Busy, busy, BUSY! As you might expect, the tv is packed with festive (and not so much) films - plenty of repeats as well. And I was delighted with one of those last night - third time lucky with Lakeview Terrace, finally on at a time I could see it!
And I was intrigued - Samuel L. Jackson plays a psycho cop (he plays such good psychos), and the neighbour from hell. When Patrick Wilson and his African-American wife move in next door, Samuel takes exception, and sets out to make things unpleasant for them. Promised to be dead creepy.
And it certainly is - a nice, tense thriller, where he follows the standard bad neighbour ploys of turning bright security lights on them, spying on them, cutting down their trees when they overhang his property. Minor acts of vandalism and general unfriendliness turn into something more sinister when his kids depart for their annual visit to his late wife's sister. And this is apparently based on the true story of an African-American cop in California, who was offended when an inter-racial couple moved in next door, and ended up being fired for his actions against them. It never went as far as in this film, though..
Great premise for a story, all on its own. However, this film hints at several subplots that simply aren't explored - as one commentator on the IMDB site remarked, why were they mentioned, in that case? So many themes were missed.. but leaving that aside, it does work as a thriller, and I enjoyed it.
Today's tv started with the ballet of The Nutcracker! Gosh, I don't remember them putting this on in previous years - excellent, one Christmas tradition I can tick off this year! That, carol-singing (also on tv) and hot chocolate - that's all I can manage, for now. But hey. This is a lovely production by the New York City Ballet - and yes, if the prince looks familiar, that is indeed Macaulay Culkin! With its beautiful, soaring score, this is an ideal piece to watch at Christmas.
I have managed to watch about half an hour of the tv documentary made by Robert Fisk, From Beirut to Bosnia, about the relationship between the Middle East and the West. Hard to find, it's available on the Sands Films site - part of an homage to Robert Fisk. It was late at night though, and I fell asleep - not the fault of the film, I was just trying to do too much. And yes, I still have a film backlog of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Snowden, The Unbelievable Truth, Time (all on Amazon Prime), and Zero de Conduite, on the Internet Archive.
No comments:
Post a Comment