Cinematatat

Brick

I saw Brick and thoroughly enjoyed it. There were many echoes of old Bogart noir films, and it did a great job of capturing the audience. The high school-element didn't feel too forced or stiffling, though it abandoned the high school part of high school and focused completely on the social part. And lots of punching in this film, too. About the third of the audience insisted on laughing when nothing was happening. I don't know if they were trying to show that they were sharp and clever--? Also, about half of the audience thought the dropped Tolkien reference was outrageously witty, but I thought it was a little forced and didn't fit in with the rest of the film. If this had been a Wes Anderson film, ok, but when you're going with the noir-detective film. . . Honestly, that Tolkien line is my only complaint, but it didn't ruin the film, just stuck out. So as not to end on a negative note, I enjoyed the film very much and definitely recommend it.

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as for films I did not see--

The Notorious Bettie Page

This film looks interesting, about the life of Bettie Page. Getting mixed reviews. I'm not very familiar with her story, just know of her though did once read an LATimes piece on her, so I'd like to check this film out, see what's up.

Lady Vengeance

Also saw the trailer for this. My friend said it looks like Amelie. Yeah, ok. With, like, killing and stuff. I'd very much like to see it. Check out the trailer.