At the Movies

A correspondent recently asked what movies I've seen lately, and which ones I would recommend. With that in mind, I created the following table.

Dark Habits	Pedro Almodovar	No
Monster House	Gil Kenan	Rent
The Descent	Neil Marshall	No
3 Women	Robert Altman	NFAL
Bad Education	Pedro Almodovar	OK
United 93	Paul Greengrass	Rent
Orphic Trilogy Blood of a Poet Orpheus Testament of Orpheus	Jean Cocteau	NFAL
Into the Woods	Stephen Sondheim	Rent
Pan’s Labyrinth	Guillermo del Toro	Buy

This table lists nine movies, and one trilogy, that I have recently watched. They are, more or less, in inverse order of when I watched them. All were seen via Netflix, with the exception of Pan's Labyrinth, which I originally saw in the theater.

The rating system is fairly simple: No (don't bother), OK (neither great nor aweful), NFAL - "Not for all tastes" (I enjoyed it, but recognize the movie is not exactly commercial), Rent (definitely worth renting), and Buy (so good, you'll probably want the movie in your permanent library).

I hope to flesh out the reasons for my ratings over the next few weeks, as time permits.

I will say, by way of introduction, that watching Cocteau's Orpheus Trilogy gave me a new appreciation of the work of David Lynch, and may have prepared me for non-linear (or practically non-existent) narrative, as found in Altman's 3 Women.