Let The Right One In

I have no idea why did it took me so long to watch this movie, which I consider is among the best movies of 2008 and the present year. A friend had been insisting me to see it. He handed it to me and, for one reason or another, I never saw it. Months later I'm in Vancouver and I don't find the CD in which he burnt the movie. I decided to buy it. I'm now happy as hell to have seen it in original DVD format with a home theater and a decent monitor. Joe, my recommendation now is that you buy the movie so you can watch it in a decent format.

"Let The Right One In" is an excellent film that pushes you inside its world and hypnotizes you. This is achieved thanks to its effective atmospheres, great acting, its semi-slow pace, and obviously, the incredible story that is told. It's a story that doesn't compromise with anything and has no self-censorship. It's a story that grabs you, shakes you, and at the end, you still feel it... tearing your insides.

The movie tells the story of Oskar, a 12-year-old boy, victim of the abuses of his school “friends”. Oskar dreams about having the courage to defend himself. He dreams about killing that what bothers him. And between his fantasies and his games and his loneliness, one night he meets Eli. Eli is a vampire girl. They fall in love, but they do like only a kid can love: purely.

The movie is grim and also points in philosophical questions of “vampirism”. It's not that easy for a person who really has a variant in his/her essence to present him/herself before society. Like Roger Ebert said, "it's very easy to go around with your pose of goth kid, but things get hard when you have marks of fangs on your neck to show-off.”

The director of the movie didn't risk at all in telling the essence of the story. He didn't go for the cheap scare, the gratuitous blood spurt, or the extremely macabre takes. He decided to show the drama of the struggle and the impotence of the kid who has no arguments to defend himself, and finds a ray of light in a vampire girl. And he achieves it. The movie scares when it has to, but it does because you already have on you all the emotional baggage that those kids project.

We've been Oskar or Eli in a given moment. Or they are those kids which we, from our desks at school, saw them being bothered. Or they are those kids which we bothered. That connects you to the protagonists, and when you get scared, you really do, because you have seen that. You've lived that. The outsider or the misfit themes are related to all of us.

No Rejection (A Teaser)

Thomas threw the joint away, got up, took the dead rat besides Terry and walked away. Terry got up, his ten years of age on his back, and followed his old master.

Thomas put the rat in rectangular piece of wood near an old oak. He took his old knife from his old jeans and started skinning the animal. It was a medium-sized rat, enough for him and Terry to have a good lunch. He got the peeled skin and placed it carefully in a thin branch of the big tree. Terry, with his ever glowing eyes, looked patiently while his master did his part of the job.

Terry was not the only one who hunted. But in the mornings, he had this valuable habit of proactively rushing to the bush and bring out something to eat. Sometimes he would bring a snake, a skunk, an opossum, and if they were really lucky, even a boar. This time of the year, though, a rat or a wild rabbit were the most common dishes.

Just as the days were beautiful, the nights could not get any better. Dark nights with a clear moon and a splendid, spectacular, roof of constellations were common in the summer. Coyotes howling at the emptiness, at the inexorable wilderness, would be, when they were spiritually tuned, the intros to a 60’s song that Thomas would start singing. The song for the night: Lou Reed’s Perfect Day.

Thomas would sit there, in a rusted rocking chair, near the old cabin. There he was, caressing Terry, enjoying the day’s blessings and living life and not regretting anything, and loving and protecting each other. Night is still night anywhere you go.

Terry was gone. Was it that late? He got up, and started whistling Terry’s tune. No dog could be seen. He went inside the cabin and took a pair of old, weary binoculars. No Terry at sight. Thomas then went to the well.

He started the ascension process. He was almost done when he heard a high-pitched bark and felt a strong push from behind. The bucket went down, and he turned around. Terry was home. And he brought no animal. An extremely emaciated, blue-grayish, severed head was just at Terry’s paws. The face lacked any reminiscence of humanity. Lips all gone, yellow, rotting teeth, a dried up tongue, two holes where a nose should be, and empty eye sockets.


...

