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Reviews
Breaking Bad (2008)
The Best Show On Television, Now or Ever
AMC has proved over the last three or four years that they have the most provocative shows on television. They have controlled the Emmy wins in the drama category, letting the Big Four know that they can hold their own on the battlefield too. This is all due to their two big shows, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, the latter of which is currently my favorite show on television. Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston of Malcolm in the Middle fame and Aaron Paul, as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively. Bryan Cranston has won three straight Emmys (all three years the show has aired) for Best Actor in a Drama, while Aaron Paul finally won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Emmy this past year.
The series follows Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher, who in the first episode of the show is diagnosed with lung cancer. Once his initial shock has passed, Walter realizes that he needs to provide for his family when he is gone. While at his 50th birthday party, Walter's DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank (played by the wonderful Dean Norris), turns on the news in time for everyone to witness him bust a methamphetamines lab. Walt sees the amount of money involved and proceeds to go on a ride along with Hank. While Hank is busting another meth lab, Walt waits in the car and witnesses one of the drug dealers escaping. They make eye contact and Walt recognizes Jesse Pinkman, a former student, as the escaping dealer. He later goes to Jesse's house, where they begin a partnership which becomes the focus of the series.
There is not a weak link to be found in any part of this series. Never have I been so stunned by a television series as when I first watched Breaking Bad. The writing, directing, editing, music, acting
I could go on and on. Vince Gilligan, the creator and frequent writer and director, had such a unique vision for this series, and it is exemplified throughout the show. The writing creates a sense of tension which is escalated by the superb acting that each cast member brings to the table. Bryan Cranston does not just portray Walter White; he is Walter White. It's stunning to see such performances from Malcolm's father. At its core, this is truly a story about a man's battle with cancer, and you see Bryan portray a sad indifference about his situation. He makes such a turn as a character that you almost wouldn't recognize Walter in the first episode as the same Walter in later seasons. He becomes so complacent with his condition that he takes risks he normally wouldn't and constantly shows us at every turn, that he is truly at peace and ready to die.
The supporting characters have just as much acting chops as Bryan Cranston, too. Aaron Paul gives an incredible presentation as a meth dealing drug addict. He makes you think he has nothing to live for and nothing to care about and then at times will show you that he really still is a little boy at heart. Anna Gunn plays Walt's pregnant wife, Skyler, showing us a concerned spouse, already mourning her husband before he is gone. As her suspicion builds as to what Walt could be up to during the endless amount of hours he spends away from his family, she begins to care less about her husband's condition and more about why he isn't spending his last days with his family. Dean Norris plays Hank, the DEA agent brother-in-law, who Walt spends a lot of time avoiding due to his newfound drug selling. Hank plays a great supporting character, hunting down a drug lord, who unbeknownst to him is in fact his brother-in-law, Walt. He becomes an even better character in the second season when he gets a real story arc of his own. RJ Mitte plays Walt's son, Walter Jr., a teenager who is afflicted with cerebral palsy. He is the most distraught about his father's condition and has some great emotional scenes, especially during the arc where Walt is deciding whether or not he wants to go through treatment. Last but not least is Marie, Hank's wife and Skyler's sister, played by Betsy Brandt. She is easily the most transparent of all the characters, mostly merely playing supportive wife and/or sister.
In conclusion, watch this show. If you have ever watched anything on television, you will like it. Hell, if you have never seen a television in your life, you will still fall in love with this show. The character development that results from Walt's cancer diagnosis is equally matched by the plot twists thrown at you each episode. This is a show to best all other shows and it is truly the greatest television show I have ever watched.
World's Greatest Dad (2009)
This is what Independent Film is made of
Upon first reading the synopsis for World's Greatest Dad, I was immediately reminded of the 80's hit, Heathers. Somehow it always happens that every ten years or so there comes a dark comedy centered on teenage suicide. Heathers started the trend and was followed in the late 90's by the not-as-good, Jawbreaker. The place where World's Greatest Dad differs from these two films is the lead character; Heathers and Jawbreaker both follow female leads that accidentally murder fellow high school classmates. The girls then decide to make it look as if their dead friends had offed themselves, planting fake suicide notes. World's Greatest Dad followed a different path than this, showing a father in a similar leading role.
