Elizabeth Olsen creeped me out in Martha Marcy May Marlene and she does so again in this remake of an Uruguayan film, “La Casa Muda,” that purports to be based on a true story from the 1940s – which makes it 1000 times creepier if so. Olsen stars as Laura, a young college student who is helping her father pack an old lake house that belongs to her family. Her uncle Peter, whose relationship with her father appears to be a little strained, is helping out. The only power in the house is supplied by a generator on the top floor; most of the rooms are dark, so they move around with lanterns and flashlights.
After Peter drives into town to look for an electrician, Laura and her father continue to pack and work in separate areas of the house. She keeps hearing strange noises and knocks and then finally a crash; she realizes that they are not alone in the house and soon finds her father’s unconscious body. As the film progresses we see her struggle to elude the intruder, while at the same time uncovering a mystery related to the house.
This is one of the best suspense/horror films I have seen in quite a while. Writer and co-director Laura Lau has created a very strong script, reminding me at times of Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chainsaw Massacre for its sheer creepiness. The camera work is superior, moving around and around Laura with the illusion of a single take, offering tantalizing glimpses of what is after her. Olsen does the heavy lifting with the camera almost constantly on her and makes it look easy, descending into terror without being shrill or repetitive. This film did not do well in theatres when it was released in April; too bad. I hope people have the sense to check it out on video.
Director Christopher Nolan and his cast break the curse of the superhero trilogy by finishing strong and sticking the landing, crafting a film that I enjoyed more in my mind and guts than the first two put together. Indeed, this is easily the best of the nine (!) theatrically released Batman films so far, rivalled only by 1993′s animated Mask of the Phantasm.
Sometimes Wes Anderson’s films don’t work for me, most notably The Darjeeling Limited; but most of the time they do, and sometimes, as with The Fantastic Mister Fox or The Life Aquatic, I am happily drawn into their offbeat worlds and sorry to have to leave. Moonrise Kingdom is another one of those, a period piece in which two precocious but emotionally disturbed preteens make a pact to run away and live together.
Andrew Garfield puts on the tights in this reboot of the first great superhero film franchise of this century. When Sam Raimi’s series began, us comics fans could not believe our luck; the script was decent, the effects looked good, and the material was played straight, not for laughs. Raimi and crew did even better on the sequel, creating one of the best comic book movies in history. And then, well, the third instalment was like so many other franchises that went back to the well once too often: the script was terrible, effects were off, and the tone was wrong (cf. Superman III, Batman Forever, X3).
