Blue Valentine (2011) Rob's Take

I didn't want to like this. The first time I saw it I dismissed it as a bigger budget "mublecore" entry with some stars and fell asleep 3/4 of the way through. It's been two weeks since I'd last seen it and it happened to be showing at the theater a couple blocks from my house so I thought I'd give it another chance and see if it's as oscar worth as everyone was saying it was.

In short, Blue Valentine is a story of two peoples relationship spanning a few years time and the tribulations they face after they've grown from their time of passionate young love to a struggling married couple. This is not a complex story so saying anymore would be saying too much.Apparently Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams lived together in an apartment like a couple for a month before shooting and it shows tenfold. We believe that these people are actually in love and we're watching them as they figure all of it out. Add on a beautiful score by Grizzly Bear and you have a film peppered with chill inducing moments of admiration and heartbreak.

I would like to keep my one complaint with the film to myself because I see it as a spoiler and I don't think people know how deep this film actually gets. It's not as cute as I thought it'd be, I will say that. The end credits will destroy anyone who has sat there throughout the running time and let these two award worthy performers enchant you.

Dogtooth - Bryan's Take

There is a small line between fiction and anthropology. While most fictional stories attempt to create characters that follow human nature in a normal way, some of them attempt to make actual statements on the human condition. The Greek flick Dogtooth is one of them. Going into this movie I knew nothing other than the basic premise of youth growing up completely cut off from the world. This has been done before, even comedically in that Brendan Frasier movie that nobody remembers so I don't even know why I am referencing it.

Dogtooth is about teenage siblings who grew up in a world created by their parents, where they can never leave the house, and never have. I won't say anything else about the plot because experiencing this flick fresh is the best way to watch. What I will say is that the world in which these kids create is one that could easily be created by any mind raised in the circumstances. The things they do are instinctual human things that we do, but the context is different.

I was also raised in a suburban town where having kids seems like a business. Dogtooth is a commentary on how some parents have kids for the sole reason of having something to control. Obviously the movie takes it to new levels, but you can't help but see the parallels of a father forcing his children into sports, or the mother trying to raise her daughter to have the exact same sexual values that she had.

Dogtooth may be tedious to some, and I wouldn't even call it a film to watch for entertainment (although I was very entertained, but I am pretty weird I guess), but it is definitely one that should be seen for people who like talking about the world around them as it has much to discuss.

PUSHER (1996)

I wasn't completely sure what to expect from Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn's directorial debut 'Pusher', I knew it was a drug movie but I've seen a thousand drug stories played out either horribly or beautifully and thankfully this one fits in the latter category. I may not do real drugs and I've surely never been one to sell them but I can say that this is the most realistic film of this subject matter that I've seen to date. This is not a pretty film, sure Copenhagen is a beautiful city but this is the alleys, the clubs and the underbelly where all the rotten shit takes place. The dialogue is scary realistic and it's as if we're there, invisible but there, and we're witnessing these people go about their day to day. The film starts with a drug dealer named Frank and his accomplice Tonny doing their rounds and making petty deals to small time junkies, exchanging stories of sexual experience and joking not unlike two high school kids. One day when at their local watering hole Tonny joins Frank and informs him that there is a Swede outside the pub asking for Frank. The swede is a past cell mate of Franks and he needs a copious amount (200 grams) of 'brown' to bring back to his city and turn around. Frank takes a big leap in trusting the dude and goes to his drug dealer, Milo, and asks him to front the drugs and that he'll pay him back an hour after meeting with the swede again.

To go more in depth would be giving away the fun, fast paced hour and a half that follow these situations as Frank does everything in his power to come out on top of the situation. It's a brutal, ugly, realistic drug film that has earned it's place as my favorite of the sub-genre and I'm surprised it was under my radar for so long.