbangiggles on May 24, 2009, 2:50 am:

    Make sure you tell me what you thought of whatever one you choose :)

  3. dutchie on May 26, 2009, 12:54 am:

    Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

    A still heavy subject brought in a reasonably lighthearted way but still doing it justice. A few recognizable experiences for me. I really did love it.

  4. urbangiggles on May 26, 2009, 11:58 am:

    I am glad you liked it Dutchie. I love how lighthearted it is as well, it made that much more enjoyable to watch. Later hon :)