A movie that will punch you in the face

If you happen to be sitting around today, and you think you might be feeling a little too happy or optimistic and you need to take it down a notch, have I got a movie for you.

We saw The Wrestler last night (which is on limited release now but will be nation-wide in a few weeks), and it felt like the movie slapped me around for awhile before it just stomped on my heart with soccer spikes. Repeatedly. It was a story about a pro-wrestler, whose career peaked in the 80s (think Hulk Hogan). 20 years later, he's washed up. He can barely afford the rent for his trailer home, his only child hates him, and the only woman he loves is a stripper. On top of this, what's left of his wrestling career grinds to a halt when he suffers a heart attack.

Mickey Rourke's performance as the wrestler is totally genuine. I think it must be very hard to act in such an emotional role without making it into a contrived, Lifetime-movie type of thing. He pulled it off with sincerity. At one point, you even sympathize more with him than his daughter, despite the fact that his character is an absentee father.

My only recommendation is that you follow this movie with lots of ice cream and cuddly animals. Otherwise, you'll spend all night brooding over the cruelty and hopelessness of life.

Movie Sign!

The prospect of a good movie gives me a boner (I said it). If I see something that looks good, I HAVE TO SEE IT RIGHT NOW. And if I see some cheesy-ass preview, or Boyfriend's mom says that she wants to see National Treasure 3, I'm apt to snort derisively. Is this pretentious of me? Am I some sort of elitist? The answer is yes. Yes, I am a huge fucking movie snob. But I get a big kick out of the good ones, and this weekend I saw a great one:



Let the Right One In is a Swedish vampire movie. How cool is that? If you're into vampire movies, I swear that you'll love it. Even if you're not so into vampires, it's really good. It's an interesting spin on the vampire-as-seducer tale. And the gore isn't overdone in a lame Van Helsing way. And it gets you into the characters' heads. Mmmm, character development.

Also, there was a preview for another movie that I want to see, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas:



This is because I'm a huge sucker for Holocaust movies, as well. Call me morbid, but I've been hooked since I saw Schindler's List.

Let the Right One In is on limited release, so you might not be able to see it right now, depending on where you live (something else I've discovered that I love about New York is that it panders to my insatiable appetite for good indie flicks). Keep it in mind, though.

Look at this tangle of thorns

Apparently Lolita turns 50 today. This is my all-time favorite book for about a hundred reasons, and I think I've read it about three times now. I'm at that point where I like to open the book to a random page and read for a short bit, then flip through to another section. You bibliophiles know what I'm talking about.

So if you haven't read it yet, go pick it up. It's not even that long, I swear. Or, if you haven't the time for reading, go netflix Kubrick's 1962 version of Lolita. This is one of my favorite movies, as well. James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers, and Sue Lyon couldn't have been more perfect picks.

EDIT: Hm, apparently I wasn't supposed to use that pic of the book cover, because they replaced it with a huge red square proclaiming what a low-down dirty thief I am. Duly noted.