This should be titled, this weekend on my laptop screen. I wouldn't want to subject my parents through my weirdo film-watching schedule. So most of the watching takes place on my macbook.
As I write this I'm watching "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" on a separate window. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm giving this movie my full attention. From watching endless duds that are often utter pieces of shit, I've learned that a good movie will attract your full attention regardless. This is what I experienced with about one out of three of the movies I'll be reviewing today. On to number 1.
DEADGIRL (2008)
May I just say I bloody love this poster.
If you watch horror movies, (namely indie ones), you'll have stumbled upon this one more than a few times. Deadgirl reminds me a lot of a film I watched months back called "The Woman". "The Woman" is based on Jack Ketchum's novel (this should say plenty to those of you who know Ketchum). In short, it's about a suburban family that finds a ferral woman living in the woods behind their house and since the women are typical wishy-washy bystanders, they agree to kidnap her and try to "socialize" her. This basically means rape and torture her while her loathing of the family slowly escalates to the point where she breaks free and slaughters them. It's fucked up alright and had people walking out in a huff at its premiere at Sundance.
Okay, so I haven't done my research about Deadgirl's premiere but I imagine similar controversies took place at some point. Now, thematically, there are many similarities. Deadgirl is essentially the story of two teenaged boys who find an immortal woman (not in a pretty, sparkly, vampire way) chained in the basement of a mental asylum. The boys, however spooked they are by this experience, decide to keep her a secret. Little does innocent, good-hearted Rickie know, his accomplice JT is planning to keep her as a sex slave. Disturbing. Though the casual nature in which this all comes about delays the appropriate reaction a fair bit.
I like Shiloh Fernandez in this movie. This is probably because he's the only male character in this movie who doesn't comply with the capture of this girl. So of course, he's the one that uprises in the end and succeeds for the most part. I suppose what I liked about this film was the commentary on the misogyny. That's one way to look at it among many. I'm taking a philosophy of gender course in school so it's hard not to look at these things through a political lens. But then again, I'm pretty certain that those messages are what remain at the heart of the film. It's hard to talk about this one without ranting, so I'll try and leave it at that. I'm not going to go into aesthetics because it's somewhat irrelevant.
VERDICT: In any case, it's worth a watch for sure. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to everyone. It's definitely more of an intermediary film. There are much better and more important films that you should watch before this one if you're new to the game.
SALO: 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975)
I feel like kind of a doofus to be reviewing this between two horror movies as there are much more tasteful terms to describe Pasolini's film. But I'm not going to take a swing at those. I decided to watch this film because I needed to see it. In essentially every book, list or anthology of the greatest films in history that I've looked at, this has always had a place.
So I threw on this film the other evening and tried to make sense of it. It's hard. I'll tell you that upfront.
The things that take place in the film are so visceral and disturbing that I can barely conceive of what I'm seeing on the screen. Now don't get me wrong, I've seen worse. But what I can't wrap my head around is that this film was released in 1975. I think that anyone who watches this with the knowledge that The Human Centipede is considered "controversial" in this day and age will agree that a big ol' face-palm is in order. If you need a hint at what I mean by that, I'll save myself the trouble and just say that the second act of the film goes by the name "The Circle of Shit".
INDEED.
Anyways, until I get a grip on the vision behind this (still actively seeking it), I will try and put it out of my head. I realize that this will probably offer no insight into what the actual film is about but I've said what I think is relevant. Proceed with caution.
VERDICT: This is definitely important for all cineastes. If you're into horror movies this may not be for you. If you're into seeing how much you can watch without tossing it everywhere, I recommend it!
MEGAN IS MISSING (2011)
Let me just start off by saying: I have A LOT of problems with this movie. Enough that I will make a very tentative promise to do a separate piece on this.
First off, let me say that Megan is Missing is more of a PSA gone awry than a film. And the fact that it is endorsed by a children's foundation certainly doesn't prove my suspicions wrong. OK it's a movie to warn parents and children about the horrors of abduction. Fair enough. That is certainly a message that is important. But the director's approach in this film was in my opinion, completely wrong.
If we want to find a way to prevent teenaged girls from being kidnapped by internet predators, the way to do that isn't to make a film about how stupid teenaged girls can be. Girls aren't talking to men online because they're stupid. It's all a symptom of a much bigger problem. I feel like it's redundant to even say all this because anyone with a brain will be able to see that the men in this movie are the catalysts for every bad decision a girl foolishly makes. NO, Megan did not start chatting with a seemingly kind guy online because she hasn't been educated otherwise. It's because a seemingly kind guy is a whole hell of a lot better than the disgusting parade of misogynist pigs that she's been encountering for her whole life.
This movie (knowingly or not) takes a problem of great importance and places blame on the girls and their families for not defending themselves against certain evils, while men, the culprits of these heinous acts are exempt from any kind of shaming. Why? Because boys will be boys.
ANYWAYS. Now that I've gone on about that for a while. I feel like I owe it to the post I plan to write later to stop here.
VERDICT: Skip this if you're looking for quality. If you're looking for something that has sparked some controversy go for it I guess.
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