EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) Horror melodrama in which a plastic surgeon’s beautiful daughter is scarred in an accident, prompting him to kidnap a girl with plans to remove her undamaged face and use the skin to replace his daughter’s. This is, as far as I know, the only horror movie of the French New Wave and is easily one of the most beautiful horror movies. Despite its undeniable elegance, it’s quite gory with amazing special effects, notable for a scene in which the surgeon removes someone’s face on-camera. It’s a wonderful nightmare, memorable and haunting. It’s really amazing when elegant, philosophical directors make horror movies. I feel that way about Bergman’s HOUR OF THE WOLF and Kubrick’s THE SHINING and EYES WIDE SHUT as well as Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY and the many horror movies of David Cronenburg and Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. I love it because horror is such a meaningful and powerful thing and yet “horror” is an often-maligned genre, to the point that they try to call these movies “thrillers” so they don’t sound low-brow. I hate that distinction.

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)

Horror melodrama in which a plastic surgeon’s beautiful daughter is scarred in an accident, prompting him to kidnap a girl with plans to remove her undamaged face and use the skin to replace his daughter’s.

This is, as far as I know, the only horror movie of the French New Wave and is easily one of the most beautiful horror movies. Despite its undeniable elegance, it’s quite gory with amazing special effects, notable for a scene in which the surgeon removes someone’s face on-camera. It’s a wonderful nightmare, memorable and haunting. It’s really amazing when elegant, philosophical directors make horror movies. I feel that way about Bergman’s HOUR OF THE WOLF and Kubrick’s THE SHINING and EYES WIDE SHUT as well as Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY and the many horror movies of David Cronenburg and Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. I love it because horror is such a meaningful and powerful thing and yet “horror” is an often-maligned genre, to the point that they try to call these movies “thrillers” so they don’t sound low-brow. I hate that distinction.

HARVEY (1950) This is a very moving comedy about a charming man (Jimmy Stewart) whose best friend is a six foot rabbit named “Harvey” that only he can see. His family finds his delusion and insanity terribly embarrassing and tries to have him committed. This doesn’t go very well because he is far more charming than those who want him locked up. I tend to love stories that portray delusion and insanity as preferable to “normalness”. I suppose it starts with Don Quixote (I’d say this is a variation on that idea). But this is a hilarious and truly positive movie. I cry the whole thing just because it’s so cathartic to see a work of art so hopeful about the human potential, about the survival of beautiful child-like imagination that society and civilization often work so hard to crush.

HARVEY (1950)

This is a very moving comedy about a charming man (Jimmy Stewart) whose best friend is a six foot rabbit named “Harvey” that only he can see. His family finds his delusion and insanity terribly embarrassing and tries to have him committed. This doesn’t go very well because he is far more charming than those who want him locked up.

I tend to love stories that portray delusion and insanity as preferable to “normalness”. I suppose it starts with Don Quixote (I’d say this is a variation on that idea). But this is a hilarious and truly positive movie. I cry the whole thing just because it’s so cathartic to see a work of art so hopeful about the human potential, about the survival of beautiful child-like imagination that society and civilization often work so hard to crush.

17 notes

TO DIE FOR (1995) This is a revisionist noir comedy in which a rather confused, dim-witted, misguidedly ambitious and emotionally unstable woman (Nicole Kidman) seduces a teenage boy (Joaquin Phoenix) into murdering her husband (Matt Dillon) so that she’ll be more free to pursue her dream career as a talking head on the news.  I tend to dislike Gus Van Sant movies, but this one is one of my favorites ever. It’s rare, even in classic noir movies, that an actress can reach the extreme level of irresistible sexiness required to convince an audience that she could really get guys to murder each other for her. I mean, the choice is either to make the suckers who fall for the femme fatale total fools (which isn’t very fun) or just create a situation where everyone in the audience is thinking, “Yeah, I’d probably do it too.” Nicole Kidman really was special in the 90’s. Between this and Eyes Wide Shut, I’d say she holds up against the greatest Hollywood actresses of the past. Of course, it’s hard to see her that way now, knowing what she became later. This is an insane performance, the only way to pull of Buck Henry’s wacky and eccentric script. This is also Joaquin Phoenix’s first, and definitely best, performance. And Alison Folland is especially memorable as a friend of the teenage boy who becomes equally influenced and obsessed. It’s one of those inspired noir supporting roles that actually becomes the most memorable part of the movie. 

