Fashion Board 4-6-04 to 5-7-04

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Hellboy was a mighty fine flick - high recommendation, even pretty much OK for most kids old enough to be interested (one murdered parent figure is probably the worst of it - violence mostly involves blue monster goo, no sex).

High marks for what most critics called "atmosphere," or what I would call "the realization that the comic is, much more than the movie, a visual medium, and therefore the visual presentation must be much more expressive and carefully crafted to even vaguely "translate" the original subject matter." Even higher marks for realizing that visuals are the effective way to convey thought and emotion without lots of bullshit dialogue & explication.

Very high marks for not schmalzting up the "emotional growth" bullshit everyone seems to want to see heros do these days (see: Spiderman - sorry Sam). GdT gets a surprising amount of emotional sophistication from his characters just by having them shut the hell up and, um, act.

Uber high marks for having a swearing, smoking, drinking, sarcastic, disobedient hero whose main "secret evidence of a kind heart" is that he is actually a crazy cat-lady.

Most of all, the movie has my thanks for having the guts to just set up a seriously, totally ridiculous premise and basically telling the audience "it's a movie so just shut up and fucking go with it, OK?"

I've never read the comics, so I'm curious as to whether they are as overtly Lovecraftian as the movie was (I started chuckling like a fiend at the first quote from De Vermis Mysteriis). This was one area, in particular, where I admired the visual representations - ever wondered what you might see were you to find Cthulhu dreaming in his house in R'lyeh? This is a pretty good representation - you see it, but, despite being beautifully shot, you aren't really sure what you are looking at, which is just perfect.

Oh, and Ron Perlman rocks. As always. He is one of those actors who is really excellent, but you look at him and think "he's great but he looks so weird, what the fuck can you use him for?" Apparently, acting his way through 80 pounds of prosthetics, for one. Maybe European directors can start finding ways to use Crispin Glover the way they have Perlman.