Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom - All I care to say about the vaunted film, simply known as Salò, is that director Pier Paolo Pasolini seems to relish in this, his sadistic, grotesque swan song — it's paced like he wishes us to savor what he made while he smugly watches from the periphery. It's also at least thirty minutes too long. Disgusting and illicit to the core, yet ultimately boring. Decide for yourself.
Blood Simple - A recommendation from a supplier to where I work. The Coens' simplistic cheatin' tale isn't always logical (one major gaff took me completely out of the movie for some moments) but it does own that parable-like signature that the tandem perfected and employed on No Country For Old Men some 20 years later. And in typical neo-noir fashion, it plays a tad on the surreal side to its benefit.
Shiver (Eskalofrío) - Director Isidro Ortiz of Fausto 5.0 fame (a film I thoroughly liked), has made a well-produced movie that is being sold as a combo-platter of The Orphanage meets The Devil's Backbone (if memory serves...I dropped the dvd off already) and it doesn't really disappoint if that's the guide you follow. As I think about it, it's almost a 50/50 split of the two with its own flavor sprinkled atop. Good, not great.
Snow Angels - Not only does it remind me, to some extent, of my own early small town existence (not entirely rural, mind you), but Snow Angels goes beyond simple comfort to tell a devastating story firmly rooted to the human experience. Though the film approaches the melodramatic fringe at a couple points, all is not lost as the swift retreat brings on the uncompromising emotions surrounding life and loss. Now it is a film from 2007, but don't be surprised if it finds its way onto my 2008 Best Of list.
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