Lately I have seen some incredibly great movies. I feel like I keep saying "that was the best movie I have seen." It must be the season though I think it is because I am living in NYC and movies are everywhere here. Movies that never get played anywhere else are here and incredibly tempting.
Friday night I went to see the film Candy with my friend Halim. I read about it in TimeOut and we decided to see it, even though it was playing in one theater on one screen Friday night, which is not usually a promising sign especially when you have not seen one trailer for it with as many movies as we go to. wow run on. I don't want to ruin the film or pump it up too highly for anyone who is interested in seeing but it simply was perfect. Think Requiem for a Dream just visually less horrifying with a much tender much more contemporary love story. The movie is a love story between two Australian young adults and heroin and it stars Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. Geoffrey Rush also stars in it as an amazing drug addicted homo. One of my favorites moments in the film, which occurs a lot needless to say, is that every time the lovers (or anyone) gets high, you hear an incredible cantus that fits so perfectly it's mesmerizing. The script is smart and beautifully well-written, the acting is dead on, and the film overall is wrenching, powerful, and ultimately horrifying.
"When I first met Candy, birds filled the sky" will stick in your head for awhile, even if you have never done a single mind altering drug.
Follow Candy with Volver and your movie weekend is a sure-fire first rate success. Almodovar's newest film instantly made its way to the top of my favorite film list for at least him. Volver is what I was hoping Bad Education was going to be; Great. Bad Education was too film noir, too neither here nor there, too gay and odd with the transexuals and all, and I don't know but it just didn't do it for me. Volver has an excellent script, excellent actresses, beautiful scenes (per typical though), and with 
a definitely impressive twist. And there is something about Almodovar's films that make eating and food an art form. There is also something about watching an Almodovar movie with an idea that you are traveling to Spain soon. Volver is a movie that leaps off the screen to take its
place in your dreams, Almodovar tells a ghost story that
manages to include lust, incest, rape and murder. You'll laugh, too --
wildly, helplessly -- because to Almodovar, laughter is life.
Is there anyone reading my blog who lives in Barcelona, Madrid, Grenada or eastern Spain? I am traveling soon and would definitely be interested to know if there is anyone out there. Email me.
I also saw Casino Royale. It was okay, or at least better than the last one, but it was barely entertaining. Or at least if they cut about 45 minutes out of the movie, it would have been. I thought Bond movies (given that I used to be obsessed) were about big explosions, fabulous locales, gadgets, action, espionage, and some fucking? Casino Royale had a scene that was nearly 30 minutes and felt long a Celebrity Poker episode (without having the shit beer in front of you). It also had a love story so intolerable I started texting. NOW THAT is bad. I have never done it before but checking my cell 4 times just to see what time it was was equally as bad. The new Bond is certainly a good choice, Daniel Craig is a lot more handsome and a lot more tougher and darker than all of the previous Bonds which is great. Especially when he is ordering his martini and the bartenders asks him if he wants it shaken or stirred and Craigs response is, "Does it look like I give a fuck?" Pretty good if that writing held through, but sadly it doesn't. Most of the other jokes come across as lame. The film had parkour in the beginning and so being gay I instantly thought of Madonna (lol) but it was one of the best action scenes in the movie which is too bad since it was nearly the first. The new Bond seems to be bringing the Bond series into a darker, more rogue, unruly, aspect of the character, all of which I think is great, but I just hope the next one is a lot more fun.
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