In The House ( 2012 )

Movies Movie Recommendations ( No Spoilers )
1

3 stars

@marlon will NOT like this movie

a writing student decides to write a book about his life one chapter at a time which his writing teacher reads as it is being written at first to offer writing advice and then gradually getting sucked into the plot …

the teacher is himself a failed writer and this is his chance to finally produce a book that isn’t trash even if he is only a co-author …

to keep the book interesting, something interesting must happen in the writer’s life so he decides to infiltrate the home of a fellow student and seduce his mother … a task in which the teacher ultimately ends up assisting him ( both boys are his students ) …

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eventually things get out of hand but, and it’s a big but, they don’t get so spectacularly out of hand that it would please our friend @marlon and he will no doubt say the movie was boring …

i liked the movie but @marlon will not like it …

half the movie is conversations about writing and art etc and there is never any kind of gut wrenching drama or suspense let alone action … to put it bluntly “in the house” makes “cosmopolis” seem exciting by comparison.

still, i stand by my assessment that it’s a good movie overall if you’re into sort of laid back indie foreign film type of stuff …

one warning - even though this is a French movie there is barely any sexuality in it - in fact there isn’t a single woman under the age of 40 in the movie …

there, i saved @marlon the trouble of watching ! and the trouble of reading subtitles ( the movie is in French )

it really isn’t bad though ! it’s sort of like the movies we used to have in Soviet Union. they never kept you on the edge of your seat or your blood boiling etc - i honestly don’t see why movies have to be about end of the world, alien invasions, cartel violence or even people getting raped.

certainly rape is more exciting than collaborating with your teacher to write a book but life isn’t just about exciting things, it’s about boring things too, otherwise we should all be base jumping 24/7.

but @marlon will disagree and should not watch this film.

2

in @marlon defense he likes “Aniara” which is not an action movie and doesn’t have any rapes in it …

what Aniara does instead is it takes feelings like dread which normally are buried in the background, in the noise floor, and it amplifies them until they begin to overwhelm the viewer …

well, there is nothing of that sort in “in the house” either … so it’s a 100% fail by @marlon standards no matter how you slice it

so why do i say it’s a good movie ?

because it isn’t cringe. it is clever and funny. casting is good. it isn’t trying too hard and it even laughs at itself. but none of these things will be enough to appease “M” let’s be real …

3

My man, movies got to go from A to B. :+1:
Don’t need rape or action or superpowers but c’mon…
Cosmopolis is an acquired taste…

Be honest…Aniara, Lolita, Tirza, Dogville, Voyagers etc… are much better than Cosmo.

4

better ? sure.

but not more original.

would you rather eat vanilla ice cream or a scorpion ? i would rather have the scorpion because i never tried it before. it would probably be really bad, but it would be different. i would be able to proudly tell others that i ate a scorpion once. there is no pride in saying you had vanilla ice cream no matter how perfectly sweet, chewy and marshmallowy it was.

besides, by eating the scorpion you’re not giving up your right to have ice cream too. but by not eating it you ARE giving up the right to tell others you ate a scorpion !

but i get it you want to FEEL something when you watch a movie and then whatever lesson is being taught will be remembered because of its association with that feeling - i get it !

admittedly i felt NOTHING watching cosmopolis ( at least not for the characters, maybe i had some memories of my own triggered ) and also don’t remember any lessons because whatever ideas were presented weren’t emotionally tied to anything and thus instantly forgotten.

i simply choose to blame myself for not understanding and / or forgetting rather than blame the movie. i see it as myself not being good enough for the movie rather than the movie not being good enough for me.

going back to food analogy - i never tried oysters. if i did i would probably hate them. but i would blame myself for not being sophisticated enough to enjoy them rather than blaming the oysters.

i welcome any opportunity to develop my taste rather than simply seek out things which i already know i enjoy.

but yes i absolutely do see your point i just don’t think that’s the only way to look at it.

i hope i can level up my game for any future reviews so that the reader would know whether the movie is for them or not and not simply whether i liked it personally or not …

5

But to be fair…I didn’t say “the movie was bad…don’t watch it”.
Nor do I regret watching it.
I wouldn’t know Aniara etc. were better than Cosmo unless I watched Cosmo.

The things I pointed out with the film may make it appealing to others. That oh so detached demigod dismantling his existence ever so slowly is something others might find fascinating.

Another thought popped into my head, the state of the car reflects the state of the little god. (I had noted the state of his clothing but not the car).
It starts out pristine and ends up all banged up. Of course, his abandonment of the car reflects his abandonment of his life.

1 Like
6

I agree but I wouldn’t blame the oysters or myself.
I would try and describe how it tasted, even if I didn’t like it.
And I hope I did that for my review…
I hope it didn’t just read as “I hate Cosmopolis because…”

7

haha no worries mate.