A list of movies I saw over the past two weeks. Not many.

Picnic at Hanging Rock — A highly-regarded film about some girls from a private school who disappear without a trace while on a class picnic. Plenty of back-lit, soft-focus, slow-motion shots of pretty girls floating around in white dresses like they’re in a dream, or heavily sedated. The pan flute throughout the score is lovely too. There’s more to it than that, but if you’re not in the mood for it (and I wasn’t), it’s boring. (Feb. 4/08)

There Will Be Blood — Despite its excellence, There Will Be Blood didn’t do much for me. Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance as a sociopathic oil prospector during the early 1900s is impressive, but it feels like a repeat of Bill the Butcher from Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. It’s not a bad film, but I lost interest well before the finale. And there is blood. (Feb. 1/08)

Atonement — A sweeping, epic, war-torn romance, and a story well-told. It’s not the kind of story that excites me, but it’s a good movie. (Jan. 26/08)

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