Crap Log

dvd: rules of attraction

The Rules of Attraction
i liked this one a lot. but then again when someone refers a movie and the only thing they say is, "that movie is fucked up!", i tend to like it. first i wanna say that "fucked up" is too vague of a description. and its too giving. so my one liner for this movie is "intense" this movie is intense.

im not gonna give a synopsis of what its about, they have amazon and shit like that to give weak outlines of the story. and you know id fuck it up anyway. moving on.
why did i like this movie? well ill go in no order whatsoever,

cinematography- i know playing scenes backwards has gotten to be a cliche but this film does it all in context. a lot of story rewinding going on here and its illustrated best with the backwards shit. also some of the best split screen work i have ever seen. also the scene with Victor going over his european vacation, initially i thought it was shot at a lower speed to make it look fast but thinking bak i think it could be just a masterful editing session. either way its amazing.

acting- usually i dont really cite acting as a strong point in many of my favorite movies. which is shitty of me because if the acting is bad it kills a movie so if its my favorite its kinda given. but i had to bring it up in the case of james van der beek. yes the guy from dawsons creek and that awful football movie. he made this movie good. it really made me like him as an actor. his general tone and line delivery is dead on to make the character work.

story- again i am going to note the term "fucked up". there are many different kinds of fucked up movies. this id like to put into "dark comedy". its pretty dark. but i laughed out loud many times, hilarious scenes. this is based on a book which i havent read but i think i will now. i hate reading the book after the movie but this was just a well textured story. and the other books written by Bret Easton Ellis made great movies like "american psycho" and "less than zero"[which ellis wrote at age 21!?!] the inner monologues and intersecting character's stories are really good as well. everything in here is way extreme. not unfathomly extreme making the characters seem totally fictional but each character is extreme and intense enough to make you feel you know someone who is that shallow/needy/slutty.

music- this soundtrack is on that donnie darko level of soundtracks. each song sounds so perfect in each respective scene it makes you notice how good it is and make a mental note to see if there is a soundtrack. good for you there is one.

dvd content- not so good. i would want more. all you get is the IFC show "anatomy of a scene" [which i havent seen yet but i love that show], some trailers, book ad, and a soundtrack ad. no commentary or any of the cool shit that i love about extra features. with most big blockbuster flick i could give 2 shits about the extra features because most of it is the actor doing an interview youve seen on tv way too many times. this time i WANTED to see those lame interviews and cut scenes and alternates. but no i get screwed.

so to end my crappy review i just wanna say that this movie is the kind of flick that goes into my list of must buy DVDs. it kinda has that weird story that is interesting to think about but is also visually cool. but yeah..... i guess this movie is fucked up

Posted by nate at June 14, 2003 03:35 AM | TrackBack