A review of The Machinist...

[teiresias]

I have not been this disturbed by a movie in a VERY long time. In all honesty, I admit that it had a lot to do with the fact that my lovely lovely Christian probably weighed less than jilocasin, who has practically no body fat at all and is about 4+ inches shorter than Christian Bale, for the duration of the filming, and it was so painful to see. I mean, I could see EVERY BONE, and while I thought the movie was interesting and well-done in a creepily atmospheric "oh my sweet christ MY SANITY IS MELTING" kind of way, no WAY was it worth the risk to his health.

I never thought I'd actually beg the gods to have CB put his clothes on. Anyway.

Leaving aside the the wasting, Dachau-like horror of the lead, the movie was really great with the slow, dreamy horror, and it had a plot twist I totally didn't see coming at the end, which is rare; for me, the ending of The Sixth Sense was telegraphed in the first 20 minutes. The performances from Jennifer Jason Leigh and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón were great-- more nuanced than female roles of that type usually are. Long story short, if you want to be seriously disturbed and frightened in a way of which few if any horror movies are capable? See it.