Friday, September 26, 2008

Lakeview Terrace

There have been some great “creepy neighbour” thrillers over the years. 'Rear Window' and 'Pacific Heights' were two of the best, but 'Lakeview Terrace' certainly ranks high on the list, largely due to Samuel L. Jackson's performance.

Part of what makes his character so unsettling is his very specific racism. The reason for his loathing of the mixed-race couple that moves in next door is explained late in the movie, but it still doesn't ease our discomfort. Even more disturbing is that, as a police officer, he justifies his actions, however brutal, as being in the service of a greater good.

Lakeview Terrace is a movie designed to make the audience uncomfortable. It forces us to confront issues of race and violence that most of us hope never to have to face. It's not necessarily an enjoyable experience, but it's one that will stay with you. I give it three and a half stars out of five. Your results may vary.

(and Murray liked it too!)

1 comment:

  1. Sounds good....might try...once this creepy scary thing is over and done with, one way or the other on 14 October

    ______
    Way OT Jennifer, but I left the following on the now pretty much long gone dead 'Bubble Boy' thread from a few days ago....

    --
    Jennifer--

    re: the omg,omg,omg factor.....

    You may, if you haven't seen it already, be interested in what Mr. Akin himself has to say on this very topic (well, almost):

    "We are not, for example, kept informed about all that Harper is doing while travelling with us. He generally has a morning photo opp that is kept a close secret even from the pool photographers who are the only journalists allowed to accompany him.

    We are not getting to put questions to him with the same frequency that we did in the 2006 campaign. On that campaign, every reporter travelling with him got to ask at least one question a day. This time around, his staff is restricting us to 10 questions a day -- eight from the press travelling with him and two for reporters from the region we are travelling in. Because there are more than eight national reporters, we must rotate and, as a result, we get just one question -- no followup -- every other day.

    Some, like a commenter here, urge us to ask followups on certain issues. We would love to but, again, with just one question every two days, it can often be difficult."

    OK?

    RossK

    .

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