Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Focus Features, which is the specialty films unit of Universal Pictures, has released another movie. It’s called something as weird, yet memorable as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; a quotation from a famous poem by Alexander Pope and Kirsten Dunst got to say it in the movie:
“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d;”
Written by Charlie Kaufman, you already know that you are in for something special. His previous work includes Being John Malcovich (1999), Adaptation (2002) and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), and it’s as if Kaufman won’t settle for doing a “regular” movie. His movies are all thought provoking and they are movies you talk about afterwards, not many people have achieved that.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (ESotSM) is nothing like what you might expect. I know I thought to myself, that seeing as Jim Carrey has a huge role in this movie, I thought he might be hilarious throughout the movie. I loved him in both of the Ace Ventura movies, but respected him more for his infamous grimaces rather than his acting skills. EsotSM totally changed my mind about how I perceive Jim Carrey, he even convinced me that he deserves an Oscar, no doubt about it. The movie made me realize that there’s SO much more to him, something we rarely get to see though. Yeah, I could go on all day long about how great his performance is.
He plays Joel Barish, who is a shy humble man having trouble with the opposite sex. One day he suddenly, spontaneously, decides to skip work and takes a train to Montauk. Here he ponders on his life, asking himself (when he sees Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), an attractive wild, free-spirited multi-hair colored woman for the first time), why he falls in love with every woman who shows him the least bit of attention.
On the train ride back home he begins a conversation with Clementine and they almost immediately fall in love. This is where things start to get really serious.
I think you’ve guessed by now that this is not Carrey’s usual stuff, but a romantic drama!
Joel finds out in a heart-wrenchingly way that she has had him erased from her mind and how does he know this? Their relationship has just ended at this point and he walks into a bookstore and sees her sitting behind her desk, but naturally finds it odd when she doesn’t seem to recognize him at all. Back home he gets a letter (he wasn’t supposed to see) that simply says:
“Clementine Kruczynski has had Joel Barrish erased from her memory. Please never mention their relationship to her again. - Thank you.”
The letter has been sent by Lacuna, Inc; a company which has specialized itself in erasing people’s memories, thus removing any pain it might have caused. The mere thought that Clementine can’t remember their relationship and everything they used to be haunts Joel and therefore he decides to undergo the very same procedure. But everything doesn’t turn out the way Joel imagined. In the middle of the whole erasing process he changes his mind and tries eagerly to escape with Clementine to the darkest fragments of his memory (this is how most of the movie goes) after he learns that he might not want to forget their relationship.
Most of the characters in ESotSM are familiar from other movies and the team from Lacuna, Inc who are to erase Joel’s memory consists of: Mary (Kirsten Dunst), Patrick (Elijah Wood), Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). I must admit that I did, sort of, have a hard time in the beginning acknowledging that Elijah Wood won’t always be Frodo of Lord of the Rings, but I quickly forgot as the movie went on. All in all an incredible cast.
The visuals are not striking in the same way that most big-budget Hollywood-produced movies are but it’s still very good and I was definitely impressed by some scenes and kinda prefer them to that new Blockbuster because it feels more real and overall there was an amazing use of colors. Luckily the director, Michel Gondry, didn’t choose to focus too much on CGI, which I think is a big problem for many Hollywood-directors. It’s as if they believe that as long as the visuals are OK, then people won’t notice the smaller things not being there… like a story for instance! ESotSM is made just the way movies are supposed to be made and is one of my all-time favorite movies.
Lizard Baby
This episode didn’t disappoint either. I seriously can’t put my finger on it, but I’m enjoying this series so much despite the low budget. I wasn’t really scared throughout the episode and the lizard was kinda something I laughed a bit about at first. It got better later on though and everything just got so weird and freaky. I read a comment somewhere where somebody said this series reminded him of the old Goosebump Tv-series and even though Hideshi Hino’s Theater of Horror is far more sick, I’m inclined to agree. It kinda takes me back to those weird, but fun stories.
I’m trying to get a hold of episode 3 (even though I guess it doesn’t matter in what order you watch them, but I like to do things right - a bit of a perfectionist in that area) called Death Train, but it’s not that easy really. But my guess is that I’ll blog about it in 2 or 3 days.
Horror screenwriter, Umeki, has writer’s block. He goes with his pregnant wife, Akiko, to a check-up and is struck with an incredible idea - a horror story about a woman who gives birth to a reptile! Despite his wife’s disgust, Umeki goes ahead with the screenplay, which the critics love. But the horrible prophecy fulfills itself, as his wife gives birth to a freak of nature. His baby is born half human, half lizard! The reptilian baby slithers on the floor, leaving a wet trail of slime behind it. To his horror, his wife, Akiko, holds it lovingly in her arms. His movie has become a mirror image of his own life as Umeki slips slowly into madness…
The Boy From Hell
Hideshi Hino’s Theater Of Horror - The Boy From Hell
There are 6 mini-movies in this Japanese horror series from 2004 all based on work by legendary manga artist Hideshi Hino. They last about 50 minutes each and are directed by 6 different talented directors such as Yoshihiro Nakamura (”Honogurai mizuno sokokara” (Dark Water) screenplay), Mari Asato (”Ring” Hiroshi Takahashi, screenplay) and Koji Shiraishi (”Hontouni atta! Noroi no Video Series, director).
I think these mini movies are either something people will love or hate. I quickly noticed that some scenes looked kinda cheap and I chuckled at a few things, but all in all the end result came out surprisingly good and the only way I can describe it is by saying that if there is such a thing as a good crappy then this is the one. I really enjoyed it.
I’m gonna blog about the rest as I watch them.
A mysterious old woman appears before Setsu, who has recently lost her only child in a tragic accident. She says she can bring Setsu’s son, Daio back to life. To Setsu’s horror, Daio returns to her, half decomposed, inhuman. To make him human again, he needs fresh human organs. Setsu does everything she can to reincarnate her son, but Daio just turns into a different kind of monster. No one can stop him as he continues to feed his hunger, producing victim after victim. Soon, a detective becomes suspicious and pays Setsu a visit…
He Was Cool
Another movie, which is based on stories posted on the Internet. It’s a trend in Korea apparently.
He Was Cool is a crazy Korean romantic comedy, which I found myself enjoying in certain parts. But all in all it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, which I don’t expect mind you, but I still didn’t think it was anything more than average. It’s still worth a look though, as there were some parts I really enjoyed and laughed at.
Having replied to a wicked post on her school website, Ye-won keeps getting a threatening call from a boy named Ji Eun-sung. Having heard about him from her friend, she keeps running away from him. But they kissed accidentally when Ye-won was trying to escape from him. Having his lips stolen by Ye-won, Eun-sung threatens her to marry him, adding that no other girl has ever kissed him before. The only thing Ye-won can do is to obey for whatever Eun-sung said. At first, Ye-won just hate him the most for his self-righteousness and unreasonableness. But she gradually finds herself is starting to fall for him…
I’m gonna rate the movie 6.5/10.
Here’s a music video made from the movie: