Anyone who’s allowed me to pick out a movie to watch (or who has talked about movies in general, really) will be aware that my tastes tend toward the “odd.”’ David Lynch? He’s a genius. The Coen brothers? Amazing. Terry Gilliam? Pretty dang good. None of the films from these directors are weird in quite the way that Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker is weird, though, and I think I may be adding a director to my list.
I’ve done a lot of movie-watching recently, including the movie that seemingly everyone else has seen: The Dark Knight. It’s a good film with something extra: an unforgettable performance. Ledger’s Joker is going to remain in the cultural lexicon for a long time, longer certainly than his predecessors in the role. He managed to bring something uncanny to the screen, a sort of Loki-esque chaos which appeals to the id and is deeply unsettling because of that.