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)

Quest for Fire — A group of Paleolithic humanoids travel across dangerous country in search of fire. Along the way they meet up with a sabre-toothed tiger, woolly mammoths, cannibals and a more technologically advanced species (homo sapiens). The story is compelling and entertaining — and probably the most accurate depiction of early humans on film. Watching Quest for Fire is like jumping into a time machine. It’s fascinating. (Jan. 28/08)

Atonement — A sweeping, epic, war-torn romance, and a story well-told. I can see it winning some major awards: Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Score and so on. It’s not the kind of story that excites me, but it’s a good movie. (Jan. 26/08)

I re-watched Himalaya too. It only gets better with each viewing. All the movies I’ve seen so far this year are posted on Mud Songs.

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