14 April 2008

"Once" upon a time

Two movies, both with "Once in their titles...

Once Were Warriors is a tale of domestic strife in New Zealand. I've seen few movies in the recent past that had as much impact as this one. A few months ago I read a thread on my favorite website, Fark, where readers were invited to list the movies that were so gross or unpleasant that they wished never to see them again. Of course I made a list and headed straight to Netflix to add a bunch of them. This was one of them, and it did not disappoint. It contains an unspeakable tragedy, but it somewhat redeemed by the mother's speech at the end. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach after watching it. (New Zealand, which is often described as one of the most beautiful countries on the planet, sure is ugly in this. Their tourism people must have had a cow over this film!)

On the other hand, Once is is a beautiful love story with characters to root for, a good story, and a realistic-- if not entirely satisfying ending. It's an adult relationship. By that I mean the writers avoid the typical boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-get-together, boy-and-girl-encounter-strife, love-wins-out-in-the-end convention so typical in the movies. Lots of good music in it, too.

I highly recommend both-- though not as a double feature!

01 April 2008

Here's a nice pic of my old boss

The question, of course, is which old boss?