Robin Williams stars as Lance Clayton, a high school English teacher who is attempting to hold on to his job, his girlfriend, and his son's respect
and failing miserably at all three. He is trying to be an author but has never successfully published anything. The first half of the movie is a hilarious spectacle of sorts, showing Clayton's son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara of Spy Kids fame), ridiculing and disrespecting him at every turn. Kyle is a high school student who seems to only care about being a pain in his father's ass. Lance does his best to bond with his son to no avail. One night while Lance is away at his girlfriend's house, Kyle decides to masturbate with a noose around his neck, accidentally killing himself. Lance discovers him upon arriving home and for the first time in the film, you feel genuinely bad for this man. After a painful and tear-filled goodbye, Lance sets Kyle's body up as if he had killed himself, writing a fake suicide note. The suicide note is published in the school paper, setting up the main plot line of the film. As Kyle's suicide note begins to gain popularity, Lance realizes what money could be made off of this. He follows up the suicide note with a journal, which gains national publicity. His life is finally starting to look up, and Lance is for once happy.
This movie showed a relationship which is rare to see so honestly in films; a father who dislikes his son. Lance was not just a father who disliked his son but a father who was trying with all of his heart to get along with his son and have a genuine friendship with him. I was taken on a roller coaster of emotion while watching this and was ultimately reminded exactly why dark comedy is one of my favorite genres. Seeing Robin Williams in a high-quality movie was certainly a breath of fresh air as well. As of late, it all but appeared that he had forgotten how to select roles. He was completely believable and very likable as a grieving father. Daryl Sabara was surprisingly good in the supporting actor role, playing an angry, moody teenager. Struggling to make the transition from child actor to adult actor, I can only hope that this part will have helped him to get there.
Overall, I found this movie to be incredibly entertaining and utterly enlightening. I wish that movies like this would get more mainstream attention; after watching a movie as good as this, I am always reminded what a small percentage of the population is interested in an intellectual movie experience as opposed to a visual one. If you are a part of that small percentage, then look no further.
Reign Over Me (2007)
Adam Sandler is no Jim Carrey
When you think of Adam Sandler, you think of the comedies that you grew up with, the potty humor and the cheap laughs that he gave you. One thing that you do not think of right away is great dramatic acting. While he has dabbled a bit in dramatic acting with Punch Drunk Love and Spanglish, his characters from movies such as Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore generally seem to come to mind first. After seeing this movie, it became clear to me that Adam Sandler has a mild form of what I like to refer to as the Jim Carrey disorder. When Jim Carrey first became a household name in the 90's, he was popular for his character acting and his over-the-top comedy style. He began to test his dramatic limits with The Truman Show and The Majestic and then went on to star in one of the greatest movies of recent times Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Jim Carrey can be a very funny guy, but he is also an extremely underrated dramatic actor. He tends to choose the funny roles over the serious ones, and it appears that in the case of Adam Sandler the same can be said.
It was extremely refreshing to see Adam Sandler break out of his typical infant-trapped-in-an-adult-body role as a depressive recluse living alone in New York City. As Charlie Fineman, Sandler shined, showing us his true acting caliber. This role became much more powerful, because it was delivered from an actor whom you would not expect it from. Although there was nothing wrong with the performances given from the other actors, he was easily the best part of the movie. Don Cheadle portrayed a very believable best friend character, struggling to help Charlie come out of his misery. As he helps Charlie to grow and become happier, he, in turn, grows in his own life.
The first half of this movie was very, very slow. I found myself almost bored at parts but attempting to stay in the story because of my interest in Charlie as a character. Once Charlie begins to open up about his past and what had caused him to become the hermit he is, the movie becomes all the more interesting, bringing you in to the sadness that he must live with every day of his life. He makes you think about that what if; What if it was you? What if you were left to deal with that tragedy, broken and alone? What would you do? After watching this, I was left disappointed, knowing that the movies Sandler had come after this one were some of the worst of his career. While he has had a few other dramatic acting roles, I found Spanglish to be an overall poor movie and I have yet to view Punch Drunk Love, which is regarded as his best dramatic role. Now that we have seen he has the acting chops to pull off roles such as these, we can only hope he will decide to play another Charlie Fineman one day soon.
