The Fifth Hall of Fame

Just finished A Woman Under the Influence.

I'm not sure what to think of it. Rowlands turned in a great performance but mostly I just watched the film (all two and a half hours, of which I felt every minute) with a strong feeling of disgust. But that disgust is not really a criticism because it means that I felt something for its characters. It's just that hatred was the thing I felt, most especially for Peter and his **** of a mother. What an abusive, neglectful, brutish piece of crap he was and his mother wasn't any better.

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Wow Miss Vicky, I felt the complete opposite about the husband. I thought the guy was a saint.

Really? He was constantly screaming at everybody and ordering everyone around (not just his wife and kids but also extended family and his friends), he hits his wife, and he threatens to kill her and his own children at the end. I'd hardly classify someone like that as a saint.

I feel the same way as Miss Vicky.

Sure he has his times that he snaps, but the pressure I thought he had was unbearable, with not a lot of hope for his situation to improve. A guy with kids and a tough, time consuming job has enough pressure, but then for your partner who's supposed to be helping you, and supporting you to become your biggest worry; I just don't know how somebody handles that. Add onto that his mother, who had a health issue mentioned in the beginning of the movie. He's rough around the edges, but loves his family dearly, and I think he handles everything to the best of his ability to try and make it work. A lot of guys would be out of there.

Well apparently "handling things to the best of his ability" meant making empty promises to his wife, keeping an already mentally unstable person isolated (which could only compound her problems), having violent freakouts in front of his children, beating a mentally ill person (the day she comes home from the hospital, no less), and threatening to kill his family. The fact that other men might have left does not make his actions commendable.

And as I mentioned in a previous post, she acts overly friendly with other men. This causes a whole other level of pain for him.

His actions are not the right ones, but I think overall, his heart is in the right place. I saw his situation as almost completely hopeless.

I think it's very akin to dealing with somebody who has a serious addiction. It's easy to to think you know what to do from the outside looking in, but when you're actually in the situation, it's impossible to know what the right move is.

Surely any sane persons knows that the right move is NOT to beat your spouse and say you're going to kill them and your children - while your children are in the room. Heat of the moment or not.

I think the biggest problem I had with the husband character was the threatening in front of the children.

I will split the difference between the sainthood and hang him high camps. While I completely understand where MV is coming from, I also saw a progression towards that point. That doesn't mean he shouldn't lose his family for what he allows himself to become. It does mean I can see how he got there, and there were many points in the film where I had a great deal of sympathy for him.

Definitely an actors movie. Falk and Rowlands both give very memorable performances. I wish the fantastic individual parts would have equaled a fantastic whole, but it didn't for me. I gave the movie a 3 or 3.5 though. 10 times better than the other Cassavetes I have seen, Faces.

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Letterboxd

Disagree Sean. I liked Faces better, though I'm admittedly in the minority for that.

He was definitely wrong in doing those things, and I would hope I wouldn't act the same way, but he was at a constant boiling point with worry 24/7. That's him at his worst, and while you can't condone his outbursts, I do find them understandable given his enormous pressure. I thought he was a very good man who just didn't know how to handle it. It's definitely a touchy subject.

I like both movies, but I liked Faces better.

I've watched Quills now and I'm watching Unforgiven tomorrow. I'm going to do both write-ups at once. I'm still trying to get caught up on other things, including sleep.

I thought you don't sleep godoggo

I'm off work tomorrow so I'll probably watch Boys Don't Cry then or maybe even tonight. I may also rewatch Quills tomorrow of there's time.

I go two or three nights with getting four to five hours of sleep then I need a night with a good eight hours. I haven't gotten that eight in about five days now, so I'm running on fumes.

I just finished my rewatch of Boys Don't Cry.

The performances were universally strong and the story was intriguing. I felt a lot of sympathy for Brandon and Lana, but I also found myself cringing at how reckless he was. Telling lies and associating with people like John was akin to playing with fire. There was no way that could've ended well. I'm not really blaming Brandon for what happened, he was young and foolish and in love and I'm certainly not condoning the actions of his killers but neither do I think he was completely blameless here.

That said, I definitely appreciated that the filmmakers did not try to cast him in any sort of saintly light. I liked the grit and the realism of the film. I did not, however, appreciate the romanticism of the relationship between Brandon and Lana. The way that the film depicted Lana's reaction to discovering Brandon's anatomical sex didn't feel real to me and that's probably because it wasn't. From my understanding, the real Lana remained friends with Brandon but ended their sexual and romantic relationship after finding out the truth. Filmmakers, of course, have every right to take dramatic and creative license when depicting a story based in truth, but it took me out of the movie and in the end I struggled a bit to suspend my disbelief.

I can understand your struggle to completely buy into that relationship. I bought into it enough so that it wasn't a negative for me. I felt that given Lana's age and circumstances, there may be some confusion inside her, and a desire for something different, even if it wasn't real. While maybe not likely, I found it at least possible within the context of their lives. I know that the real Lana has denied some of what takes place in the movie, and understandably so, but I think with any true story, especially such a personal one, it's very difficult task to get the feelings right no matter how hard you try. Either way, I think it's a fair point.