CAPOTE

"Crapote?" Just kidding. It was fine, I suppose, although it did feel a bit neutered and grey.

Now, on to more important things. Stream of consciousness style...

A hole in my heart. By Lukas Moodysson. That fucker was crazy. There were only a few of the zoomy bits that annoyed in the otherwise perfect "Fucking Amal," but there was a lot of "Requiem for a Dream" style directorial masturbation. Is all film (or in this case video) direction simply masturbation on some level? Probably, so we'll let that go. But, the thing I might not be willing to let go is the lack of heart. I love the "Boogie Nights style porno can act as a nice surrogate family" feeling, but the goth kid with the flipper hand is really fucked, and in a very traditional familiar way. Gecko and his father are the enemy, and there is no getting around that. The father's pathetic attempts to connect to his son just don't ring true enough.

Fearlessly performed, and brilliantly acted, this film isn't all bad, it's just missing it's heart. The scene where the two men, having just assaulted an aspiring young pornlet, play marbles is brilliant. The shooting (air guns) scene, a cliched situation played that way, could have been so much stronger. But played as it was, with fake blood and "dreamy" flashbacks, the whole thing feels like the worst eighties music. In fact, this film feels just like the 1980's.

I'm going to watch Moodysson's earlier film, Together, and then we'll see what's up. I just know this fucker's a genius.

A gut level feeling had me praising this film (to friends and in my mind), but after that wore off all I was left with was an emptiness, a hole in my...nevermind.

It is an uneven, and actually, kind of a shitty movie after you sit with it for a few days.