Saw 3D (2010)
The Return of Dr. Gordon and The End of the Series
Ahh, we have reached the end of an era. Regardless of whether we like it or not, Saw is the horror franchise of the last decade. I also read today that Saw is the third highest grossing horror series after Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. After this one though, who knows if it will surpass either of those. Jigsaw has joined Freddy and Jason (and Michael Myers) as a classic horror icon. Now on to the actual movie.
Saw 3D opens with the glorious return of Dr. Lawrence Gordon played by Cary Elwes, arguably the best actor to have been in the Saw series at all. We witness how he originally dragged himself out of the trap he was placed in during the original Saw movie. He proceeds to cauterize his wound on a hot pipe which he encounters in the hallway. While he screams in pain, the opening credits begin. We then meet Bobby played by Sean Patrick Flanery of The Boondock Saints. He is a public figure who has earned everything from publicly speaking about his time as a victim and then survivor of a Jigsaw trap. It is revealed very quickly that he has lied about this and he is kidnapped by Jigsaw (now Detective Mark Hoffman) so that he may be put through a real test. The rest of the movie follows him through his game.
The director Kevin Greutert kept many elements from the previous Saw films the same. Greutert is quite the veteran of the Saw movies, having edited Saw I – V and directed Saw VI. Knowing this, you would think he'd be perfect for this, but you would be wrong for the most part. While Greutert certainly has exceptional editing skills, his directing could be considered lacking. I want to repeat that the editing in the first few movies was very good and I found it to be one of the best parts of the film.
As these films have progressed, they have gotten more and more bloody. The first film had almost no blood in it whatsoever but as they went forward, they began to lack more and more plot and replace this with more and more disturbing violent deaths. We began to see this especially in Saw V, which in my opinion is the weakest link of them all, the newest film included. The end of Saw VI reminds me of when I first saw Dawn of the Dead. In Dawn of the Dead, there are a few slow motion sequences which really give you a taste of the Zack Snyder that was to come. There was one death in particular at the end of Saw VI which was extremely gratuitous in its violent nature, which unfortunately was just a fraction of what was to come.
The biggest problem with this film was that every death was ridiculously violent, showing entrails falling out of stomachs and limbs being ripped off while bodies were cut in half completely. This type of gore is not what I like to see in my Saw films because it distracts so much from the plot.
Overall, the story would have been a good one were the gore not so distracting in nature. The one thing which really made the film worth it for me was the return of Dr. Gordon. Without him, this would have been a complete pass. There was also a disturbing lack of Tobin Bell. Even being the title character, he was confined to two scenes. If you are a fan of the Saw films and enjoy the mythos of them, then you definitely need to see this. In terms of the history and back story of all the films, the ending truly does come full circle and complete the series. While the film itself was not very good, it really did finish the series as it should have. If you have not seen the other films and you do not know much about the characters, you're likely going to be better off skipping this.
The big question here is: Is this really the last Saw film? I think we can all agree that the likely answer is no. I could lean both ways about this; certainly, if this makes enough money, they will make another. It's a cash cow that I imagine they are not exactly ready to give up. From the ending, it is hard to tell which way they would go with this. It ends in such a way that if they leave it untouched it could be the perfect ending to the series. However, it is also left in a way that it could be picked up and continued. I suppose only time will tell what they will decide to do with Jigsaw.
With the initial six films, I generally have them in three categories: Saw and Saw II are exceptionally good and I would recommend them to anyone; Saw III and Saw IV complement the series but are not great stand alone films; Saw V and Saw VI are pretty much not good in any regard with a minimal amount of the trademark "Saw" twists. It is unfortunate for me to admit, but aside from the very last five minutes, this movie easily fits in to the last of those categories.
Skins (2007)
What Gossip Girl Could Be
Skins is a British teen drama following students going through college (which is British slang, appearing to be 11th and 12th grade). It is going in to its fifth season this year and continuing its unique trend of cast replacement. Every two seasons (or series, as they say in England) the teenage cast is replaced by another, younger cast about to start going through college and experiencing the same things they just went through. The first two seasons follow nine students as they experience sex, drugs, and teenage life. One of the best things about this show is how real it is. The students are put through almost ridiculous trials and tribulations as they attempt to survive their lives.
