You know how sometimes a new movie comes out and briefly enjoys time on IMDB’s Top 250 list? I just saw a film that was released in October of last year, but is currently #189. Låt den rätte komma in, or Let the Right One In, is a Swedish vampire film that’s being billed as a horror/romance/thriller. It’s both all and none of those, and one of the few movies I’ve seen that actually lives up to the word “refreshing.”

Lina Leandersson in Let the Right One In

I won’t tell you too many specifics, lest I spoil the fun, but I will say that one of its great strengths is its ability to provoke a variety of moods, all direct hits and many in complete contradiction to each other. It’s both sweet and gory (as all hell, actually), melancholic and funny, a bit wistful and a bit dismissive. It also won big points with me for sticking with the traditional vampiric foibles– you have to be invited in, sunlight burns you, and the unkilled become undead (unlike in some wretched recent blockbuster pieces of shit that I can name). Oh, and did I mention that it’s set in 1982, and several of the characters have Abba-styled hockeyfrillas? My only complaint, if I were to make one, would be the creepy CGI cats, but I suppose that every project has its budget.

If you’re at all a fan of the horror drama, or unconvential romances, I can’t recommend this enough, especially if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that it’s playing in a theater. Let’s hope the book that it’s based on is anywhere near as enjoyable!

While I may watch a lot of movies, especially during these wretched winter months, I don’t watch a lot of TV. A constant struggle of mine is wanting/trying to participate in popular culture while being horrified by a lot of it. Once in a while, though, I’ll find something that’s just off-kilter enough that it’s a complete delight. Such as this Hillshire Farm commercial for, uh, lunch meat:

I could go into an analysis of how this is fanfuckingtastic for some of the same reasons as musicals, but really, I just want to say, “Bang bang choo choo train! Eat lunch meat on the aeroplane!”

I think we’re slowly sinking into a fashion low tide. The marvelous Bill Cunningham of the NYT recently informed us that if grey isn’t the new black, it’s the next closest thing. Likewise, the Sartorialist has been documenting nigh countless incidents of it around the globe.

I don’t fundamentally have anything against grey. It matches every other color, and can look downright dashing. But what world are we living in where even Carine Roitfeld is caught wearing it head-to-toe?

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Q. What’s the guaranteed #1 best way to make anyone look more amazing, no matter how fabulous they looked before?

A. Put them in drag!

I must admit, this is both a truth universal and one of my personal favorite music video tropes. A couple of years ago (what?! 2007, where did you go? and how can we bring you back?!) Mouse on Mars and Mark E. Smith of The Fall teamed up to be Von Sudenfed and brought us the sexual & entrancing “Fledermaus Can’t Get It,” the video for which is undoubtedly one of the great achievements of that year. In fact, I think my friend Hilly and I spent most of that year watching it.

I can’t start it without watching it all of the way through, as I’m completely captivated by the various drag personalities taken on by each of the three men. Is she wasted? Is that blue lipstick? If so, where can I get some???

In this vein, the Canadian DJ Silencefiction has recently released a new single, “Lipstique (featuring Fauxnique),” which is a sort of prequel to the Von Sudenfed video. Listen up kids, because this is important: it teaches you how to put on drag makeup (insofar as this can be taught, of course). But again, it’s absolutely fascinating and pretty sexy to watch people put on drag:

The “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” video is great because each of the six characters is clearly such a hot mess– it’s like watching a sexy trainwreck. The “Lipstique” video is great because you see the evolution of drag, and in the end are rewarded with six fully-transformed characters. And both are great, really, because what’s better than sitting at home on a Sunday morning watching music videos with drag?

In honor of the beginning of February, my personal least favorite month of the year, here’s a short clip of something that shall not be named, in case the channel that it’s on attempts to hunt it down. I’ll just say it rhymes with Jelebrity Ceopardy (and features that roguish scoundrel Sean Connery).

ETA: Oh fuck, it did get taken down. Let’s blame February.