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Reviews
Mandragora (1997)
brutal view of a wayward teens life in prague.
Following the short life of runaway-turned-rent-boy Marek and his new found friend David, Mandragora achieves what many other movies skirt corners in their attempts to achieve. An honest, no-holds-barred look at exactly what can happen when one bad decision leads to another...and another. This movie is brutal. No horrific scene cut short (including images of rape, suicide, sadism, self mutilation, etc.). Both in their early teens, these two boys go from bright-eyed innocents to drug addicted, aids infected felons in a matter of weeks...and by the end of this movie, you'll feel quite the same. I had a hard time getting through this movie in one sitting and by the end I felt as though I'd really achieved something. But, regardless of how bad I've made it sound, this movie truly affected me. It made me want to run to the streets, locate the closest underage prostitute, throw my arms around him/her and tell them, "I understand what you've been through."
Les diaboliques (1955)
A brilliant, perfect movie.
This movie epitomizes for me the reason movies exist. To let you know that somewhere, sometime, someone else was exactly in the same place that you are. They understand you. The words flow from actors mouths as they would from your mind at that very moment.
At no point in this film do you ever consider that you are watching a staged, rehearsed, acted scene. Director just behind the camera giving instruction. Hours spent in the editing room piecing it together just right. This is easily one of the most natural feeling movies I have ever seen and contains one of the most suspenseful scenes ever put to tape.
I've been watching thriller/horror/suspense movies practically since birth. Used to sneak into the living room after my parents went to sleep to watch them. So, needless to say, I've gotten to a point that I am rarely impressed, much less affected in such a way by such a movie. And to think...this was made almost 50 years ago. Exceptional.