Reincarnated

Reincarnated (2012) directed by Andy Capper

Snoop Dogg's documentary Reincarnated is all about his journey from poor ghetto kid to superstar rapper but it primarily focuses on his further travels on to Jamaica where he finds redemption with reggae and Rastafarianism.  It's especially entertaining if you're a fan of Snoop or have an interest in the roots of reggae, but it's the redemptive elements of the flick that will have a universal appeal.

It starts with him going off to Jamaica and gives the back story on why he goes there. It details his road to success and continues on to show the construction of his new identity and his latest album too.


Once he lands in Jamaica he hooks up with some Rasta dudes and takes a trip into the Blue Moutains for a tour and a cultural introduction to their rituals. Later on he visits the infamous birthplace of reggae and rocksteady music, Trench Town, a poor but culturally dynamic neighbourhood in Kingston and mingles with the folk there.  He ends up jamming with musicians there too.  Snoop was all, come with me,  I got a studio down the road, everything we need to get going, but they were all woah dude, check yourself, we got our own studio here - don't be dissing us on our turf."  One man was especially skeptical and confrontational with Snoop, but Snoop charmed the disagreeable local with some  California bud as a peace offering.  Then after a big smoking session, they all made some music together in the little DIY studio.  Snoop was praising them, gave props to their abilities and asked them to collaborate with him on his album.

I really liked this part because Snoop was going there with the expectation that he'd be supplying them with the means to make music, and that they were impoverished and deprived. While that may be true on the grander wealth scale, these men were not without means, and especially not musically.  He couldn't buy them; Snoop's wealth and fame didn't have much sway with them.  He had to earn their respect, and this encounter of mutuality and give and take, is definitely something the usually deferred to powerfully rich and famous, don't tend to experience.

I dunno if the Trench Town folk ended up working on Snoop's album,  but he did get Bunny Wailer on side at least for the movie.  There is a ton of great behind the scenes music making, demonstrating the creative process and nuts and bolts negations too. That and mucho sessions of greens smokings,  naturally ;)  It was great when Bunny got real with Snoop: before he'd sit in and lend his talent to Snoop's project,  Bunny had a serious conversation about whether or not Snoop was changing up his musical style for the right reasons or if he was just wanting to exploit reggae and the Marley/Wailers reputation for commercial gain.  Bunny did sing for the film and for Snoop, but I'm wondering if Bunny's voice will make one of the tracks on Reincarnated as he's since condemned Snoop's appropriation of Rastafarianism and reggae music.  I can understand that some, since Snoop is going in as an outlander and carrying away reggae, saying it's his now.  He's also been quoted as saying he's the reincarnation of Bob Marley, though I think that's taken out of context some.  Still sounds crazy egotistical though.

In fact, as entertaining and educational the musical elements were, I thought the film was best when it touched on real issues like how poor people are in Jamaica.  When they went to Trench Town, it was explained how while weed is freely used as a sacrament, and it's a vital cash crop that sustains the poor, it's still illegal. In 2010, the extradition of a drug dealer named Christopher Dudas Coke was a contentious story.  He was situated in one of poorest neighbourhoods in Kingston and his arrest was considered a devastating blow for some of the people of his community, since Dudas was known as a Robin Hood redeemer, who redistributed drug profits back into the community.  Apparently he was known for paying for the local children's schooling and such.

Another great part is when Snoop visits The Alpha Boys school, which is famous for providing musical training for some of Jamaica's most important musicians.

He checks in on a practice session/music class and this was one of the more charming parts of the film, as the boys were so so stoked to be performing for him.  When Snoop sits in on their jam and starts in on singing their praises?  Those kids were just beaming.

Really sweet too, was the collaboration he does with his daughters, No Guns Allowed, a song about how he's choosing love and time with his daughter instead of the violence associated with money making gangster rap. He explains more in this interview.

Another good scene was with another relative?  She might not be related, but she wrote a song after Snoop and his cousin find out one of their cousins died.  She's inspired after seeing an ashtray filled to the brim - she says people deal with grief in various ways and that night Snoop and his cousin smoked a lot and puffed to the sky.  This reminded me of the ritual of pouring out liquor for a lost loved one, and she used a phrase I can't recall describing that smoking in commemoration and contemplation of a death - light up the sky or summat.

Anyhow, It's a very positive film.

And in case you're wondering, it does touch on his life of crime, He doesn't duck that aspect of his past.  The most interesting parts are in the beginning of his career with the court footagage of when he's shown getting out of a murder rap.  The details of the crime aren't explained, but 3 people were involved in the killing of Philip Woldermarian. Mckinley Lee, Snoop's bodyguard allegedly shot him while Snoop and Woldermarian were arguing in Snoop's car.  There was another man in the backseat, but he wasn't charged.  Superstar lawyer for the accused, Johnny Cochrane defended Snoop and Lee.  Read more about it here.

