Movie #413 - Life as a House

Life as a House

2001 - Rated R - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Irwin Winkler
Starring: Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jena Malone, Mary Steenburgen, Ian Somerhalder, Scott Bakula

Okay, okay. This movie made me cry.

No, not just cry.  Sob.  I sobbed at the end of this movie.  And Ellie was really concerned about me for a minute, then blew raspberrie in my face.  Which solved my sobbing problem.

But really... Kline as a divorced dad trying to spend a few final moments with his nearly-estranged teenage son before succumbing to terminal cancer; building a house that brings a family and neighborhood together; falling in love with his ex-wife all over again just days before... well, you know. Damn cancer.

Although it makes you cry, this movie does a lot of other things as well.  It inspires and it makes your heart swell, it makes you think about people in your life that matter to you, makes you want to be a good parent to your children (even if you don't have them yet.)  It may or may not make you want to build a house--that's up to you.  But this movie, even though it made me sob, made me feel good about some things.

That's saying something.

Movie #169 - Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko
2001 - Rated R - 1 hr 53 min
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Patrick Swayze

This movie is messed up.  But also awesome.

After all, "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" Right?

So here's itty bitty Jake Gyllenhaal (and Maggie too!) in the 80's and all sorts of crazy, seeing man-sized rabbits and whacking bronze statues with an axe.  This is probably the best cinematic teenage angst ever made, but it's also so much more than that.  Is Donnie Darko schizophrenic, is he just in-tune to what we don't know? How does he predict the things he does? And how the help did he get up high enough to put the axe in the dog's head?  What kind of name is Donnie Darko, anyway? These are the questions this movie makes me ask. 

Then you get to the end and you wonder, how much was real? Is there a time loop? Alternative universes, parallel timelines? And if the jet engine still falls, is the plane still going to crash? Yikes.

Anyway, it took me a couple of watches to really get what's happening here.  And it's possible I still don't completely get it... hence all the questions.  But it took this watch for me to notice Seth Rogen has a bit part. Watch it and see if you can find him. I love this game.

If you haven't seen this one and you don't like dark, psychological (not scary, but definitely twisted) movies, you should probably pass.  If you like that kind of stuff and you want something to think about, put this in your Netflix queue.