Welcome dear readers to my new weekly post.  I figure that I might as well get something out of my otherwise meaningless quest to watch every film ever made.

Let the Right One In(2008)

I put off watching this movie for some time.  In a world where Twilight has ruined vampires Let the Right One In offers a ray of hope.  Based on a novel this Swedish film is the best vampire film I’ve seen other than Nosferatu.  The main character is a twelve year old boy named Oskar. He is struggling with life; his parents are divorced and don’t seem interested in him, he is bullied and friendless.  These things begin to change when he meets Eli, a girl that lives in a neighboring apartment.  I’m not ruining much by saying that she is a vampire.  It’s kind of hard not to realize immediately that there is something different about her when Oskar meets her for the first time.

Let the Right One In is a coming of age story against the back drop of a horror film.  It does a wondrous job creating mood.  The most impressive aspect is the acting.  I was really sold on these characters.  Oskar is played perfectly as an awkward boy with adulthood looming on the horizon while Eli has an air about her that is much more mature than her physical appearance suggests.

Unlike Twilight there is actually a point as to why one of the characters is a vampire.  In Let the Right One in it actually adds depth to the character.  How would you like to be trapped in a twelve year old body for eternity?

The only knock against this movie is that I wasn’t wild about the end.  It’s not bad, I just though it could have been done better.  That said if horror is your thing you can’t pass Let the Right One In.  I think other audiences could also enjoy it but be forewarned it is dark, violent and there is some nudity.  However, there is plenty to sink your teeth into.

Netflix Rating: 5 Stars

Drunken Angel(1948)

This flick from Japan is a product of the great director Akira Kurosawa.  The film features actors Toshiro Mifune as Matsunaga, a hard living misfit gangster and Takashi Shimura playing Sanada, an alcoholic doctor.   Sanada is a flawed but caring physician who looks after the local slum dwellers.  His specialty is tuberculosis which Matsunaga contracts.  Both characters battle personal demons and Sanada persists in reaching out to Matsunaga, who proves to be a difficult patient.

Drunken Angel has a noirish look and feel and a trenchant social message with good acting.  Ultimately I would have to say that I like this movie but it pales in comparison to Kurosawa’s other films such as Ikiru, Rashomon, High and Low, Seven Samurai and most of all Stray Dog.  Drunken Angel is probably best left for the real Kurosawa or Japanese film enthusiasts.  If anyone would like to dip their toes in this water the aforementioned films are a better choice.

Netflix Rating: 4 stars

Trafic(1971)

Trafic, a comedy of French origin is about a company trying to get a new state of the art car from Paris to a car show in Amsterdam.  Hi-jinks ensue.  Jacques Tati directed and starred in this as well meaning but clumsy Mr. Hulot, the designer of the futuristic car.  Hulot had appeared as the main character in earlier films such as Mon Oncle and Playtime.  Trafic marked the characters fourth and final appearance.

This film was a disappointment.  Tati’s other films like Playtime, Mon Oncle and Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday are comedic satire at its best.  They are all about different aspects of modern life.  Playtime for example is about people living in a maze of modern architecture.  They are films about finding magic in everyday life.

Trafic just seems like a mishmash of things thrown together.  My biggest problem was the character of Mr. Hulot.   Up to this point Hulot acted as a representative of the past hopelessly out of step with modern life.  He is almost a Luddite.  In Trafic he is inserted as a designer for a car company.  In lieu of the other films this made no sense and I could never wrap my mind around the idea.  It was as though Tati had this idea for a movie but could not come up with a more convincing way to get his protagonist involved.  Trafic still has some of the charm of the other movies but I say skip it in favor of Tati’s more accomplished films.

Netflix Rating: 2 Stars

Sullivan’s Travels(1942)

My favorite movies are the kind that take transport the audience into unfamiliar territory.  Especially if this involves some kind of ethical dilemma.  The best films are the kind where at some stage you have no idea where the movie is going next.  Sullivan’s Travels is one such film and it is quickly shooting up my list of favorite movies.

Sullivan’s Travels is a screwball comedy directed by Preston Sturges.  The protagonist is John L. Sullivan, a Hollywood director who makes comedies.  It is the depression era and Sullivan is fixated on the idea of making a socially responsible film about the suffering of unfortunate people, the poor starving masses.  He believes that he has some kind of duty in this regard.  However, his producers point out that he has led a sheltered life and knows nothing about human suffering.  He concedes this point and sets out to travel the country on his own to experience hardship firsthand.  Along the way he is joined by Veronica Lake who plays an out of work actress.  Together they set out on the adventure which proves much more difficult than you could imagine.

I really hate to spoil anything because although it starts out slow Sullivan’s Travels includes a huge plot twist.  It is also structured in an interesting manner.  Over all it is a terrific film and the one I recommend most of all from this week.  I should also note that in the movie Sullivan wants to adapt a book called Oh Brother Where Art Though.  This title was used by the Cohen Brothers in their film which they said was the film Sullivan would have made after the events of the movie.  It also likely served as their inspiration for Barton Fink.

Netflix Rating: 5 stars

So four movies down and 385 to go.  Tune in next time when for my reviews of The Apartment and Withnail and I.