I've been looking forward to this movie for about a month now! My friend sent me MP3's of Bjork's EP Selmasongs which was the soundtrack for this movie (except all the songs on Selmasongs were re-done in the studio, and little studio tricks were used, like replacing that actor's voice with Thom Yorke's! Okay, okay that wasn't a studio trick... I'm sure they went into the studio and re-recorded the whole thing, but I had you fooled there for a second!)

In anticipation for this movie, I saw Lars Von Trier's (the hero of Dogma 95) movie Breaking the Waves. I got all excited when my friend won free passes to the screening of the movie at Trivia Night.

But now that I've seen it, I don't really know what to think about it. Most of the time, I see a movie and I know exactly what I feel about it. But this time, I'm sort of just confused. I feel like one of those cartoon characters with the devil in one ear and the angel in the other. Here's a snippet of their conversation while I was watching the movie:

  - begin tape snippet -

Devil: Not another jerky camera close up! Don't you wanna just punch Lars in the face!

Angel: Oh c'mon! It's not that bad. Look it has BJOOORK in it! That alone makes it RAWK. And she's soooo cute!

Devil: ACK! Let's play How-Much-Of-Bjork's-Nostril-Can-I-Fit-On-The-Screen, Mr. Lars!

Angel: The story is intense. It's very personal and moving.

Devil: Yeah whatever. It's basically Breaking the Waves part two. And that wasn't even that great of a movie. Look how ridiculous it is when Bjork break's into song. It totally breaks the flow of the movie!

Angel: Yeah that doesn't exactly work, but at least it's something new. Not musicals. Musicals aren't new. But I like how this musical is so dark and depressing, so that the musical segues seem like a necessity rather than an indulgence. At least he's trying something new.

  - end tape snippet -

Okay, so even after all that, I haven't made up my mind. There are parts of the movie that I can really relate to. I really relate to Bjork's character... Selma has a whole lot of escapism built into her character, so that when life is so real that it's unbearable, she escapes into her own beautiful world. I am the same way.

I guess just the fact that I am so confused and undecided about this movie proves that the movie is at least worth watching, even if it's not exactly a masterpeice of modern cinema. Hey, it's at least better than the average Hollywood shit out there.