TO DIE FOR (1995)

This is a revisionist noir comedy in which a rather confused, dim-witted, misguidedly ambitious and emotionally unstable woman (Nicole Kidman) seduces a teenage boy (Joaquin Phoenix) into murdering her husband (Matt Dillon) so that she’ll be more free to pursue her dream career as a talking head on the news. 

I tend to dislike Gus Van Sant movies, but this one is one of my favorites ever. It’s rare, even in classic noir movies, that an actress can reach the extreme level of irresistible sexiness required to convince an audience that she could really get guys to murder each other for her. I mean, the choice is either to make the suckers who fall for the femme fatale total fools (which isn’t very fun) or just create a situation where everyone in the audience is thinking, “Yeah, I’d probably do it too.” Nicole Kidman really was special in the 90’s. Between this and Eyes Wide Shut, I’d say she holds up against the greatest Hollywood actresses of the past. Of course, it’s hard to see her that way now, knowing what she became later. This is an insane performance, the only way to pull of Buck Henry’s wacky and eccentric script. This is also Joaquin Phoenix’s first, and definitely best, performance. And Alison Folland is especially memorable as a friend of the teenage boy who becomes equally influenced and obsessed. It’s one of those inspired noir supporting roles that actually becomes the most memorable part of the movie. 

THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY (1994) This documentary is about the history of the unusual musical instrument the theremin and the lives of the people who have most famously been involved with it including the instrument’s inventor, Leon Theremin, history’s greatest theremin virtuoso, Clara Rockmore, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys whose “Good Vibrations” remains the only number one hit record that involves a theremin. Theremin’s story happens to be incredibly bizarre and interesting considering it involves a romance with Clara Rockmore and being kidnapped by the KGB and thought dead for decades.  This is one of my favorite documentaries for many reasons. The romance between Theremin and Rockmore is an incredible tragic romance story that takes 50 years to resolve. But it’s also a fantasy. Second, the live performance footage in this movie is some of the most beautiful ever filmed, mostly because the theremin is the most visually interesting instrument to watch someone play. It looks like magic, really, like someone casting a spell with their hands moving strangely in the air and producing the most beautiful sounds. Third, this is a wonderful movie about how unique and special things attract all kinds of weirdos who do more unique and special things. This is a movie about eccentric and truly special, magical people. It kills me.

THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY (1994)

This documentary is about the history of the unusual musical instrument the theremin and the lives of the people who have most famously been involved with it including the instrument’s inventor, Leon Theremin, history’s greatest theremin virtuoso, Clara Rockmore, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys whose “Good Vibrations” remains the only number one hit record that involves a theremin. Theremin’s story happens to be incredibly bizarre and interesting considering it involves a romance with Clara Rockmore and being kidnapped by the KGB and thought dead for decades. 

This is one of my favorite documentaries for many reasons. The romance between Theremin and Rockmore is an incredible tragic romance story that takes 50 years to resolve. But it’s also a fantasy. Second, the live performance footage in this movie is some of the most beautiful ever filmed, mostly because the theremin is the most visually interesting instrument to watch someone play. It looks like magic, really, like someone casting a spell with their hands moving strangely in the air and producing the most beautiful sounds. Third, this is a wonderful movie about how unique and special things attract all kinds of weirdos who do more unique and special things. This is a movie about eccentric and truly special, magical people. It kills me.

