"Down to the Bone" +3 throwaway films (54, 55-57)
"Down to the Bone" (staring Vera Farmiga) is a film that deals with a very heavy theme/subject matter. It's a film that cannot be ignored though since it is very real. This is one of the reasons why I love independent films. The characters seem more real. Their pain is transferable. And you hope they learn something.
Here Vera Farmiga plays a woman, Irene, "trapped" in a loveless and sexless marriage (at least on her end of it, because her husband very clearly still cares about her) with two young boys. She plays Irene so well that now I am wondering why she wasn't up for any kind of awards when it came out. She embodies the washed-up, beaten-down, but mostly utterly fatigued and empty of her character. I could not help but recognize the vacancy in her eyes, perhaps because of her obvious years of drug use. Her eyes tell her entire story throughout this film, although she is physically present in every situation, you can tell she is gone, mentally. Many of the scenes almost seem all too real, and since I don't have experience with drugs firsthand, I can only use this film to imagine this could almost be exactly like situations in real life.
For example: (1) she is basically comatose in bed while being coaxed out of bed by one of her sons (2) she gets frustrated with the aspect of actually feeding her sons when they ask her for cereal, when all she wants is to be left alone at the dirty kitchen table while she smokes a cigarette (3) and perhaps the most awful scene that I'm sure happens quite often...she tries to pay for drugs late at night with her son's birthday check from his grandmother. Thankfully the drug dealer has a heart and doesn't accept it.
Like I said, not having firsthand experience with this it left me disgusted by her character and her choices (she does end up going to rehab, where she meets a disarmingly charming male nurse, whom she ends up having an affair with, breaks up her marriage for him, only to find out he is a user as well, but instead of leaving him, the relationship continues for an uncomfortable period of time, until she knows for sure she cannot continue).
Having dated an addict, though, I heard stories from her harried past that seemed very familiar to this film. She told me of how she and her drug-addict boyfriend were together for 5 years and their immediate connection was through using together; how they would pawn their belongings to afford more drugs; how she boasted about going to work high on something. (One of the most interesting scenes in the film is when Irene is confronted by her grocery store manager about her lackluster job performance and she admits that she used to be faster and more with it because every day she was usually high and now she wasn't.); how she used everything under the sun, but found an affliction for crack in particular (really?); how she would find herself screaming in a jealous rage at her boyfriend while he was in the bathroom because she thought he was taking extra hits from the drugs they were supposed to share; and other stories as well. And she told me all these things, I believe, in the hopes that I would judge her, think she was a terrible person, and run for the door. But I never did...although, later, she would tell me that she believed I constantly judged her in the way that I talked and asked her questions about it all. That's what she wanted, though, so I didn't try to change her mind or opinion of me. I know who I am.
That relationship is a very hot-button topic for me, and so why do I keep finding films with a certain undertone of bad relationships or even addled with drug use, because I know it's going to bring up those memories. The sad thing is: our relationship was only 9 months long, but it seemed like the longest 9 months of my life, perhaps because I was constantly on edge of wanting to please someone that ultimately could not be pleased (by me, at least).
Anyway, I absolutely recommend "Down to the Bone" simply for its approach at humanism. Vera Farmiga puts her all into a character who doesn't have much of anything left inside of her.
............................................................
"When a Killer Calls" a horrendous attempt at horror. Everything about this film was terrible, not that I had high hopes for it to begin with, because it coincidentally went straight to DVD when the film it's clearly ripping off "When a Stranger Calls" (a remake, anyway) came out in theatres. The acting is subpar at best. The writing doesn't help them either. And the editing was simply awful, going from weird, shaky camera stuff, to the climax of the film (the main actress has been tied up, bloodied and is barefoot, oh and it is clearly still night-time and pouring rain... but when she escapes, a mere, hour at most, she is suddenly wearing Uggs, is rather cleaned up and it's morning!). This seemed like an awful student film that was thrown together in order to pass an introductory film class in college. Awful. And not the kind of awful that you can enjoy.
"The Human Centipede 2." In all honesty I actually enjoyed the first film "The Human Centipede," but this sequel seemed to be made simply for the advantage of upping the gross-out factor/ante. And it is done very poorly. There were no redeeming qualities to this sequel. First off, the main character is an obsess, short (midget?) man who doesn't speak the entire length of the film, even though he has plenty of opportunities to say something. I just didn't get it, because he's not an eerie presence of a villain. He's clearly psychotic. He wants to create a real-life "human centipede" after viewing the original film. He thinks it can actually be done. News flash. Spoiler alert. His attempt is catastrophic and leads to many disgusting scenes of gore that even I could not appreciate. I felt like my film-viewing was violated by being subjected to scenes where he staples his victims mouth-to-ass and injects them with laxatives just to watch them defecate insulting. I could've turned it off, but it was like watching a train wreck. I was glad when it was over. You can thank me later for watching it so that you don't have to.
"Tromeo and Juliet" is another Troma Films movie and this one actually had substance to it, perhaps because it is yet another revised version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" so they actually had a story to build from. I thought they actually did a good job with it, too. Of course, being a Troma film, they added their own flair to it (there are some "gory" scenes of violent deaths and sexual situations aplenty, but you watch this one expecting it, that's why I don't have a problem with it). I won't bore you with the details to the story, since we've all had to read the aforementioned play our freshman year of high school. Instead, I'll just tell you to watch the film, which came out just before Baz Luhrman's excellent, also modern-day film version of the same story. You can watch that one afterwards.
