Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
The Moth Diaries: Moonstruck Walks, Erotic Rivalry, Repressive Authority, Nocturnal Blood
Movie
Moth Diaries **
A subtle, atmospherically skillful vampire movie directed with care by Mary Harron...until the final fall into generic obviousness (blood, flames, etc.). Appealing Sarah Bolger is a prep schooler whose best friend is lured into the dark spell of a new oddball (space-eyed Lily Cole). The softly eroticized story is teased along well despite inevitable kinks of absurdity, and the moths are a fine element.
Early reviews have argued that director Mary Harron has fallen below her previous level (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page) with The Moth Diaries. They might better have emphasized the intelligent skill that Harron, who scripted with Rachel Klein from Klein’s novel, has brought to such generic goods. Maybe those reviewers wanted another soapy Twilight swoon or extravagant piffle such as Dark Shadows.
The appealing Sarah Bolger stars as Rebecca, returning to her third year at a posh female prep school, formerly a Victorian hotel. Daughter of a suicidal poet whom she idolized, she burrows into friendship with Lucie (Sarah Gadon). But Lucie is lured into the chilly orbit of a new girl, the tall Ernessa (Lily Cole), a vampire with gothic roots in the old hotel. Harron and photographic-ace Declan Quinn create a lush, moody, whispery ambience of secrets, moonstruck walks, erotic rivalry, repressive authority, nocturnal blood, and a sexy teacher (Scott Speedman).
The use of moths is sensual, like the creepy plant moments in Phil Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The atmospherics pivot on Bolger’s fine, layered performance. We do wonder why Ernessa, who came from the past to recruit Rebecca, needs to dispatch other victims. The finish provides standard payoffs (blood gushing in a library, curdling screams, a burning coffin), as if hoping to satisfy dull clunks. But this does not, like the idiotic ending of Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate, collapse into total hokum.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The Moth Diaries: Moonstruck Walks, Erotic Rivalry, Repressive Authority, Nocturnal Blood
The Moth Diaries: Moonstruck Walks, Erotic Rivalry, Repressive Authority, Nocturnal Blood
Movie
Moth Diaries **
A subtle, atmospherically skillful vampire movie directed with care by Mary Harron...until the final fall into generic obviousness (blood, flames, etc.). Appealing Sarah Bolger is a prep schooler whose best friend is lured into the dark spell of a new oddball (space-eyed Lily Cole). The softly eroticized story is teased along well despite inevitable kinks of absurdity, and the moths are a fine element.
Early reviews have argued that director Mary Harron has fallen below her previous level (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page) with The Moth Diaries. They might better have emphasized the intelligent skill that Harron, who scripted with Rachel Klein from Klein’s novel, has brought to such generic goods. Maybe those reviewers wanted another soapy Twilight swoon or extravagant piffle such as Dark Shadows.
The appealing Sarah Bolger stars as Rebecca, returning to her third year at a posh female prep school, formerly a Victorian hotel. Daughter of a suicidal poet whom she idolized, she burrows into friendship with Lucie (Sarah Gadon). But Lucie is lured into the chilly orbit of a new girl, the tall Ernessa (Lily Cole), a vampire with gothic roots in the old hotel. Harron and photographic-ace Declan Quinn create a lush, moody, whispery ambience of secrets, moonstruck walks, erotic rivalry, repressive authority, nocturnal blood, and a sexy teacher (Scott Speedman).
The use of moths is sensual, like the creepy plant moments in Phil Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The atmospherics pivot on Bolger’s fine, layered performance. We do wonder why Ernessa, who came from the past to recruit Rebecca, needs to dispatch other victims. The finish provides standard payoffs (blood gushing in a library, curdling screams, a burning coffin), as if hoping to satisfy dull clunks. But this does not, like the idiotic ending of Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate, collapse into total hokum.
Comments