Collateral

My parents were watching this when I arrived at their house this evening, so I admit I missed the first 45 minutes or so.  But the rest of it was good - at least a good performance by Jamie Foxx - and the story was sufficiently interesting to stick around in the living room and see it to the end.  Foxx plays Max, a cab driver who is tricked and coerced into chauffeuring around Vincent, a hit man played by Tom Cruise.  Through threatened and plenty of actual violence, Vincent forces Max to help him with a series of murders.  Tension escalates as Max tries different angles of escape, until he learns that a woman he likes is the target of Vincent's next hit.

Collateral
2004, 120 minutes, directed by Michael Mann

The Rum Diaries

I tried to read the book once, but Hunter S. Thompson's writing style wreaks havoc with my reading, my eyes flitting around from line to line at random, piecing it all together in my mind a few moments later.  I just can't make that work when his words flitter about with the same randomness.

So while watching this film - what I believe to be a true-to-the-book portrayal of his story - I was never sure how much of this is based on real events and how much is pure story.  The resulting confusion left me puzzled by the abrupt ending and text-on-screen epilogue.  I would have liked to like it, but I'm too confused.

The Run Diaries
2011, 120 minutes, directed by Bruce Robinson

Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope

I don't usually see documentaries, especially at Fantastic Fest, but as I've probably mentioned before I like Morgan Spurlock.  As it turns out, though, there's very little Morgan Spurlock in this film, as he really steps back and lets the small set of real-life characters he's chosen to follow tell their own stories of Comic Con.

2011, 88 minutes, directed by Morgan Spurlock

You Said What?

Films about making films can be total shit.  But in Norway they work.  Glenn, recently single after he catches his girlfriend cheating on him, is talked into staging a fake film audition in order to meet women.  But when he meets one he likes and tells her she has the part - well now he has to actually make the film...

You Said What?
2011, 107 minutes, directed by Patrik Syversen and Nini Bull Robsahm

Blind

A woman and former police cadet, blinded in an accident that killed her brother and cost her a career, witnesses a hit and run by a serial killer who then stalks her.  Brilliant in its execution, this psychological thriller has you crawling up your seat wishing the lead character could see what was going on around her on screen.

Blind
2011, 111 minutes, directed by Ahn Sang-hoon

Paranormal Activity 3

I saw the first installment of this franchise at Fantastic Fest back in 2009.  It was formulaic and clinical in its execution, which left me wanting more.  Alas, this was not it.  (I never saw the sequel.)  This wasn't nearly as frightening as the first film.  All the setups are now so obvious.

It was really strange watching commercials for this over the next few months and thinking to myself, "Wait, that scene wasn't in the film!"  Yes we were told that the version we watched wasn't 100% done, but seriously half the scenes in the commercials weren't in the movie itself.  Either they used cutting-room scraps to promote the piece, "not 100% done" meant "half the scary bits aren't in yet", or, just maybe, they read bad reviews like this one and choose to spruce it up with the more mildly frightening bits.  It's unlikely I'll ever bother to watch it again to find out if any of that extra film made the final cut.


Paranormal Activity 3
2011, 84 minutes, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman

Before the film began, I had a brief one-on-one conversation with Elijah Wood which went something like this:
Me: "Glad you came this week and glad you stayed.  Usually the stars all leave."
Mr. Wood: "Fuck all that."

Awesome

Calibre 9

All hell breaks loose when a gun, possessed by the soul of a dead hooker named Sarah, decides to use a mild-mannered city planner named Yann to exact revenge on society, corruption, and anyone else who gets in her way.

This is just what the festival has so far lacked and I greatly needed - glorious, glorious, violence.  With guns.  Well, one gun, named Sarah.

Calibre 9
2011, 84 minutes, directed by Jean-Christian Tassy