Act I: Exerpt from Washington Post's review of 'Hostel' from today's paper
"You can make the argument, as some have with Tarantino (he executive-produced the film, which was written and directed by Eli Noth), that the gore itself becomes art, a la Japanese martial arts films where the carnage becomes an abstract, a toy to play with while making pretty pictures, all's fair in love and art. We're not particularly fond of that argument, having spent the duration of both "Kill Bill" movies with hands over eyes.
High art, this isn't. We can say this, however: It does what it does well. You won't be bored. You will be grossed out. Even if you like that type of thing. You could argue that, by portraying rich yuppies paying to sate their lust for gore, Noth is sending up American greed and sense of entitlement. Arguing that would be a waste of time. "Hostel" ain't that deep.
Noth builds suspense slowly, spending a good amount of time on the hedonistic forays of the three main characters, Paxton (Jay Hernandez), Josh (Derek Richardson) and Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), though character development is given exceedingly short shrift. We get that Josh is a writer (read: sensitive ) who just broke up with his college girlfriend and is so over it. Really , he's fine. Oli's a little older, and he comes from Iceland. Or maybe it's Israel; the film isn't so clear on this. And the California-born and -bred Paxton, who looks as Chicano-boy-next-door as they come, at one crucial moment, inexplicably claims he's not American and then breaks out in native-sounding German (or is it Dutch?). We never learn why."
Act II: I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
Saturday, 9:45am
From: Julie
To: Corrections@washpost.com
Cc: Stephen Hunter, Teresa Wiltz
Subj: Major Error in Theresa Wiltz's 'Hostel' movie review
To Whom It May Concern,
Theresa Wiltz's review of the movie 'Hostel' in today's Post names the film's writer/director as Eli "Noth."
Uh, his name is Eli Roth. Not Noth.
This error occurs ALL THREE TIMES that the director's name is mentioned: paragraphs 4, 5, and 6.
I don't know if Ms. Wiltz has a big crush on the actor Chris Noth, or if she's just lazy and went to see a film without bothering to find out who wrote and directed it. Whatever the reason, this is an embarrassing error and I hope you correct it before your website sends scores of young horror film fans rushing to google "Eli Noth" and coming up with nothing.
On second thought, after reading Ms. Wiltz's tepid and disappointingly squeamish review, I doubt this will be an issue for horror fans. Why couldn't you get Stephen Hunter to review it instead? I'm sorry, but anyone who confesses to having spent both 'Kill Bill' movies with her hands over her eyes doesn't deserve to be reviewing films. Film reviewers are paid to WATCH the films, not hide from them. I wonder if perhaps her misspelling of Eli Roth's name is a direct result of her admittedly impaired vision, peeking out at the screen from behind her hands?
For shame, Style section.
By the way, I have amazing editorial skills and a degree in English; let me know if you ever want to hire someone who will catch & correct errors like these in future articles.
Sincerely,
Julie [redacted]
Act III: Goddammit
Saturday, 9:47am
From: Julie
To: Corrections@washpost.com
Cc: Stephen Hunter, Teresa Wiltz
Subj: By the way
To the Corrections Department:
I misspelled Teresa Wiltz's name in my previous email. However, since I'm not a website for a large newspaper, I'm not really embarrassed or worried about this. Nonetheless, I invite you to submit your corrections of my writing to MY corrections department: [redacted]@hotmail.com.
julie [email] said at 11:49 AM 01-07-2006: Haha, yeah, I was just reading my email(s) to my brother and laughing my ass off when I realized: this is the kind of thing I used to post on Killoggs, when I had internet access.
Why amuse your brother and two people at the corrections desk when you can amuse MEEEELLIONS!
josh [email] said at 11:54 AM 01-07-2006: Hostel was just okay. It wasn't all that gory, either. The gore took up like 0.5% of the running time of the film, also.
josh [email] said at 11:56 AM 01-07-2006: This person has a very dim understanding of the film - Paxton says he took german in college, and the several times throughout the film claim to be canadian because they want to avoid people's hate of americans... DUHHHH. I've never even left the USA and I know that many people wear canadian patches on their jackets or bags to avoid american-hate.
rick [email] said at 12:05 PM 01-07-2006: The Onion had an article about US guys giving tips on how to get laid in Europe and one of the ones they gave was to pretend to be Canadian (but not around an actual Canadian as they would "totally cockblock.").
josh [email] said at 12:38 PM 01-07-2006: From: josh s___
To: twiltz, corrections@washpost.com
Date: Jan 7, 2006 12:36 PM
Subject: Hostel review
Well, first, the director of the film is Eli Roth, not Noth - he also directed the film Cabin Fever, which was exec produced by David Lynch.
