Movie Reviews

 I've watched 3 interesting movies in the past week.

388 Arletta (streaming on Netflix) - creepy psychological thriller. It's from the perspective of a voyeur who seems to be stalking this guy at home and at work. I like the psychological thriller genre, although it can be overdone with the "is this person crazy or is someone really out to get this person?" theme. However, because we hear and see the voyeur (though not well enough to identify who it is), you know the guy being stalked isn't crazy. The big piece of the mystery becomes WHY.

There's logical problems with the movie, but I suppose they need to be there to make the movie work. For instance, it seems a bit odd that this guy can't get any help from anyone. And that the police won't come to take a missing person's report, but they will come for a cat issue.

Still, I liked the movie. I like to be scared.


Paranormal Activity 4 (DVD) - I've seen all of these. I know, I know. I have no taste. Even more credence to not having taste is that I like them. What can I say? I'm fascinated by ghosts, poltergeists, and demons. The intellectual side of my brain knows, or is fairly certain, that they don't exist. But there's that other part that wonders how we can really ever know. I suppose I'm agnostic about ghosts. I would love to stay at a reported haunted house/building someday. Again, I like to be scared.

Back to this movie, it starts at the end of Paranormal Activity 3, when Katie (the chick who became possessed by demons in her house in the original movie) kills her sister and then abducts her nephew, who was a baby. Flash forward 5 years, and now we are living with a 'typical' suburban family with a teenager and a 5 year old son. The mysterious kid across the street moves in with them after his mom is hospitalized, and weird things start happening. The teenager and her boyfriend have a penchant for recording things, a la the prior movies in this franchise.


Whores' Glory (streaming on Netflix) - documentary about prostitution in Bangkok, Bangladesh and Mexico. Bangkok seemed the most straightforward. Prostitution was just a job there. Bangladesh was fascinating because it was a lifestyle. Mexico - that portion was interesting because it was definitely gritty (kind of like a job shadow).

I've always been fascinated by the oldest profession. Not enough to try out, mind you, but enough to watch a documentary about it and think and come up with interview questions for the women featured.