Conversations With Other Women

Conversations With Other Women, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart, was one that I initially watched solely because of Helena. Being a huge Helena fan, I admit that the first time I watched it I think I was focused primarily on her. It wasn’t until I re-watched it recently that I saw that the movie as a whole was put together quite well. Helena and Aaron are essentially the only actors/physical in the film and they play the unnamed ‘man’ and ‘woman’. They meet at a wedding reception that they were both attending and engage in seemingly harmless small talk, which turns to flirting as the couple soon recall that they were lovers in the past. They seem to rekindle their past love as the night goes on, and despite the fact that they were both seriously attached to other people, a one night stand seems to be in consideration.
The very first thing you’ll notice about this film when watching it is the split screen. For the majority of the movie, one side of the screen is always focused on the woman and the other is focused on the man…except when they’re showing a flashback, which they can conveniently play at the same time as the present day due to the split screen. I thought originally that the split screen would be distracting, annoying, and get old after awhile, but you get used to it fairly quickly and it does add a certain intimacy to the movie.
The whole movie felt really honest to me…it was a small independent film with a budget less then half a million and I felt like that tight-knit feeling carried on into the movie. All the emotions that went into what happened that night felt so real, so developed, and so upsetting …
I really loved how the movie ended…the way it was filmed and the actual content of the scene both satisfied me. I don’t like when you can predict many film’s endings by just assuming that it was going to work out for the characters…you can’t do that for this movie, and that’s what I like…it’s different.

7.0/10

District 9

District 9 is a sci-fi type of movie in a unique setting, the slums of South Africa. It starts out as a spaceship sits hovering over South Africa for close to three months…Obviously, that is slightly concerning, so the government sends some military guys up to the spaceship to check that shit out. Upon breaking into the hovercraft they discover aliens in pretty rough physical shape. They bring them down to ground and set up an area called District 9 where the aliens are nourished and can live to recuperate. Years later (I think, I’m sorry I’m terrible with details…oops) they aliens nicknamed “prawns” are still living on earth and have created a slum in the middle of South Africa. Their presence is causing tension so the government decides to move the prawns to a newly build District 10 which is farther away from the African city. However, when this plan goes into action, shit kinda hits the fan and that’s when all the action begins to go down.
I really loved that it was set in South Africa…it’s not the typical setting for a sci-fi movie and I appreciate when a movie switches stuff up, especially when the plot isn’t entirely unique. The simple plot actually worked for this film though…it made it more believable…which is a benefit considering the subject matter. Even the aliens were more plausible because they were less animal-like then the stereotypical extraterrestrial. They have families and jobs and are intelligent…it allows us to feel and sympathize with them more.
Last thing I have to criticize, kinda, is the camera. I love the shaky camcorder feel, similar to movies like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project, but the documentary type interviews at the beginning were just a tad bit too much. They were interesting to begin with, but they ran on for just a little too long into the movie.
Altogether, it was entertaining, different, and unique and an easy watch. It didn’t require a great amount of thought, it wasn’t confusing or anything…just a nice viewing.

7.8