Love and Other Drugs

Love and Other Drugs is a 2010 comedy-drama film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, based on the non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy. Set in the late 1990s, Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a traveling pharmaceutical salesman. Jamie has found some success in sales and in meeting women. He meets Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) at a doctor's office, where she's getting drugs to battle the onset of Parkinson's disease. The two have a one-night stand and eventually develop a relationship. They battle Maggie's illness together and confront the distractions of the world of pharmaceutical sales to find love.
Maggie is an alluring free spirit who won't let anyone - or anything - tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love.
The film had many cinematic forebearers, stories of lovers whose partners are ill and one or both struggle with leaving or staying. Most of the plot turns at this level of analysis were better than most of the progenitors. A chance encounter with a man who did stay with his partner and had to watch her become immobile and unable to communicate, allows Gyllenhaal's character to see the future. This vision moves him out of the moment in the relationship and results in a separation that he is both regretful of and relieved by. This is one example of how the film makes the couple's dilemma real to the audience. Even someone who is less confused than Gyllenhaal's character about commitment would have great difficulties with this challenge.
There is a strong subplot that looks at male sexuality as it is prescribed for men in modern culture. The chance to have unconnected sex with numerous women is presented as the main character's one certain accomplishment and the envy of other men. On one occasion his younger brother actually achieves this status. The younger brother is able to recognize that it isn't what he wants or enjoys. As he shares this insight with Gyllenhaal's character, a piece of a developing understanding occurs within him. His vulnerability is uncovered by his partner, Anne Hathaway's, Maggie, who assists him in recognizing his value as a good man.
It is necessary to note that Jake and Anne have several high energy sexual encounters. One particular depiction of a mutual orgasm was so beautiful that many members of the audience may have vividly recollected this state. It was sexual connection based on both characters knowing they loved each other. The film displayed a peak erotic and spiritual connection. For some theater goers it may have seemed too much, but I don't think anyone would have thought a similar personal experience was "too much".
The Big Pharma aspect of the plot is humanized by looking at its effect on several levels of medical personnel and patients. A variety of human betrayals are shown as a part of corporate health care. This story line develops the idea that corporate greed can subvert the best parts of our humanity if we do not recognize our most important needs.

Let The Right One In

I saw the American remake, not knowing there was a Swedish original, and I tend to like the one I see first better BUT there are many key reasons why I perferred the American film.
First of all, the cat scene. When I saw the American version, I was disappointed that they used CGI in the scene with the runner in the tunnel (especially after seeing it done so well without CGI in the Swedish version) but the fake cats attacking the lady was too much and I had a hard time not laughing. Also, I'm glad they replaced the "nosy man at the pub" with a police officer. I don't know how the cops are in Sweden, but in The United States it makes more sense and drive the plot better. Also in this film, they really emphasize that the boy is already a little cracked up and enjoys hurting others and doesn't mind becoming a serial killer, where as in the more receant version it's implied that the boy is more agreeing to be with her because he loves her, etc etc.

M

I watched this movie on Halloween and it scared the hell out of me. M is noted for being the very first serial killer film, the first film to ever use a musical theme to signify a character and was Lang's first sound film.
Made in 1931, this German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang, was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. M is supposedly based on the real-life case of serial killer Peter Kürten, the "Vampire of Düsseldorf", whose crimes took place in the 1920s, although Lang denied that he drew from this case. When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt. The murderer, played by Peter Lorre, lures his innocent victims to their death by whistling the tune "In the Hall of the Mountain King". Lorre himself could not whistle – it is actually Lang who is heard. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation, a technique borrowed from opera, is now a film staple. Before making this, Peter Lorre had mainly been a comedic actor.
The film has a very sour vision of contemporary life in Germany. This is probably due to the fact that Fritz Lang - a Jew - was alarmed at the rapid rise of Nazism and that even his wife Thea von Harbou had become a party member. Not surprisingly, the film was banned by Nazi Germany in 1934.
For me, the scariest part of the movie was near the end when the criminals of the city finally catch the murderer. They threaten to hold their own court for him and you can just see in their eyes- they're about to tear him limb from limb. Lorre did such an amazing job of being terrified, just scared out of his mind. Imagine how the children felt.

Never Let Me Go

After Pride and Prejudice, Carey Mulligan had the leading role in An Edcation, nominated for an Academy Award, and then I saw advertisements for Never Let Me Go. Coupled again with Keira Knightley, after Atonement and Edge of Love, this movie was destined for great things. With the added talent of Andrew Garfield after The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnasus and The Social Network, these actors were at their dramatic primes, and honestly, I think audiences were ready for this type of serious intellectual drama.
Never Let Me Go is a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It was made into a film directed by Mark Romanek in 2010. The plot centers on three children who become entangled in a love triangle and are scientific specimens, created in a laboratory and raised in order to provide their organs to severely ill patients. As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them. The novel and film follow similar themes to The Island, and AI: Artificial Intellegence.
The novel's title comes from a song on an American cassette tape called Songs After Dark by singer Judy Bridgewater. Kathy purchases the tape during a swap meet-type event at Hailsham. Hearing it as a mother's plea to her baby, Kathy on many occasions dances while holding her pillow and singing the chorus: "Baby, never let me go." On one occasion, while she is dancing and singing, she notices Madame watching her and crying. At this time Kathy does not understand the significance of the event. She then loses the tape and is devastated. A few years later, on a trip to Norfolk, Tommy and Kathy find the tape and he buys it for her, although it has lost its significance to her somewhat, by this point. Many years later, during the final confrontation between Kathy, Tommy, and Madame, she asks Madame about her tears after seeing her that day, years ago. Madame replies that the image she had seen was of a little girl facing the new world that was emerging, an efficient but cruel world, and asking the old world not to let her go.

Let Me In

I totally loved this movie. They took away every cliche about vampires and stuck to the really important details that makes vampire's such interesting villians- mostly their very particular weaknesses. Also the psychological aspect of vampires- which I think they really put an emphasis on- is aknowleged and the questions this facet brings to vampires as well. People become smarter as they age because the more experience you have the more knowledge you gain, making you wiser and eventually mature. The fact that vampires live so long means they must be very mature and how does a very mature person cope in a body that never changes, also, what does that imply about the girl/boy relationship of the vampire and her human companion. They also examine the human aspect of it, what kind of person would aid in the killing of others and even the idea of loving a vampire?
In this remake, as opposed to the Swedish original, this American version makes sure to discuss the human child conundrum of good vs evil, but without the distinction of religion or theism.