My 2014 So Good/So Bad Edition (So Far)

I'm not a Shailene Woodley fan or a Greg Araki fan, but I did see this because I have seen some of Araki's work like The Doom Generation and Mysterious Skin. Both of which I liked. This film is sort of similar to Mysterious Skin, but not as heart wrenchingly sad as that one was. White Bird in a Blizzard is a different type of sadness. One based around abandonment. It's about a young girl coming of age during the time of her mother's disappearance. There is a quick predictability on who is responsible for it, but other than that this movie is depressing at it's core as the main character struggles with NOT wanting the answer while at the same time wanting to KNOW the answer on where her mother is. She struggles with that during the last 30 mins of the movie which has a shocker of an ending despite it being who you already knew it was going to be who was responsible for it. It still left me shocked and disturbed a bit which made the film that much more potent and becoming one of the best of 2014 IMO.

It seems that a lot of people don't like this movie because it's too slow and doesn't have much dialogue. I think what people forget sometimes when they watch a movie is that it's not always about the quick cutting or watching people talk non-stop for 2 hours. It's also about what you're seeing on the screen because visually this movie is a real TRIP! Not to mention Scarlett Johansson going complete nude as she plays an alien who comes to Earth (Scotland to be exact) to pick up men, take them back to her place where they're engulfed in some strange liquid and have their bodies turned inside out while only leaving their skins behind. Talk about trippy. Unless you have the patience, check this one out because I bet it'll become a soon to be cult hit in a few years time.

Daniel Radcliffe is growing up from his Harry Potter days and is showing great promise as an actor. Here he displays just the perfect amount of sinister intrigue as he stars as a young man who is accused of his girlfriend's murder only to awake one day with horns growing from his head. The horns attribute to him being given a random power. One on the small town for where he lives where people begin to confess their true selves to him and act out in bizarre ways in order to appease what he wants. He's like a devil. This movie was just plain brilliant with one minor flaw and that being it went on for too long. Other than that, so damn good!

Talk about a grim portrait of tough times. A nice guy is forced into a sick, twisted game with his old buddy and a weird couple who get their jollies from watching others do dares. Money is the central preoccupation here and these two friends will go so far to achieve it. Even to the point of killing one another for it. As the couple watches on, they spin the game like a web of fun for themselves. Talk about a twisted movie! I just loved it!