A Town Called Panic (2009)

After doing our animated movies poll, I felt inspired to watch a bunch of new-to-me animated films that had somehow escaped my attention all these years. As a result, during a lazy Saturday spent in bed, I finally watched A Town Called Panic (Panique au village) and I have no idea why it took me so long to see this. 

Horse, Cowboy, and Indian live together in a little house. Cowboy and Indian have forgotten Horse's birthday, so they decide to build him a barbecue (a totally normal gift for a horse). They need about 50 bricks to build this barbecue, but accidentally order 50 million. And that's where their trouble begins. Before long they're encountering weird aquatic creatures, a snowball throwing robotic penguin, lava, and a number of other strange things. 

This movie is nuts. It's like watching an extremely hyper and imaginative child play with their toys. If you've ever wanted to watch two horses slow dance, or a donkey play the drums, or a card game happen on a rock plummeting to the center of the earth, this is your movie. Let's face it: this is everyone's movie. If you don't at least chuckle during this film, there's something wrong with your funny bone. It's currently streaming on Hulu Plus, so go check it out!

Bullhead (2011)

Over at IMDB the film's plot is described thusly:

A young cattle farmer is approached by a veterinarian to make a deal with a notorious beef trader.

Going off of that description I have zero interest in this film. It sounds like I'm in store for the millionth incarnation of a mob story. Sure there's the slight variation in that it's set in Belgium and involves injecting cows with steroids and hormones, but you know in advance that family and friendship will play a huge roll and that there will be murder and there will be betrayal. At this point in cinema history it's practically a paint by numbers situation. But what saves this film is the character of Jacky. This wounded animal of a man portrayed by Matthias Schoenaerts is a beautifully amazing spanner in the works of what would have otherwise been standard genre fare. It's almost akin to taking an actual bull and making him the star of The Yards. It turns the film into something completely new and your heart truly bleeds for this guy. Bravo!