The Good, the Ok, and the Ugly: 3 recent DVD's

The Good: I mean the Great: Dogville. What a beautifully pessimistic view of humanity. The virtual set and von Triers knife in the heart attack on small town america, christian charity, and humans in general made me wince in horror more then once. Unbelievable, finally a film so potent it is hard to watch. Horror flicks never really did it for me.

The OK: Sideways. I have a soft spot for male mid-life crisis movies. But my pleasure in this film never got much past that. The two characters were overly simplified. They could have easily been boiled down to one character which would have then left room for new possibilities. Wine as the narrative glue seemed a tad effortful as wine usually is. Enough said.

The Bad: Storytelling. Now I was a big fan of Happiness but this one falls flat. It only gets a bad rating as I had high expectations for it. Ultimately it is superior to Sideways. The paragraph synopsis on my netflix sleeve gave me as much as the movie did. fiction and non-fiction, not as simple as they seem, yes I know. I had this strange sense that if I made a film it would come out something like this. I tackle a big irony of life and then marginally illuminate it. But hey it would be my first film, give me a break.