Creepiest was when he describes how Suge Knight was talking about the night he and Tupac were shot.  The way Suge described things, Tupac was more concerned about Suge's head wound when it was Tupac who had the critical injuries - 4 bullets found him and they were fatal wounds.  Snoop only realized how dire things were for Tupac when he got to the hospital and it was grim faces all around.  I guess Tupac and him were close. Snoop said Tupac taught him how to wear Italian suits and live large in a way he wouldn't have appreciated without Tupac's influence.  Snoop had a lot of regret for how things were messed up between them at the time of Tupac's death and how that was never resolved.  He said they had a beef over minor stuff, but Tupac was dead before it could get patched.  He seemed sad too, about the fact that when Suge was arrested, Snoop was refused entry to see him in jail. He credits that with his being pushed out of LA, as Death Row records ended up being taken over by others, and Snoop wasn't important to them anymore.  He ended up moving South and putting out 3 albums with Master P.  Snoop said this set him on his course for even bigger success with Dr Dre in 2001 with The Chronic.

They played "Still Dre" when talking about this period, and please check out the wikipedia page on the song because the interpretation/synopsis there is hilariously deadpan.

Another interesting disclosure bit,  was when he talked about the period when he was a pimp.  He said when he was growing up the ghetto superstars, the only successful role models in the hood, were the pimps and drug dealers, so of course he wanted to do that.  Apparently his job paid $80 a week, but he could make $1500 a night doing crime.  Not a very difficult choice, really eh?  He stopped when he realized it was disrespectful to the women in his life to profit that way, but he said it was a learning experience.  He had 3 actual girls, who he called predatory and they recruited about 100 "virtual" girls to work the streets for him.  He joked about how he was a loveable pimp.

I don't know when he got out of pimping, but he sure had fun with the image in the video he did with 50 Cent.

Snoop said he got out of crime by following in the footsteps of the rappers who came before him, didn't really detail that process or who he modeled himself after, or maybe he did and I just missed that.

The film had some comic relief through his cousin, Daz.  He was pretty amusing, reminded me of Ricky from Trailer Park Boys... always be smoking.  ;) When they trek up to the Blue Mountains to harvest some weed, he's so jazzed to be there, and laughs saying,  "Who could believe I'd be rolling a blunt in the jungle?"  He almost falls down the mountain, and then gets totally winded climbing around.  I doubt there's a scene in there were he isn't high.  He's educational too when he demonstrates how to bake a blunt so it smokes evenly,  all while baked on that good Jamaican ganja.

Bunny Wailer was pretty great too.  He's a wee little man but he's got an outsized regal spiritual presence, and the pipe he's constantly carrying is so appropriately made out of a carrot.

The best part for me, aside from the behind the scenes music makings, would be the Rastafarian elements, especially the ceremony where Snoop gets his Rastafarian baptism.  I dunno if that's what the ceremony was actually, but he was given the name Berhane, which means light, and he really was glowing.  After the naming ceremony, when asked how he felt, he had one word to say, "Love." It truly seemed to be a spiritual awakening for him. I don't know much about the religion other than it involves smoking weed and that it has roots in Christianity. I've also heard people diss the religion, sawing that Rastafarianism is simply a justification to smoke weed.  They actually do smoke a lot of weed all the time, but they do it with a reverence and it's done in religious ritual context.  Like any religion, there are ceremonial ritualistic and dogmatic elements, but I noticed how the principles of honouring love, respect, and positivity, are also very evident.

You can totally hear that in Reggae music too, it's all about the power of love and community connectedness.

Of course this is a rebranding of Snoop and I could go the cynical route and criticize his transformation from Gangster Rapper to Jah Love Rapper, but I think he's sincere. He was very forthcoming and spoke about his criminal past and the exploitive values he used to have, and how he's no longer about that.  I choose to believe that he is genuine about this change of heart and that he's more about promoting positivity in his music and not simply out to change his image to make a buck.

I really enjoyed the doc.  And I'm glad Snoop found his Iron like Lion in Zion.  I liked too when he said he's 40 years old now! He's wise...wiser....bud wiser.  Oh Snoop, you so punny.

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.

Headhunters

directed by Morten Tyldum (2011)

My first impression with this film was geez, this is ripe for a remake with Tom Cruise as the greedy art thief.

My second impression?  I didn't think much of the set up.  It's got a corporate headhunter, (Aksel Hennie), who steals and sells art work, because he's got to keep up with the beyond his means lavish lifestyle his blonde trophy wife is accustomed to.  He's a pragmatic, amoral, sort,  and his art thieving is not much different from his day job where he looks for executives to poach, usually stealing them out from under the employ of one corporation for another.  The relative poverty driving the artwork snatch and sell sidejob, is not a situation most people can relate to; "Oh no I can't afford the payments on my luxury mansion or luxury car!"  Actually a whole lot of people can relate to not being able to afford the lifestyle they have,  it's just that the lifestyle he felt he needed to maintain was a bit much.

