Comments on This Weekend at the Movies

Despite the Stranger's mixed review I will be going to see Knocked Up this weekend. I am in the mood for something mindless.

okay, Slog is NSFW today.

okay, Slog is NSFW today.

IMHO, The Stranger's recent slate of non-SIFF film reviews sucked. Kiley says Once is ruined by the "awful fucking music," but it's clear he just hates Glen Hansard's music. So why did you have him review a movie that's all about Glen Hansard's music? Makes no sense. Then you shit all over the funniest movie since Borat (OK, maybe not "shit all over" but at least "took a mild dump upon").

WTF, man?

Slightly.

Hallo, Dan et al, remember some of us do SLOG at work!

That said, I agree with elswinger that Knocked Up will probably be more fun, but that this does look like an interesting film.

Here's some shameless self-promotional write-up via the NWFF website:

JUNE 1 - 7, Fri - Thurs at 7 & 9:15PM (plus Sat at 11PM, no Fri 9:15 or 11pm screening)
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI
(Mitsuru Meike, Japan, 2005, 35mm, 90 min)
A riotous amalgam of political satire, apocalyptic comedy and steamy erotica, THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI is a wildly entertaining example of the Japanese "pink film" (pinku eiga) genre, a popular form of erotic soft-core cinema. Titillation is, of course, a primary goal, but due to Japan's censorship codes (no depiction of genitalia or penetration is allowed), creative storytelling is also important. When both factors are present, as in this memorably nutty offering, the result is particularly pleasurable. Sachiko Hanai (Emi Kuroda) is an escort who specializes in teacher-student scenarios (the film's delightfully fitting original title was "Horny Home Tutor: Teacher's Love Juice"). One day, after an energetic tutoring session, Sachiko adjourns to a nearby café. An argument between two men escalates, and she is shot between the eyes. Miraculously only dazed, she grabs a mysterious cylinder from the café floor with a clone of George W. Bush's finger. And then things get really weird! Sachiko discovers odd psychic abilities and begins to imagine various theories of the universe and multivalent philosophical speculations, all to the throb of techno. While she pursues arcane post-structuralist knowledge—and has intellectual intercourse with a political philosopher—a consortium of bad guys chase her in the hopes of recovering "the cylinder." Raunchy and hilarious in equal measures, THE GLAMOUROUS LIFE comes across as a mixture of Robert Aldrich's apocalyptic KISS ME DEADLY and DEBBIE DOES DALLAS.

I liked Once. I mean, I really, really liked it, and I'm not a Frames fan. When it comes to Irish musique, Thin Lizzy is more my speed, and there are a couple of amusing Lizzy/Phil Lynott references in the film. Mostly, I enjoyed it as a modern-day gloss on Brief Encounter—it's certainly as concerned with the economic state, i.e. precarious, of its protagonists.

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