School starts tomorrow, thus this weekend has been filled with anxiety, and thus I have been watching (1) movies that I find upsetting and (2) the worst looking movies that have somehow ended up on my watchlist. Some quickies:
The Frozen Ground, 2013 (Rewatch)
This movie is so infuriating. Based on a true story, the film starts where you would normally imagine a movie ending: a young woman, bloodied and handcuffed, escapes from a man who intended to kill her. She reports that she's been raped and tortured, gives a description of the man (including details about his home, his car, and the fact that he owns a plane). And yet the police decide that because she's a sex worker she's making up a story, that the man she accused is a "good family man" (despite having several legal run-ins in his past, including two rapes!), and close the case. Vanessa Hudgens plays the victim, Cindy, who is justifiably cynical about the police helping her. Nicholas Cage plays a detective who is trying to solve the disappearance/murder of many women in the same region. John Cusack plays Robert Hansen, the killer. It's all very frustrating and the real life case is so depressing. I watched this movie for the first time around the same time I read the book
The Lost Girls (which I see has been adapted into a film on Netflix). Both stories really highlight some of the biases and flaws in the criminal justice system. To the film's credit, it devotes most of its runtime to the police investigation and Cindy's ordeal. The real case had some pretty lascivious elements (the rapes/torture, the fact that he apparently hunted some of his victims like animals before shooting and burying them), and I appreciated that the movie doesn't wallow in those--it treats the victims as people and with respect.
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, 2017 (Rewatch)
Melanie Lynskey plays a woman who is constantly dismayed by the crappy way that people behave in the world. When her house is broken into, she is pushed over the edge and decides to pursue the perpetrators on her own. Elijah Wood plays her eccentric neighbor who agrees to be her vigilante wingman. But as the two chase their leads, they end up in over their heads.
This movie, even on a second watch, was very intense for me. Macon Blair (who made the excellent
Blue Ruin) has a way of inserting startling and upsetting violence in his films. In this film it's mixed with comedy, but that almost makes it more unsettling? Anyway, it's funny and intense. The acting is really great. This movie makes me happy and unhappy.
The Man in the Trunk, 2019
(I did watch this while also working on lesson plans. Sorry.)
Better than I expected, though not without flaws. One night a man named Andrew opens his door to find a friend he hasn't seen in 5 years asking for help. He agrees to help him, and, well, you know that old saying "A friend will help you move, a good friend will help you move a body"? But soon things get complicated and Andrew must figure out what his friend has gotten him into.
This is one of those low budget films that benefits from mostly decent writing, pretty good acting (especially the lead actor), and a good pace. Heck, it gets half a star for having a scene where two men are fighting and the wife of one of them actually helps instead of cowering in the corner.
The only real complaint (because if a film's budget is like $10,000 I'm not saying a word about the acting or the sets) is that, like many low-budget thrillers, the film has a "twist" that it holds onto until the very end, but that should have just come out earlier in the movie. I wish that directors/writers would just have the confidence to tell a story without feeling like that have to have that one big last reveal.
The Fall
(I also watched this while working. Sorry!)
Just a case of about three too many ideas. A man named Tony is arrested for the stabbing murder of a priest. His brother, a rising politician/judge, agrees to act as his defense attorney. Everything is complicated by the relationships that the brothers have with their wives, a tragic incident from their past, and their fraught relationship with the church.
I consider myself a pretty savvy viewer, but there was just so much plot in this one--and so many times that characters alluded to things without actually just saying them--that it was hard to keep track. To be clear: there are some pretty decent ideas in here. But it feels like the writer just had to keep adding things in. The judge overseeing the case is blind! A homophobic, sadistic prison guard! A wacky, over-the-top cellmate! There were also a handful of scenes played for comedy that I just found confusing. The whole film is just kind of messy.