The Shoggoth Speaks

The following movies are almost meditative in character. You find yourself entranced, watching without reflecting or judging. Each of them individually has a unique haunting mood, though a certain sense of apprehension is common to all three. After they're over, you think about them for days.

Elephant

One of the most beautiful and haunting films ever made. It is as spare and Zen as a classical Japanese painting. Concerning the lead-up to a school shooting in the vein of Columbine, and told through multiple points of view, several high school students are shown going about their day unaware of what is about to befall them. The two shooters’ days and the sanguine plan they make together is juxtaposed with the blissful ignorance of the rest. There is very little dialogue, which somehow heightens the tension – perhaps because the film thus feels more like a documentary.

No explanations as to motive are offered. The shooters appear to be as ordinary as the rest of the kids, until they systematically begin committing casual murders. This film is far more gripping than any thriller or horror film. That it is also so beautiful to watch makes it an even more disconcerting experience.

“Elephant” stars total unknowns, apparently directed with minimal instruction by Gus Van Sant. The actors seem like real kids, and the verisimilitude is startling.

--The Shoggoth

Reviews and information at:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elephant/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/elephant

The Limits of Control

Two-plus hours of gorgeous shots and minimalist acting. Filmed entirely in Spain, in one beautiful location after another, with actors moving through scenes at a languid pace, allowing you to drink in the atmosphere of each locale.

The film has both the strangeness and the internal logic of an intense dream. The protagonist is some kind of criminal, or an agent, but which precise sub-type is not revealed until the end. Interestingly, his elaborate precautions and the various meetings in preparation for his eventual goal are shown but the action is not: The protagonist’s penetration of the final, secure hideout is not shown. He simply appears there. This is surprising , but it heightens the protagonist’s mysterious competence, and is one explanation of the film's title. He is able to evade all surveillance, electronic, physical, cinematic: Thus, “The Limits of Control.”

Look for Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, John Hurt and the incomparable Mr. Bill Murray in a series of delightful but mysterious cameos.

Note that the Shoggoth enjoyed this movie far more than critics and general audiences both.

--The Shoggoth

Reviews and information at:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/limits_of_control/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135092/

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-limits-of-control

Mysterious Skin

Mesmerizing performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an emotionally numb hustler who paradoxically savours memories of his abusive baseball coach, a man that was clearly both abuser and father figure to him. At the same time, another of the coach’s victims has blocked out his experiences, believing instead that he was abducted by aliens and experimented upon. The two stories intertwine until their protagonists eventually meet again as young adults.

The film is so accurate about the aftermath of child abuse that it is nearly a forensic psychology treatise, but it never loses its humanity: It is not graphic (mercifully, the camera cuts away at all appropriate times and the most hateful things take place off screen), but it is never merely clinical. The vulnerabilities of the two main characters, even the toughest of the pair, are always clear to see.

There's no question that “Mysterious Skin” is harrowing. Some scenes are extremely difficult to watch, but the film is thoroughly rewarding if you make it to the end.

Watch for Elisabeth Shue in an understated performance as an oblivious single mom.

--The Shoggoth

Reviews and information at:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mysterious_skin/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0370986/

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/mysterious-skin