Here Vera Farmiga plays a woman, Irene, "trapped" in a loveless and sexless marriage (at least on her end of it, because her husband very clearly still cares about her) with two young boys. She plays Irene so well that now I am wondering why she wasn't up for any kind of awards when it came out. She embodies the washed-up, beaten-down, but mostly utterly fatigued and empty of her character. I could not help but recognize the vacancy in her eyes, perhaps because of her obvious years of drug use. Her eyes tell her entire story throughout this film, although she is physically present in every situation, you can tell she is gone, mentally. Many of the scenes almost seem all too real, and since I don't have experience with drugs firsthand, I can only use this film to imagine this could almost be exactly like situations in real life.
For example: (1) she is basically comatose in bed while being coaxed out of bed by one of her sons (2) she gets frustrated with the aspect of actually feeding her sons when they ask her for cereal, when all she wants is to be left alone at the dirty kitchen table while she smokes a cigarette (3) and perhaps the most awful scene that I'm sure happens quite often...she tries to pay for drugs late at night with her son's birthday check from his grandmother. Thankfully the drug dealer has a heart and doesn't accept it.
Like I said, not having firsthand experience with this it left me disgusted by her character and her choices (she does end up going to rehab, where she meets a disarmingly charming male nurse, whom she ends up having an affair with, breaks up her marriage for him, only to find out he is a user as well, but instead of leaving him, the relationship continues for an uncomfortable period of time, until she knows for sure she cannot continue).
Having dated an addict, though, I heard stories from her harried past that seemed very familiar to this film. She told me of how she and her drug-addict boyfriend were together for 5 years and their immediate connection was through using together; how they would pawn their belongings to afford more drugs; how she boasted about going to work high on something. (One of the most interesting scenes in the film is when Irene is confronted by her grocery store manager about her lackluster job performance and she admits that she used to be faster and more with it because every day she was usually high and now she wasn't.); how she used everything under the sun, but found an affliction for crack in particular (really?); how she would find herself screaming in a jealous rage at her boyfriend while he was in the bathroom because she thought he was taking extra hits from the drugs they were supposed to share; and other stories as well. And she told me all these things, I believe, in the hopes that I would judge her, think she was a terrible person, and run for the door. But I never did...although, later, she would tell me that she believed I constantly judged her in the way that I talked and asked her questions about it all. That's what she wanted, though, so I didn't try to change her mind or opinion of me. I know who I am.
That relationship is a very hot-button topic for me, and so why do I keep finding films with a certain undertone of bad relationships or even addled with drug use, because I know it's going to bring up those memories. The sad thing is: our relationship was only 9 months long, but it seemed like the longest 9 months of my life, perhaps because I was constantly on edge of wanting to please someone that ultimately could not be pleased (by me, at least).
Anyway, I absolutely recommend "Down to the Bone" simply for its approach at humanism. Vera Farmiga puts her all into a character who doesn't have much of anything left inside of her.
............................................................
"When a Killer Calls" a horrendous attempt at horror. Everything about this film was terrible, not that I had high hopes for it to begin with, because it coincidentally went straight to DVD when the film it's clearly ripping off "When a Stranger Calls" (a remake, anyway) came out in theatres. The acting is subpar at best. The writing doesn't help them either. And the editing was simply awful, going from weird, shaky camera stuff, to the climax of the film (the main actress has been tied up, bloodied and is barefoot, oh and it is clearly still night-time and pouring rain... but when she escapes, a mere, hour at most, she is suddenly wearing Uggs, is rather cleaned up and it's morning!). This seemed like an awful student film that was thrown together in order to pass an introductory film class in college. Awful. And not the kind of awful that you can enjoy.
"The Human Centipede 2." In all honesty I actually enjoyed the first film "The Human Centipede," but this sequel seemed to be made simply for the advantage of upping the gross-out factor/ante. And it is done very poorly. There were no redeeming qualities to this sequel. First off, the main character is an obsess, short (midget?) man who doesn't speak the entire length of the film, even though he has plenty of opportunities to say something. I just didn't get it, because he's not an eerie presence of a villain. He's clearly psychotic. He wants to create a real-life "human centipede" after viewing the original film. He thinks it can actually be done. News flash. Spoiler alert. His attempt is catastrophic and leads to many disgusting scenes of gore that even I could not appreciate. I felt like my film-viewing was violated by being subjected to scenes where he staples his victims mouth-to-ass and injects them with laxatives just to watch them defecate insulting. I could've turned it off, but it was like watching a train wreck. I was glad when it was over. You can thank me later for watching it so that you don't have to.
"Tromeo and Juliet" is another Troma Films movie and this one actually had substance to it, perhaps because it is yet another revised version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" so they actually had a story to build from. I thought they actually did a good job with it, too. Of course, being a Troma film, they added their own flair to it (there are some "gory" scenes of violent deaths and sexual situations aplenty, but you watch this one expecting it, that's why I don't have a problem with it). I won't bore you with the details to the story, since we've all had to read the aforementioned play our freshman year of high school. Instead, I'll just tell you to watch the film, which came out just before Baz Luhrman's excellent, also modern-day film version of the same story. You can watch that one afterwards.
Comments
Post a Comment