Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Rules of Attraction



Upon my first viewing of this back in 06, a hole was burned in my skull. And before reading this please note that I will have a painful time not hyping this movie, so mind the occasional nerd out. This should not hurt your viewing of it later (I hope).








So anyway a hole was burnt, and I turned it off 15 minutes in. Thats right, after fifteen minutes, and these werent pleasant in my opinion, I had enough. I wont really go into detail (nerd out hype alert number 1: wont describe scenes that caused "a hole to burnt in skull" automatically hyping said scenes with mystery and elevated expectations, disavow and continue) because it would really spoil it. Just go forth with the knowledge that a young guy like me without being properly debriefed on it... well it was quite a shock and a lot to get over.


I returned the movie to blockbuster and didnt think about until about a year later. Thats when I decided to give it another try. Knowing what I did about the first part it made an easier experience to slip into. But once I got my sea legs this movie once again devoured me hole and (nerd out alert number 2: overuse of adjectives that as a result overegg and hype the movie, so continue as if I didnt say this, although I did) digested me in its battery acid of a plot.

When I finished this movie, I was quite shaken. I have never seen anything like it. None of the main characters were likable, their lives revolve around petty bullshit, and everyone is only concerned about who is shagging who. Not to mention they are all pretty white affluent fuckheads at a pretty liberal arts college. And the ending, well it was a what the fuck.


Everything about it was groundbreaking for me. I deplored all its characters for shallowness: Sean pines for Lauren, a girl he hardly knows and shags every other girl he sees because he can. He is also a lying backstabbing drug dealer and self centered prick. The object of Sean's new found affection, is a whinny self centered bitch. Paul, another self centered twat, lusts after Sean and finds it almost fashionable to be totally apathetic anything that doesnt concern him. So yea he is self-centered. In the course of goings on in this movie, which is party after party followed by another party and a single book cracked open, these characters mix and mingle and inadvertently and advertantly fucked up shit happens.
Roger Avary does such a good job weaving thru these characters, making each one memorable and insanely watchable(nerd out number 3: hyping the director, classic). After repeated viewings of this movie the sting has worn off, save for a couple of scenes which hang in there. And in these viewings I really start to pick up on the love and care that was taken in each and every shot; the attention to detail, the colors and the sound design. God bless the commentary tracks...(nerd out penalty, any praising of commentary tracks is an automatic sentence disqualification. move onto to the next paragraph and start a new topic)




This is a movie that successfully uses its style to add an extra bite to the already chomping subject matter. I had never heard of Bret Easton Ellis before this, I initially picked it up for Roger Avary, whose Killing Zoe was in my opinion a much better movie than Resevoir Dogs. So when I saw this I had no preperation. But after I saw this movie I devoured the book. I tasted great. What a cool book, really Shane give it a go. You can keep that copy, I bought a new one.




Anyway so yea writing anymore might do a diservice to the movie (nerd revelation number 1), but let me just say... (which obviously did nothing) that this movie is really cool and challenges its viewer. Its a savage and dark satire;a true noir (just watch the damn movie and we will discuss it later).

By the way I nominate this for the worst DVD cover ever! If you want an accurate adverstisement of this movie see the top. And while yes the sting has worn off, this movie is not hilarious, at least not at first.

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