Day 5: The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

One of Soderbergh's low-budget films that he often does between big budget films like Ocean's 11. Set around the life of Chelsea, a high end call girl, during the 2008 election and economic crisis, the film deals with Chelsea's relationships with her clients including her 18-month "boyfriend" whom she lives with. The film highlights Chelsea's relationships with these men who pay to spend time with her to talk more than have sex. Each of her clients advise her on how to invest/save her money to survive the economic crises, and who to vote for in the upcoming election.

Shot in a quasi-documentary style, the film focuses on Sasha Grey's portrayal of Chelsea, often focusing on her face for the majority of a scene. Despite being a 21-year-old porn star, Sasha is able to portray Chelsea's sense of curiosity and interest while concealing her true emotions, and Chelsea is clearly in control off all her relationships.

The film pays no attention to linear progression, jumping around among various days with no way of knowing how much time has passed, which creates confusion especially since we often only see/hear tidbits from each of her encounters. Despite this, most likely intentional, confusion, the film presents a cold look at not only the life of a high-end call girl, but also of the men who seek comfort and escape in paid conversation. Soderbergh's style that he presented in Sex, Lies and Videotapes continues to be visible in his smaller works like this one.

Day 4: Defendor (2009)

An indie Canadian film that I had hoped to see when it screened at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, but I was busy during the screening, so only getting around to seeing it now.

Defendor stars Woody Harrelson as a mentally-slow man who dons the persona of Defendor to do his duty to protect his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario from Captain Industry (a childhood misunderstanding of the term captains of industry. While the film aims to capture on the superhero genre, it ends up falling flat as it is unable to smoothly integrate the elements of comicbook spoofing, crime drama and a mental-health story. While Harrelson's performance carries the movie preventing it from being a total waste of time, but it's not enough to warrant viewing the film in the first place.

Day 3: The Final Destination (2009)

The final destination series has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and I had yet to see this "final" film in the series. Sadly the film decided to try and captivate on the 3D fad (or what I really hope is a fad), which does not carry over the 2D DVD version. There were too many moments when it was obvious that effects had been done for the purpose of 3D that failed miserably in 2D.

I have no expectations for any film in this series, aside from enjoying the overly complicated manners in which they kill off the characters. It is simple trashy drivel, but that's the point of a guilty pleasure, isn't it?

Day 2: Tsubaki Sanjûrô / Sanjuro (1962)

Another Criterion Collection release, of which I am an avid fan. While Sanjuro is the sequel to Yôjinbô, only one of the characters remains the same - the ronin played by Mifune - so I was not too worried about not having seen Yôjinbô first. Espicially considering that Yôjinbô has been remade numerous times, of which many I've seen, from A Fistful of Dollars, which is the same exact story line, to Lucky Number Slevin, which follows roughly the same plot. That being said, Sanjuro can easily be viewed on its own.

What needs to be said about a Kurosawa film? Especially one starring the great Mifune. The film is much slower than the average American Hollywood film - I can't even imagine the ASL of this film. While this slowness is often frustrating, it's part of the experience and I try to keep patient and enjoy the film. I was surprised by the lack of deaths, as the ronin often fought with his samurai still sheathed, and simply knocked them out and by the lack of blood, with one notable exception.

Not much else to say. Kurosawa's films speak for themselves.

Day 1: Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009)

My brother was bugging me for days to rent and watch this film. I was as hesitant to watch it as I'm sure most of you are by the title, but I'm glad I did. It was a highly enjoyable, stylized britcom filled with cheeky campy horror humour. It's not highbrow humour, but at the same time, it's not trashy lowbrow humour, if anything it's high end lowbrow humour.

Carmilla is a vampire Queen who lived 100s of years ago, and who happened to be a lesbian. She turned the women of Cragwich into lesbian vampires as well, but when Baron Wolfgang MacLaren vanquished her, she cursed the locals swearing that every woman would turn into a lesbian vampire on the eighteenth birthday. Only the last descendant of MacLaren could revive Carmilla, allowing her to be killed and ending the curse. The last descendant happens to be one of out two protagonists who end up in Cragwich in an attempt to relax. Upon arrival they meet up with a group of four female folklore students who are there to study the myth of Carmilla. The six of them, along with the village's vicar, must team up to defeat Carmilla.

I was quite surprised within the first few minutes of the film. It did not appear to be a low budget film, with good use of costume, sets, lighting and especially camera work. The stylized nature of the film that felt along the lines of Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead was evident in the first scene and continued throughout. The plot is basic, the acting is not particularly note worthy, but it was a fun movie with enough witty dialogue and funny moments to make me laugh.

The title is rather self explanatory: it's a movie about lesbian vampires and their killers. If you think that is something that would appeal to you, you'll probably enjoy it. If you think it's something you'd hate, you probably will.

A film a day

I am going to attempt to watch 365 films in 365 days.

Why?

I have long wanted to do this, and I have decided now is the time to try. In 2007, I started keeping track of all the films I watched on my other blog, and I was both surprised and shocked to see how many films I watch in a year. In 2008 I watched 181 films, and in 2009 I watched 129 films; yet over the course of two years that only totals 310 films, 55 less than films that I intend to watch in twice as long. My task is daunting, but that just makes it worth doing.

Why now?

It just seems like a good time to start. I graduate from my undegrad in a week, with a dual major in History and Film. Looking back over the last two years I realize that a lot of the films I've seen are in Film classes, and since I have decided to pursue law school and not an MA in Film, I am going to lost a lot of film viewing. The idea that I'll watch significantly less films this year over the last two does not sit well with me, so this is my attempt to fill that void. As well, I am an avid TV viewer, but with the last season finale airing on the 27th (DAY 1), I figured it was best to get this started and get into the rhythm of things when I didn't have TV to distract me from it.

Rules:

1) I will watch at least 1 film a day for a year (from May 27th, 2010 to May 27th, 2011).

2) If for some reason I can't watch a film one day, I must catch up by watching two films another day following the day I couldn't watch it. (Meaning that I can't stock up by viewing 5 films one day and then skipping 5 days.)

3) I will post something about the films on this blog. It may be as little as one sentence, though hopefully it will often be more. I realize that 2 hours a day is already a lot of time out of my life to devote to this, I'm not sure how much I can devote to writing lengthy film reviews, but I will post something.

End

That's pretty much it. I'm aware that it is highly likely that I'll not finish, but I have to try, and so we begin...