Movies, movies, movies...

My wife and family returned to the US several weeks ago, and I find myself with more time on my hands than I'd like. Since there is another expat here without family, we have spent quite a bit of time exploring Bangalore, and watching movies.

After finishing an old Showtime series, Dead Like me, and the mediocre movie that was made a few years after the series ended, we turned to an independent film with Jeff Bridges called "Tideland".

Now, I enjoy movies. Some of my favorites are not Hollywood, but are independent, or foreign, or the originals that Hollywood remade (Like "Quarantine"? See the original Spanish language, "[REC]")

The great thing about independent film is that the director and producer are not constrained by bean counters worried about recouping money. Independent films can be cheaply made ("Blair Witch Project"), push the envelope ("Reservoir Dogs"), and earn critical acclaim ("Night of the Living Dead").

Unfortunately, some are - I was going to say "bad" but that doesn't seem to fit. A bad movie, to me, is "Battlefield Earth". To this day I hate John Travolta for stealing 2 hours of my life. Even Independent Films that I dislike normally have some redeeming quality, some aspect that I like, or that works.

My case in point is "Tideland". If I would sum up the movie in a single word, it would have to be "weird". Or maybe "unique".

The movie focuses on a girl, Jeliza-Rose, who is about 10. Her parents are drug addicts, and both die within the first 30 minutes or so of the film, leaving her alone (which, in her case, is not much different than having 2 drug addicted parents).

What follows is a escalating sense of weirdness. She yearns for family, and comfort, and love, and finds it in the mentally handicapped man-child next door, while the man-child's sister functions as a sort of "mother" to the strange sorry little band.

If the purpose of art, whether painting, sculpture, or movie, is to evoke emotion, this movie succeeds. It is not a light movie (a "Popcorn Flick"). Some parts are downright disturbing. But when I look back after sleeping on it, I find it left me with a sense of hope, that things would improve, and maybe Jeliza-Rose had found the family she wanted.

Since it is now October, and the Halloween season is again upon us, I am going to be forcing my friend to watch some horror movies - my favorite genre. "Trick 'r Treat" is definitely on the list, as well as "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labrynth" from Guillermo del Toro (and maybe his earlier work, "Cronos"). Since my friend scares easily, I am leaning more to creepy rather than truly terrifying.

Suggestions welcome...