Kekexili

Decided to write a review since David is going to write one on Silent Hill. I'm guessing his will go into much greater depth than mine though, since I'm kind of collecting my thoughts on the fly.

So I saw Kekexili today. Very good movie. My friend found it a bit depressing, but still good. I'm not even sure if I should bother with a synopsis, because, on paper, it sounds lame, but I should anyway: It's about a volunteer group of Tibetans who defend endangered Tibetan antelopes against armed poachers in the crazy Tibetan steppes and mountains. And it's subtitled, spoken in Tibetan and various Chinese dialects (derivations of Mandarin from what I could tell).

Yeah, like I said, it doesn't sound that interesting. Despite that, it was still very good, mainly because of the camera work, audio, and honest presentation, I think. For all I knew, I was watching a bunch of lies, but the presentation itself was honest. I almost want to call it a fictional historical documentary, but then that gives it a possible negative association with documentaries (no there's no narrator), so instead, I just want to call it "very honest." Everyone is poor, the antagonists are dirty and unkempt, and life is hard. But that's not the focus of the movie. And maybe that's why it was extra cool. It didn't really have an agenda, which I think is rare with fictional works. It just presented the people in the story, and everything else was background: the culture, the poverty, the poachers, etc. It was like looking at snapshots of reality, and it almost gave me the sense of actually being there. It immediately brought back memories of me visiting the natives of Taiwan.

Anyway, with all the recycled Hollywood shit being pumped out these days, I've been drawn to more indie flicks. Shit like Poseidon, Silent Hill, Scary Movie 4 etc. Omg Poseidon. Wtf? That looks so retarded. It's not even out yet and the Simpsons have already lampooned it. I'm being unfair though. I *suppose* it could be good, somehow. But yeah, I read an article by some major film industry guy...I can't recall his damn name. Oh, yeah, I think it was George Lucas actually, ironically. Anyway he was predicting the end of big budget Hollywood movies in favor of smaller indie movies. I didn't really believe it at the time, but with all this crap coming out lately, maybe he's on to something.

Sure, I'll admit lots of indie movies are crap, but so far every single one I've watched, excellent or mediocre, has incited more thought than their Hollywood counterparts. There's one out now called..."One." That looks interesting, but I think it might be the successor to "What the #$*! Do We Know!?", in which case the sequel automatically gets -500 points from what Damon's told me about "What the bleep."

Damn, David finished his review first. Ok, must wrap, rambling. Uh...as good or better than Brokeback, in my opinion, in terms of raw value. They're very different story-wise, so take that into consideration. Can't think of what else I've seen lately. Whatever.