Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2009, Síða 43

Kraum of the crop
Aðalstræti 10
101 Reykjavík
Tel: +354 517 7797
www.kraum.is
Opening hours:
Mon-Wed 09:00-18:00
Thu 09:00-22:00
Fri 09:00-18:00
Weekends 12:00-17:00
Designers unite in Kraum,
the first store in Iceland
dedicated entirely to Icelandic
design, displaying over 120
selected designers. Kraum
has breathed new life into
Reykjavík´s oldest house dating
back from mid 17th century.
1100.- kr

Woolens factory store,
located in Vik
Víkurprjón ehf
Phone: 487-1250
www.vikwool.is
Genuine woolen goods,
made in Iceland_______
Also wide selection
of souvenirs
31
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2009
Movies | In Theaters
It is a sad fact of life that outside the
glorious ten days of the Reykjavík
International Film Festival, almost
everything being served in the cinemas
here is standard Hollywood fare. So,
being forced to choose between shit
and dirt, let us rummage through the
droppings in search of nutrition.
Drag Me to Hell is a horror film set
in an investment bank. No, not actually a
zombie film, we have to wait until the film
festival’s wonderful Nazi flick Död Snö
for that. DMTH starts out as homage to
rampant capitalism. A pretty young girl
turns an elderly woman out of her home
in hope of promotion. This is the setting
for a series of fight scenes between
young and old, beautiful and ugly, rich
and poor, where we are supposed to
root for the former in every case. The
movie redeems itself by a last minute
twist. A barely passable horror flick, but
it is interesting to see how the banking
collapse is infiltrating popular culture.
Although lacking Nazi zombies,
Inglorious Basterds has just about
everything else. One might be forgiven
for coming to a Tarantino film set in
the Second World War with certain
preconceived notions. And we do get
a more up-to-date Dirty Dozen, with
scalping and a figure called “The Bear
Jew” who likes to execute POW’s with
a baseball bat. This is the film that we
expect, but it is just Tarantino toying with
us. For as the movie moves on, one can’t
be sure of anything anymore. Almost
every WWII movie cliché is exploded.
The Brits Plot to kill Hitler is reneged to
sub-plot and summarily taken care of.
The far-fetched plan of getting into the
building using a ruse is met with laughter
from the Nazis who are not taken in.
And then there is the glorious alternate
history ending. Everywhere, Tarantino’s
love of cinema shines through in a
Hollywood movie that is surprisingly
non-Hollywood, and, dare we say it, at
times European.
For those who like their Hollywood
straight up, with lots of explosions
and little plot, GI Joe should get the
job done. When all else fails, they just
muddle through. Less visually impressive
than Transformers, one is left with the
nagging feeling that Hollywood peaked
with the original Star Wars trilogy and
has been remaking it ever since.
The Time-Traveller’s wife is,
at least, an interesting idea. Using a
sci-fi notion as the basis for a love
story is promising, but its possibilities
are left largely unexplored. The idea of
competing with yourself at various ages
is particularly intriguing for a writer.
The heroine cheats on her hubby with a
younger him, but this is as profound is it
gets. Nevertheless, a superior chick-flick
that it inevitably inferior to the book.
One could do worse on a Sunday
afternoon than Ice age 3. Adding
dinosaurs to the mix, while offending to
palaeontology, promises to be pleasing
to the eye. One the whole, though, we
wind up with something that is more a
cartoon version of Jurassic Park 3 than
anything else. If that is good or bad is up
to your tastes, but original it is not.
Not all is gloom, however, as RwwM is
the first in a slew of Icelandic films to be
released before the end of the year. Until
then.
Your Post-
Collapse
Guide to the
Movies
ValuR GunnaRSSOn
#88 - Issue 1 - 2009
Grapevine 101
#83 - Issue 14 - 2008
#86 - Issue 17- 2008
This was my début as editor. The running theme was to seek an
idea of what and how a nation at some pretty hefty crossroads
thought about itself. To that end, we got 33 Icelanders – musicians,
philosophers, journalists, etc – to share their thoughts on what we
had, and what was to come. The tagline came from artist Gabríela
Friðriksdóttir, who’s “We are only broke on money” nicely embodied
the conflicting spirit of hopeless optimism felt at the time. HSM
We were getting bored with Kreppa at this point, but couldn’t really
escape it either. The feature story was about celebrating the local
music scene, via joining a bunch of local acts on their trip to a Nor-
wegian showcase festival. So we of got the lovely bands to pose for
a tabloidy 2007-style glam-champagne-money-coke cover. Looks
cool. Funnily enough, we had to airbrush some fake prop cocaine
from the cover before we sent it to print. In retrospect, that was a
pretty good idea. HSM
For one fleeting moment, in the middle of the worst economic hur-
ricane to hit a country since the end of WWII, we had hope. The
whole world had hope. Finally, 43 was out of the White House. SBB
Iceland did its part in the coalition of the willing – and one of our
troopers even lost a testicle. Years later, the poor bastards were
still trying to wrangle insurance benefits from the government. The
reference for the shot was the Lost in Translation movie poster. SBB
#90- Issue 3 - 2009