As the plot unspooled I was feeling all sneery about seeing another story about rich white people, and thinking, "fuck these greedy resource pigs and their stupid money problems!",  because greed and lavish lifestyles like you see at the upper echelons of society, rather than impressing me, more tends to disgust me. Excessively excessive is just plain fucked up.  The other day a friend was telling me about a guy who renovated his G5 jet so all the surfaces were gold plated or marble.  He spent x amount of dollars, untold millions, I guess, and for what?  So his JET was shiny?

Jesus.  Of course it's Donald Trump's jet.

The movie got better though.  It's got good heists with twisty drama, and what I appreciated most, aside from the great cinematography, was the moral thread running through it. The protagonist is interesting too.  He's vulnerable; his narration reveals his weaknesses,  and that's what got me to liking him.  The movie had been hyped to me though, so it took me awhile before my expectations wound down and I got into it for what it was - a well shot action/crime story with some characters growing.   Near to the beginning,  I turned to my guy and said, I don't LIKE anybody in this film.  They're all selfish fucks.  Pretty standard character types for noir type works, but this one also has some redemptive realistic qualities in the characters, except when it comes to the antagonist, (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).  He was a little too much of a phony baloney, comic book, super soldier, spy guy, human monster, stereotype for my taste.  Still, all criticism aside, it was a good ride, and I liked how it ended.

I think in the remake, they'll do it from the perspective of the bad guy and have him triumph, because greed is still good in the eyes of the majority of the haves making media in America.

Bernie

directed by Richard Linklater (2011)

I went into this cold, knowing only that it starred Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey and I think that is the BEST way to see this movie - knowing nothing about it AT ALL.  It will suprise you and isn't that one of the greatest things in life - when something surprises you?  When a movie can do that, it's like a present you weren't even expecting.

So don't read anymore if you ain't seen it yet, because now I'm gonna head into spoiler territory.  (Don't watch the trailer - it pretty much tells you everything that happens.)

It's a based on a true story of a 1996 murder in Texas.  I thought it was a regular old made up story, and when I realized at the end, that it really happened, and that those townspeople were the actual spectators to the incident talking about a real person and a real murder, well I was just delighted.  Not that this awful crime took place - it was a terrible thing Bernie did -  more that this movie was made ya know?  The best most genius part was having how the interviews with the townspeople were intermingled with the recreations of the relationship between Bernie and Marjorie.

It's such a great story too, like they tagline says, "A story so unbelievable it must be true."  And I thought it was so appropriate how it was structured, starting off showcasing Bernie's unbelievable goodness.  You can't help but like and root for Bernie.  Even though he shot an old lady 4 times IN THE BACK, then stuffed her in a freezer, you still want to forgive him.  It shine's a light on this peculiar aspect of the human condition - how prejudiced we all are, and how easily we can be swayed to forgive when we like a person.   With our friends, or people who are likeable, we'll want to cut them slack,  and give them a break, but for people we don't like, or who we can't relate to?  All those wrongdoers?? Well they can go to hell.

It's the American way, well acually it's the way most people are the world over.  Unfortunately, as a people, we are highly and irrationally prejudicial.

It's a good flick.  Well worth your time.  I really enjoyed it. I also thought Jack Black's role would have been great for Zach Galifianakis.

Dial M for Murder

directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1954)

I got kinda bored with this one.  It's too easy to figure out, and you gottta wade through a whole lotta yadayada before you get to the denouement satisfactions.

Ray Milland is defintinely evil, and nasty, greeedy, coldhearted, so I wanted to see him suffer.  He's always got the stiff upper lip though, so his suffering isn't that entertaining.   It's definitely the devious selfish machinations where he delivers; his duplicitous actions are what'll get you all incensed and rooting for him to get nailed.

Grace Kelly is very gorgeous in this, but she's so bland and helpless too.  I felt like her character was being punished too much by the script, though. She's so tortured!  So often the damsel in distress is a boring character of function, just there as a beautiful thang to get threatened and rescued.  Even though she's put through the wringer, at least she had some complexity beyond just being a victim.

I guess I was expecting this to be more crazy than it was.  It's so highly rated, that set me up for something more than what it is - a tightly wound mystery thriller - sorta like a CSI episode.  It feels like a play and that makes sense since it was originally a Broadway production by Fredrick Knott, and he adapted the screenplay as well.  Maybe I'd have liked it better if I saw it in 3D, like it was originally shot.

