Dom and I saw the premiere of “Hard Candy” last night at the Cinerama. Dom was on the Lion's Gate guest list because, in case you didn't know, he's a really big deal.
Anyway, I really liked the movie. The script was smart and engaging. The constant close-ups lended themselves to a nice, claustrophobic feel (and luckily, the two leads were pretty, so it was nice to be so well acquainted with their faces). One was left questioning where their sympathies lay. Although, in this case, I think that we weren't really meant to empathize with either character, particularly.
What I don't get is all the hype about the movie being “so messed up”. As we were leaving the theatre, I heard people commenting on how “disturbing” and “unsettling” and “dark” it was. Even the producer introduced the movie by thanking Paul Allen for taking a chance on a movie about which “nothing was safe”. Come ON. I can't help but feel that the people who were so disturbed by this movie generally consider, say, “American Beauty” to be as much cinematic darkness as they can stand. And I'm not even talking about people who don't watch horror movies. There are plenty of dramas out there with a much darker view of the human condition. They clearly have never seen anything by Mike Leigh, Roman Polanski or Werner Herzog to name a few. I realise that those films aren't necessarily mainstream, but from the conversations I overheard last night, a lot of the audience considered themselves movie buffs and shouldn't have been so easily shakable.
Baffling.
Effed by the Wind 