The Women Directors Hall of Fame

I've only see the two films of hers, both in this Hof for the first time. Have you seen many of her films?

I'll check back tomorrow, I'm off to watch a movie, it figures! Have a good night

Unfortunately by the time I turned it off, I no longer cared about what happened. The kid's a psycho. I figured that out pretty early on. I don't know how the parents missed it.

she only has like 3 films although shes making a new one thats getting lots of buzz

I'm not exactly sure what to make of your complaints, CR, but then I didn't like it the first time I watched it.

What's a problem you had with Morvern? All you've said is you lost IQ and it was bad and Lynne is a bad director because...reasons! The most specific you've said is it felt like an indie film, it is an independent film i think what you meant was it felt like a Sundance film but you aren't knowledgeable enough about film to even get the go to generic, non-specific criticisms right. Basically, I hope you know you are the one who looks bad here not Lynne Ramsay.

I think We Need To Talk About Kevin is Ramsay's weakest personally, but i still like it a fair amount. It does seem all over the place at times and i can definitely see people just not caring by the end, personally i did i thought Tilda was great and the pointlessness of it all worked because that's often how things are. Us not getting a reason for anything that we witnessed is more powerful than some concocted "i was angry" for this reason, definitely understand your reaction though.

Maybe @HashtagBrownies has some insight.

They didn't miss it. A psychopath is someone who alters their behaviour to suit situations without any genuine emotion behind it. A good psychopath can make themself seem normal and empathetic but that takes work on their part as by nature they don't care about anything. It's a real thing and they are rarely murderers like people are lead to believe, in a capalitistic society they are often the winners since they don't care about crushing the little guy, sounds cheesy but that's what a psychopath is by nature; someone with no empathy.

It's probably all too perfect but Kevin acting like a perfect child to one parent and a demon to the other isn't some made up fantasy, people like that exist.

It's been a while since I've seen it. I'll give my thoughts when I re-watch it.

That's probably because I was trying to be less vocal in my review this time. So I ended up not being real direct in my review.

Maybe this will explain: I didn't like We Need to Talk About Kevin, as it felt to me like it had nothing much to offer in the way of story narrative or character arch or anything substantial , other than some fancy editing room tricks. Without the clever use of editing in climax reaction scenes out of sequences in the beginning of the film and some moody static shots, I don't think the guts of the story had much to say in the way of story narrative or character arch...nor did it evoke any philosophical, existential type response from me. I mean we don't really see any of the whys, hows, of Kevin being like he is. Nothing in the family relationship dynamics is explored. It felt like a pretty sparse film that was jazzed up with editing tricks like...

The symbolic shots of the tomato festival or the microorganisms, which felt tacked on in lieu of any deeper material that the film maker had shot.

Other shots like the closeup of Kevin putting a peeled litchi nut into his mouth, which looked like an eyeball, after the Drano incident, seemed obvious. Yeah I get what the director was going for but the shot felt contrived, like something from a TV movie.

One shot that really felt amateurish was the cigarette butt into the cake at the Christmas office party. I get that those two things don't go together so create an uncomfortable visual. But it does nothing for the story and could have done better like this:

The Christmas party scene goes as shot but we see Eva smoking, we then get the same type of closeup static shot of the cigarette butt into the cake, only it's in a piece of uneaten cake on a small plate. The next shot is a wide angle of Eva leaving and we can see the cigarette butt smoldering in the piece of cake next to the empty chair where she was setting.

That would be an example of using a static shot to say something about the character and the scene.

I could go on, but I'll just finish by saying the movie didn't work for me. I didn't care or believe in the family I saw on the screen.

I think it's a movie with different ways it can be looked at. My focus was on the parenting and how much responsibility, if any, the parents had in the results.

*Sees @seanc's rating for American Psycho on letterboxd*

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I feel this is intentional. We are meant to see Kevin through the eyes of parents who are normal people trying to raise a normal family. How helpless do you feel when there is no why? When this child that you still feel is this innocent thing that youj have given all your heart too and then it is spoiled. How do you handle it? How do you react when the outside world feels a certain way about your child but you see him as a part of you that you just can't change? This is really the mother's story, not Kevin's.

Great film, wholly original vision of a familiar story.

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More coming soon. I feel bad, got to convey my thoughts properly.

Have you ever seen the French film, The Childhood of a Leader (2015), also about a strange, obstinate child, it blew me away. Anyone see it?

I can't really think of any female directors

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I hadn't seen this in a few years. I thought I loved it, and it would seem to fit my taste well, but I kind of feel like I've outgrown it. Bale's performance is the highlight of the movie as he embodies the character so well. I wish he wasn't such a geek though; he even likes geeky music. It is interesting how it portrays men's desires and competitiveness, and there's truth behind it. I also like how he says and does things that a lot of us would like to at times. It just really takes me out of the movie when fantasy is blurred with reality so much. It's a well made movie with a lot going for it, but I'll never consider it close to a favorite again. I think many of it's images and moments are better than the movie as a whole.

American Psycho


Way late to the party on this one. Has pretty much been on my mind to finally catch up with this since arriving at Mofo and hearing numerous Mofos sing its praises. It does feel like a lot of the bloom is off the rose as of late. I feel like the film has a bit of a Fight Club journey with cinephiles. It has that fun central performance. The narrative feels very unique, complete with a twisty ending (all but a draw your own conclusion one in the case of Psycho). Late teen to early twenty males love it with the older crowd perhaps finding it somewhat precious and self indulgent. I think this pretty well sums up the way our culture sees this film, and unfortunately, also describes the way I feel as a forty something watching this for the first time.

I actually found most of this film insufferable. The Bale performance I have heard so much about is probably good but his decisions make it no fun to watch. More than the abrupt and rude personality which seem necessary it is the voice cadence that grated on me. The humor didn't work for me, which is a necessity when viewing a pitch black satire like this one. The emblem for the humor style not working for me is the business card scene and the, at least, one call back to it. This was obviously meant to be a huge and humorous moment that would draw the audience in to the absurdity of this world. I found it absurd alright but not in a charming yet disturbing sort of way, just eye rolling levels of absurd instead.

The kill scenes, or near kill in some cases, simply go on too long. That is because the long speeches that Bateman goes into I simply didn't find interesting. Compare these to something like Wolf Of Wall Street where I am hanging on every narcissistic word DiCaprio is spouting. I am reluctant to chalk this up to better writing because it just may be a case of me not being on board with the character so anything he says was going to fall flat for me.

I am very surprised I have not heard the ending of this film talked about more. That was a good thing because it took me by surprise and saved the movie from being a total bust for me. I have strong feelings about it and am hopeful other will to.



I am always sorry when I don't find much to like in a film that many people love but that is the case here and I will always be honest about how a movie makes me feel.

yes it surely is a like fight club in that many younger film fans praise it but I believe a more matured cinephile sees so much more of the flaws and is able to look through the superficial "awesomeness" of the film.


good review!

What you have in spoilers Sean is my biggest problem with the movie.

I love a good head fake, really respond to that feeling of being fooled. This feels lack a half committal though and I shouldn't have to go on Google deep dives to determine what happens in a film.