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Reviews
The Fountain (2006)
How much longer do I have to sit through this?
The film is divided up into three historical time frames and any one of those might have been interesting had Aronofsky put a little effort into making them coherent. Instead it is pure arty hippie crap.
I also don't understand why some reviewers keep saying how visually impressive it is. I saw a bunch of stupid camera tricks and a handful of yoga instructional videos that look as if the were shot in a Christmas snow globe.
I kept thinking- How much longer do I have to sit through this?, but in the end I have only myself to blame. I was so angry at myself for not walking out.
Things That Hang from Trees (2006)
Dark and beautifully shot indie- 1 of my favorites at the Connecticut Film Festival
An extremely dark narrative about a young boy & his strange relationship with his mum (Deborah Kara Unger) who operates a sexy lingerie shop in a conservative southern township that clearly doesn't want her. (It doesn't help her situation that she models the nighties she sells in the windows storefront) Everything is tricky from the start for the young boy. He's bullied continuously & is frozen blank with fear of all that surrounds him. (Including the sickening memories of his estranged & deranged father the part played expertly by Ray McKinnon) The complications for the boy & his mother aren't simply resolved, & so the future of these characters isn't clear. The ending is enjoyably ambiguous & because of its general strangeness it will earn its spot in the genre of the cult film.
Half Nelson (2006)
Not The High-Profile Hollywood (Precisley Why I Loved It)
Great! Gritty and human- Half Nelson does not spell out its intentions like the typical Hollywood movie.
I have to admit that at first glance the movie looked like an after-school-special-type movie where the idealistic hero teaches the poor inner-city kids how to read. Not here.
Gosling plays a hopeful New York City teacher and girls basketball coach. After a basketball game, He is busted by a student (Epps) while bonked out on crack.
Epps and Gosling become great friends, and their complex relationship which is the core of the movie, is fascinating.