wakewood (david keating)

i really liked the rural setting, all the ritualistic crap, the enclosed community, the re-birth ceremony and the 'brutality' of nature... the story is actually rather good, it ticks most of my boxes, and i actually liked seeing carcetti from the wire in it... but there was something missing, and i'm not sure what it is. i was entertained, but never felt i cared for anything that was happening on the screen. maybe it was a bit too obvious. maybe i've watched too many horror movies. well, i'm not going to stop now, am i?

Rating: 6.5/10

ginger snaps (john fawcett)

i know, i know, the script is full of cheesy bits (highschool, sexed-up teens, hallowe'en, shy misfits...) but they actually work and the film also has very original touches. i love the fact that she grows a tail. well, more than i love it, i'm jealous of it, really.  and their photo project portraying themselves dead in gruesome accidents is amazing (by far my favourite bit of the film!). all in all great fun to watch, cool idea, entertaining, gruesome... i love the younger sister, she's so believable. i would have liked the make-up effects to be a bit more subtle, but i think that's the way it goes with horror films nowadays...

Rating: 8/10

the autobiography of alice b. toklas (gertrude stein)

this was a strange one for me. i love the playfulness of the title: is it really an autobiography? but it's two different people! and i love the period in history, and the subject matter. but somehow it didn't work for me. i didn't like the style (even though i learnt to tolerate it), i found all the 'and then i did this, and then i saw that, and afterwards i did something else' rather tedious. and the name dropping too. here i had some amazing historical characters in front of me, and i finished the book without knowing anything about them. especially about the relationship between gertrude and alice. but i quite liked the bit about the war, and the final paragraph, as well as some witticisms here and there; but as a whole, i'm not really convinced. i'm glad i've read it, though.

Rating: 5/10

aguirre: the wrath of god (werner herzog)

whenever someone decides to write a list with 'the best movies of all time', or something of the like, 'aguirre' always makes at least the top 100, if not the top 10. well, no wonder. from the beginning you have the feeling of watching something 'big', a grand story, something deep and transcendental. the obvious highlight of the whole experience is kinski's performance, not many actors manage to achieve such a strong screen presence. you can't escape his insanity, his crazed look, his thirst. the rythm is slow and poetic, leaving the viewer in a sort of hypnotic trance... a trance enhanced by popol vuh's beautiful minimalistic krautrock music (for me the best part of the film). plus, a film that features a baby sloth creature and a raft full of monkeys can't be bad, can it?

Rating: 9/10

society (brian yuzna)

there's something about the flamboyancy of the 80s that makes them perfect for horror movies. especially when the story is set in an upper-class family house. the interior design and the clothes are amazing! i'm a big fan of a background character (i don't think she even has one line), a friend of the 'bad' boyfriend. she has the biggest big hair ever. the story is good, even though it takes quite a while to unravel and when it does it becomes a bit of a teenage action movie full of cheesy fx. but all in all it's good, i like the idea a lot, that 'belonging to society', that 'being of the same breed' thing. fun to watch. oh, and did i notice a reference to dali's 'soft construction with beans' in the 'surreal' group scene?

Rating: 7/10

das boot (wolfgang petersen)

this film was on my list for many years, but i was always put off by its length (3.5h inside an u-boat seemed a tad too long for me). nonetheless, i was wrong. it's incredibly exciting! i really enjoyed it, this will probably rank amongst my favourite films of all time. it's so beautiful, and sad, and opressive and human. i love how it portrays all the aspects, not only the missery and the tension but also the joy, the friendship and the camaraderie... i felt very impressed when i saw they included a party scene with one of the guys dressed up like josephine baker, dancing like crazy... that was amazing!! directors tend to 'forget' that side of life on board... but my favourite part is how germans are not demonised, you change the flag and this could have been an allied vessel. brilliant, brilliant, brilliant movie. and such brutal final 10 minutes, too.

Rating: 10/10

paranormal activity 2 (tod williams)

well, obviously, don't watch this if you didn't like the first installment. but if, like me, you actually rather enjoyed it, this will not disappoint you. the idea of a prequel situated immediately before the first one works really well. like in the first film, almost every character is mostly annoying, but at least they are not trying to record every second of their lives with a handycam. the idea of the cctv works much better as a concept. i made the mistake of watching the extended version, and that meant i had to endure a rather long intro where i just found myself thinking 'oh, please, let something happen soon!'. anyway, once everything starts going belly-up, the story actually gets really good. my favourite bit is the kitchen cupboards violently opening themselves all at once... oh, and the cctv footage of the swimming-pool robot going for a stroll. but, whatever happened to the doggie? they never say!
on a side note, i watched this like a month ago, but completely forgot to write the review about it, and this is the first time something like this happens to me... maybe it was a ghost?!

Rating: 7/10