Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.
***
Audition
I saw this infamous Takashi Miike slow burn film years ago, so this was a rewatch. I have to say, the second time around simply does not have the same impact as the first time around. For obvious reasons. If you haven't seen the movie--do yourself a favor and don't read anything about it, just watch it (and brace yourself). If you have seen the movie, you know what a jarring experience it is.
What starts out as a drama/romance turns into something incredibly disturbing when a middle-aged widower holds a fake movie audition to find a wife. He claims to his movie producer friend he wants a "mature" woman. LOL. He's looking for a sweet, pretty, submissive bride. And he seems to find one in Asami, a young woman whose career in ballet was tragically cut short due to a hip injury. But Asami is not what she seems. Hint: if you have a phobia of needles (or vomit), sit this one out.
Grade: B
***
The Taking of Deborah Logan
This found footage horror film has a unique angle. A documentary team are creating a film about Deborah Logan (Jill Larson), an older woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Very quickly, things take a turn for the strange: Deborah wanders the house at night, nailing windows shut. She has random fits of aggression and violence. Some of these symptoms are typical of those with Alzheimer's...but levitating onto a counter in the middle of the night isn't. Having super strength isn't. The twist is...she's possessed!
I had mixed feelings about this film. On the one hand, the use of Alzheimer's as frame for a horror film about possession is interesting because I'm sure many folks who have loved ones who suffer from the disease feel very much like their loved one is "possessed" or not themselves. The problem is that this film borders on exploiting the very real, very devastating disease and how it can take not only memories, but dignity away from the sufferer. Too many horror films make mental illness the "demon" or the "ghost", and it's very fucked up (in this movie's case, there very much is an actual dead person possessing Deborah). The Taking of Deborah Logan walks a fine line of taste. And to be honest, the ending was kind of boring.
Grade: B-
***
Horse Girl
Horse Girl is a frustrating film. It has a lot of promise that it doesn't fulfill. Alison Brie plays Sarah, a shy, odd young woman who works at a crafts store. She doesn't have much going on in her life, other than visiting the gave of her mother, who died by suicide the previous year, and visiting the stable where her horse (or former horse? It's not clear who exactly owns this horse), Willow, resides.
Sarah begins to experience episodes in which she loses time. For example, she falls asleep at 11pm and wakes up outdoors and has to make her way home...only to see that the clock says 11:02. She begins to believe that she is being abducted and experimented on by aliens. Additionally, there is a history of mental illness in her family--not only did her mother complete suicide, her grandmother had some sort of mental breakdown as well.
The movie left me with more questions than answers, and the biggest question is: what is the point of this movie? In some ways, it's reminiscent of the kind of cute, twee movies that were popular in the early 2000s (think: Little Miss Sunshine) and still pop up these days: movies about quirky people (usually cute girls) doing quirky things. But Horse Girl is way darker. But it's also not dark enough. It doesn't commit to a genre, which I'd be ok with, but the plot is meandering and non-sensical as well, so it ultimately felt very boring to me. The best part of the film is Brie's performance, as well as a strong supporting performance by Molly Shannon as Sarah's boss at the crafts store. Sadly, these two wonderful actresses cannot save this confusing mess of a film.
Grade: C
***
Dogs Don't Wear Pants
The delightful 2019 Finnish film Dogs Don't Wear Pants has one of my favorite themes: people who discover BDSM and decide that life is worth living (think Secretary, Sick, etc). Juha (Pekka Strang) is a nerdy doctor and father to a toddler when his wife drowns in a tragic accident. Years later, Juha is severely depressed and his now teenage daughter, Elli (Ilona Huhta), is trying to encourage him to start dating again. But dating isn't what Juha needs.
During a visit to a tattoo parlor to get Elli a tongue-piercing, Juha discovers a back room with a sex dungeon. He touches some of the dominatrix's toys and swiftly gets shoved down and choked by Mona (Krista Kosonen), a black-haired, pale-faced, leather-clad pro-domme. After the encounter, Juha feels alive in a way he hasn't in years.
He returns to Mona to engage in choking/suffocation play, which relates to his wife's death (the sensation of not being able to breathe makes Juha feel closer to his dead wife) and leads to some intensely cathartic scenes between him and Mona. Editor's note: um, don't try this at home kids. It can literally kill you.
I really enjoyed Dogs Don't Wear Pants, but I had some issues with it which bump it from an A-level grade. For one, Juha becomes addicted to seeing Mona and starts to stalk her when she no longer takes his calls. He even follows her at night at one point. The fact that he's a gangly, bespectacled, nerdy dad doesn't excuse him from treating sex workers with respect. That brings me to the second issue: this film is NOT trying to accurately portray sex work. There's a lot of stuff that wouldn't happen in real life, from Mona's initial aggressive encounter with Juha to the (presumed) romance the two engage in, to the violation of boundaries on both sides. It's a romantic comedy/dramedy with leather and pain. It's not a documentary. So be aware of that if you choose to watch it.
Grade: B+
***
The Tiger King
What would March 2020 be without social distancing and Netflix's The Tiger King? This documentary chronicles the decades-long feud between Oklahoma zoo owner Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue in Florida. The story contains so many twists and turns, it reminds one of the adage "truth is stranger than fiction". I'm not sure I need to go into details since probably everyone and their mother has seen it and, if not, there's plenty to read about it.
However, I did not LOVE The Tiger King the way some folks did. To me, it started off very interesting and bonkers and just got less interesting as it went on. Or rather, I became less interested. I don't know why. Perhaps the sheer amount of wild details in the story just hit their max and I couldn't process anything more. Or the fact that there's basically no one to root for in the story, but there ARE casualties--human and animal. Watching so many pathetic assholes squabble and money and petty rivalries while knowing animals were being killed by these people (not all of them -- Carole Baskin, despite what she may or may not have done to her husband, is clearly the only one who gives a shit about animals) is kind of sickening after awhile. In any case, while I started out as enraptured as anyone by this koo-koo bananas story...by the end, I was over it.
Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment