Some Long Overdue Movie Reviews: Paul, Julie and Julia, Hanna

So....these are the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve movies respectively.

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Two New Reviews: Films From Studio Ghibli and Kevin Smith

Arrietty (2010)

I wasn't sure what to expect from this. I hadn't heard anyone else hyping this one up. Dammit internet, what is WRONG with you?


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Red State (2011)

This was looking pretty impressive to start with. Oddly perhaps the biggest problem with the film was its portrayal of its only named gay character. Three older teenagers decide that they are going to have sex with a prostitute. On their way there, they scrape against a car. They don't realise anyone is in the car to start with, just thinking it was parked by the side of the road randomly. Then it becomes pretty clear that there is a man inside the car who was getting a blowjob from another man. The man in the car is a police officer. When he gets back to the Police Station he asks another officer to track down the car for him before staring at a photo of his wife and crying.

What I've described would all be fine, if it wasn't for an event that happens later, the underlying suggestion behind it and the complete failure to follow it up properly. Considering that the central bad guys in this film are a militant homophobic Christian fundamentalist cult, the way this single gay character is portrayed seemed to be lacking the level of nuance he deserved.


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