this must be the place

From IMDB:  Daniel Craig and Ewan MacGregor to star in film adaption of the novel, "I, Lucifer" with DC as Satan himself and 
Mac as the writer whose body he inhabits on earth. 

For those of us with mercy/God/Devil/redemption kinks, it sounds...promising...


Book description from Amazon: Duncan's last novel, Hope (1998), was about pornography addiction. Since then, he's apparently found God, or rather, the Devil. His latest novel features the Prince of Darkness incarnate in the body of down-and-out writer Declan Gunn (anagram, anyone?), just about to slit his wrists. The apocalypse looms, and God has offered fallen angel Lucifer a second chance at redemption by enticing him with a month of earthly embodiment--an offer he can't refuse, given his taste for cocaine, sexual mischief, and other evil earthly pleasures. In between acts of debauchery, however, Lucifer/Gunn resurrects his literary career and revels childlike in the Earth's simple offerings: tastes, smells, sunsets, London. He muses theological, contemplating free will and the Fall and thinks about--just maybe--getting back on God's good side. Seduced by our diabolical narrator's wicked humor and Duncan's clever conceit, the novel's Christian redemption moral may catch some readers off guard (wasn't this book supposed to be about evil pleasures?), but they likely won't want to put it down. Duncan's witty and perverse, yet somehow life-affirming, Lucifer is powerful indeed.

Now I'm a dork and had to watch this movie because I'd already seen "Capote" and wanted to watch another movie basically take on the same subject. Like fanfiction, it is so very easy to tell the exact same story in completely different ways.

For those who don't know, both movies are about Truman Capote, brilliant writer and flaming jackass, investigating the infamous murders of the Clutter family in Kansas in 1959, how he wrote In Cold Blood about it, and basically how he got obsessed with the case/killers.

Both movies deal with the fact that Capote was an incredibly manipulative person, brilliant as I said, but lonely and needy. He bonded with one of the murderers, but how close he bonded with Perry Smith, and why, is really what both movies end up trying to explore.

I like both films. Don't get me wrong."Capote" shows off how dark and detached Capote could be, how he shared that in common with both killers. And "Capote" is cinematically the better film. The more polished. But, what it didn't do was show how clever and charming and witty Capote could be, and yet how all of that was just the act he did to keep people near him, loving him. So in "Infamous" you get Capote being brilliant and unapologetically flaming whether he was in Manhattan or in Kansas (what's the point of trying to hide it, with that voice?) but also being vulnerable and honest when he meets someone who is strangely similiar--Perry Smith.

It's here that I have to mention that Perry Smith is played by Daniel Craig, doing almost what he did with Bond. Someone who responds with violence because it's what they know, but who longs for something better. He could slit your throat or help you buy a kitten. Seriously. And Capote can't help responding to that. He is, after all, a guy who promises secrecy and honesty to his friends and then almost gleefully distorts the truth and what's on or off the record in order to make his story better.

(Which brought up interesting detachment/defense mechanisms in writers, at least to me, how he keeps trying to filter his pain through his characters and stay distant...which only works until Perry calls him on it in the most violent --and hot--- way possible).

And that's another thing...while I don't know how open with his sexuality his friends were, the movie doesn't shy away from it. Nor does it shy from the interesting possibility that "Capote" only suggested, that he fell in love with Perry despite his intentions, and Perry fell in love with him despite knowing Capote was full of shit.

Toby Jones, btw, who plays Capote in this....fuckin' amazing. That's all I can say. This movie had me sort of insanely turned on, and laughing, and then about to cry because I LOVE DOOMED AND TRAGIC GAY LOVE.

*ahem*

All in all, watch them both. Liked "Capote". Loved "Infamous".

And oh yes, did I mention Daniel Craig doing sensitive brute in a wifebeater, all tatted up? mmmm.

"You're in control until you're not."