Apartment Zero

Rating:
Summary: decent thriller in a bare-bones dvd edition
Review: This 1988 thriller, written and directed by Hal Hartley alum Martin Donovan, is set in Buenos Ares and stars Colin Firth (Pride and Prejudice, Valmont) as a lonely young man whose mother has been institutionalized and Hart Bochner (Say Nothing, War and Remembrance) as the lodger he takes in. Firth and Bochner are both very good, and as the story unfolds, one is hard-pressed to know which one is creepier. Is one of them a killer? Not too much gore, and Donovan shows he has a good eye and a feel for atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Complex, tense, and fiercely entertaining
Review: This is certainly one of my top 3 movies of all time, if not my all time favorite. The who-dunit part of the mystery is only the beginning. These characters, like most people have so many layers and conflicting personalities, that I can watch this film over and over again. The layers of personalities aren't always evident upon the first viewing, nor are the strategic set decorations, and subtle (and some not-so subtle) foreshadowing.
This film is the natural extension of Hitchcockian filmmaking. Every set piece, every word of dialogue, the most subtle nuances all play into a complex film that will miss its mark on most people. For example, if you are nervously giggling at the transgendered character, you will miss the entire theme and mission that the character serves to communicate. The dark humor serves well to balance the film, and the lovely Argentine soundtrack sets such a terrific mood.
I still want to get to Buenos Aires.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time faves!
Review: What makes this film so good is how dangerous it is. It teeters on the edge of homosexuality and true friendship and at the same time casts Colin Firth as almost a damsel on the edge of madness to Hart Bochners rogue character. This movie is set in Buenos Aires and and creates a political climate, a delicate madness and an under current of so many divergent sexualities that fuel the film and keep pulling the rope taunter and taunter.
What makes this film so good is how eventually Firth's character expresses his love for a man who is a ne'erdowell and always will be. He goes to the brink of madness and violence but never of sexuality which is what twists this fikm in upon itself. Eventually it seems as if the relationship between the two becomes too fraught with peril for sex but all of there actions for each other are sexualized.
What I find interesting about this movie is that it in no way compromises its sexuality to be politically correct and instead challenges the watcher to stick with it thru a byzantine plot of identity that switches the nerd for the rogue and then the rogue for the nerd. Both men ultimately have no identity. firth's character by harsh abuse racked upon him by his family and currently dementia trapped mother and Bochner thru the way he must live for his terrorist lifestyle.
In the end Firth learns to absorb Bochner's character to have an identity and Bochner hesitates and theefore loses his own. The best movies are about things that are intangibly exchanged thru the physical world of actions representing so much more.