Friday Review-Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene is an indie film with leanings towards melodrama and B-movie horror; nonetheless, it’s a disturbing study of a mind destroyed by an abusive cult. Elizabeth Olsen gives a wide eyed performance as Martha, a cult member who flees and is taken in by her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and her husband, Ted (Hugh Dancy). Lucy doesn’t know where her younger sister has been and Martha doesn’t tell her. Instead her whereabouts are revealed through flashbacks that depict her time in a deeply misogynistic cult that glorified rape and group sex, and as all cults, was led by a charismatic, if not evil leader . As her actions become increasingly weird, Ted and Lucy’s frustration with Martha is palpable and it’s not hard to identify with their frustration, even anger. Still the innocence and naiveté with which Olsen portrays Martha make her actions seem, if not understandable at least understandable given the hardships which we know Martha has suffered.  Like a good melodrama the setting is Ted and Lucy’s lakeside cabin, it’s secluded and other characters rarely make an appearance and when they do the results are never good. As the film goes on we sense a violent ending is coming, and we become more convinced the more we learn about the cult and it’s troubling, although well played, leader Patrick (John Hawkes). Indeed violence escalates both in Martha’s past and perhaps in her present too as she becomes increasingly concerned that the cult is coming after her. Are they? We don’t know, which makes the final scene of the film all the more troubling and inconclusive. We never find out if the cult reclaims Martha but is this a credit or discredit to the film? On one hand, as the title suggests, this is a film about a fragmented personality, and as such is successful, however, I would argue that whether the cult is coming after Martha, and whether she is killed or forced to rejoin the cult is important and valuable information for the film and for the viewer’s interpretation of the film . Furthermore, Martha Marcy May, Marlene is arguably not a statement film. That is, it doesn’t say much about the kind of people drawn to the cult nor what the social implications of this are.  Nonetheless, it is a thought provoking and troubling film, one filled with great performances and certainly worth a watch.

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Friday Review (Sunday Edition)-Young Adult

I was never a fan of Juno, since I found it completely unsurprising and all the main "points" uninspiring. However, Young Adult, helmed by the same Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody duo was, for the most part, a moving and complicated film. Charlize Theron shines as a depressed writer, returning to her hometown in pursuit of a high school sweetheart. Theron is Mavis Gary, a ghostwriter for a young adult series that was once successful but is now on it's last leg. Like the characters in her books, Mavis a 37 year old woman, has a high school mentality. Despite her failures ( a failed marriage and obvious mental health problems) she still believes she is superior because she is beautiful. She subsists on a diet of coke and junk food, cares about no one and doesn't believe she has to do anything adults do, even neglecting her own dog. When Mavis finds out that her college boyfriend, Buddy (Patrick Wilson) has had a baby she decides to head to her home town to try and win him back.  It's clear from an opening scene that depicts Mavis and another high school friend in a McCafe talking about how lucky they are to have escaped their small town that Mavis isn't going to find the results she seeks back home. Back home she quickly becomes friends with a former classmate,  Matt (Patton Oswald). Matt was so severely beaten as a teenager that he now walks with a crutch and has, let's say, problems in the bedroom. The two spend most of the film getting drunk and discussing who has bigger problems  They are a likable duo but present one of the major flaws with the film. Certainly, both of these characters seem to be in need of growing up and letting the past go, but there is a glibness in the way their issues are discussed. Although Charlize Theron's performance is nuanced and emotionally complex  ranging from sympathetic to downright embarrassing, the film seems to believe, as it's characters do that she should just "grow up". If the implication is that Mavis is a depressed alcoholic, there is something troubling about this treatment of her. Furthermore, Matt's character doesn't have the power or depth he was, perhaps, intended to have. As a character study the film works and is emotionally moving, thanks to Theron,  however, it is not cheerful, nor does it provide a sound and satisfying ending. This isn't a problem if you want a realistic or semi-realistic film but if you're looking for something escapist this isn't the film for you.

