Killing Them Softly
America is in the throes of economic collapse. Bush is introducing the bailout, and McCain and Obama are advocating change in the next presidential election. Even the mobsters are feeling the recession. Jackie (Brad Pitt) wants to fly in a hitman, but he has to fly coach. The “recession price” for killing a person has gone down to 10 grand a pop. This film, written and directed by Andrew Dominik (Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) has the saddest hitmen I know. Storytelling is tight and the visuals are realistic. This is not your flashy shoot-em-up, but the dialogues – funny and cynical – will reel you in.
Django Unchained
I’ve seen this film a while ago but never got the chance to write down my thoughts. It’s a great film, and you should see it. Tarantino is definitely getting better. We can talk about racism and slavery in a cerebral way, but this film says fuck you to that. It forces you to look and dwell in the fantasy (like the fantasy of Hitler dying in Inglorious Basterds); it’s like a punch in the gut.
PS Christoph Waltz is fantastic here!
TV: Happy Endings is a light, fun watch. (Dramaaaa! I see the show on TV but only recently got the chance to watch the first two episodes in full.) Raising Hope is still sweet and sadly still underrated. Watch it, people! House of Lies with Don Cheadle is okay, but I’m not sure if I’ll watch Episode 2 onwards. The first episode of Vikings starts strangely (cliche scenes, dialogue that’s not appropriate to the time period) but gets interesting. Might follow that.
What have you been watching?
Eliza Victoria 