Recent goodies.
Though it's not
leaving May 1st, I thought it would be a good time to recommend Jeff
Nichols's 2007 "Shotgun Stories" as his "Mud" is now in theaters.
"Shotgun Stories" tells the story of a blood feud that erupts as a result
of two families' common father passing away. To one family he was a
dirt bag, even possibly extremely violent. To the other, he was a
born-again Christian. When one of the brothers (played by the
fantastically gifted Michael Shannon) from the former family says some
nasty things at the funeral and even goes as far as spitting on the
coffin, the tension between the families reaches all-time highs.
Beautifully shot, Nichols shows us that he's got an eye for making ugly
things interesting. In my opinion, it's much better than his similar but
different "Take Shelter." However, as with "Take Shelter," Nichols
seems to have a problem with endings. In any event, this is surely worth
a viewing to see where a soon-to-be household name got his start.
Park Chan-wook's 2009 "Thirst" is my second favorite of his (my first
is "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance"; the others of the "Revenge trilogy" are
pretty mediocre in my opinion). "Thirst" has a very interesting
premise: A Catholic priest becomes a vampire! He, of course, has a
difficult time with this. He eventually falls for his friend's wife and
turns her. The film then interestingly goes from a story about one
vampire's moral conundrums to a blood-spattered comedy of sorts. It's
not as good as something like "Let the Right One In"---actually, like
"Shotgun Stories" and "Take Shelter" it suffers from a not-so-satisfying
ending---but it is definitely worth checking out. Park Chan-wook is a
very gifted director from a country that seems to be full of them. Note:
This is leaving Netflix Instant by May 1st, so, hustle, yuns!
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