movie madness

 A little disclaimer before I write this: I have never read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This is coming from the point of view that it is a movie and nothing else; this will not compare the movie to the book in any way. Also, I would like to add that I am not a fan of mysteries in general (there are always exceptions—Sherlock Holmes is one of them).

             Now, set in Sweden, the story revolves around a journalist (Mikael Blomkist, played by Michael Nyqvist) whose hunt for the wrong story gets him set up, charged with slander, and sentenced to three months in jail.

            Before he has to serve his sentence, he gets a call from a member of a very powerful family who wants a disappearance solved (Henrik Vanger, played by Sven-Bertil Taube). As he learns the details of the case he’s to solve, a separate storyline develops.

            It is that of a young hacker (Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace), whose punk appearance (complete with a spiked collar and all) would be more commonplace at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert rather than a cliché character in a crime movie. There’s more to this computer genius/Goth girl than meets the eye though, as we quickly learn that for some reason, this twenty-four year old needs a probationary guardian—and her new one is a sexually depraved, misogynistic control freak.

            Lisbeth’s latest job involved digging up information on Blomkist, that she gives to Henrik Vanger—and I will have to continue to use both his first and last name, as there are quite a few Vanger’s in this movie, and it gets confusing fast.

            Lisbeth ends up monitoring Blomkist out of personal interest, and you don’t have to have read the book or even be remotely smart to know that this is leading to a partnership—first on the case, then in much more intimate ways.

            While the personal aspects of the movie are pretty predictable, the crime-related details are much less so.

            The movie does a good job of what it’s supposed to do: keep you interested by introducing more questions than you think it will be able to answer. A dysfunctional (to say the least) family embroiled in Nazism, murder, and sex sets up the perfect backdrop for a murder mystery, as there are just so many suspects and motives to choose from.

            One scene shows Blomkist making a family tree of the Vanger’s on his wall; it quickly becomes plastered over a huge section of the wall, with lines connecting certain members, post-its to add notes, he steps back and looks at it, and at that moment, I believe he is as confused as I am. It’s an accurate portrayal of the sheer enormity of information he has to sort through. Thank god that’s his job and not mine.

            Noomi Rapace is absolutely brilliant as Lisbeth. She’s sexy in her boyish “fuck everything about life” kind of way, she’s strong, independent, and completely psychotic. Everything she does makes absolute sense, to a point. And Michael Nyqvist is good, very good, but almost overlooked in comparison to Rapace.

            The movie is called The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, after all, not The Aging Investigative Journalist with Kind Eyes and a Big Nose.

            What I hate most about mysteries is the inevitable fact that not every question will be answered. Things fall by the wayside, many things that the viewer is just expected to figure out on their own. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo does a pretty amazing job of answering everything it question. And then you watch the last fifteen minutes, sit in silence as the credits roll, and think to yourself: Oh shit. This is a trilogy.

Reviews for quite a few movies coming up, I swear, including

• Remember Me
• Inception
• Dorian Gray
• and more

Also, I take requests. Any movie you’ve seen/want to see/just want me to review? Pop a question in my ask box and if I haven’t seen it, I promise I will, and review it promptly.

Little Ashes, directed by Paul Morrison, tells the story of the early lives of poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the painter Salvador Dali and the love that blossoms against the backdrop of Spain’s tumultuous political years. 

Well-known Twilight actor Robert Pattinson nearly makes this movie unwatchable; an atrocious Spanish accent that more than once begins to sound very British, he, on occasion, captures Dali’s eccentricity very well. However, for most of the movie, I found myself wishing for more scenes without him, focusing on Lorca, who is played by Spanish actor Javier Beltran.

Beltran captures Lorca incredibly well, and saves the movie. Homosexuality at this time was not tolerated, and his hesitance and shyness about his feelings for Dali are enough to tug at your heartstrings, especially when his friend, Luis Buñuel, expresses his distaste for the gays in Spain, spitting out the slur “maricon” at the sight of them. 