29 notes

DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) This is a sentimental and nostalgic comedy/melodrama about high school kids in Austin, Texas in the 1970’s trying to navigate the treacherous waters of teenage life. It’s a very hard movie to pitch because it’s a collection of small plots, but one of the most successful intertwining-subplot movies ever made. Freshmen try to escape and get revenge on the bullies that torment him (Ben Affleck in his first, and probably best performance as the worst of the male bullies and Parker Posey as the most brutal of the female bullies). Another teenager tries to decide if he wants to abandon his success as a football player for the freedom of weed-smoking hippie-ish life which feels more authentic to him. A trio of nerds tries to go to a cool party and fit in. A young girl deals with a womanizing older guy (Matthew Mcconaughey in one of his first performances and definitely his best). This movie could not be more impressive to me. The writing is incredibly nuanced and complicated but with an unbelievable appearance of effortlessness. The movie feels so effortless that I imagine most people who watch it and love don’t even realize what a masterpiece of complicated writing it is. I tend to dislike “slice of life” movies that tell ten short intertwined plots rather than one main plot. Usually the plots are all pretty weak with very little effort to intertwine them meaningfully and I get the sense that they thought bouncing back and forth between a bunch of short plots would be an easier tension-holding strategy than having to be imaginative enough to have constant tension in a long plot. It really does take incredible imagination to keep up tension and escalation for the duration of an entire 90 minute plot. Usually, they have a couple subplots to help, but even that is difficult to sustain. Most movies, even great ones I love, have boring tensionless sections that feel repetitive. Anyway, I can’t think of a movie made out of a collection of subplots that I like as much as this one. And the character writing could not be more authentic and complex. In this movie, characters subtly express their truest selves in almost every moment of action. I think Linklater’s direction is wonderful, but I wonder if the astoundingly beautiful performances in this movie arise from this stunning character-writing mixed with perfect casting. When you have characters this alive and you cast actors who perfectly emanate that character already, you get stuff like this. And this is a cast of supporting actors who almost all became much bigger stars later, many of them stars I find unpleasant. But this movie has beautiful performances from Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, and Joey Lauren Adams. It’s crazy. And all the actors who never became famous are so memorable and wonderful as well. The 90’s was an incredible decade for ensemble cast movies. It was practically a trend among the directors that did my favorite movies of the 90’s: Tim Burton, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Joel Coen, John Sayles, Guy Maddin. Even The Road to Wellville and To Die For have beautiful ensemble casts. Why was the 90’s not a time for great few-character movies? Anyway, the main reason I love this movie is for its nostalgia about the folly and confusion of youth, the drama of moment-to-moment life as a teenager, the extremity of feeling that one never regains. Though I will always experience things that feel incredibly romantic and certainly felt that sort of romance and drama all through my twenties, there’s no comparison to the emotional extremes I felt as a teenager. And though it was mostly pretty bad, I love to think of those old stories of desperate behavior and all the classic mistakes and confusions. So, when I watch this movie, which is pretty much a fun comedy, not heavy-feeling at all, I cry the whole thing. And finally, it’s one of the best movies about the subject of “coolness” and the search for a balance between coolness and authenticity. “Cool” is the most important word in this movie; it appears dozens of times, used in different contexts to mean different things, every character desperate to find its meaning. In one of my favorite moments, a stoner character tries to ask a freshman if he smokes weed by saying, “Are you cool, man?” The freshman doesn’t understand what he means and so, of course, bristles at this question. He wants to say “yes”, but is that something one can do, just claim publicly to be cool? And why is he asking? Is coolness not immediately visible? Does coolness begin with claiming you’re cool? 

DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)

This is a sentimental and nostalgic comedy/melodrama about high school kids in Austin, Texas in the 1970’s trying to navigate the treacherous waters of teenage life. It’s a very hard movie to pitch because it’s a collection of small plots, but one of the most successful intertwining-subplot movies ever made. Freshmen try to escape and get revenge on the bullies that torment him (Ben Affleck in his first, and probably best performance as the worst of the male bullies and Parker Posey as the most brutal of the female bullies). Another teenager tries to decide if he wants to abandon his success as a football player for the freedom of weed-smoking hippie-ish life which feels more authentic to him. A trio of nerds tries to go to a cool party and fit in. A young girl deals with a womanizing older guy (Matthew Mcconaughey in one of his first performances and definitely his best).

