Tenebrae & Sweet Sixteen

Tenebrae is typical Dario Argento: too loud soundtrack, too ornate murder setpieces, too confusing of a plot, and too bad dubbing. However, it's also typically Argento in the fact that that doesn't matter, it's very interesting and fun anyway. Plus, I have that soft spot for John Saxon, since he actually introduced himself to me. So that was really cool, and I will always have respect for him for that. He was also the best thing in this movie. Anyway, the movie is an interesting dissertation on violence and it's effect upon people. No, just kidding, it's basically just an excuse for Argento's normally sadistic murders, gratuitous nudity, and perversions. It's always weird to see his films, because they so blatantly rip of Hitchcock in many ways, and so I should hate them, since I hate De Palma for the same reason, but I can't really hate his movies. The joyously trashy way he occasionally is serious, and mainly is just interested in making a serious horror film, just goes straight to my interests and breaks down all of my reservations. Plus, that plot, while it may not have made complete sense, was a twisty plot that really had me confused throughout as to who was doing the killing. That always helps.

Sweet Sixteen was a depressing Ken Loach film about a young kid in Scotland who's trying to deal with not having a family unit to bring him up. Martin Compston was excellent, I think. I really don't know about the dialogue, since it was very Scottish, and IFC put subtitles up (and Ebert says it should be subtitled). I agree it needed that, because sometimes the words didn't match what I was hearing. The huge amount of cursing, however, got through. Lots and lots of very bad words. It's also my first Ken Loach film. I'm still interested in seeing more. It's a very good film.