It's Fun To Hang In The Shadows

  Vampires are once again so fresh and so clean. Vanquished are the sculpted abs, glittery epidermises, and seemingly endless queues of hysterical fanatic youths associated with the bloodthirsty undead. What We Do In The Shadows is a gift to the living from the comedic Kiwi genius responsible for Flight of The Conchords.
   Going in a radically different direction from the relentless tween-intended fanged creatures who have haunted pop-culture for roughly six years too long -- if you are one of millions of mortals who has OD’ed on the vampire thing, do not fear. The film offers a pale yet colorful cast to include a Vlad, remarkably reminiscent of The Impaler, and mercifully, an 8,000 year old Nosferatu of sorts. What’s old is new.
   A documentary film crew has gained access to the most legendary of nocturnal societies. Cameras follow a group of vampiric flat-mates’ quest for blood and night-to-night struggles of the most traditional sorts. Lurking in the shadows of every corridor and behind every coffin door is something ghastly and delightful. 
  An unpredictable, superbly paced feature offers a righteous flow between the deadpan and the silly. I have not laughed so fervently inside a movie theatre since I was a teenage girl watching Superbad. Highly recommended.

A Citizenfour All

   

   

   No bells or whistles is an understatement concerning Citizenfour. The recipient of Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars is the third government expose by filmmaker Laura Poitras to leave viewers overwhelmed with feelings of outrage and impotence in regards to their dwindling liberties. 

   The documentary follows Poitras and The Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald, as they make acquaintance with former system administrator for the CIA, and world famous whistleblower --the man, the legend-- Edward Snowden.
   Shot in the direct cinéma vérité style, normcore to the core, we the audience are a fly on the wall in Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room; listening intently as Snowden, who looks and sounds much like a professor of Computer Science, explains with profound detail just how the National Security Agency is illegally and indiscriminately spying on American citizens and foreigners alike at every given moment. Although most of us are not fluent in hyper-nerd-computer-genius, Snowden, at the request of Greenwald, does his best to simplify the crimes of the NSA.
   Poitras’ understated, matter-of-fact style of documentation allows for the information of Citizenfour to remain forefront; the candid, anti-editorialized, and often run-on presentation ensures audiences will not lose focus of what is important – “the balance of power between the citizenry and the government is becoming that of the ruling and the ruled as opposed to…the elected and electorate.”
   While the influx of information is at first numbing, then infuriating, watching the whistleblower blow the whistle in real-time, is genuinely riveting; a true thriller.