went to the vancouver art gallery again for the fred herzog photo exhibition. it was lovely but significantly less exciting than the first time. i saw another exhibition too, on the 4th floor. they were graphite drawings of farms and boats. those were nice.

i met up with dara rox lara and denise at paramount. dara and i saw pan's labyrinth while the other three saw zodiac (the new jake gyllenhaal movie).

pan's labyrinth was fantastic. it's a real fairy tale in itself, not just about one, and the story is just as cruel and violent as the "original" fairy tales, not the gushy happy ending stuff. it was pretty gory and gruesome. i guess i liked the gore and shit though because it made it that much more real. well, the more deaths there are, the more you appreciate life.

i dont want to give away anything but some parts of the movie I LOVED ... like the roots and milk and blood thing. i liked it that the whole story was taking place during the spanish civil war. i liked the creature with bloody eyeballs. the girl who played Ofelia was perfect. i loved how depressing it was. the movie was bittersweet-depressing at the end (which is the worst/best kind of depressing). oh man it made me cry a lot.

i definitely loved pan's labyrinth but i think it may be overhyped. i don't blame it, since every good movie out these days is overhyped. i like the dark gothy fairy tale vibe and the magic of it, but there were loose ends that weren't wrapped up at the end. and the thing is, if you make a fantasy movie, you have to sacrifice other aspects of the movie... like good character development. it's bound to happen.

i tried to pay close attention to the cinematography but i was reading subtitles half the time, and that made it near impossible i think i will watch it again though.

i thought this movie would be like lord of the rings, but after seeing pan's labyrinth, LOTR resembles a boring history of the middle ages more than magic.