At The Movies: Indie Picks This Weekend

I Saw The Devil (Alamo Ritz)
Last fall, Kim Jee-woon's I Saw The Devil was one of the secret screenings at Fantastic Fest. It had just played at the Toronto Film Festival and was booked to premiere at Sundance, so the FF screening had to go officially under the radar. It turned out to be the best film we saw that week.

The South Koreans have really perfected the revenge thriller in recent years and this is unquestionably one of the most brutally violent pictures I have ever seen. It's not for everybody, but the cat and mouse storyline will delight genre fans. Lest you take our warning on the violence lightly, you should know that the film had to be edited to even be released in Korean theaters (and if you've ever seen Oldboy, that statement becomes even more difficult to fathom).

This is only booked for one week at the Ritz, so if you're up for a dark and violent thriller, this one earns our strongest recommendation.

If I Saw The Devil sounds like a nightmare for date night, you might have a better shot choosing a literary classic like...

Jane Eyre (Alamo South Lamar, Regal Arbor)
True story: the press screening for Cary Fukunaga's version of Jane Eyre happened the night before SXSW Film got underway, so we passed. Now, it's opening and we're definitely looking forward to catching it.

Bronte's classic story is no stranger to the big screen. In fact, there have been almost twenty filmed adaptations of this story since 1910. This time around, Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right) takes on the role of Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender (Fish Tank) is playing Edward Rochester. With supporting roles by Dame Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins and Jamie Bell, it's no wonder that this cast is receiving near-unanimous praise.

Red Band Trailer for I Saw The Devil: