#e's pick

[theartfuldodgersblog]

E: Without You - Ingrid Michaelson I love that Grey's Anatomy still has such a synonymous soundtrack 9 seasons in. Ingrid's songs have featured throughout the years, always enhancing those magical moments. This is another stellar one from the season finale last week.

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[thedeepfocus-blog]

31 Days of Horror, #3: E's Film Pick - Beauty and the Beast (La belle et la bête)

This 1946 masterpiece from Jean Cocteau is a remarkable rendition of this classic love story. The visuals are simply stunning. The enchanted castle seems even more magical without the use of CGI or special effects, which so many movies are laden with today. The simplicity of the details bring such magnificent charm to this already beloved fairytale. I highly recommend this beautiful adaptation of Jeanne Marie Le Prince De Beaumont's classic story. 

Rating: ★★★★

-E

Cocteau's “La belle et la bête” is a fun movie, full of imagination and charm. The set designs and special effects, for the time, worked quite well to tell the classic Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Cocteau was able to convincingly show Belle's transition from apathy to love for the Beast.

Rating: ★★★★

-R

[thedeepfocus-blog]

31 Days of Horror, #1: E's Film Pick - Thinner

I’ve seen many movies based on Stephen King novels over the years, but somehow managed to miss this gem back in 1996. Well, as it turns out, I wasn’t missing much. I was mainly disappointed that they didn’t go further with the transformation of the main character. I expected him to become, well, thinner. What I expected was some creepy, skeletal, grotesque shell of a man and what I got was a scrawny guy in some really, really big clothes. I mean, Christian Bale was thinner than this guy in The Machinist and that was without any special effects. Pacing was pretty slow also and the most exciting part for me were the gypsies. I’d much rather have spent more time hanging out with Kari Wuhrer dancing around in her fabulous flowing gypsy skirts, which, by the way, were her greatest contribution to the film.

Rating: ★★

-E

Billy Halleck is a lawyer who pisses off the wrong gypsies and gets cursed to become 'thinner' every day. Mildly distracting fat suit aside, the premise worked for me, and I was interested to see how far they took Billy's situation. Unfortunately, they never really got anywhere with his curse. The cover art hints at Billy's skeletal structure, so I was expecting some pretty grotesque, emaciated makeup work, but, aside from one brief shot of Billy's super bony ribcage, the film didn't deliver in this regard. I felt like the motivations in the final act got a bit muddled and relied on a bit of aimless revenge.

Rating: ★★ 1/2

-R