The thing that makes this different from Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, or any of those typical teen shows is the explicitness. There is nudity, drug use, curse words, you name it. These teenagers are acting like real teenagers. We do not just see their sappy little romances and their time at school. We see them smoking crack, having sex, popping pills. We see them doing real things. The best way that I can describe it is Kids meets Degrassi. It takes all of the good elements of the teen drama and adds in the things that American television is too scared to show you.
The wonderful thing about the cast is that they are all real teenagers. So many times in American TV shows, we have 25 year olds pretending that they are still 17. Every cast member in Skins is an actual teenager and I feel this helps them portray the character that much more. This show has launched the careers of some young actors including Nicholas Hoult (of A Single Man and the upcoming X-men: First Class) and Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire and The Last Airbender). Too many times I hear that it is impossible to create a great piece of film with primarily child actors. This show turns that stereotype on its head. I cannot recommend it enough.
The pilot episode follows Tony Stonem (played by Nicholas Hoult), a young and dashing Bristol local, who is on a mission to get his best friend, Sid, a shy and nerdy fellow, laid before his birthday. What follows is a hilarious and wonderful adventure wherein you meet the rest of the cast, Chris, a pill popping daredevil, Anwar, a young Muslim boy, Jal, a star musician, Michelle, a fashion-obsessed beauty queen, Maxxie, a gay boy seeking acceptance, Cassie, an anorexic loner, and Effy, Tony's younger, drug-addicted sister. The first two series follow these characters as they come in to their own and eventually are forced into the real world and off on their own separate paths.
Freezer Burn (2007)
Pedophilia and Independent Film
Freezer Burn directed by Charles Hood sounds like a good movie. A scientist falls for a younger girl and he decides to freeze himself so that he can wake up and be with her in the future. This was an interesting enough synopsis for me to place this in my Netflix Instant Queue. I would come to immediately regret this decision.
This movie is beyond indie; it walks the delicate line between an indie film and guerrilla-style shooting. In general, this is not something that I mind; I welcome indie films wholeheartedly. However, adding this camera-work to terrible acting and an inane script made this movie unbearable to watch.
It opens on Virgil and Rex, two scientists working on a way to preserve things in ice so that they might wake up later fully functional and just as they were before. After many unimportant plot points and absurd dialogue, Virgil eventually meets a 14-year-old student of his wife's and immediately falls into pedophilic love with her. He decides erratically that he will test his new scientific theories by freezing himself in order to wait for her to be the same age as he is. As you might have guessed, this plays out as the stupidest romantic ploy in the history of film. Once Virgil is awoken in the future, this movie really takes a turn for the worst. Nonetheless, I will not ruin the end for you as you may want to torture yourself by watching this later.
I was slightly reminded of another cinematic pedophile, Lester Burnham from American Beauty. Kevin Spacey played that role beautifully, to where you were almost rooting for this poor man to hook up with the high school girl. It was to the point that you hardly even noticed it was a pedophilic crush. This was certainly not the case with Virgil. Throughout the whole film, all you can think about is how creepy and disturbing his immediate love for this ninth grader is. As well, Virgil took it much further than Lester did by freezing himself and forfeiting fifteen years of his life to attempt to be with (legally) a girl he has only met twice.
There was literally nothing redeeming about this film. The acting was awful; the script was full of plot twists that made no sense and sad attempts at quippy dialogue; and the camera-work was just appalling, appearing to not have any control over lighting whatsoever. I have sat here and endeavored to think of anything positive I could say about the film; all I could come up with is that I am thankful no one in this movie has yet to do another project. Another encouraging note is that this movie gave me hope. If these people can make a horrible movie as such and get it onto DVD and even to Netflix, then maybe I, too, can one day shoot a movie worthy of Netflix.
If you are an indie filmmaker yourself, then you may be able to watch this and identify with someone's first try at film. Or you may, like me, watch it and become mortified that this script was able to get any recognition, let alone money to endorse turning it into a movie.
TiMER (2009)
This is what Independent Film should be
What if you could find out the exact moment that you were going to meet your soul mate? Would you do it? Would you want to know? Or would that ruin the excitement of it? If you want to know the instance when you will first see the person who will make you happier than anyone else in the world, it will just cost you $79.99 and easy monthly payments of $15.99. However, we are not responsible if you are unhappy with the soul mate you receive or if you are upset by how long or short it may be until you find that one.
