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I have nothing Profound to say about Dark Knight, just that I enjoyed it and wish I had been able to see it on the big screen. Heath Ledger and Thank You for Smoking guy turned in amazing performances. I was a little confused when Katie Holmes turned into Maggie Gyllenhall, so much so that I didn't realize they were the same character for far too much of the movie. My favorite part of the movie was that one beautiful and surprising moment of grace, when the tension has been building and building on both ferries and the prisoner takes the detonator and instead of triggering it, he throws it out the window and then the businessman on the other ferry chooses not to detonate the bomb either. In a movie that I found unremittingly dark, with violence and horror that constantly escalated, this was a wonderful bit of counterpoint that kept the movie from being entirely too fatalistic.
Preaching to the Perverted was an uneven movie but an enjoyable one. It's another of those that we discovered while watching that IFC documentary on sex in films. There were moments that I would characterize as hot and as funny and as sweet and as emotionally touching, but overall, this movie didn't feel very cohesive to me. Or maybe it's just that parts of it bored me. I did like that kink and sex weren't necessarily treated as synonymous; I liked that people whose kinks and sexual practices marginalize them were treated as actual human beings (even if some of their scenes were often over the top); and I liked that the movie seemed to advocate a real balance of kink and vanilla, with neither approach to life and sex being demonized, but rather shown as complementing each other. Overall, a solid 3 out of 5 on this one.
Shadowboxer surprised the hell out of me. I had no idea at all what it was about. The only thing I had seen was a clip from the movie on that IFC documentary of Steven Dorff in a sex scene. I think this movie was uneven as well, but the things I liked about it, I liked so much that I think everyone should watch it. There are a lot of people of color in this movie and they are all interesting and complicated characters and none of them is the bad guy (with one exception) or the magical black man. We have a lot of inter-racial relationships, a relationship between a significantly older woman and a much younger man (yay!), older people portrayed as legimately sexual beings, and people of varying sizes and shapes treated as people (not the comic relief or the supportive fat friend who lives vicariously through the heroine's exploits). Macy Gray kicked ass in this movie; her character was so funny and off the wall. And Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr., pretty much chewed up the scenery every time they were on the screen. Yes, you read that right. Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr. *fans face* Go watch. Now. (Be advised that this is a violent movie with references to and one short depiction of child abuse.)
Preaching to the Perverted was an uneven movie but an enjoyable one. It's another of those that we discovered while watching that IFC documentary on sex in films. There were moments that I would characterize as hot and as funny and as sweet and as emotionally touching, but overall, this movie didn't feel very cohesive to me. Or maybe it's just that parts of it bored me. I did like that kink and sex weren't necessarily treated as synonymous; I liked that people whose kinks and sexual practices marginalize them were treated as actual human beings (even if some of their scenes were often over the top); and I liked that the movie seemed to advocate a real balance of kink and vanilla, with neither approach to life and sex being demonized, but rather shown as complementing each other. Overall, a solid 3 out of 5 on this one.
Shadowboxer surprised the hell out of me. I had no idea at all what it was about. The only thing I had seen was a clip from the movie on that IFC documentary of Steven Dorff in a sex scene. I think this movie was uneven as well, but the things I liked about it, I liked so much that I think everyone should watch it. There are a lot of people of color in this movie and they are all interesting and complicated characters and none of them is the bad guy (with one exception) or the magical black man. We have a lot of inter-racial relationships, a relationship between a significantly older woman and a much younger man (yay!), older people portrayed as legimately sexual beings, and people of varying sizes and shapes treated as people (not the comic relief or the supportive fat friend who lives vicariously through the heroine's exploits). Macy Gray kicked ass in this movie; her character was so funny and off the wall. And Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr., pretty much chewed up the scenery every time they were on the screen. Yes, you read that right. Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr. *fans face* Go watch. Now. (Be advised that this is a violent movie with references to and one short depiction of child abuse.)
