(one of my favorites even though it's not really something i'd say i like)

The first time I saw "Vampire's Kiss" I didn't know what to think...DID Nicolas Cage's character get bitten by a vampire or did he suffer a psychotic break from reality? In some scenes he's talking to a vamp (played by Jennifer Beals) and other times he's talking to nothing but air. 

Cage (as Peter Loew) has this very odd way of talking in the movie...an affectation of sorts that isn't as put-on as it sounds the more he descends into madness. As annoying as his character can be at times, you can't help but be fascinated by his craziness and his intense need to believe what he thinks is (or what may actually be) happening to him.

Jennifer Beals does the best she can with a rather limited role, but when she IS on screen, she is strangely seductive and convincingly vampiric. The great thing about films like "Vampire's Kiss" is that it's up to the viewer to decide what's happening. And while I could be totally wrong, I think Rachel (Beals) is not a vampire,  but the amazingly attractive woman who is completely out of Peter's league and whose rejection of him at a party one night sends him into a tailspin.

I could never do this book justice with a review. All I will say is that _Affinity_ by Sarah Waters broke my heart. I went through several tissues and my heart skipped a few beats through some of the twists and turns the novel took.  

When I first read it a few years ago I filled my journal with pages of thoughts and feelings, but I have since lost it...I remember reading it and getting so into it that I was devastated  for days, even after I finished reading...in my lifetime not many books have done that to me.

 

Just when I think I have seen all the films that could possibly leave me vulnerable, I find this under-rated and powerful DVD. I watched this on Showtime and it left me in that "wow" fog a good movie can leave behind.

If you start watching AMERICAN GUN and are tempted to stop because Virginia Madsen apparently leaves the storyline early, don't! Not only is her character crucial to the overall plot, James Coburn knocks you out cold with his caring, but angry-at-the-world-and-himself portrayal of a father who loses a family member to a fatal gunshot.

I hesitate to describe too much of the plot since there are unexpected turns and twists that shouldn't be revealed, but I can elaborate on the style and lovely quietness of AMERICAN GUN. Maybe "quiet" isn't the whole truth since various gunshots explode throughout the movie as James Coburn explores the history of one gun that has traveled through many different hands. The loudness is also there when he looks back at his own experiences with ammunition in war.

AMERICAN GUN hit me so hard because it is an emotional film more than anything else. At first it seems to be about how a husband and wife each handle grief differently or how one man is determined to find his daughter's killer. In a way, that could sum it up, but there's also a lot about closure and what we think we see versus what is actually there.

The reason this indie deserves more acclaim is because it takes you places you don't expect to go and you are able to experience that great mental process called "thinking." Watch this by yourself--or better yet, rent it with a group of friends who truly enjoy discussing (but not talking to death) a great work of art.

On a side note: The whole cast is just spectacular (a small role by Alexandra Holden will get you a bit teary-eyed), but Coburn and Madsen shine.

  

Tonight's "Medium," an episode called "Psych" (which pretty much gives away the ending, if you ask me), was not one of its betters ones...or at least that's how I felt. But aside from the plot holes you could drive a truck through, I found one particular part, a cat death scene, especially unnecessary and garish. It echoed a scene from an earlier episode this year in which a dog died in an equally gruesome manner.

Lately (as it did way back in the first season before it found its footing) "Medium" often seems to be going for shock value instead of something integral to the plot...both the dog and cat killings were just nasty weird, like a puppet show gone horribly wrong...I always find "Medium" at its best when it goes for sweet (but not sugary) and quirky with a real, gripping mystery to sink our teeth into...take "Dear Dad," for example. While that dealt with sensitive material (i.e. date rape) it handled it in a thoughtful manner.

 

I've always wanted to see "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone". According to TCM's website the movie's airing next week on their cable channel. Yay!

Meanwhile here's what one reviewer has to say about the film:

Vivien Leigh, so stirringly memorable as Blanche in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, stars in this 1961 adaptation of Williams's only novella, giving a nuanced, slightly neurotic performance that is haunting and all the more tragic by its being one of the actress's last performances before her sad death at age 53. Leigh plays Karen Stone, a 50-ish theater actress whose comeback vehicle never gets off the ground; en route to Rome for a brief escape, she's devastated by the sudden death of her beloved husband. She decides to stay in Rome, and there, her loneliness takes root against the spectacular backdrop of the city. Lotte Lenya plays a viperous contessa who pimps young men to older rich ladies, and introduces the handsome Paolo (played with dissolute perfection--though his Italian accent is shaky--by Warren Beatty) to Mrs. Stone. Leigh's performance is unnervingly raw, though one wonders why a woman with a long, happy marriage and at least one very real friend (played by Coral Browne) should be doomed to such relentless loneliness--surely she and her hubby had some pals back in New York? But with Williams, you simply must go along for the ride, and the journey through the emotional dark spaces of Mrs. Stone's life is gripping. The location shots of the glorious, decaying beauty of Rome are fabulous, as are the costumes. Extras include a featurette, Mrs. Stone: Looking for Love in All the Dark Corners. --A.T. Hurley