This is what the company tells you right before they inject the TiMER in to your wrist, a device which will start a countdown as soon as it is injected, a countdown to when you meet the most important person in your life. But what happens if your TiMER is blank? This is the dilemma that Oona is stuck with. A blank TiMER means that "your one" has not purchased a TiMER yet. Oona dates TiMER-less guy after TiMER-less guy, convincing them all to get TiMER's and over and over seeing their TiMER's light up with numbers while hers remains dim and blank. She then meets a boy named Mikey whose TiMER has four months left on the clock. As they begin to hit it off despite mismatching TiMERs, they begin to question: is the TiMER always right? Emma Caufield shines beautifully as Oona, a woman desperate to know that she even has a soul mate out there in the world. I had never seen or heard of this actress before, but I found that she has a small cult following from her years on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While I am not a fan of that show, I know that anyone associated with Joss Whedon is always spectacular. The character of Oona was extremely reminiscent of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Tom from (500) Days of Summer. Both Tom and Oona share a hopeless sense of romance, wearing their hearts on their sleeves, anxiously searching for someone to hold on to for the rest of their life. In addition, both actors excelled wonderfully in their roles, showing the determination of a person on a mission for love and the depression of a person who has given up on their search for "their one." The supporting crew was just as stellar as the lead. Michelle Borth played the role of Steph, a cynical, yet supportive sister excruciatingly well. The movie gave just enough focus to her character that we were able to understand reasons for her cynicism and exactly what was going inside her head. John Patrick Amedori, an actor little known aside from a few episodes of Gossip Girl, played Mikey, Oona's love interest and a very lovable young adult. Once again, the movie gave enough focus so that it was not just Oona who you get to understand as a character but Mikey and Steph also. Being able to glimpse more than one character's personality and motives made this movie much more enjoyable. You could see things from everyone's point of view, making each character much more accessible to the viewer.
The writer/producer/director Jac Schaeffer only has one other credit aside from this movie, a documentary short from five years ago. This film was so phenomenally written and directed; I humbly wait for Jac to do another film for us to watch. I do have to mention one more thing which I do not usually notice. The score of this movie was brilliant. The composer, Andrew Kaiser, seemed to match perfectly what the characters were doing and thinking to the music which was playing at the time. This music was just another thing that reminded me of (500) Days of Summer, but this composer had nothing to do with that film.
One thing that this film accomplished was to open up many ethical doors and questions, all related to this mythical reality and its TiMER. As stated above, is the TiMER always right? Would it not be incredibly more awkward meeting your soul mate and instantly knowing that they were as such? And above all, would you get one? Would you want to know or would you leave it up to Fate? All of these questions come in to play and rattle around your brain begging to be answered. Even now, a few days after watching the film, I keep contemplating all of these questions and more. So, I ask you: would you get a TiMER? As I am sure you have gathered from everything I have said thus far, I loved this movie. It was one of the best I have seen so far this year and by far one of the best independent movies I have ever watched. Looking through reviews of this, it appears that it has not been watched by many and not even particularly liked by those that have watched it. Nonetheless, I look forward to more things from everyone who was involved in this movie. I have drawn many comparisons between them already, but this movie was very much like (500) Days of Summer, only far superior. This is because TiMER had a hint of science fiction integrated what with the idea of having a TiMER strapped to one's wrist. This combination of romance and sci-fi was a match made in heaven.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Adam Sandler is no Jim Carrey
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson who would later bring us There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love was an offbeat romance starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. Sandler played Barry Egan, a small-business owner who is attempting to deal with anger and depression issues while keeping all seven of his sisters off of his back. The movie drew me in right away because of the somewhat bizarre opening. It began with and maintained a somewhat quiet nature with minimal dialogue and music. While it was a bit slow, the story was interesting enough to keep me watching.
