Antichrist

Is it unfair to judge an entire film based on about ten seconds of film? I don't think so. Imagine watching Casablanca and at the very end instead of walking into the fog Rick blows his head off because he can't live without Ilsa. Yeah, so ten seconds can make all the difference.

Antichrist is in many ways an excellent film. Well acted by Willam Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It is incredibly well photographed and has some very trippy scenes. I like the director, Lars von Trier, and I can say that "The Kingdom," is my favorite Danish TV series.

The plot is interesting. A couple has just lost their child. She isn't coping well, and he is a therapist. Well, ignoring that a therapist shouldn't be treating family he takes her to an isolated cabin in the woods do some intensive um.. therapy. Things go bad and soon there are many seemingly supernatural events occurring.

Now I'm no stranger to violence, and I can't say I wasn't warned. Not only did many critics did a collective freak out, but in the first five seconds of film there's a brief glimpse in a scene that should let you know that Lars isn't going to be coy about things. Also, I think I have fallen somewhat into his trap, "Aha, you are shocked, that was my intent! Art!!" Ok, ok, for all that though, and admitting it is probably my own hang ups, ten seconds... TEN SECONDS... of film just spoiled this whole movie for me. Spoiled the whole night for me, because folks there are some things you just cannot unsee. So I would recommend folks not watching this. Seriously.

You were warned.

Old School Review: Eraserhead

Long, long time ago.  I left the series of small towns I grew up in (One literally hidden in a crack in the Earth) and went to college.  There I found a group of friends who shared my love of movies.  In those days, not everyone (specially college students) owned VCRs so video stores made a lot of money renting out VCRs.  In a fit of brilliance I saved some cash and bought one of these dinosaurs.  It was encased in an inch of invulnerable plastic and we called it "The ViCaR," and it was my invitation to parties everywhere.

One night "D" and "J" and I, decided since it was just us three to be daring.  So we went to the ill regarded stoner video store at the edge of town and went into the stacks.  There on a metal shelf caked with grime was a copy of "Eraserhead."  We've all heard SOMETHING about the film and we had just seen Dune so we were excited.

We each brought our favorite mind altering substances.  I believe "J" had Jagermeister and "D" had chocolate and I had Pabst Blue Ribbon.  We popped that thing into the Vicar and turned it.  Soon we realized we were in for something different.  We couldn't tear our eyes from the screen, perhaps because we were afraid the film was going to jump us.

At the end, we couldn't decide on much.  We weren't sure we liked the film.  We had very little idea about what the film was about.  We were full of questions:  "Was that God many the wheel?"  "Was the baby a symbol of mortality of the hero?"  "What the heck was the baby made of?  Calves liver?"  "What the HELL was up with the singing chipmonk lady behind the radiator?"  We had no answers, but in the end after much discussion we agreed that we had seen something unique and special.  Unique and special and unbelievably weird and sick. 

We decided we did indeed liked the film.