burn

Several months ago, I first heard about THE BABADOOK on an episode of Fighting In The War Room…so first and foremost, thank-you Matt Patches.

Funny thing, there are some films that never seem to make it off the festival circuit. Sometimes you see this happen and you say “well, that figures”. Other times you scratch your head and wonder why no distributor thought to pick it up. THE BABADOOK is the latter. The film has already gone to iTunes, so it definitely won’t see a theatrical release, and that’s a real pity since I truly believe this is the sort of film that benefits most from a dark room, isolation from distraction, and a crowd environment.

My experience with this film was fraught with goosebumps, and might have even involved a blanket pulled up past my chin…and I loved every moment of it. I really felt that it tapped into the parental fear that Kurt has always told me about – the fear of messing up your children. Likewise, I think it taps into a real darkness that this particular single mum was dealing with in the wake of losing her husband.

But more than anything else, I think this film is super-handsome and super creepy.

So while I go add a pop-up book to my Christmas wishlist, you folks should wait until dark, put your phones in your pockets and rent THE BABADOOK.

Prepare to sleep with the light on that night.

 

Here’s The Week at Hand…

 

Screenings
INTO THE WOODS – I’ll have more to say about this closer to Christmas

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS – Okay, okay?
THE BABADOOK – Could somebody check under the bed for me?
THE SKELETON TWINS – I’ve been humming Starship since Wednesday.
WHITEY: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. JAMES BULGER – Expect a rewatch of THE DEPARTED to happen soon
GILDA – Also expect a rewatch of SHAWSHANK to happen soon.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES – As soon as you try to figure out the opening shot, it loses all mystique.
CAPOTE – Such. A good. Movie.
EYES WIDE SHUT – Got boxed out of a showing at Lightbox, so I commiserated at home on my couch.

Boxscore for The Year
267 First-Timers, 183 Re-Watched
96 Screenings
450 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

13 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched November 29 – December 5)”

  1. I’ve mostly been watching a lot of action movies lately. I’ve got a lot of pressure on my mind and haven’t had much time for films, but I can tell you what I did manage to see this week. All of these were on Netflix:

    First-Time:
    -Wanted: I got about halfway through before I felt the overwhelming need to stop. Thinking about it afterwards I realized it was a pretty silly film that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

    Re-watches:
    -Salt: I loved this movie. Angelina Jolie does such a good job with the role and it’s nice to see a political thriller I can actually follow (a lot of them tend to get needlessly over-convoluted).
    -Battle: Lost Angeles: A bit disorienting but still a great film. Even if you can’t always keep track of what’s going on (which in a weird sort of way actually works to its advantage here) it really keeps you going right up until the end.

  2. Not much due to the flu as the only first-timer I saw was a documentary on Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. The only re-watches I saw in the past few days were Serenity, The Mask of Zorro, Jazzin’ for Blue Jean from David Bowie, and Frances Ha which is one of 2 Criterion DVDs I got for my birthday. The other is Y Tu Mama Tambien.

    1. I finally watched my criterion of Frances as well, but considering I’d just watched it a month or two ago, I decided to just keep it on the TV as a visual distraction while I cut the podcast. So no audio = no listing in the week’s watches.

  3. Really enjoyed The Babadook, glad you finally caught up with it. As for Whitey, you will now look at Jack Nicholson’s performance in a whole new light when re-watching The Departed.

    New to me:
    The Guest – Such a fun movie, better than I expected.
    300: Rise of an Empire – Jump. Slash. Repeat. Eva Green was great but the movie is forgettable.
    Fruitvale Station – Was procrastinating on this one for a while, figured it would just make me angry. It did. Great film though.
    You Only Live Once – Had not even heard of this Fritz Lang film until I popped it in. Always nice to be pleasantly surprised by a blind pick.
    Strike – Continuing with the theme of classic films, finally got around to this highly praised work.
    Happy Christmas – Enjoyed the film, just wish it had that little something extra to make the drama “stick the landing” better.
    IDA – Loved this film. Solid storytelling and wonderful B&W cinematography.

    1. I *really* need to get around to IDA before the ball drops. There’s no way that happens this week, but hopefully next week I can spare the ninety minutes.

      As for Fruitvale, it was one of the top ten films I watched in 2013. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately…for obvious reasons.

  4. I’ve been humming Starship this whole week too!! I had such a girl-crush on Rita Hayworth after watching Gilda.

    Firsts: Gun Crazy– I decided to end Noirvember with as many noirs as I could. Managed to watch 2 only and this was one of them. I really liked it. Especially Peggy Cummins’ performance.
    Kiss Me Deadly– This was probably my least favourite of the noirs I saw. It dragged a bit and that made me really sleepy. Cool ending though.
    Bird People– I thought it was ridiculous.
    Mr. Turner– Really good. Spall was great.
    I Origins– It was okay. I was a bit disappointed because I thought I will love it but I didn’t really care about the story so much. Michael Pitt was good.
    Mockingjay part 1– I really liked it. JLaw was as good as ever.
    Nightcrawler– So creepy and so funny. In a just world, Gyllenhaal would be an Oscar frontrunner for this.
    The Skeleton Twins– I really loved it. It was exactly the kind of mix of drama and comedy I love and Wiig and Hader are the best!
    Palo Alto– It was so far removed from my world, I couldn’t connect at all. Also, it felt pointless.
    The Theory of Everything– I liked it a lot, surprisingly. Mostly because of Felicity Jones. She’s fantastic in it. She made me teary-eyed a few times.

    1. Damn – that looks like a stellar week of catching up on some heavy hitters from the year! Talk about seven days well-spent.

      I caught Mr. Turner at Lightbox last night (for free!). I’m goin to do my very best not to spend the next seven days grunting.

  5. You had a great week! The Babadook scared me too. We don’t get this kind if films anymore. What did you think of the lead actress? I thought she was outstanding.

    And how did you get to see Into The Woods? Is it at least good? I remember getting the Starship song in my head just after seeing the trailer for Skeleton twins. Will see it soon.

    I only saw one film this week. Gone Baby Gone. I thought the story was far fetched. No way that would ever happen. But it did make me question my views on some subjects so I appreciate it for that. The acting was ok, only Amy Ryan had anything to do. She was really good. I’m a little mixed on the film.

    And I’ve been watching Seinfeld too. I’m at season 7 right now. The writing is still stellar but George and Kramer are getting on my nerves. It’s still funny if I don’t take it that serious. Btw, have you watched the show?

    Have a great week!

    1. Into the Woods happened by entering a contest for a sneak peek screening. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about it yet, but if you’re looking forward to it, I wager you’ll be happy with the result.

      Whenever I think about Gone Baby Gone, I’m reminded of the time I rented that DVD…that scratched DVD. There were multiple flaws in the disk that co-incidentally were timed with every moment that any character had a gun to their head. Every time a character was facing execution, the disk skipped ahead three minutes.

      Yes, really.

      1. You must’ve been really frustrated with that DVD. Honestly, and don’t take this the wrong way, I found your issues with the DVD kinda funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but when you come to think of it, what were the chances of everything going sour at those critical moments in the film? I guess it’s both a frustrating and amusing situation. Anyway, did you get to see the film in its entirety?

  6. The Babadook sounds pretty good, I’ll have to check it out!

    I didn’t see much this week myself.

    First time:
    The Fluffy Movie

    Re-watch:
    Fantasy Mission Force

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