As Egan, Sandler has been reviewed very strongly. While I do agree that as with Reign Over Me, Sandler had a great departure from his medium and did well in the dramatic field, he played Charlie Fineman (from Reign Over Me) much better than that of Barry Egan. Barry had wonderful and intense explosions of emotion, but it was nothing compared to that of Charlie's deep depression and self-inflicted amnesia. However, watching Sandler play Barry Egan certainly strengthened my belief in him as a dramatic actor. From now on, I will follow him blindly down the road to any role he so chooses. Emily Watson did the best she could in her small supporting actress role as his love interest. I have not had the opportunity to see her in other films, but based on this, I would not be opposed to watching her in a starring role. As well, Phillip Seymour Hoffman had a brief cameo and as he always does, greatly excelled.
In terms of directorial style, there were a few things similar between this and There Will Be Blood, a movie which you would not think to compare this to. One thing that P.T. Anderson did in both was build a very slow and weird beginning, not letting viewers know what to think about the movie initially. Another quality found in both was the rise of aggression and power which the lead actors experience throughout the movie. It grows and grows until it boils over, exploding at which point the lead then becomes happier and more complacent than at the start of the film. Unfortunately, these are the only two of his films which I have seen so I cannot make much of a comparison to any of his others.
Overall, this felt like the last few movies I have watched. I appreciated the effort and I saw qualities in it that I liked, but I just did not like it that much. I can understand all of the acclaim that it received though; it was a big first for Adam Sandler, playing a more dramatic role than in previous films. In addition, it was a well put together film and as I said above a well directed film. If you are a fan of indie feeling romances with a hint of the strange, then this is for you. Think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a much more indie feel.
Eraserhead (1977)
Weirdness Exmeplified
Eraserhead is the first feature length film from writer/director David Lynch, who has brought us Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. While I have heard great things about both of those films and Mr. Lynch in general, this was the first of his movies that I took the time to watch. If I only had one word to describe this movie, it would be bizarre. One type of movie that I am always a huge fan of is bizarre, but this film took it way over the edge. It took the weirdness so far that it distracted from the plot which there was not much of anyway. David Lynch has gone on record as saying that no one has ever gotten the true meaning of the film and that he likes it that way.
Jack Nance starred as Henry Spencer, a man living among many peculiar people, who must learn to survive after his child is born as a deformed mutant. In a very Stanley Kubrick manner, the first ten and a half minutes of the film were silent. Throughout the film, there were cut scenes of a woman with a deformed face singing and dancing. It was unclear whether this was a ploy to show Spencer's unraveling sanity or not; however, all I obtained from it was a very uncomfortable moment. To add to this, it has been reported that Lynch used a dead calf to portray Spencer's baby, making this movie all the more unsettling. It was shot entirely in black-and-white, causing it to appear much older than it really was.
At the end of this film, I felt incredibly creeped out. It took disturbing to a whole new level but not in a good way. All of the characters had extremely strange mannerisms and some were just scary looking. This movie came out in 1976, so for the special effects to have spooked me is nothing short of impressive. If David Lynch was attempting to create a movie so weird and disconcerting that viewers do not understand the plot and get nothing out of the movie yet feel almost violated by the oddities, then he did a great job. When taking everything in the movie into consideration, it appears that maybe this was his goal. The black-and-white camera-work, the troubling storyline, the calf corpse, and the woman with the deformed and engorged cheeks singing all seem to come together solely to create the chills moving up your spine. After seeing this movie, George Lucas and Mel Brooks offered Lynch directorial positions, and Stanley Kubrick even named it as one of his favorite movies. Lynch turned down Lucas's offer of directing Return of the Jedi, and instead directed The Elephant Man, which Brooks had presented to him.
In conclusion, all I can say is that I would not suggest this movie. At all. I respect Lynch's first attempt at a full length movie, and I saw several redeeming directorial attributes throughout. As I said above, his camera work and lack of dialogue remind one very much of Stanley Kubrick and cause you to focus much more on the character's actions and mannerisms. He also seemed to very successfully show you things without explaining them (i.e. the deformed woman singing), which is always useful in making a movie more thought provoking as it inspires the viewer to contemplate meanings behind visual sequences. So, if you are a fan of having to think very hard about what a movie means and being put off by some of the visuals, then this would be a great film for you to watch. Some would argue that it laid the stepping stones for some great psychological thrillers of this decade, such as The Machinist and Christopher Nolan's Memento. I will be completely willing to watch some of his other films, for instance Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive as they have received much better reviews overall. Despite all of these things, this movie was much too strange for my taste. It looks as if I may be mostly alone in this deliberation though.