Watch-A-Thon flicks 32 & 32.5: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN & HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

Met up with a fellow 'thon runner Wednesday night to knock off a very satisfying double feature of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, a sort of Swedish 400 BLOWS with a vampire next door, and HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, a pretty amazing parable of what it's like to live happily.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Like MY GIRL, except Swedish, and with vampires...
trailer | website

I really wish I could say that with more authority, but I hafta fess up that I've never seen MY GIRL, but I imagine that it could've been very much like this. Only, y'know, without the bloodsucking May-1900-December-2000 relationship.

* It's late and I'm fading. I'll try to revisit RIGHT ONE soon and punch up the "review." Bottom line: SEE IT! It's frickin clever, sweet, chilling, and gorgeous. Also, best big screen housecat action since SLEEPWALKERS! =)

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
That title pretty much says it all. =)
trailer | website

It's a super-sweet film I highly recommend. Poppy is the titular character, a lovely pixie of a British lass who I kept thinking would make an ultimate companion for The Doctor. A brighter, shinier, Donna Noble, y'know? Anyhow, she's a sweetheart of a woman, always ready with a smile, a joke, a compliment, or the lighter side of whatever challenge she or a friend is facing. Unsinkable and unflappable. We basically get to follow her in her days as a grade school teacher, 30-year-old driving school pupil, silver-lining-seeking member of a girls-night-out gang with strong whipsmart repartee, and oldest sister of three. Some of her encounters are troubling and dark, but as much as possible, she approaches and engages people with the sunniest of sides. It's so appealing, and, frankly, damn impressive. In the face of sad, dysfunctionally aggravating, menacing, and surreal situations, she always manages to put on the Happy. Remarkable. In tone, mood, and even music, it reminded me of French Tati films, as well as LITTLE FUGITIVE, and Ozu's GOOD MORNING. If those references don't do anything for you... How to describe it? It's like experiencing two hours of one of those Sesame Street segments where they take the camera out on the streets of Manhattan and look for the letters of the alphabet everywhere in the environment. I know that sounds nuts, but that really is what it's like. Y'know, with some added bits of muppet drama, like maybe Big Bird walking thru every once in a while, looking for Snuffleupagus, asking if we've seen him, but of course, we can't say, even though Snuffy's just across the street at the hot dog vendor, or there, waiting to go into the museum, or hey, now he's on the big screen in Times Square. Like that, and doesn't that sound like fun? Well, it should, cuz it is. =)

Keep on keepin on~