My Life Without Me (2003)

my_life_without_meThis is a beautiful portrait and character study of life and death, and is pleasantly heavy with symbolism. It also observes one persons attempt at achieving personal goals she never could do, or have the guts to do in their life. The lovely Sarah Polley plays Ann, a workaday woman who is a janitor for a school and goes home to her trailer with her husband and two daughters living a mostly simple life with her overbearing mom and life she’s pretty comfortable with. One day during work she starts getting sick and goes to the hospital where her doctor tells her she has an inoperable tumor and is slowly dying. Somehow Ann seems prepared to face death and the concept of death here, and it doesn’t take much time for her to accept her death and that her daughters may grow up without a mother, thus she begins to really live life while she begins dying.

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Saw (2004)

“Saw” is quite possibly the horror film I’ve been waiting for for years. It’s sick, twisted, disgusting, tense, gory, shocking, and claustrophobic. This does not start off with comforting the audience and easing them into the story, it opens in which one of the men named Adam (Leigh Wahnell) emerges from a bathtub of water screaming and meets Dr. Lawrence Gordon who is basically in the same boat. Playing like a “Sunset Boulevard” meets “Se7en” we see the story of both men and what led up to their capture and why they’re there.

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Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

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This movie has a lot of quirky, funny moments. Iggy Pop Meeting Tom Waits, for instance, and just jawing about whether they’re on the jukebox or not, and the White Stripes talking about Tesla coils and the resonance of the earth. It’s an arty film, and if arty films are your bag, you’ve found the right place. If you like Jarmusch, you’ve also found the right place. There are a number of recurring themes that resound nicely. Certain cups, certain patterns on tables, and certain lines of dialogue are mentioned.

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