Flicks with Vic (Wristcutters: A Love Story, Tracey Fragments, Mongol)

Wristcutters: A Love Story

This is one of my all time favorite movies that I can watch over and over. With its dark humor you can watch it with the guys, but it also makes a great couples movie because of the love story. Everyone has heard that if you kill yourself you go to hell, well what if that was wrong?

In this movie, everyone that commits suicide ends up in a different world that is made up of all the people that have taken there own lives. Zia (Patrick Fugit) killed himself after finding out his girlfriend liked another guy. Shortly after arriving to the afterlife world he finds out his ex-girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb) has killed herself too. He then sets out to find her with his friend Eugen (Shea Whigham) mainly because he has a car. On the trip they meet some interesting people, but I don’t want to give anymore away.

If your a Tom Waits fan you have to check it out at least for him, that’s how I came across the movie. Also, the character Eugene is based off of Gogol Bordello’s front man Eugene Hütz. Just a few reasons you might want to see it.

Goran Dukic directed the movie and wrote the screen play. Staring Patrick Fugit, Abraham Benrubi, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham, Tom Waits, and Will Arnett. The movie has won 9 awards and been nominated for 5.

Tracey Fragments

I was recommended this move by Andrew Wyant, a fellow LIP writer. As soon as I started watching it I knew I would like it. At first sight the setup of the picture is a little overwhelming, but you quickly figure it out and learn to like it. Ellan Page (Tracey) the main actress is someone anyone can like. I never remember if I know someone like her or if she is just one of those people I am comfortable with. Between her and the video setup up, I was sold.

Okay so a little on what the movie is about. Tracie is a 15 year old girl that might be a little crazy. The movie opens with Tracie wrapped in a shower curtain in the back of a bus searching for her little brother Sonny (Zie Souwand) who thinks he is a dog.

The movie is broken up into fragments of clips that show us her struggles in high school as a loner, her fantasy of dating the new student Johny Zero, her life at home with her autocratic parents, her time of trying to cope with her shrink, and her new friend that puts her in harms way all while looking for her little brother Sonny.

I strongly recommend this movie to everyone. I was indulged in the movie within the first 10 minutes and was already excited to write about it before the opening credits. The story was very simple but it kept you interested. The movie is like a puzzle and you don’t want to stop watching because you want to get all the pieces. The great thing about it is that they show you so much in the beginning and you don’t even notice until that scene plays again.

This is an Independent movie Directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Maureen Medved, who also wrote the novel with the same title. Cinematography was done by Steve Cosens and it was edited by Jeremy Munce and Gareth C. Scales. Broken Social Scene did the music for the film which I thought went great with the movie. It stars Ellan Page from Juno. The movie has won 5 awards and has been nominated for 6 others.

Mongol

It’s so great to stumble upon an amazing movie like this. My friends know that I watch a lot of movies. They also know that I like to know as little as possible about a movie before I see it. I feel that when you see a great movie like this and know nothing about it, it just seems that much better.

Now that I’ve said that, I’m going to ruin it for you so maybe you shouldn’t read this and just go watch the movie. This movie is about a young Khan named Temudjin (Tadanobu Asano) who’s dad was killed while Temudjin was only nine. Once his father died he was left with nothing and had to grow up on his own while his fathers enemies tried to hunt him down. It was the Mongols code to not kill a child so he had to get his act together fast so he wouldn’t be killed when he was old enough. You watch this boy become a man who is devoted to setting things right for all the Mongols and nothing can stand in his way.

I recommend that everyone watch this movie. There is so much more I want to say but I don’t want to give the story away. I have read that the movie is a first of a trilogy so make sure you watch it before you see the second one, which comes out in 2010. I really can’t wait to see the sequels to this movie. You do have to read English subtitles but it is worth it.

This was directed by Sergei Bodrov who also co-wrote it with Arif Aliyev. The movie stars Tadanobu Asano (Temudjin), Honglei Sun (Jamukha), Khulan Chuluun (Börte), Amadu Mamadakov (Targutai) and Ba Sen (Esugei - Temudjin’s Father). The movie was nominated for an Oscar, won 11 awards and was nominated for 4 other awards.