Pusher (1996, Nicolas Winding Refn)
Low budget crime film. Well done overall with no discernable "good guy." Frank pushes dope for Milo, trys to start something on the side, but every time something goes wrong. Radovan, Milo's enforcer, is sent to collect the money Frank owes Milo. Torture, escape, then Frank is offered a chance at redemption. Plenty of good times, blood, and drugs. It was also interesting to see Mads Mikkelson in a role quite different from Ivan in Adam's Apples.
House of Sand (2005, Andrucha Waddington)
The visuals are outstanding. The dunes, the sky, the sea, all are striking.
The story, however, was not so great for me. A group of people go into the dunes in Brazil to set up a settlement. The women in the group are very unhappy with the frontier and help along their own desertion and the death of Aurea's husband. They try to survive with the help of runaway slaves as she has a daughter and misses verious chances to go back to civilization until she finds happiness out there.
Why her daughter, Maria, is so intent on going to the city, I don't know. I suppose there is some sort of commentary here about the detrimental effects on women of being under the control of men (a man essentially forces them out there in the first place and it is a man's (in)actions that keep them there). But Aurea's mother likes it out in the dunes because, "No man can tell me what to do."
Starfish Hotel (2006, John Williams)
Seems to be heavily influenced by In the Mouth of Madness and David Lynch films.
A man, who is a fan of a certain author's mystery novels, has his wife go missing the day after he meets a man dressed as Mr. Trickster, a large and rather sickly/homicidal looking rabbit, who is promoting the author's new book. The man has dreams about places the author frequents and also, presumably, what is referred to in the novels as the "Darkland."
The man's tale seems to be narrated by the author as it sounds ever increasingly like the descriptions he is giving of his next to-be-published novel. Mr. Trickster makes further appearances to give omniscient knowledge to the man and perform the actions necessary to carry him to the end of the tale. Mr. Trickster, however, proves himself as tricky as his namesake.
The visuals in the dream sequences (Darkland?) reminiscent of Lynch and often in richer colour than the other sections. Despite its similarities to Western films and their style, there is something very Japanese about the film (especially in the bits to do with the other woman at the Starfish Hotel, but all pervasive).
It's days later, and I still don't have a full handle on it, which means it's probably quite good, my having liked it notwithstanding.
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