Reservoir Dogs (1992)

I had a great time watching this movie but am not sure if I pulled anything very substantial out of it in the end. The chemistry between all these characters is phenomenal, the acting is wonderful, and the dialogue is lots of fun, but if it was trying to make a larger point it slipped past me. However, this is certainly a step up from my response to Pulp Fiction, so perhaps Tarantino has managed to grow on me a bit. 3.5 stars.

M (1931)

A very effective early serial killer movie (the first, says IMDb trivia). Although I usually like stories focusing on the psyche of the insane, I very much liked the focus this movie had on how it affected the town. The early scenes of paranoid citizens jumping to accuse every man who had an encounter with a child showed how much these murders had affected the town. I certainly liked this better than Night of the Hunter, which I've heard it compared to (I found that one unconvincing). Glad I finally watched it. 4 stars.

Blue Valentine (2010)

I wanted to like this movie. It's the kind of movie I *should* have liked. I haven't seen Michelle Williams in much, but I like Ryan Gosling a lot. I love the idea of cross-cutting between the two time periods and there were a few great moments where it would pan from the past to the present and I'd have a startling "Wow, this is the same couple?" moment. Yet as a whole, the movie left me cold and I'm not entirely sure why.

Some guesses: I never felt like I got to know who the characters were, and so even when I was saddened at where their relationship had gone, it was entirely an abstract sadness. Between the two time periods we saw, the characters were so different that I never was able to figure out where to balance the two. Instead of seeing where their individual weaknesses had grown to be major obstacles in their relationship, I felt like I was watching four different individuals who had no connection with each other.

Very disappointing, all the more so because I can't pin down *exactly* why I didn't like it more - I have a feeling there are more things that didn't connect than I have listed but I can't figure out what they are. 2.5 stars.

Splice (2009)

(Some spoilers.) There were two possible movies in this premise. There was a horror monster movie, and there was a drama about the essence of humanity, that kind of thing. Splice could have been either successfully - but tries to do both, and far too abruptly. About 15 minutes from the end of the movie, it switches gears with no warning and no apparent reason. The rest of the film plays out like they thought we were watching a horror film from the very beginning. It's as if someone said, "We haven't had any scares in this movie yet. We promised people scares! Let's up the death count a bunch." I actually liked both of those genres individually done in the movie, but when mashed together like this, it simply didn't fit. Disappointing, because I was thoroughly enjoying it up until it abandoned its original genre. 2.5 stars.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

(Some spoilers ahead, although the opening of the movie hints at its ending, so not *very* spoilery.) This movie HURT. I have younger siblings and can't imagine going through this kind of thing with them. I am not at all a fan of anime - it never feels like the characters are interacting with the real world - but that weird distance serves this movie well, as these two young children simply don't seem to belong in the existence they're suddenly flung into. The script is beautiful and simple. It's quite possible that after another viewing (or after time has past) this would get bumped up half a star, but right now I'm having great difficulty wrapping my mind around it, so I am just going to give it 4 stars and let it sit for awhile. 4 stars.

All That Jazz (1979)

Seeing how much I love musical theater, I'd hoped this would be a bit more personally gripping for me. While the final song and dance number is absolutely fantastic and very fitting for the character, the rest of it is capable but never resonated with me. Roy Scheider is wonderful as Joe Gideon, though - his performance shines throughout the entire movie, even when the story itself is not what I would have hoped. 3.5 stars.

Buried (2010)

(Major spoilers ahead.)

All right. I don't know where to go with this movie, which is why it's currently getting a medium rating. If I were absolutely decided it would be either much higher (which is where I think it's going to go) or much lower.

Ryan Reynolds really pulls off this performance. He's one of those actors who is only interesting and charming when he's not trying to be. He's not a soldier, he's not a police officer, he's a truck driver, and he has never had to mentally prepare himself for being in this kind of situation. He rants and raves and panics, just as the average man would do if he found himself buried alive. Even when he realizes it may use his oxygen quicker, his sympathetic nervous system is kicking in hardcore and causing him to panic.

The movie *is* tense. Absolutely. Especially toward the end, as the sand begins to fill his box, I found myself hardly able to breathe along with him. This movie got compared a lot in the reviews to 127 Hours, which I loved. But there's one vital difference between this one and that: in that one, the hero makes it out alive. In Buried, they build up the tension and build it and build it and build it and then suddenly dash every single hope... and the credits roll. I was absolutely unprepared for this. You expect this to be a thriller, you expect, hold onto the belief that the hero is going to make it out of this situation. Of course he is. That's how these movies work.

My initial reaction was of feeling cheated and very angry. I had a similar reaction to Life is Beautiful, where I felt lied to about the direction the movie was going. A few weeks later, I was able to look back on it and give it a much higher rating because I appreciated the artistry of it. I have a suspicion something similar will happen with this, although, frankly, I don't think I could ever watch this movie again. 3.5 stars.