I don’t review everything I watch, sometimes I don’t have enough to say, sometimes I write notes, but don’t get round to writing it up and sometimes I just watch something with no intention of reviewing it. I wanted to write a quick post about some of the other films I’ve watched over the last couple of weeks.

The Tale of Two Sisters

A horror film from 2003, that is designed to mess with your mind. The last half hour or so, completely flips everything and it becomes very hard to follow, at least for me. I have found out that this was the intention, it was supposed to be confusing and hard to understand, although a lot of people seem to have gotten it straight away.

I didn’t review this one, simply because I didn’t understand it. I had to watch a YouTube video afterwards to explain it to me. I felt dumb after watching this and not in the same way that I felt after watching The Purge (That one made me lose braincells). Overall it’s a pretty decent film. It has some creepy moments and some striking images. The plot is interesting and even though I was completely lost, it’s still compelling. I will watch this again at some point, but I don’t think I’ll review it ever. It is good and if you like strange horror films, this one is up there.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The infamous prison experiment from the early 1970s where students were given the roles of prisoners or guards and they quickly fell into their assigned roles and acted them out. This was a pretty good film, the set design and costumes are all great. It looks great, sounds great but it’s at least half an hour too long. There are a lot of great actors in it, and they are all really good. The thing is, you can read about the experiment online within about 20 minutes, and the film doesn’t really do anything beyond that. It retells the experiment with some exaggeration. Read the Wikipedia page, it’s quicker.

Girl, Interrupted

This is Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for generation X. The cast is great and the film is compelling and interesting in all the best ways. It’s based on the memoir by Susanna Kaysen, who spent some time in McLean Hospital in the last 1960s. I can’t say how accurate it is to the book, but it does feel real. It’s a haunting story and really good. I didn’t review this one, simply because I didn’t have time too. I find it hard to write longer pieces about something too far after watching it, even with notes.

Say Anything

This is a great film. I wanted to watch this just to put some context to the famous boom box scene. It it such a great scene, even with all of the weight the legacy has given it. John Cusack is phenomenal. He starts off really creepy, but quickly grows on you. I really enjoyed it. I’m sure most people have already seen it, but it’s worth watching if you haven’t.

There is an odd scene around two thirds of the way in. Cusack is driving around describing what he sees into a tape recorder. It’s very reminiscent of how we first meet Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. The music sounds like something from the Twin Peaks soundtrack as well and to top it off, the girl he is talking about is called Diane. The strange thing: it came out almost a year before Twin Peaks first aired. I can see that others have spotted it online as well, the consensus is that it’s a coincidence. It would be a great twist if Say Anything was one of David Lynch’s favourite films.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley