Haven't really been watching much recently, though I hope to rectify this soon. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with JULIA X, which is kind of about a battle of wits between two serial killers (or even three). It doesn't waste much time messing about with set up and back story, just cuts to the chase with a certain amount of zest and verve. It's bloody without being full on, and satisfyingly twisted (lite) in places. My attention span is dwindling these days, so I appreciate films which try to be smart and snappy and succeed. Cult Labbers who read my posts will be aware of how massively 1) pretentious 2) miserable I am, so naturally I have a big-style aversion to dreadful 'horror comedy', but that's exactly what 'Julia X' is... thankfully it's not too broad or laugh out loud. Pretty good and well worth seeing.
I definitely wouldn't describe UNDER THE SKIN as any kind of comedy, but you probably all know that already. I was a bit apprehensive about seeing it, thinking it couldn't possibly live up to the internal hype I'd surrounded it with... maybe it didn't, but it came pretty close. It's a film of two halves, the first being about performance, seduction and annihilation (and, as MTDS pointed out, an alien sex killer). The second part is more about a being who suddenly finds itself vulnerable and without an identity, stranded in a landscape she can only begin to fathom. I liked the second bit more. It has a really bleak, claustrophobic but somehow almost touching feel, as horny alien siren with black hole for a heart begins to emote and question its place in the world but alas just can't relate and ends up dead in some godforsaken wilderness. I wanted to watch it again as soon as I'd finished it, and I can't say that about many I've seen in the last couple of years.
Speaking of bleak and claustrophobic, how about Mike Leigh's brilliant MEANTIME? I think I prefer it even to 'Naked' in the tortured underclass uber-angst stakes - possibly because it has that early eighties, 'Play for Today' type feel which always seemed a bit disturbing to me when I was a kid, kind of loose, downbeat, elliptical, almost documentary. Anyway, it's great, a truly grimy slice of life which bears witness to the day to day struggles of switched on but cynical Phil Daniels, his learning dis brother Tim Roth, and strangely balletic skinhead Gary Oldman, who all pick their way through the Hogarthian landscape of recession-bitten London, simultaneously flattened by and lashing out at their down at heel locales. All three are excellent and just shine in their respective roles - the dynamics between the two brothers are particularly well worked out. The film as a whole leaves you angry at the state of things, but with enough of a glimmer that there might be something beyond the carnage.
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