19.8.12

fucked up film: capturing the friedmans (2003)

man this family is fucking weird. i don't wanna get too into the story but to make it real short it's about a dad and a son being investigated for child molestation. it's one of those films that is supposed to shock you because they look like a typical family you'd see in a quiet suburb. we should all know by now that people do weird shit in the suburbs. you don't need to be a rocket science to figure out that even one of your neighbors right now could be running a meth lab in their basement or even holding a secret cult meeting in their living room. everyone has a secret. some secrets can be harmless to others or downright hurtful. this was the latter.

FUCKED UP RATING: 7.5 OUT OF 10
OVERALL: 6 OUT OF 10

3.7.12

fucked up film: benny's video (1992)


"Every film is manipulative, raping the viewer. So the question is: Why do I rape the viewer? I try to rape him into being reflective, and into being intellectually independent and seeing his role in the game of manipulation." - michael haneke (2009)

michael haneke is without a doubt the MASTER of fucked up films. from funny games to hidden, each film will always stay with you for days after viewing. or maybe even years.

benny's video is about a kid named benny played by arno frisch (he was also in funny games which would be like, 5 years later after this movie) who spends his days sitting in his room, watching rented out vhs tapes along with his home made films. the first homemade video that's shown in the beginning is of a pig getting killed with a slaughter gun.

one day benny sees a girl who's standing outside the video store, gazing at the television from the window. he takes her back to his house and shows her some videos. he shows her the pig slaughter video and takes out the gun that was used during it. he holds the gun against the chest and dares the girl to pull it. he then holds it against her chest and calls him a coward. he then fires the gun and she falls. in the video monitor, we can see her crawling away from benny and while she's completely out of frame, benny runs to his desk to get more bullets to shoot her a second time as she is screaming frantically. he tries telling her to stop screaming and runs back to the desk to reload and shoots her again.

the rest of the film shows benny who seems completely sane about killing this girl. he ends up showing his parents the video and his parents try to figure out what to do with benny and the girl. to me this was more fucked up than the actual killing is the fact that his parents try to cover the incident by getting benny to stay with his mom in egypt for a few days while the dad tries to get rid of the girl by cutting her up into pieces and destroying all of the evidence.

there's a twist at the end of the movie but i won't reveal that. a lot of this movie has to do with how people can be influenced by violent films or basically anything we see from the news to what we read in the newspaper. personally i somewhat agree to this but just because you watch a lot of fucked up things, doesn't mean you're going to end up killing someone. it's kinda like the argument of violent video games as well.

this is probably the most interesting movie i've seen in a long time. i really love everything michael haneke has done. if you don't feel like sleeping tonight, you should definitely watch this movie.

FUCKED UP RATING: 8 OUT OF 10
OVERALL: 8.5 OUT OF 10

31.5.12

fucked up film: l.i.e. (2001)

l.i.e. is about a kid named howie played by paul dano who hangs around with kids that break into houses and steal stuff. howie's best friend is a boy named gary. howie is a bit sexually confused and he develops a crush on gary. one night, gary and howie break into the house of big john during his birthday party and steal his prized hand guns. john attacks howie and tears off a piece of howie's jeans. howie later discovers that gary is a hustler and he is one of john's clients. plus john is a huge pedophile. like REALLY huge. throughout the film, howie begins a nonsexual relationship with john and becomes a fatherly figure for howie. the whole film is pretty fucking sad and you feel really bad for howie and john. especially john, for me at least. i think we tend to label pedophiles as some sort of monsters as if that's politically correct. they're human beings. not that i'm saying it's ok to do that shit. anyway i really liked this. the story line fell a little flat in the end but the characters felt so real. another great movie that deals with this subject is the woodsman which is like the most honest and heart breaking movie i've seen in ages.

FUCKED UP RATING: 8 OUT OF 10
OVERALL: 7 OUT OF 10

28.5.12

the passion of darkly noon (1995)


the passion of darkly noon is about a guy named darkly noon played by brendan fraser (don't laugh) who is found wandering in the forest and is saved by a guy named jude. jude drives him to his friend callie who takes on the offer to let him stay at her place. as darkly recovers the next day, callie begins to question where he came from. darkly explains that his parents were in a christian cult and the whole town turned against his family and his parents were killed. throughout the movie, darkly becomes increasingly attracted to callie but she is dating a mute boyfriend named clay played by viggo mortensen. darkly cannot stand to watch clay and callie getting sexed up all the time and it pisses off darkly so much that he ends up going nuts at the end. there's way more to the story but it's really fucking good. brendan fraser performance is really great and i think he gets a bad rep for all of the mediocre movies he's done. i was this close of labeling this as a fucked up film because someone said this movie was pretty erotic. callie's character sort of had this softcore vibe to her that you see in darkly's perspective. plus there was one scene where darkly jerks off to her so no fucked up label on this one.

6.5 OUT OF 10

14.1.12

submarine (2010)


submarine is about a boy named oliver tate who is a bit of a dork and socially alienated. he falls in love with a girl named jordana. to win her over, he teases an overweight girl to impress jordana cause she's a bit of a cunt. they end up becoming a couple while oliver's parents are having relationship problems. his mom's ex boyfriend graham moves next door who's into weird new age shit. oliver keeps an eye on graham to see if he will make a move on his mom. it's pretty much a coming of age movie. i really enjoyed it. the soundtrack is incredible as well thanks to alex turner.

7 OUT OF 10

12.1.12

jane eyre (2011)


apparently there's been like 373598475 versions of jane eyre and i'm quite surprised because it's kind of a boring story. this is going to be my laziest review ever so here it goes. it's about a girl who gets shipped off to boarding school because her aunt is a bitch. the all girl boarding school is run by these dickheads who punish her for dumb stuff. she eventually gets out of there and starts working as a governess at this place run by the lady from james bond and mr. rochester who is played by michael fassbender (i only watched this movie because of him hehaheheahehe)

mr. rochester is kind of an ass but he starts coming on to her and they fall in love. jane finds out that he is married to some crazy lady who lives in an asylum. blahb lahblah a bunch of shit happens to her like she gets all this money from her dead uncle and mr. rochester is still in love with her so they live happily together amen.

5 OUT OF 10

4.1.12

the tree of life (2011)


for a while, i was very skeptical about watching this movie. i thought it would be some avant garde shit and we'd be staring at a tree for like 2 hours. but thank god it wasn't. i don't even know how to explain this movie but basically it's about the origins and the meaning of life. it focuses on the memories of a family living in the 50s. the family features some broad, brad pitt, and his non-adopted children (good for him). he's a major dick to his kids especially to his son jack. in the present day, jack seems to be a bit depressed. he sees a tree being planting outside of his workplace which reminds him of his past.

it's an experimental movie with a nonlinear storyline. it can be a little hard to focus at times but it's definitely a film to experience at least once. i could see myself watching it a few more times in the future.

7.5 OUT OF 10