In another twist, although one which seems to be increasingly popular in mainstream American media, Mavis doesn't come home and find a wasteland of uncultured hicks, or if the people she meets do fit that stereotype, they are happy that way.  They might even be more culturally aware than she is, in a confrontation with a book store employee she is informed that her books are no longer as successful as they were, something she seems in denial about. While her high school classmates have had the chance to move on she is stuck in her high school glory days, unwilling to concede that the things that were important then, no longer are and that she will need to find new ways of defining her success. Sure, she is beautiful (and bitchy) but those things can no longer get her what she wants, as evidenced by her failure to lure Buddy away from his wife. Most significantly, though, is the fact that Mavis isn't portrayed as either good or bad, she just is. At times she's likable, at others heartbreaking and at others infuriating, but never one dimensional. The film doesn't reach a real conclusion, Mavis never sorts out her issues, to use a cliché and she certainly doesn't get what she wants. What she does get is encouragement from an unlikely source to carry on being herself. Whether this is good, bad or simply just is, we don't know.

Bottom Line: Theron has shown over and over again what a stellar actress she is and this film, is nothing else, is further proof of her genius on the big screen.

Friday Review-I Don't Know How She Does It (2011)

Back in the 1980's it was hard to be a working mother and the good folks who made 9 to 5 showed us how to do it-with weed, humour and rat poison. 30 years later , guess what, it is still hard to be a working mother yet it is seemingly impossible to make a decent movie about it. I Don't Know How She Does it, the movie with the worst title ever, attempts to talk about the issues women face in the work place but is so conservative that I don't know exactly which women could possibly relate to this. Sarah Jessica Parker is Kate, a high powered executive with two children and a husband (Greg Kinnear). Kate tries to juggle all of this by being perpetually cheerful, buying pies from the market and then pretending she made them herself and bitching to her best friend (Christina Hendricks). Meanwhile,mean mom, Wendy (Busy Philipps) goes to the gym all day and brags about what a great mother she is. All the female characters get to share their innermost thoughts via monologues. Sadly these monologues are tired and rehashed. Things change when Kate gets promoted and she must spend more time in New York with the ever so handsome and charming Jack  (Pierce Brosnan) (damn, he really is handsome though). Naturally there are feelings and temptations but nothing happens nor even comes close to happening unless you consider lengthy discussions about what signing your messages with 'xo' means 'something'. Meanwhile, Kate's coworker, Momo (a show stealing Olivia Munn) who is a workaholic with no desire for children, accidentally gets pregnant. She intends to get an abortion (of course this is a Hollywood movie so there is no a-word mentioned) but a 'heartwarming' speech from Kate changes her mind and when she finally has the child she is overwhelmed with emotion, naturally and by the end of the film everyone has agreed that motherhood is the most important thing any woman can do. The problem I have with a film like this is that it pretends it's about the struggles women face, except that the women don't really struggle. Kate doesn't ever feel torn between her husband and Jack and has no problem deciding not to have an affair, glibly telling a heartbroken Jack that she is going to stay with her husband and that he'll find someone great (the most patronising statement ever heard by single ears) and Momo doesn't struggle at all with her decision to have the baby. Furthermore the mean girl antics between the working moms and the stay at home moms is ridiculous. Yes, women are competitive but I think if there's something that Hollywood movies should be promoting it is the idea that women can make completely different life choices and still get along, not the idea that women never cheat or have abortions. Even if you stand squarely against abortion and those who have affairs, it must be recognised that those things happen, and pretending that they don't doesn't do any favours to feminism or quality film making. If you want to watch  a film about women, I suggest any other film than this one (obviously excluding anything with Kate Hudson, especially that stinking turd "Something Borrowed", the only film I've watched this year that was worse than I Don't Know How She Does It).

Bottom Line: A 1950's advice book for women is more modern than this movie.

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