It's All Bout Love
As much of a train wreck as it is, this is the movie that got me back in to Thomas Vinterberg. Vinterberg's 2nd film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn is a strange one to say the least. This Stanley Kubrick inspired film takes place in the future, where the world is on the brink of the apocalypse. Its snowing in parts of Africa, clones are being made and people randomly dropping dead on the street has become a common thing, where everyone just walks over the collapsed dead bodies like they're not even there. Phoenix is in New York City to sign divorce papers with his famous ice skating wife played by Claire Danes. Phoenix hopes this is going to be a quick visit, but he ends up staying a lot longer than expected, when he realizes that not only does he still love his wife but she's in some kind of trouble and he must stay to protect her. Oh yeah (How could i forget this), through out the coarse of the film Phoenix's brother, played by Sean Penn, calls him from an airplane, talking random nonsense that I'm sure is supposed to have some kinda "deep" meaning. The first 10-15 minutes or so in to the film, everyone is speaking with American accents, then Phoenix and Danes start talking in these Russian, polish, french Canadian hybrid accents for the rest of the film which really throws you off. Halfway in to story we discover Claire Danes's has been cloned, and theres a bunch of evil Claire Danes cyborgs roaming around. Then for the rest of the movie they're just randomly running away from people who're trying to harm them. Seriously, I'm not making this shit up. This movie has to be seen to be believed.


About a month ago, i was at anther video store (one of the few left), and this dvd was in the 3 for $10 section. You know how whenever they have those deals, there's always only 2 movies you want and never a third? Well this was the third. I figured at least I'll have something to laugh at. I watched it again, and still the same outcome. I didn't like it. This is one of those bad movies that i always end up re-watching from time to time for reason, like Mary Antoinette. I mean like i said earlier, the film is clearly an homage to Kubrick, so its shot very well. Its pretty to look at, but that doesn't cut it. Now that i own this on dvd, I'm sure I'll come back to this movie in a year or so and still hate it.
The Celebration

Dear Wendy

The relationship between myself and his 3rd feature; Dear Wendy is similar to Its All About Love, except it his has a totally different outcome. When i first saw this in '06, i hated it. This film (written by vinterberg's friend and fellow danish director Lars Von Trier) is a comment on guns in America. This came out during the height of that"Lars Von Trier hates America" period, where he came out with films like Dogville and Manderlay. It honestly seemed like Von Trier got more press for this movie than Vinterberg did. In Dear Wendy, Jamie Bell (one of the few great young actors working today) plays the leader of a gang of pacifists called; The Dandies, who have an infatuation with guns. The strange thing is, one of their main rules is to never use their guns in public or flash them around. As Bell puts it in the film, they are to use the guns for "moral support". The group of young gun carriers is made up of the town losers, who slowly gain confidence in themselves thanks to the guns they carry on them at all times. Eventually, the obvious happens. One of the Dandies's senile grandmothers shots someone (a scene I'm still not too fond of, because it kinda comes out of nowhere), and they must protect her from the police (headed up by the police chief played by Bill Pullman). Then the movie turns in to a moder-day western, with a shoot out between the young Dandies and the Police.
