Oh "Zombies" & Suicide Bombers

28 Weeks Later...(dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo)
Letting this film settle in proved to be detrimental to what level of recommendation I would have given this film most likely due to it's last bit of celluloid feeling utterly tacked-on and obviously designed to set up for a sequel. If it ended on a more satisfying note, it would have been as or maybe even more memorable than 28 Days Later..., but as it is, it's not. It could have also been because the characters were not quite as fleshed out as the ones found in 28 Days. The film's almost breakneck speed with it's quick succession of brilliant set-piece after brilliant set-piece is still certainly commendable, but it's starting to escape my memory and I'm feeling sort of indifferent to it. However, I still recommend.
*** out of ****
Day Night Day Night(dir. Julia Loktev)
The film verges on parody with it's "indie arthouse" aesthetics. There's a scene or more like a moment where it just shows the protagonist licking her fingers after eating a candy apple and the notion that this moment is supposed to be profound in it's "mundane audacity" is unshakable. There's a lot of moments like this in this film, but the film never truly grows wearisome outside of it's lack of insight on it's particular situation. The film is about a suicide bomber that happens to be what I assume is American and the "organization" that backs her is composed of members of various different backgrounds, which is probably supposed to lend an intellectually engaging vagueness, but ends up being frustratingly evasive along with it's portrayal of it's protagonist, who is simply an enigma at best. The film is similar to films like Elephant and United 93, where it's mainly an exercise in extreme empathy except it never delivers with it's central and inevitable event. The last shot is up to interpretation since it "might" be a POV shot and the film ends with a cut to black, suggesting that the bomb went off, but this interpretative quality doesn't salvage the film from being absolutely inconsequential. It's not bad, it's just utterly pointless.
** out of ****