Further...
"And the California-born and -bred Paxton, who looks as Chicano-boy-next-door as they come, at one crucial moment, inexplicably claims he's not American and then breaks out in native-sounding German (or is it Dutch?). We never learn why."
Paxton establishes he knows German earlier in the film, when he converses with one of the girls in German (at the disco, remember?). Josh even asks him after another instance of German speaking: "I didn't know you took German," and Paxton replies that he did.
Sorry if this sounds like a nitpick, but it was pretty obvious to me that the reason the filmmakers had those scenes in there was precisely so that they could have him speak to the German man who was torturing him, and not have it seem out of place to the audience.
This is to some extent a screenwriter's conceit, sure... but so is the story of how Paxton failed to do all he could to help a drowning victim when he was a child (to give an explaination to why he went back to save Kana instead of just leaving) or, to a lesser extent, the fact that the new occupants of his and Josh's room used the exact same "spa" line on him (to further drive in the point that not everything is right at this Hostel).
The reason why he (several times in the film) claims to be Canadian is the same reason why many Americans who backpack in Europe pin Canadian flags to their bags - there is a percieved bias against Americans in Europe. Add to this a scene where the character is strapped down in a torture chamber with a German man wearing butchers clothing and asking if he is an American... well, I can see why he'd claim not to be.
Anyway, I read your review and just thought I would reply with my take on those points... I agree with your general view that this wasn't much of a movie, though.
jeremy [email] said at 1:02 PM 01-07-2006: I thought that this movie did a pretty good job of developing the characters, especially for a movie whose main selling point is jarring torture/gore.
josh [email] said at 1:09 PM 01-07-2006: Especially Josh. Not so much Paxton, at first... but I thought they sorta did that on purpose, because they made it seem like Josh was gonna be the main character more than Paxton.
julie [email] said at 7:13 PM 01-07-2006: I don't know... is that a special Russian hat? I got it at a vintage store in Stockholm, so it didn't have a tag, or a name. The shopkeeper told me "this hat is from the seventies!" And I said, "good, so am I!" That's all I know.
rick [email] said at 1:24 PM 01-08-2006: Yes, a ushanka is a Russian hat but I would guess all those Northern lands have something similar. I have an irrational dislike of ballcaps so the only hats acceptable to me are the ones I never see. Maybe I myself should go to Stockholm some time as I date back to the Carter Administration.
reggie [email] said at 8:09 PM 01-07-2006: Because you went through the trouble of not only writing to the Post about their snafu (which I probably would've done) and the MAIN reason is that you wrote back correcting yourself.
Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with being a nerd. I mean, you are on Killoggs after all.
reggie [email] said at 8:12 PM 01-07-2006: Wow I just realized how my response is really poorly worded. That's cuz I been drinkin' but I'm mainly just buzzed about the playoff victory of the Heartattack Skins over the Bucs.
julie [email] said at 8:20 PM 01-07-2006: Dude, I will write to anyone about anything. I once called the toll-free number on a box of Kleenex to compliment them on their new box designs. This is not the first time I've written to the Post, nor the first time I've cc'd Stephen Hunter for that matter. Worse than making me a nerd, I fear writing letters like this will make me one of those crazy old people who write to complain that the colors are too bright in their magazine or something...
reggie [email] said at 8:41 PM 01-07-2006: I fear writing letters like this will make me one of those crazy old people who write to complain that the colors are too bright in their magazine or something...
josh [email] said at 5:53 PM 01-07-2006: I'd further posit that a lot of this movie was designed for people that already love the genre... Takashi Miike's cameo, the particulars of Kana's demise... there are a lot of in-jokes.
Still, the movie wasn't much of a horror movie... it is, like Cabin Fever, somewhere between dumb college comedy and gore picture... This one is even less horrific than Cabin Fever was, though CERTAIN gore moments may be worse than that film (though there are far less gore scenes).