This movie could not be more impressive to me. The writing is incredibly nuanced and complicated but with an unbelievable appearance of effortlessness. The movie feels so effortless that I imagine most people who watch it and love don’t even realize what a masterpiece of complicated writing it is. I tend to dislike “slice of life” movies that tell ten short intertwined plots rather than one main plot. Usually the plots are all pretty weak with very little effort to intertwine them meaningfully and I get the sense that they thought bouncing back and forth between a bunch of short plots would be an easier tension-holding strategy than having to be imaginative enough to have constant tension in a long plot. It really does take incredible imagination to keep up tension and escalation for the duration of an entire 90 minute plot. Usually, they have a couple subplots to help, but even that is difficult to sustain. Most movies, even great ones I love, have boring tensionless sections that feel repetitive. Anyway, I can’t think of a movie made out of a collection of subplots that I like as much as this one. And the character writing could not be more authentic and complex. In this movie, characters subtly express their truest selves in almost every moment of action. I think Linklater’s direction is wonderful, but I wonder if the astoundingly beautiful performances in this movie arise from this stunning character-writing mixed with perfect casting. When you have characters this alive and you cast actors who perfectly emanate that character already, you get stuff like this. And this is a cast of supporting actors who almost all became much bigger stars later, many of them stars I find unpleasant. But this movie has beautiful performances from Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, and Joey Lauren Adams. It’s crazy. And all the actors who never became famous are so memorable and wonderful as well. The 90’s was an incredible decade for ensemble cast movies. It was practically a trend among the directors that did my favorite movies of the 90’s: Tim Burton, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Joel Coen, John Sayles, Guy Maddin. Even The Road to Wellville and To Die For have beautiful ensemble casts. Why was the 90’s not a time for great few-character movies?

Anyway, the main reason I love this movie is for its nostalgia about the folly and confusion of youth, the drama of moment-to-moment life as a teenager, the extremity of feeling that one never regains. Though I will always experience things that feel incredibly romantic and certainly felt that sort of romance and drama all through my twenties, there’s no comparison to the emotional extremes I felt as a teenager. And though it was mostly pretty bad, I love to think of those old stories of desperate behavior and all the classic mistakes and confusions. So, when I watch this movie, which is pretty much a fun comedy, not heavy-feeling at all, I cry the whole thing. And finally, it’s one of the best movies about the subject of “coolness” and the search for a balance between coolness and authenticity. “Cool” is the most important word in this movie; it appears dozens of times, used in different contexts to mean different things, every character desperate to find its meaning. In one of my favorite moments, a stoner character tries to ask a freshman if he smokes weed by saying, “Are you cool, man?” The freshman doesn’t understand what he means and so, of course, bristles at this question. He wants to say “yes”, but is that something one can do, just claim publicly to be cool? And why is he asking? Is coolness not immediately visible? Does coolness begin with claiming you’re cool? 

21 notes

THE WOMEN (1939) Comedy melodrama about a kind woman (Norma Shearer) who learns her husband is having an affair with the hot girl at the department store makeup-counter (Joan Crawford). She decides how to deal with the situation, whether to confront her husband or carry on as if nothing is happening, whether to demand a divorce, etc. The story is told without any of the male characters appearing in the movie. We hear about their actions, but only encounter the women. This is a story about how women mistreat each other and claw their way toward what they want with just as much ferocity as men. These characters are bold and snide and clever and insult each other beautifully, with some of my favorite brutal witty dialogue. And if there is any movie that strikes me as powerfully feminist and empowering to women, it’s this one. Of course, I’m a man and I can’t really know or understand what empowerment means for women (and of course, it’s different for every woman), but for whatever it’s worth this is a movie that makes me feel empowered. 

THE WOMEN (1939)

Comedy melodrama about a kind woman (Norma Shearer) who learns her husband is having an affair with the hot girl at the department store makeup-counter (Joan Crawford). She decides how to deal with the situation, whether to confront her husband or carry on as if nothing is happening, whether to demand a divorce, etc. The story is told without any of the male characters appearing in the movie. We hear about their actions, but only encounter the women.

This is a story about how women mistreat each other and claw their way toward what they want with just as much ferocity as men. These characters are bold and snide and clever and insult each other beautifully, with some of my favorite brutal witty dialogue. And if there is any movie that strikes me as powerfully feminist and empowering to women, it’s this one. Of course, I’m a man and I can’t really know or understand what empowerment means for women (and of course, it’s different for every woman), but for whatever it’s worth this is a movie that makes me feel empowered. 

