Some months have passed since I checked in on the messed-up movies project. At first, it was because life was giving me enough reasons to be angry and depressed and I didn't need to complicate the ol' brain chemistry with things like this. Once that passed, I found myself holding solitary marathons of Breaking Bad, which naturally led to solitary marathons of The Wire. I can't recommend the former strongly enough, while the latter was okay. For me, The Wire is just what Law & Order would have been if it had been packed to the gills with sex, violence, the word "fuck", and finished a case in a season instead of an episode. A good show? Yes. But unquestionably overrated.
Before I went on that TV bender, I had watched a few more messed-up movies, and I watched the last two over the past couple weeks. So that means I've got five bite-size reviews, and there's a chance this won't be the last post in this series. Once again, do not watch any of these movies. I'm doing it so you don't have to.
Happiness (1998): This one boasts more famous actors than the typical movie from this project, including Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Dylan Baker. The unifying theme of several separate plotlines is that everybody decides to do what they think will make them happy, with variable results. It probably would have worked better as three short films of 40-45 minutes apiece, each following one of three sisters: Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, and Jane Adams. One would include Hoffman in his role as perverted prank phone caller, with Boyle as a target who challenges him via *69 to come over and have sex with her. That plot also includes Hoffman's obese neighbor who he eventually bonds with. One would involve Baker and Stevenson as the suburban couple with 3 kids and a dog, and the dad's sexual obsession with his 11-year-old son's best friend. Finally, there would be Adams' story, which is kind of like Liz Lemon's story minus the good job plus real problems. That leaves out the girls' parents, who have their own quests for old-person happiness going on. As the film switches between these plotlines without rhyme or reason, there's a steady stream of off-putting acts, and a few that cross the line into "Dude! No!" territory. Baker will make your skin crawl in a role that probably did him no favors for his future career. Adams gets the job done as the frazzled, luckless Jersey girl. Stevenson reminded me of Patricia Heaton on "The Middle", except instead of being married to the janitor from "Scrubs", she's married to a child rapist. Boyle is sexy, provocative, and aloof, and in a film with such a strange spectrum of feelings, she's also the emotional center. While everyone else runs themselves ragged in the pursuit of happiness, she knows from the start it's harder to obtain than Unobtainium. I was entertained by this one- Hoffman and Adams are consistently funny even when they're not supposed to be, and Baker is so good I might stop thinking of him as "The warden from Let's Go to Prison." On the other hand, pedophilia is no fun. I'm giving this one a C+.
Sweet Movie (1974): I sat through the whole thing, but I don't know what the hell this movie is supposed to be about. There's some dystopian future elements. There's some Actionist ethos. There's three wonderfully inventive and visually gorgeous scenes that qualify as works of art by themselves. But there's really no plot to follow, just one weird thing after another. If you've got a strong stomach and you're a fan of movies where every scene is either meaningless or symbolic and it makes no literal sense, have at it. But it's not for me. F.
In A Glass Cage (1987): This is the story of Klaus, a Nazi who escaped justice and relocated with his wife and young daughter to Spain. Klaus descended into pedophilia at some point in his wartime experiments, abusing countless young boys and keeping a detailed diary. Some time later, he is overwhelmed with guilt and attempts suicide by jumping from his balcony. He survives, but finds himself confined to an iron lung. Unable to handle it on her own, his wife hires Angelo, a local teenager, to be his caretaker. We soon find out that Angelo was one of Klaus's victims, and in a bizarre and twisted case of Stockholm Syndrome, he still idolizes the man and all he's done with his life. It's creepy, intense, occasionally disgusting, and extraordinarily well acted. In particular, David Sust as Angelo and Gisele Echevarria as daughter Rena bring very complex and demanding roles to life. The movie takes the idea of "breaking the cycle" of abuse and turns it on its ear in a series of uncomfortable events. In a sense it's about justice, I guess, but there's a whole lot of pain to wade through before you get there. This falls into the category of "Good movies I never need to think about again." I'll give it a B.
I Stand Alone (Seul Contre Tous) (1998): The idea of losing everything, piece by piece, until nothing is left has always resonated strongly with me. I really appreciate ("Like" is not an appropriate word) I Stand Alone because it captures the worst psychological moment that any of us ever face. It's the instant our worst fears are realized, when the last little spark of hope that comes with uncertainty vanishes into a cold, all-consuming despair. The thought process, the theme of loneliness, and the state of humanity shine brightly through the clouds of homophobia and misogyny brought on by the unnamed protagonist. He's a fifty-year-old man, married to a younger wealthier woman who, along with her mother, treat him like garbage. It's a three-act story with clear divisions: Act one, he forces his wife to miscarry via kicks and punches and flees the scene to Paris. Act two is the slow crush of poverty as he tries and fails to find help from friends. Finally, in act three, he decides it's time to go full-on "Michael Douglas in Falling Down" on everybody. This third act and its extended fantasy sequences are what make this movie a part of this project, but the whole thing is an intense primal scream on behalf of anyone who never had a chance. It's not a happy movie, but it doesn't wallow either, and as a whole it's just an emotionally powerful experience. I'm giving it a B+. Explaining why it's not an A would spoil things.
Visitor Q (2001): This dark comedy (I guess?) comes to us from Takashi Miike, Japan's most renowned shock film director. Visitor Q is the story of a nuclear family: a depraved and craven news reporter father, a heroin addict mother, a bullied teenage son who in turn brutally beats his mother, and an older daughter who's left home to become a prostitute. The titular visitor introduces himself by doming the dad with a rock-- twice!-- and next thing we know he's treated as a guest in the family's home. Over a short period of time, the visitor leads each family member to find fulfillment in outlandish and explicit ways, offering no counsel, only facilitation. There's scenes of intense bullying, murder, necrophilia, rape, incest, domestic violence, and something I can only describe as "cathartic extreme lactation". And yet, I laughed out loud multiple times. The only word that comes to mind for this film is "Inexplicable". Is the visitor supposed to be the devil? Do the characters live in a world without consequences? Am I to understand that we're all freaky-deakies at heart? I have no idea. Maybe this was just an extremely graphic live-action cartoon with no moral or purpose other than to entertain by showing us something we've never seen before. And hey, at least it has a happy ending in its own way. Unless I'm wrong. I might be wrong. Either way, the last ten minutes or so get a "Hell yeah!" from me. I lack the emotional wiring to react to the rest of it, unless o_0 is a reaction. So I guess this one's a C+.
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