I watched The Tenement last night. To summarize my feelings: once you get past the fact that it was filmed with a camcorder, it's actually a pretty good movie.
Probably a year or more ago, my friend gave me The Tenement on DVD. She said she bought it, and it was so awful she turned it off after 10 minutes. She thought maybe I'd get more out of it, so she gave it to me. I put it on my shelf, and just never got around to watching it. Then last night, I went by my usual style of picking a movie by shuffling all my DVDs I haven't seen and watching one picked at random. Well, The Tenement came to the top last night, so I watched it.
The movie is about 4 different short stories (about a half hour long each) that span over 20 years. They all take place at the Tenement (an old apartment building), and are linked together by an old man (who turns out to be a character from one of the stories, in the future) talking to the landlord (who I could swear was a black metal singer) talking about them.
The first story is about a young man who loves horror movies, and lives with his horrible infirmed mother who does nothing but yell at him. He meets his absolute hero, a man who makes horror movies (and the worst actor in the movie, although he had awesome lines) and got laughed out. That made him mad....
The second story is about a mute girl who does nothing but dance, and who has overprotective parents. One day, they decide to take a chance and leave her home for awhile, and she gets attacked by a rapist.
The third story is about an insane man who is terrified to leave his house, then when he finally does he gets attacked by a dog. Or was it a .... wolf? Who knows, the full moon's coming. And insanity can play some tricks on the mind..
The final story is about a fake taxi driver who kills prostitutes, and who eventually picks up one who can fight back.
The acting in a lot of parts is sub par, but the stories are really good and fit together nicely. The picture and sound are awful, but the editing was well done. Despite the crappy camera they use, they still have a lot of camera movement, which impressed me. I figured it would be Clerks-style, where the camera moved like 3 times in the movie. Additionally, they have a lot of 2-shots (where two people in the same frame are talking), which is a common way done by people who can't afford multiple takes/editing, but a lot of scenes are also done coverage-style (where it cuts between the people talking). The combination of both always gives a feel of an independent film, which this is very much.
I rated it 8/10 on IMDB. It's definitely worth seeing if you're into independent films!
