This month I didn't have as much time to feed my film obsession as I usually do since I was on vacation. And by vacation I mean, drunk all over the South East.

101 Reykjavik (2000)
This sounded kind of interesting, but mostly I wanted to see what a movie from Iceland was like. It turned out to be an interesting movie, though it did involved some guy's mother coming out of the closet and getting a girlfriend, who he then got pregnant.

Romance (1999)
I don't remember watching this one. Oh, wait, I kind of do now. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that exciting. Yet another European film attempting to tackle some taboo-ish subject relating to sex in order to be avant garde. I'm not falling for your posturing about being so sophisticated, Europe.

Shaolin Soccer (2001)
This movie is awesome! It's a chinese comedy about kung fu masters playing soccer. Nothing further needs to be said.

Party Monster (2003)
OK, wow, Seth Greene and Macauly Cuklin are creepy as hell. This is, apparently, based on a true story about club kids doing too much drugs in the 80's and killing people. It's worth watching, for the most part, though it can get a bit tedious at times.

Hidalgo (2004)
I didn't think this was as wonderful as everyone said. But maybe because the DVD I got from Netflix was pretty scratched up and didn't cooperate with my DVD player very well. OK, it's was fairly decent, though terribly formulaic and predictable. The person who I was watching this with and I had it pretty much all figured out. The usual hints were dropped (enough with the blatent foreshadowing, Hollywood!) and we were able to correctly deduce the clichéd moments we'd be viewing in an hour. And the main character was probably the ultimate cliché present- how many times have I seen that cowboy in a movie? Still, there was some exciting bits in there.

Monster's Ball (2001)
This sat on my shelf for a while, but I finally got to watching it and I wasn't disappointed at all. In fact, I thought this was a fairly remarkable film. It's the story of a black woman and a white man in rural Georgia who find each other after the death's of their sons. Their relationship has many pitfalls, including his racist father and his involvement in the execution of her husband. I know, it sounds terribly morbid. But actually, the film really kind of left me with a sense of hope. Also, the score was incredibly done. One of the better film scores I've heard in a while. A perfect and subtle audio accompaniment to the visual element on the screen.

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