Stoker

directed by Chan-Wook Park (2013)

I got to see this knowing only that it was directed by the same guy who did Oldboy, and that Nicole Kidman was in it.  I saw the poster going in so I knew that Mia Wasikowska was in it too, but everything else was a surprise.  I'd suggest you go into it knowing as little as possible, because I just watched the trailer, and even though it doesn't completely destroy the plot, it does give away a whole lot of key points. Besides, knowing NOTHING is by far the best way to see any movie anyhow.  So go watch it before you read the rest of this, because I'm gonna spoil shit because I feels like it.  Fair warning eh?

It's guilty of the usual crimes when it comes to movies and mental illness - the crazy folk are killers, and the killers are crazy, because they have cold moms who didn't love them right - well at least one of the killers has a mom who's a fucking cold hearted bitch - the dad was ok seems like.

But I dunno, sure was like he was doing a Dexter's dad kinda deal, teaching his daughter how to channel her kill crazy impulses by taking her out hunting where she could kill animals instead of harming people.  I guess that's a compassionate thing though?

The dad's funeral is what starts the flick off, so the daughter doesn't have him dragging her out for that bird killing outlet anymore, and immediately her crazy uncle, (played so very well in a disquieting performance by Matthew Goode), is on the scene.  And you know he's crazy from the get go.  He is seriously the creepiest uncle ever.  Uncle Fester was a sweetheart in disguise, but this guy is an all-American Psycho - all slick rich dude with the nice clothes, and a dead eyed psychopath smile - just gave me the heebie jeebies from the first scene.  Psycho killer qu'est ce que - he even parlez vous francais!!

He kinda looks like the dude from Beverly Hills 90210 - the guy from Vancouver, Jason Priestly.  Joe was saying that he should have been played by Tom Cruise, because watching Nicole Kidman and her ex square off? Damn rights people would have payed to see that! And yeah that's true, and yeah the guy kinda looks like Tom, but he looks like a lot of other actors too.  He's got a clean cut, rich guy swagger, with mental edges, that any number of actors have pulled off.  Anyhow, he did a great job, but so did Kidman, and especially Mia Wasikowska.

Alden Ehrenreich, from Beautiful Creatures who was doing his best Jack Nicholson, or maybe he was doing Christian Slater?  He's got a small part playing a nice guy who turns into an asshole rapist - or does he?   Because the unreliable omniscient narrator aspect of the film, while making things interesting, it wasn't good for coherent storytelling.  I dunno if Mia's memories going back and forth in time, if that was stylistic bullshit, or if it created more tension through ambiguity, or if I'm just not getting something.

Anyhow, it sure seemed like the girl was a chip off her crazy uncle's gene block.

Ooo! I have to mention the music.  There were 3 great uses of music.  One was the final scene song - she kills the sheriff and talks about sailing off into the sunset to a creepy power grrrl rap kinda lyric,

The scene where Nicole Kidman is seducing her BIL to Lee Hazelwood's Summer Wine - this is heard again when Kidman is reminiscing on that conquest while listening to an iPod, and the daughter is maybe gonna kill her?  "Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop you from doing something worse."

Finally when Mia and her uncle duet on the piano - or do they?  This is another one of those scenes where you're wondering - did that happen or did she just think that?  What just happened again???

I found the piano duet scene excruciating.  It was erotic and gross both.  Squicky AND sexy, at the same time!  Confusing!!! Urghmm?

I found a mixcloud that streamed the whole soundtrack - at least the musics by Clint Mansell, but it's not working anymore.  Still, the musics be worthy eh?

It was a great movie, not moral or anything.  Lurid as fuck actually.  As I said right after, when asked what I thought,  "If you're gonna make a movie about killers, you could do much worse."  I liked it. Super tension, especially near the end.

Sunshine

directed by István Szabó (1999)

This was a strange flick, half pretentious period drama, part weirdo tragic taboo romance, and Ralph Fiennes plays all of the characters.  I exaggerate some, it's not a Being John Malkovich experimental thang, but Fiennes does play 3 successive generations, father to son to grandson, and it's narrated by him too.  It's set in Hungary and tracks a Jewish family from the late 1800's to just after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

The generations spanning epic starts off with a bang, a couple of them actually.  The first patriarch, (who should have been played by Ralph Fiennes too,) is tavern owner who dies in a distillery accident.  His 12 year old son sets off with the secret recipe for his father's elixir, Taste of Sunshine, and eventually though it's not shown, builds  a successful business based on that drink.  The next bang is figurative, though more shocking. Ralph Fiennes is the son of the Taste of Sunshine elixir maker, and he falls in love with his cousin/sister Valerie (Jennifer Ehle) What?!!  I know! It's weird and the transgressive coupling happens so quickly - within the first 10 minutes of the film.  It's kinda cheeseball, but it does creates great tension.  Taboo love is so much more fraught.

Since it covers such a great length of time, the cyclical nature of history is established.  The new boss same as the old boss kind of thing.  The nasty repercussions of and abuses of political power are not limited to Imperialism, Fascism, Nationalism, or Communism.  The all had their secret police.  The effects of anti-semitism are illustrated well, especially along the subtler lines of assimilation and self hatred, repression of religion and identity to get ahead, identifying with the oppressor and such.  I thought this was the best part of the film.  

The romance stuff is pretty juicy, but overwrought and awful too.  The 2nd generation Ralph Fiennes, Adam, is also a taboo buster.  His sister in law Greta, (Rachel Weisz), has the hots for him and tries to seduce him in a scene with dialogue that made me literally laugh aloud.

(Fiennes/Adam just had a fight with a man)

Adam:  I nearly killed him.

Greta:   But you didn't

Adam:  No, I didn't

Greta:   Perhaps you'll kill me one day when you've had enough of me.

Adam:  Perhaps I will.

Greta:   How will you kill me?  Strangle me?

Adam:   Good idea.

Greta:   Try it. Hold my neck. Tight.

She puts his hands around her throat and leans in to kiss him.  He pushes her away.

Adam:  What are you doing!

Greta:   I can't bear not being with you.

Adam:   You're my brother's wife Greta.

Greta:    I'm not anybody's wife. I am myself.

Adam:   Ishtvan is my brother! I love him! What makes you think that I would steal his wife.

Greta:   You can't steal what's already yours.  Why don't you let yourself be loved?  You are the great love of my love Adam, not Ishtvan.

Adam:   No.  (shakes head.)  No Greta.


Another wrong love!  His mouth says no, but his body says yes.  There's nudity in this, boobs and such.  You'll see a bit of humpety bumpety.  It's definitely not the main show, but there is some R rated action, probably because you get to see Fiennes's butt and tackle too.  Man junk almost always means an R rating. 

It has a whole bunch of interesting bits, aside from the Fiennes dangler, but it's far too long (that doesn't sound right), and it was bizarre casting having Fiennes do 3 roles. He did a really good job, it's just why go that way when you could simply hire more actors?  When Fiennes would show up playing his son it was always jarring to the suspension of disbelief.  Another bit of stunt casting that actually worked was having Jennifer Ehle's mother, Rosemary Harris, play the elder version of Valerie.  I think it would have worked better as a mini series.
 
The end of the movie ties up everything with a great monologue when the final Ralph Fiennes is reading a letter from his grandfather.  It brings home the value of NOT surrendering your identity and ideals in order to get ahead.