Monster

I watched Monster, the Charlize Theron film about the life of Aileen Wuornos, the Daytona Beach prostitute and serial killer, for the first time today.

All I can say is that this film richly deserves every bit of praise it has received. It wasn't a fun movie to watch, but it is an awesome film. More power to Charlize Theron and everyone associated with it.

I've had an approach avoidance thing going with this film since it was released, similar to my reactions to Schindler's List, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Reservoir Dogs and a few others. (Black Hawk Down, this review of which won a Pulitzer Prize, was, for me, especially hard to watch, just as was reading the Philadelphia Inquirer's series when it was published after the Battle of Mogadishu.) All of these films were amazing, though, and I'm glad I've seen them.

Now I think I'll take a chance on Natural Born Killers, which comes highly recommended.

[Update: Natural Born Killers was a boring, pointless piece of shit not redeemable by some good performances. I wound up turning it off some time before the end, having briefly dozed off and not caring whether I missed some grand finale. I fail to understand how or why a guy like Tarantino (yeah, it's an Oliver Stone flick but the story is by Tarantino) can turn out gems like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction on the one hand, but crap like Natural Born Killers and Kill Bill on the other. Maybe some day I'll get it. Maybe it's just as simple as dollars generated via pointless violence.]

If I'm going to watch a movie for recreation I generally prefer to watch something a little lighter. Among my favorites are Office Space and Paulie, though I'm only slighting many other fine movies by mentioning any at all.

Once in a while, though...