STRAW DOGS (1971) This is a horror/noir/melodrama about a nerdy and condescending math professor (Dustin Hoffman) with a sexy, bored, and frustrated wife (Susan George) who go on a getaway to the Irish countryside so he can work and escape the tensions created at his university by the Vietnam war. His wife begins a dangerous flirtation with the rough local Irishmen which spirals out of control and leads to extreme violence. This movie couldn’t be more thrilling and suspenseful, but I love it most for what I see as its brutal honesty and willingness to face difficult human traits and desires. To me, Ms. Sumner is an incredibly complex and nuanced character, portrayed unflinchingly by Susan George. She is an unintentional femme fatale. She doesn’t create a violent situation maliciously or for money. She is after feeling, thrills, passion. She wants the thrill of being desired by dangerous local men. She also wants affection and respect from her husband. Sometimes she wants to lose control and feel endangered and sometimes she wants to feel safe. She wants her husband’s jealousy, for her husband to become a man, to protect her, to fight. She also wants the thrill of seeing her husband emasculated or even hurt/killed. And she wants to be punished for being who she is, for wanting what she wants. This movie is hedonistic in an unusual way. The characters act out of feeling, without thinking, and it destroys them. But there’s a unique and powerful fantasy to it. This one is high on the list of movies not to watch with a member of the opposite gender. It inspires arguments.

STRAW DOGS (1971)

This is a horror/noir/melodrama about a nerdy and condescending math professor (Dustin Hoffman) with a sexy, bored, and frustrated wife (Susan George) who go on a getaway to the Irish countryside so he can work and escape the tensions created at his university by the Vietnam war. His wife begins a dangerous flirtation with the rough local Irishmen which spirals out of control and leads to extreme violence.

This movie couldn’t be more thrilling and suspenseful, but I love it most for what I see as its brutal honesty and willingness to face difficult human traits and desires. To me, Ms. Sumner is an incredibly complex and nuanced character, portrayed unflinchingly by Susan George. She is an unintentional femme fatale. She doesn’t create a violent situation maliciously or for money. She is after feeling, thrills, passion. She wants the thrill of being desired by dangerous local men. She also wants affection and respect from her husband. Sometimes she wants to lose control and feel endangered and sometimes she wants to feel safe. She wants her husband’s jealousy, for her husband to become a man, to protect her, to fight. She also wants the thrill of seeing her husband emasculated or even hurt/killed. And she wants to be punished for being who she is, for wanting what she wants. This movie is hedonistic in an unusual way. The characters act out of feeling, without thinking, and it destroys them. But there’s a unique and powerful fantasy to it. This one is high on the list of movies not to watch with a member of the opposite gender. It inspires arguments.

14 notes

SAFE (1995) In Todd Haynes’s horror melodrama, Julianna Moore plays a woman whose mundane and routine life is torn apart by the appearance of a mysterious illness identified as “environmental illness”, an extreme allergic reaction to the modern world. She seeks haven in an isolated camp specifically made to shelter victims of environmental illness and finds that being torn away from her previous life allows her a type of rebirth. This brutal and sad movie portrays the world of people living empty lives, devoid of feeling, introspection, and authenticity. The protagonist’s illness seems horrifying, but it’s really the best thing to ever happen to her; it forces her to face the difficulty of escaping an empty, wasted life. The small steps this woman makes towards feeling and authenticity are heartbreaking and, in the end, it manages to be hopeful. Julianne Moore’s performance is one of the greatest. And this movie is perhaps the best example of the beautiful and short-lived inspired world of independent film that existed in the 1990’s.

SAFE (1995)

In Todd Haynes’s horror melodrama, Julianna Moore plays a woman whose mundane and routine life is torn apart by the appearance of a mysterious illness identified as “environmental illness”, an extreme allergic reaction to the modern world. She seeks haven in an isolated camp specifically made to shelter victims of environmental illness and finds that being torn away from her previous life allows her a type of rebirth.

