#16: The Aura

I honestly don't know how we came to seeing this film, I guess it was because I randomly owned this Sundance Film Festival DVD. Ricardo Darin, the lead actor, plays a taxidermist who manages to go with a friend on a hunting trip, which goes wrong.

Throughout the movie, I was saying to Taylor that this movie reminded me of a foreign mix of The Town (#10) and the movie Armored (#12) that we saw. If you haven't realized yet from the poster, The Aura is a foreign film. It does have sub-titles and you will have to read pretty closely because it goes by quickly. I thought this movie was a little odd; it was very scattered to me. I just thought Ricardo's role of being a taxidermist is a somewhat tedious and completely irrelevant.

I did not fall in love with this movie, at times I started to get bored and almost fall asleep. This film was disappointing because I've been sitting staring at the DVD cover waiting to see this movie thinking it would actually be pretty good, but not so much. The ending was atrocious, wait let me rephrase that, THERE WAS NO ENDING! I looked at Taylor when the movie ended and said "Wait did the movie really just end?" I guess that's how the director, Fabian Bielinsky, had intended the film to be. Although, I do want to give this movie some credit for having a potentially good idea, but it didn't pan out the way I would've liked. Honestly, I would most likely pass on it if I had another chance.

Overall Rating: 6.0 / 10

- Josh Berg

The Aura was an extremely unique movie. I don't know if I've ever seen anything even remotely like it. It's an Argentinian film about a taxidermist whose hunting trip takes some unexpected turns. He finds himself in the middle of a network of organized criminals, and the allure of crime keeps him from running away.

The oddness comes in the blatantly unsatisfying ending. Maybe there were more layers of the film that I wasn't tapped into, but it seemed a very strange and lacking ending. I wouldn't say I hated the movie overall--it definitely had a feeling of realness and confusion to it--but I feel like despite  everything, nothing really happened.

I don't regret watching The Aura, but I don't think I'll watch it again either. It's definitely one only to watch if you like subtitles and foreign indie films. If Transformers is your favorite movie in the whole wide world, stay far far away from The Aura.

Overall Rating: 6.7 / 10

-Taylor Dobbs

#15: Cashback

We came to a consensus at midnight last night that we both wanted to watch a comedy, but there's wasn't much that we wanted to see. We were considering Slap Shot, a hockey comedy made in 1977, so I guess I felt it was a little dated and we needed to be more current and watch something completely different, so we decided to go with the movie Cashback.

Personally, I really enjoyed the movie, while to me it resembled three movies in one: Click, 500 Days of Summer and The Machinist. Sean Biggerstaff, who plays Ben Willis, the lead role, reminds me of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. Throughout the movie, a theme of time manipulation reminded me of Click, and Ben Willis has insomnia, reminding me of Christian Bale's character in The Machinist. The writer and director Sean Ellis did a great job making this film, from the shots to the screenwriting to the whole performance in general. It felt completely different from anything I've ever seen and it was definitely worth seeing. It's a little vulgar but also extremely funny at times. For me, definitely worth the 100 minutes.

Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10

- Josh Berg

I re-shelved Cashback more times than I can remember when I was working at the local movie store in high school. Every time, I looked at the cover and rolled my eyes. "Another movie claiming to be 'artsy' that's just an excuse to get girls naked in strange places," I'd think. A worthy cause perhaps, but it's never produced a good film. Cashback surprised me. While there was a fair amount of nudity, the movie genuinely wasn't about degrading women.

Being a comedy, I expected there to be a fair bit of tasteless, sexist humor in Cashback. But while the movie definitely had a theme of sexuality, it stayed classy with its humor.

I really liked Cashback. The direction was amazing and the humor was spot-on. It was serious enough to get me caring about the characters and funny enough to keep me watching. It was a British comedy with British humor, a type some Americans don't have a taste for (I'm not being a worldly snob here, just telling you that if you don't like British humor, this movie probably isn't for you), but I thought it was hilarious and adorably genuine at the same time.

I recommend Cashback, despite the strange cover art.

Overall Rating: 8.7 / 10

-Taylor Dobbs

#5: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Just to let you all know, we decided to go with a foreign film to throw into this 365 mix. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a crime-filled and action packed Swedish film. I'll start off by saying, I did happen to enjoy this film. In the beginning, I wasn't really drawn in because it was a little slow, but as the movie ran, I started to get into it way more. I think the whole concept of the film is really intellectual and fascinating. It's very well thought out and unlike most mystery films. This Swedish film is worth seeing if you have the time. This film is very dark and some may find it disturbing at times but that doesn't make it a movie not worth seeing. It's a foreign film, so it does have subtitles but I don't think that takes away as much as you might expect from the movie. The film, to me, was worth seeing, though I think it would get mixed reviews all around.

Overall Rating: 8.0 / 10

- Josh Berg

Of the films we've seen so far in the 365 project, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is by far the hardest. I don't mean that in the sense that it was hard to understand or I found myself having trouble focusing on it, but it's hard. I've seen this movie from start to finish once, but when we watched this time, I left during parts of it. It has a lot of intense scenes in it and I'm not sure it's for everyone. It's a film that confronts some difficult issues and doesn't do so apologetically.

Despite its darkness, I love this movie. The phrase that comes to mind when I think of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is "the best way out is through." I think that if I stopped watching the movie halfway through, I would not choose to resume it. It's so incredibly depressing and painful to watch, but there is a sense of satisfaction and contentment I get at the end, even though many of the most difficult issues in the movie aren't resolved favorably (if at all).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is possibly my favorite foreign film of all time (though I haven't seen many) and if you can stand to see a movie with subtitles, watch this (I've also heard wonderful things about the book, by the same title). You'll feel it.

Overall Rating: 8.8 / 10


- Taylor Dobbs