Movies for sickos.

LWC was sick and stayed home from work on Monday, so I got some movies for her to watch. This is just another reason why I love her; she likes watching movies too.

One was Good Night, And Good Luck. which she liked as much as I did, which is to say a lot. On second viewing, I was impressed with how much the film looked like the fifties. Tiled floors, bare walls, everything squared off, the lighting was perfect, everybody smoking all the time.

Another was Capote. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was good. Well written, excellent performances, Catherine Keener (love her), and the violent subtext was handled tastefully and effectively.

The last was Walk the Line. I don't like Phoenix or Witherspoon, but they did a serviceable job. While I do like it when the actors do their stunts (like in The Matrix) I don't like it when the actors try to sing. Who wants to watch a biopic about Johnny Cash with some guy doing a lame impersonation? Is lip sync for a film like this so abhorrent? Took me out of the picture. The problem might be that I'm too familiar with the original singer's work.

On Sunday we watched Metropolis. Not the old silent version from the '20s (an awesome film), but a kind of anime remake. This film has a great pedigree, taken from manga by Ozamu Tezuka (Astroboy) and screenplay by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). Like the film version of Akira, the story rambled so much that I can't even begin to explain it. There were numerous well-executed CG scenes, and the climax was overwhelming in that regard. Amazing stuff, I'm just not sure what happened to the plot. These sprawling manga epics don't translate to the screen well.