You're not a kid, you're a monster, monster, monster

[sovay]

I don't think I can call Låt den rätte komma in—Let the Right One In—the most beautiful film I've seen in theaters this year, because The Fall so amazed me, but it's right up there. So many directors could have taken its core handful of elements and gone for sheer splatter, suspense, even black comedy; instead it's a character piece, like the color of winter twilight, at once remote and tender, not obvious, not comfortable. Am I making it sound like a piece of sculpture, serene and chilly? Some of what I loved about the film is that it's messy: you're dying to be alive when you're twelve years old. Children are monsters. Only some of them drink blood. Only adults are sentimental about it. Let the old dreams die. I don't want to see it remade. I do want to read the book. I want to see what this writer and director do next. And for God's sake, no more sparkling.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

you're dying to be alive when you're twelve years old. Children are monsters. Only some of them drink blood. Only adults are sentimental about it. Let the old dreams die.

YES.

d|p read the book right before we went. It made the movie a little less beautiful to her (to me it was amazing, and not having seen The Fall *sigh*, I will call it the prettiest movie I've seen all year); but still she liked it. The book is, apparently (I have not read it yet), a masterwork of very deliberate and satisfying character development.

[sovay]

YES.

Seriously, I'm amazed that showing this film in the same state as Twilight doesn't cause broadband cognitive dissonance.

(to me it was amazing, and not having seen The Fall *sigh*, I will call it the prettiest movie I've seen all year)

It's visually stunning. And not in the way that glazes everything nicely—this is a film with acid and vomit and bloody paint-drips down a five-liter can; predators do not feed with refinement. And it is beautiful.

You will like The Fall. It's out on DVD now . . .