my name is mwd

In the last week I’ve seen two good films, and I was even happy with the endings (I’m known to complain about film endings, probably much to my friends mixed amusement/frustration).

Firstly I saw A Scanner Darkly, the latest Philip K. Dick story to be made into a film. This actually is one of the better PKD adaptations. The film is rendered in a comic book style, similar to Renaissance, but I suspect done with filtering film rather than computer rendering with Renaissance. The story is set in the future and is about an undercover cop trying to find information on a drug sub-culture, who appears to have become a drug addict himself. Rendering the film in comic style is perfect for this sort of story, as the scenes where you see the psychedelic results of the drug fit in so well with the style – see Fear and Loathing in Las Vages for a film that fails totally to capture the hallucination that are vividly recorded in the original book. The story works well, and the generally understated acting from the performers fitting the tone of the film very well. Definitely a good PKD adaptation, well worth seeing if you like PKD’s books (I’m keeping track, as I really like PKD’s writings, and one day I’ll feel there are enough good PKD adaptations to make up for the really bad one, which I refuse even to name here…). Someone was complaining the comic style effect was underused, but I think that’s part of what makes it so good – the restraint makes those bits where it’s used fit in very well.

After all that sci-fi I saw something set in today, Volver. Volver is the latest film by Pedro Almodóvar – who I really should have seen more films by, but I’ve only seen his previous work, Talk To Her, but Talk To Her was such an interesting film that I was eager to see Volver. Volver follows the story of a pair of sisters in Madrid, coping with family deaths, attempted rape, family lies, and the dead reappearing. That totally fails to do the story justice :) It is a good film, very similar in tone to Talk To Her. A drama that manages to be both dark and light at the same time. Both films manage to cover awkward subjects but also have a very “human” (daft word, but I can’t think of a better one – perhaps emotional with a slightly positive spin?) side. Anyway, certainly a good story, and worth seeing.

You may notice the reviews tailed off there – that’s sleep kicking in. Good night :)