Celluloid Sunday!

I've decided what this blog needs is a recurrent feature. . . or two. Therefore this post is the first in what will become a *hopefully* recurring series aptly named Celluloid Sunday! So let's start with the best film of 2009 that you've never , no really. . . you've NEVER seen. Heck, you may never have even heard of it, unless you really dig Brittany Snow, or indie films. Not being much of a Brittany Snow fan myself, (sorry Brittany I'm just not that familiar with your work) that leaves me firmly in the indie film fan category.

Brittany Snow is shocked & mildly disgusted by ninjarobotsthoughts blatant disregard for her career.

Thusly, I give you my deep and abiding passion for The Vicious Kind. This awesome little film has won several indie film awards and was nominated for many more but will just never find a large commercial market. It sits on the edge of what trendy movie people call "mumblecore" blending offbeat humour with dark dramatic passages of character growth and inferred plot expositions. These are the kind of films that are either deeply personally satisfying to you, or lull you into a semi-comatose state of WTF is happening here? and why did I agree to watch this? A feeling which is immediately compounded by the increasingly popular abrupt endings most of these films espouse.

Hollywood's big budget movie making machine has taught it's viewers to expect all plot lines to be wrapped up into neat little packages with pretty bows by the end of every film. All character issues are resolved to the extent where viewers can walk away satisfied that they know how the story ends. We know how it all works out for the characters. Their lives are better, their problems are solved; and Hollywood has your money, and you have a false sense of serenity. Big time movie directors sell you on the 'happy ending' every time. . . and on the odd occasion they don't the critics write it off as being "artsy". . . or "making a statement".

Indie film makers regularly employ the abrupt ending because that's precisely how life is really lived. We all come into this world somewhere in the middle of the story and leave it much the same way. We are all works in progress. Nothing is ever truly resolved. The best we can hope for on any given day is growth, and that's what these films showcase. The characters persevere, they endure; and with any luck we get to follow along on their journey and watch them grow. Sometimes by only the smallest of margins, but small changes often foster profound results.

If you can abide by that . . give The Vicious Kind a shot. It's worth it.