Thighs Wide Shut Thighs Wide Shut

Friday, March 27

March Radness

The Haunting In Connecticut
Funeral Parlor Games Without Frontiers
Trailers & Mo | Official Website



There are two kinds of horror movies these daze: ones that are gross out gorefests like Saw and ones that are Michael Bay produced remakes of killer classics. Both kinds are usually not worth see-Sawing. The remakes makes re-sense to us for being, but they never improve upon the source material and are thus less-point. So how comes no one makes horror movies like the old ones that work, but piece it together using fresh or unused material? The Haunting In Connecticut is thankfully a decent recent answer to that question, as this (loosely) based off an actual true story feels more like one of those olde classics, ala The Exorcist or Amityville Horror, even if it isn't necessarily a classic in its own right

The Snedeker family, renamed in the film as the Campbells (with mum and pop played by Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan), move into a big olde creepy house that was once a funeral parlor that doubled as a hot spot for vomiting ectoplasm. The rent's cheap, so they don't really care about its shady past, as they have bigger fish to fry, like dealing with their teenage son(Kyle Gallner)'s cancer and his treatments at a nearby hospital. The son moves into the basement and that's when the visions, slamming doors and other thangs that go michael bumpus in the night start to happen. At first only cancer boy experiences the house's deep dark secrets, and eventually the whole family joins in on the not so fun. Of course these folks shoulda moved out at the first sign of trouble, but they don't, then shiz gets worse, then Elias Koteas comes into to sprinkle holy water on the place, and then more shiz gets even more crazy worse (& a lil overdone) and then... Zardoz guess you may have to see the movie to find out

Strife As A House: the current owners of the house are none to happy with the all this new unwanted attention and the unwanted (living) visitors that comes along with it

Verdictgo: Jeepers Creepers Worth A Peepers


Goodbye Solo
Bestest Solo Since Han
Trailers & Mo | Official Website



Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) is a glass half full Senegalese cab driver in North Carolina, who's ambition in life is to become an airline steward and support his young family. The grizzled old man saying goodbye to him is glass mostly empty William (Red West, a member of Elvis' Memphis Mafia). The two strike up an unlikely friendship as William hires Solo to take him to a mountain range in a few weeks time, with no questions asked. Leading up to their final fare well (get it, cab fare, farewell!), chatty Solo does his best to raise a smile on the grumpy gus, while finding out the cause of his grumpy gussedness. The story itself is as thin as the cast of 90210II, but this baby succeeds on the subtle power of the two leads' performances. Solo's director Ramin Bahrani aint no household name, and probably never will be, but that shouldn't (house)hold you or anyone else (from your household) back from seeing this brilliant humanist film, or his other strong previous efforts (Man Push Cart and Chop Shop). Solo is currently rocking a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. If that ringing endorsement for this bromance aint good enuff for you, then juss go ahead and waste yer time watching pufflepuff stuff like I Bore You, Man

Bitched @ Swirth: we're setting the odds at 3 to 1 that when Jared Harris is 73 years old he'll look eggzactly like Red West

Verdictgo: Breast In Show


Guest of Cindy Sherman
Standing In Shadows of Groantown
Trailers & Mo | Official Website



Paul Hasegawa-Overacker (aka Paul H-O) went from obscure art scene outsider, with his 90's NY public access TV show Gallery Beat, to ultimate scenester insider, when he became photography icon Cindy Sherman's companion for 5 or so years. He was living out his ultimate fantasy, flying with Sherman across the globe and hobnobbing with the crème de' le' crème of snobby von snobbyensteins (although Julian Schnabel wasn't much of a fan, but then again, does Schnabs like anyone?), but being her +1 took its toll on his psyche and their relationship as well. This incredibly fun documentary gives us a rare insight it what it's like to be that other person, who often gets told by cameramen to stand aside on red carpets, and is forced to sit at separate tables at bourgeois dinners far away from their loved ones. This expose, co-directed by the sunny H-O, focuses more on the Guest than Sherman, but there's plenty goodies to go round about the ironically camera-shy artist and her work to make this a dual purpose bio an absolute treat

Step Up: one of Sherman's former stepdaughters is Gaby Hoffman, better know as Uncle Buck's lil niece and the lil girl in Field of Dreams

Verdictgo: Guest In Show


Solo and Sherman open today in limited release, while Haunting opens at a theater near Jews



# March Radness