This brutal and sad movie portrays the world of people living empty lives, devoid of feeling, introspection, and authenticity. The protagonist’s illness seems horrifying, but it’s really the best thing to ever happen to her; it forces her to face the difficulty of escaping an empty, wasted life. The small steps this woman makes towards feeling and authenticity are heartbreaking and, in the end, it manages to be hopeful. Julianne Moore’s performance is one of the greatest. And this movie is perhaps the best example of the beautiful and short-lived inspired world of independent film that existed in the 1990’s.

2 notes

THE MISFITS (1961) Melodrama about a wonderful and beautiful divorced woman who meets some over-the-hill cowboys who fall for her. She brings beauty and meaning into the lives of those she meets, but those people are poisoned by desire to possess her. It becomes clear that there is no one that can bring her meaning the way she brings meaning to others. After Monroe’s death, Arthur Miller wrote: “To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.” I think that quote best sums up the subject of this movie. Miller wrote the script as a vehicle for Monroe, giving her the one truly serious dramatic role of her career. She’s unbelievably moving in it. And it turned out to be her last movie. It’s one of the loneliest and saddest movies I can think of. Considering Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift are in it, it’s surprisingly unsexy. It’s a great movie about the worst qualities of men and the best qualities of women. I remember watching this filled with shame, relating so much to the mistakes the men were making, relating to their selfishness and blindness. It’s devastating. Also, I should warn you that there’s some intense brutality towards horses in this movie that may be too horrible for some. I don’t know if they harmed actual animals. They probably did. But the capturing of the wild horses works beautifully to illustrate how our desire to possess beauty destroys us as well as the beautiful things we long to possess.

THE MISFITS (1961)

Melodrama about a wonderful and beautiful divorced woman who meets some over-the-hill cowboys who fall for her. She brings beauty and meaning into the lives of those she meets, but those people are poisoned by desire to possess her. It becomes clear that there is no one that can bring her meaning the way she brings meaning to others.

After Monroe’s death, Arthur Miller wrote: “To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.” I think that quote best sums up the subject of this movie. Miller wrote the script as a vehicle for Monroe, giving her the one truly serious dramatic role of her career. She’s unbelievably moving in it. And it turned out to be her last movie. It’s one of the loneliest and saddest movies I can think of. Considering Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift are in it, it’s surprisingly unsexy. It’s a great movie about the worst qualities of men and the best qualities of women. I remember watching this filled with shame, relating so much to the mistakes the men were making, relating to their selfishness and blindness. It’s devastating. Also, I should warn you that there’s some intense brutality towards horses in this movie that may be too horrible for some. I don’t know if they harmed actual animals. They probably did. But the capturing of the wild horses works beautifully to illustrate how our desire to possess beauty destroys us as well as the beautiful things we long to possess.

6 notes

DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978) Romance melodrama about a love triangle between a rich and boring landowner (Sam Shepard) whose wife is seduced away from him by a hot broke farmworker (Richard Gere). This may not sound like much of a pitch. It’s all in the execution. Terence Malick is one of the more insane directors, famous for his dream like visuals and weird voice-overs. This one’s narrated by an eccentric, possibly mentally ill, child who isn’t particularly important to the plot. And there are points in the narration when she forgets what she’s saying or meanders on bizarre stream of consciousness rants. It couldn’t be more unique and beautiful and expressive. Also, this movie is famous for being shot entirely at twilight. In other words, they shot the movie for only two or three hours each day (while renting the equipment by the day). The movie looks like no other. And, finally, it’s one of the hottest love triangle movies. I’m in love with all three of them.

DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978)

Romance melodrama about a love triangle between a rich and boring landowner (Sam Shepard) whose wife is seduced away from him by a hot broke farmworker (Richard Gere).

This may not sound like much of a pitch. It’s all in the execution. Terence Malick is one of the more insane directors, famous for his dream like visuals and weird voice-overs. This one’s narrated by an eccentric, possibly mentally ill, child who isn’t particularly important to the plot. And there are points in the narration when she forgets what she’s saying or meanders on bizarre stream of consciousness rants. It couldn’t be more unique and beautiful and expressive. Also, this movie is famous for being shot entirely at twilight. In other words, they shot the movie for only two or three hours each day (while renting the equipment by the day). The movie looks like no other. And, finally, it’s one of the hottest love triangle movies. I’m in love with all three of them.

3 notes