Three Burials

of Melquiades Estrada.

Just watched this movie last night with the "orphan."

If you really want to set your movie apart - give the lead character a completely unpronounceable first name like Melquiades. I know he dies and is buried three times - but everyone talks about him throughout the film. And his name is in the title.

And I still can't pronounce it.

GENIUS!

It makes it so easy to recommend to friends... Hey! I just saw this great movie - the three burials of .... melchezi... malpasso... mell... Whatever. It's got Tommy Lee Jones!

It is a very interesting, unapologetic film.

There are so many times I turned to the orphan and told him how much I loved this movie.

But by the end - I don't know if I still did.

The writer - Guillermo Arriaga - is a genius. He wrote Amores Peros - one of my favorites - and 21 Grams - and very harsh - uncompromising film.

In all these films - he breaks the narrative up into chunks and puts the story together out of order - so that it follows more of an emotional through line than a plot line.

In this film - he does that for the first 30 minutes or so - and then it proceeds rather straight forwardly...But it is a very fascinating film. It meanders. It takes detours. And then it finishes - not entirely where you think it will - and not exactly sure why it does - or what it means.

But it is a thinker. And I have never seen so much use out of a corpse since Weekend at Bernie's.

Maybe that should have been on the cover?

Best use of corpse since Weekend at Bernie's! You'll laugh till you pee your pants!

Sigh.

Off to work.