A Little Movie Talk

I'm at home at midday, watching the zombie-- sorry, "infected" --flick 28 Days Later. There is no fucking way I would watch this at night, alone. Nuh-uh. Holy shit.

What makes it so effective is the seriousness. It's all so earnest and simple. If you woke up to find the world had suddenly gone to shit, how would you react? Danny Boyle's pretty fucking masterful at capturing human pathos. Always has been. Shallow Grave made that clear early on.

But Danny Boyle together with Alex Garland?

I have no idea why I waited five years to see this. I dunno. I've never liked horror, you see. Never ever. I think it was with the release of The Sixth Sense and then when The Exorcist was re-released that I started to realize that there was more to the thriller/horror genre than blood and guts. I still hate that edge-of-the-seat someone's-gonna-die paranoia that infects you for the 98-minute running time, but I certainly have more appreciation for the art of horror than I once had.

Nonetheless, watching it's a little too spooky for me. Still... GayBoy forced me to watch this. I borrowed it off WhippedBoy long ago and have been negligent about promptly watching and returning.

I should have known it would be a mindblowing movie, though. I love Alex Garland. I haven't read his latest book, Coma I think it is, but the three books I have at the top of my list are that, McCarthy's latest, and Haddon's latest. Garland is the first writer of my generation to really hit home with a writing style that I think evokes our time. For a lot of people in my generation it's Douglas Coupland. That's all well and good, but my mot de jour is better expressed by Garland.

I loved The Beach and Tesseract. I was pissed when I heard he'd abdicated novels for the land of film. I was especially bitter that he'd chosen to do it in conjunction with Boyle, who I thought had fucked up The Beach. Maybe it's time I give The Beach another try. And maybe it's time I finally have a George Romero viewing.

I have to say: I'm pretty excited as a movie fan right now. There's a lot of great fare to choose from. Transformers, Live Free or Die Hard, Ratatouille, Knocked Up, Sicko, Paris, Je T'Aime, Once, and so many more. It's been a while since the market was loaded with good fare, and not all shoot'em-up hijinks, either. And, hey, even Harry Potter looms.

And if I've never recommended it, I must say I am a wildly devout fan of that German flick The Secret Lives of Others. It's fantastic. What an incredibly beautiful and unnerving human drama. All the hype is true.

Well, time to get cracking on the homestead clean-up again. The boss is footing the bill for a big clean-up and I'm using the day to spoil myself. It'll all go down Saturday. I plan to get a haircut, go shopping for clothes and then foods, maybe see a matinee, and then go home to a spotless house.

I'm really looking forward to getting a little domestic help. It's so hard to get the house clean and then keep it that way. Maybe with someone else doing the dirty work I can enjoy it for a change. :)