fright night (2011). directed by craig gillespie.

two weeks ago i watched a stupid non-gore, non-horror fest in final destination 5. thank goodness fright night is a much better movie. colin farrell CAN act, and deliciously devilish too. it has just enough gore and suspense so i quite enjoyed it. 

lars and the real girl (2007). directed by craig gillespie.

i got around to finish this movie last night. i absolutely love the fact that it is a simple movie about a simple man trying to overcome a condition plaguing all things alive - humans at least - loneliness. 

admit it, we all get the pangs of it - even the most friendly, the married ones, the single ones. whoever. 

lars is a simple small town boy who is painfully shy. ryan gosling played the character with endearing sensitivity - it is like he lived a life time of being someone like that. he is in need of human contact but he's too shy for anything of that sort - that he resorted to buying a blow up doll - a love doll - a sex doll. he calls her bianca. he introduced her to his brother and his sister in law and everyone in town as his girlfriend. he sings her love songs. he tells her things a boy tells to his sweetheart. it is as if this doll is an extension of him that was missing all this while - his other half. 

the thing that stands about this movie is, despite his obvious delusion, everyone in town takes bianca as seriously as lars does. they know this goes beyond garden variety eccentricity, but they play along with it because this is the way to show him their love for him. if this doll makes him happy, then by all means they want him to know how much they are happy for him. perhaps he has grown up thinking nobody cares - but by the end of the movie - he makes a conscious decision to let go of the doll and face the world - and he could not have been able to do that without the support of everybody - who takes him just as he is. 

i don't know where the story was shot, the place is white with snow i can feel how desolate one can be. but i was wrong. the people makes it such a warm place. 

it makes me think of how often we quickly close the door on other people due to lack of understanding and  prejudice. how easy it is for us to sideline other people because they are different and do not conform to the  standard definition of being normal, if there is such a thing. it must be lonely for them, those people who gets sidelined.

i am mostly glad lars gets a happy ending.