Super High Me (Michael Blieden, 2007) -- Much like Morgan Spurlock did with McDonald's in the movie Supersize Me, Stand up comedian and marijuana user Doug Benson documents thirty days of pot free living and thirty days of non-stop use to compare the effects of both. The end product is a light-hearted and funny documentary that focuses on two things: the conflict between the state medical marijuana laws of California vs. the Federal anti-drug laws, and on the other hand, the evidence that marijuana usage really doesn't do much harm. If you're knowledgeable with the cannabis culture development in California and its pursuance, it's possible the movie will be no more than a few weed-related jokes. But fortunately Doug Benson is a funny guy and he avoids the movie from being dense or righteous, while making it reachable for people who aren't really at all in the know about the whole legalization rant. 7/10
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) -- Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. Truly one of the biggest American classic road movies... which, in all honesty, sucked. I get the whole anti-establishment tirade the characters often speak about, coupled with the search for themselves and all that, but sadly, 40 years later, this movie can't stand the passage of time because it remains too conceptual of an era, too true and dependent on it, that nowadays it's just three hippies driving around and talking about completely uninsteresting stuff. There's certainly nothing 'easy' about watching it, even with it's relatively short runtime (95 minutes), the movie drags along scene after scene. The point of the movie today is to watch it and think "Hey, that's Jack Nicholson! He's always looked like a psycho!" 4.5/10
The Girl Next Door (Gregory Wilson, 2007) -- Based on the Jack Ketchum novel of the same name,
The Girl Next Door follows the unspeakable torture and abuses committed on a teenage girl in the care of her aunt...and the boys who witness and fail to report the crime. You can watch it as a true crime flick, or as a horror movie, though I think it works better if you lean on the latter, because as a true-crime flick it just doesn't work. Yet, it's not a scaredy kind of movie, but more of an exploitation of actual reality, making you think about it. Still, it's not about revenge, more like a lesson to be thought about, that there are sick people out there who are actually doing this to children, and this has happened before and it probably will happen again. There's many episodes of bad acting, and a lot of screaming, but the overall movie is pretty mediocre, even if the end leaves you wishing more harm would come to the culprits. 5.5/10
Helvetica (Gary Hustwit, 2007) -- A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. Like it so often happens with movies tailored by designers, this one is beautiful, it's esthetic and entertaining, even if it's a documentary about a
font, yet it's also a fascinating tale of design and it's implications. The fun thing is that they've taken the whole design, proportions and art directing culture and made it understandable and available to everyone, interviewing very interesting people who are very successful in conveying their passion for design and their conviction to make it work, and it doesn't oversaturate the audience. For someone who works in advertising, it's very good to watch this kind of movie, or for anyone else who works in design, art or is just naturally curious. 7.5/10
La Moustache (a.k.a.
The Moustache) (Emmanuel Carrère, 2005) -- Marc is sitting in his bath one morning and asks his wife, "how would you feel if I shaved off my mustache?" She doesn't think it's a great idea, for the 15 years they've been married, she's never known him without it. He shaves it off anyway, but when he sees his wife, she doesn't notice, neither do their friends, neither do his co-workers. Marc finally flips out, shouts at everyone, tells them he's tired of their little joke, and what do they really think. His wife and co-workers are appalled, what is he talking about, he's never had a mustache. In fact, he's imagining other things as well, or is he?
Borrowing a bit from movies by Michael Haneke and David Lynch, this relatively unknown French movie presents a highly engaging and intentionally confusing story that seems to be a psychological drama more than the identity riddle it tries to be. The movie is quite illogical, but in all its confusion, it's the type of movie that make speople think and discuss about it, yet the existence of many plot holes just work to make the movie more confusing, and that I don't appreciate too much, since it's hard to form a story when you have to assume so much. Still, fun to watch, and great to discuss. 7.5/10
We Need to Talk about Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011) -- Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. This non-linear movie is on one hand about the struggles of a mother who has to raise a child she apparently didn't want, and who is a very manipulative and psychopathic son at that, and on the other hand, the same woman having to live her life during the aftermath of said child's murderous rampage at school. The movie's title is exactly what was missing in the family, and for the most part of it, we see the mother's inability to remake her life, while having to live with the knowledge that she never did anything about it, thus, she also has blood on her hands.
This movie itself has a very limited audience, though the way Tilda Swinton wears defeat and guilt as a mask, as well as her willingness to isolate herself make her worthy, in my opinion, of an Oscar nomination at the very least. Keep in mind, despite being a very good movie, it's a downer and very sad and depressing. Still, I liked it. 8/10
) 
It still looks silly though. 
Or so I thought. 
