girl on film: it was a dark and stormy night...

Tonight was the first night of film viewing for me at the Milwaukee Film Festival, as I worked at the Oriental Theatre for opening night.

Unfortunately I had to miss Modus Operandi, due to a tailgating commitment with co-workers. The rain did not a merry tailgate make, and I left the game (which the Brewers won, yay!) early to meet up with Jason to go film it up.

What better flicks for a dark and stormy night than a biopic of a sociopath and a homage to '80s horror about satantic cults?

Actually, Bronson, the first movie, was absolutely superb. It's playing again at the Marcus North Shore Cinema, so if you get a chance to catch it, do so. The write-up compared it to A Clockwork Orange, and I can't say that's inaccurate at all. The direction was extremely Kubrickian. It's also a movie, however violent, that I'd like to see again to catch all the nuances. There's so many layers to it, once you get beyond the shock value of the extreme violence (sort of like Fight Club, which I admittedly also need to see again). The lead actor, Tom Hardy, was absolutely brilliant and I look forward to seeing him in more things (especially since I'm sure he can be quite sexy when he isn't bashing people's heads in). Plus, it may have the best line in all of the festival: "Magic? You just pissed on a gypsy in the middle of fucking nowhere."

Of course, we couldn't be content with just catching an intense psychological profile. Nope. We had to freak ourselves the EFF out with The House of the Devil

There was a reason in the '80s that my parents didn't let us watch horror movies. They wanted to save on their electricity bills!!! I came home and promptly turned on all my lights. Screw SUVs, horror movies are fueling our dependence on foreign oil. Yes, I know I'm not "babysitting" in the middle of nowhere. I think there's no satanic cultists living in my building. I know there's no total eclipse of the moon this evening. Unlike most modern mainstream slasher flicks, where it's just about the body count of hot chicks and frat boys, this had minimal characters and maximum suspense. It didn't challenge me to reexamine my life or perspectives, but it scared the crap out of me, which is exactly what it was supposed to do.

Of course, it didn't help that Jason tried to freak me out as I was getting out of the car. I think I scared him a little when I screamed at him to "KNOCK IT OFF!!! DON'T EVEN START!!" He's lucky I didn't go Bronson on his ass.

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I forgot to mention the dude sitting next to me during HOTD that added an extra element of suspense. You never knew how he was going to react. At one point of jumpiness, he elbowed me sooooo hard in the ribs that I practically jumped in Jason's lap. Jason had no idea this was going on and wondered why I was EXTRA freaking out. Talk about experiential theatre!