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Reap What You Sow, or Get Eaten By a Mutant

Everyone’s awesomely unrepressed in The Host, the masterful Korean monster movie by Joon-ho Bong. As soon as the mutant salamander villain slithers out from the river Han (beginning what will be his quick trip to gooey amphibian movie hall of fame), he takes great glee in chasing, swallowing, regurgitating, and licking the residents of Seoul.

“It’s Okay With Me”

In Robert Altman’s 1973 revisionist film noir masterpiece, The Long Goodbye, his private detective hero Phillip Marlowe inverts classic noir alienation. Faced with the greed, insanity, lust, vanity, self-delusion, lies, drunkenness, tripped-out-ed-ness, ineffectuality, ambition, murder, larceny and social climbing of others, Marlowe’s mantra is: “It’s okay with me.”

Sign O’ the Crimes

If there were as many serial killers in this country as there are movies about them, the USA would have a population the size of Ireland. Freddy’s slashing and Hannibal’s diet alone would take out a sizable chunk and I’m not even counting that lad from Saw.

Mouchette

No one is more adept at showcasing tortured souls on film than Robert Bresson. Recently given the masterwork treatment by Criterion, Mouchette never veers from the consistent formulas of the erudite French director’s other work.

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The Brooklyn Rail

APR 2007

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