True Fucking Blood

Let’s leave something clear from the beginning. I don’t watch many TV series. In fact, I don’t think I can tolerate watching series on TV. I always buy them on DVD and most of the times I start watching the series when there are already two or three seasons in that format. There are only two cases in which I bought the first season without the second one was yet on the market. And those two cases are product of the enormous respect and admiration that I have for one series in particular: Six Feet Under. Those two cases are Dexter, who is brought to life by an excellent Michael C. Hall (David in SFU); and True Blood, new series by the creator of SFU, Alan Ball. Both series are excellent in almost any aspect that deserves revision.

Dexter was nominated to the Emmy, as expected. True Blood, on the other side, was totally ignored (with some exceptions in minor nominations).

I really don’t understand why. I’m not going to compare it con the other series nominated because I simply don’t know them. But I think that any person, sober or in drugs, can recognize the great quality of material that HBO gives us week after week. HBO is already a warranty of greatly manufactures series, no inhibitions, and excellent stories. Some examples: The Sopranos, Rome, Six Feet Under, Entourage. And with True Blood they didn’t get off key at all. In fact, with no fear to make a mistake and trusting in the great capacity of Alan Ball, they have risked themselves with a proposal that will elevate the standards of their future offers.

What makes True Blood so brilliant? Everything… with no exaggerations. Technically it is impeccable, but is the story itself, its thematic, and the beings that give it life, what really makes this series something very special.

The series is based on a novel saga called The Southern Vampire Chronicles, and it’s located in the town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The vampires have “come out of the coffin” and are trying to mix in with society. This is possible thanks to the development and comercialization of the synthetic blood called TruBlood, with which the vampires ensure their good nutrition without risk for the society.

Among the society, there are three sides: the pro-vampires, the anti-vampires, and the neutral. There are vampires that respect society, while there are others who can’t let go off the organic food. As part of the society there’s also a new “drug” that is in vogue: V, vampire’s blood.

In this context, the series follows the fates of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with the capacity to hear people’s thoughts. She gets to know Bill Compton, a vampire interested in mixing in with society. Sookie has a fascination towards these beings which increases in Bill when she discovers that she cannot listen to what he thinks.

The story itself sounds very well-worn. It is, no doubt. Many people actually compares True Blood with the vomitive Twilight (it was a real effort to put those two titles in the same line). The similarities are there, no question. Nevertheless, its thematic line is what makes this series something that connects with the audience. Obviously, and like in every story, there exists a subtext much greater than what is seen on the surface. True Blood is a story with vampires, lovers, villains, heroes, sex, drugs. But it is a story about prejudices, phobias, minorities, and polarities.

The vampires are a materialization of those subjects that we as a society have encrypted in a collective consciousness and before which there is an immediate reaction. That is what makes the true identification possible of the audience with the story that develops in that town. The series, chapter by chapter, feels urgent.

This story falls over the shoulders of its characters. Each and every one of them is of the best that I’ve seen on film or TV. Alan Ball is just a master storyteller. But the most important thing is that every one of the characters that appear in this series is a real person, vampire or human. A sensation of multidimensionality, deepness, and authenticity exists in every person that appears in the story. Everyone has their stories, their obsessions, their fantasies, and the most important: all of them are imperfect.

This last quality is something that identifies us with them, and makes them all matter to us. The imperfection of the man is something that attracts us, traps us, and obsesses us, because at the end of the line we see ourselves reflected. It is through those imperfect beings that our own internal struggles, as an audience, are made relevant and recognized. Also, it is through the struggle of each character for being better (because none of the characters is passive), that our personal battles make sense.

If you suffer of my same problem (not tolerating the suspense week after week, between season and season), definitely wait for the seasons 2 and 3 on DVD to be on the market. Really. I can’t emphasize enough in this point. If any “ACTII-series” like Lost or Prison Break causes you problems at the end of each chapter, True Blood leaves you with a sensation of emptiness and need few times seen. The series itself is a movie of 10 ½ hours. Just like that, with no exaggerations. Each chapter starts where the last one ended. And each chapter ends in what is known as cliffhangers (those moments of “cut to commercial” that make you dribble to see what’s next), very effective and powerful cliffhangers.

True Blood is, without doubt, a jewel of TV. It is necessary, very fun, and very compelling. Why it was not nominated to the Emmy? I don’t want to speak more than enough; I would have to know the other series to see if they are in the same level. I don’t think so.
And no, I don’t agree… it has nothing to do with the “movie-I-shall-not-name”. It’s everything that SHIT couldn’t be.