As Lorca and Dali begin to grow closer, they leave to the seaside town of Cadaques, and find that their feelings for each other are more than just that of friendship. It is perhaps the most believable and poignant (as anybody familiar with the actual history of Lorca and Dali will know) part of the movie. It is ruined, however, by Lorca’s reading of his poetry. Most beautiful in its original Spanish, every time Lorca reads his poetry, his deep, beautiful voice is marred by a voiceover in English.

That is probably the most upsetting part of the movie. Why not just use English subtitles?

Despite Pattinson’s less than stellar acting abilities, they have great chemistry, which peaks during a scene where they have rather physical contact. Their relationship was infamously never consummated, but the sexual tension between them is illustrated in an incredible scene where Lorca and Dali are reunited after spending awkward months apart, and Magdalena, Lorca’s friend who is in love with him, desperately tries to seduce him. She sees that Dali and Lorca were compromised, but she doesn’t care, and Lorca and Magdalena have sex while Dali watches.

Most of the acting, with an exception of Pattinson, is spot-on, and all in all, it’s a beautifully done movie- very aesthetically pleasing.

I do recommend a slight knowledge of Lorca, Dali, and Buñuel during the fascist years of Spain before watching this movie, but it’s not necessary.

Spectacular supporting performances by Marina Gatell and Matthew McNulty as well.

I feel like werewolf movies are so terrible, and that’s a damn shame.
Every single werewolf movie I’ve seen has been ruined by bad acting, bad effects, bad plot, you name it. Is it because due to the failure of most werewolf movies, it’s too hard to get a decent actor, or a decent budget?

Take recent movies like Blood and Chocolate, Skinwalkers, Underworld, Van Helsing, or Cursed. Is it because werewolves are just not as sexually appealing or attractive as their fictional counterparts, vampires, are?

Many different directors have taken a lot of different approaches to how the werewolf is portrayed. Blood and Chocolate, a terrible film, had a good idea by making their werewolves look like regular wolves, but ruined it by the ridiculous transformation sequence. A person jumps into the air, is surrounded by a white light, and bam. You get a wolf.

And then look at movies like Skinwalkers and Underworld, where werewolves undergo painful looking transformations, look like hideous beasts, and for the most part, are portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters.

In cinema, it’s not hard to find the good vampire, the decent one, but how often do you see the attractive, kind werewolf?

Even benevolent characters such as Harry Potter’s Remus Lupin was unable to control himself and turned on his friends when he transformed.

Can you blame it on werewolf lore, where the beasts are never portrayed
in a kind light? The same can be said about vampires, but it’s much easier to turn a vampire into a hero than a werewolf.

Are werewolf movies just poor, under-appreciated examples of cinema?

If anyone wants to let me know about a decent werewolf movie, free to email me, and I’d love to write something about it, but until now, I’m afraid my opinions of werewolf movies don’t have a very good outlook.

Until next time!

Just last night, I watched Love And Other Disasters. I don’t believe it was ever released in the U.S., but it opened in the U.K. and France.

The movie stars Brittany Murphy (I usually can’t stand her, but she comes off surprisingly adorable here) as a cutesy, matchmaking American intern (nicknamed Jacks) working at U.K. Vogue, living with her gay roommate, Peter (played by Matthew Rhys, who coincidentally plays a gay man in the show Brothers and Sisters). Throw in the mix her eccentric, insane yet lovable best friend Tallulah, the hot Argentinian Paolo, and you’ve got yourself a surprisingly perfect film.

Peter is an aspiring screenwriter, and he narrates much of the story, which is a perfect angle as to how the story is told. Jacks tries to set up Peter and Paolo, while at the same time struggling with her own love life without even realizing it.

The whole movie is very genuine, sweet, and hilarious. It’s not a typical romantic comedy, so don’t knock it before you watch it.

This is my movie blog:
basically, I’ll just be posting my thoughts and opinions on movies I’ve seen, info about upcoming movies, snippets from articles on sites like Bloody Disgusting, etc.

It’s a movie lover’s blog.

My personal Tumblr is here, and there’s a link to this tumblr there.

Enjoy, and if you love movies, and want to contribute, feel free to pop me an email (zavalamariana93@hotmail.com) and I’ll invite you to post.