I watched two surprisingly good movies two nights in a row.

Scenic Route

Ratings on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB aren’t amazing, but low budget, depressing and (essentially) one set movies aren’t exactly popular right now. The description doesn’t exactly sell it either:

Tensions rise between lifelong friends Mitchell and Carter after their truck breaks down on an isolated desert road as they start to attack each other’s life decisions with unwavering brutality. (IMDB)

Sounds exciting, no?

I found it well-acted and well-shot. It had a good deal of psychological stress and discomfort, with themes interesting enough that I didn’t pick up my phone and start playing games. At only an hour and a half it could hardly be thought a waste of time. (the poster’s a little awesome, too)

Grabbers!

The exclamation mark is mine: all good creature features should make use of it. And this is a good creature feature.

The ratings are, again, not amazing. But I say you can’t go wrong with aliens, the Irish and lots of drinking. If you don’t like the genre, stay away from it.

Spring Breakers

On the third night, I watched Harmony Korine‘s depiction of the strange hedonism of Florida spring break. It’s a vividly uncomfortable watch. James Franco crept the hell out of me. As usual with Korine movies, I’m not entirely sure what to think of it.