One scene made me laugh, one cop is walking off with some evidence: a women's purse.  He's got it dangling dainitly on his arm, and as he sets off on his way back to the station, a detective stops him short. "You can't walk around like that, you'll get arrested." And the cop puts the purse inside a satchel to cover up the gender crime.  Holy eh? You'll get arrested!  This is really true though.  At one point in English history, you could be arrested for wearing clothes that didn't define your gender "properly".  It's the actual legal reason behind Joan of Arc getting burned at the stake.  In hindsight, it makes more sense that Albert Nobbs was so terrified to be outed.

In case you're wondering, the Hitchcock cameo is in BITD school photo of the blackguard Milland.

Gaslight

 directed by George Cukor (1944)

 Jesus does Isabella Rossellini ever look like her mom Ingrid Bergman.

 Aside from that observation, I forgot to write anything about this movie right after I watched it, so this review will be brief.

It was good.  The story is great, except for a rather anticlimactic ending, and the acting is stellar by everyone involved.  Joseph Cotton is a snoopy American with a snazzy manner, suspicious of that foreigner Charles Boyer. While Boyer is sleazy and supercilious, he's awsome spooky too.  Ingrid Bergman is the fragile object of affection, eyed possessively by both men and she's more than just a pretty face.  It takes skill to appear vulnerable and tormented.  Angela Lansbury is great in her role as a maid on the make, and she's pretty gorgeous and nasty too.  It's a good portrayal of the upper classes in the fussy and mannerly Victorian era.  I liked the sets and costumes, it looks beautiful, and it's altogether, a pretty great thriller, that's entirely entertaining.  I can see why the term gaslight came in to use, because it's such a memorable production particularly in terms of illustrating the diabolical type of evil it would take to "gaslight" someone.  It makes sense that the title was coined as a term and referenced over time so often because it well depicts the matrix of deceit and manipulation the abusive/Svengali male entangles around their thrall in order to control them and this is an insidious dynamic which gets play in most all abusive relationships. 

I got caught up in the story too.  The villain is a terrible man, and what he does is  soooo wrong.  I was getting mad watching him be such a snakey jerk.  Still, it's soooo sexist!   It's redonkulous how often female characters are written as lambs to the slaughter victims. Whatever though, because it's worth a look.  It's a fun psycho-killer showdown, satisfaction guaranteed!

I CAN'T SLEEP (J'ai Pas Sommeil)

directed by Claire Denis (1994)

I got this one from the library.  It had a bunch of superlative blurbs on the DVD cover, so I grabbed it, thinking hmmm...Claire Denis, that director rings a bell.  It started off with a woman on a multi-lane highway driving towards a city.  I thought I saw Montreal on one of the overhead signs, so I figured, ok this is a Quebecois film, but then you see her car's Cyrillic license plate and it's Paris she's heading towards.  (The sign actually said Montreiul.)  The woman is smoking, listening to a jury rigged tape deck.  She's so beautiful in her beat up car, all glamorous and carefree with a cigarette dangling down from her lips, then quick cut, you see two guys and a bulldog tooling by in the next lane in a slack jawed reaction shot.

Ok, I'm gonna stop with the rundown of what all happens in the movie, just in case you actually want to see it for yourself.  It's pretty good, and I was interested in what was going to happen all the way through until the end.  In fact, it could have kept going and I would still be into the characters and wanting to know how their stories unfolded.  It's very much an ensemble piece with a bunch of folk tangentially connected by circumstance.  It's sort of a murder mystery, but it's not done in the conventional way of a thriller.  In fact it's just laid out for you about half way through, oh that killer?  Here ya go, this is the killer, and you thought they was just folks.  Well they are, but they is a killer too!!! Cue Psycho violin skree skree skree. That's one point of the flick I'm guessing.  Psycho killers are all around us and they don't look any different.  Selfishness and cold callousness can be measured on a spectrum, and we've all got some healthy self interest. We're all at least part time narcissists.

SPOILERS

The only problem I have with the movie, is it has some very bad guys in it and it's kinda shitty that one of the bad guys is also a marginalised minority.  He's a queer, cross dressing black dude, who is also a GRANNY KILLER!!  I feel like his trans/queer otherness was being used as a sensationalistic backdrop to make sense of his killer role.

I dunno, maybe it's just me.  Because there were other bad folk, his boyfriend was a killer too, but he was less developed, besides, he was queer too.

Mostly the film seemed to be about the privilege of France born folk versus the struggle of immigrants.   It posed questions of morality around privilege and exploitation, without ever really giving any answers, more look at this unfairness here.  Except that Daiga, the Lithuanian girl who frames the flick, (it starts and ends on her trip to and from Paris), she's sort of the hero, and she's selfish.  And that's presented as normal.  I guess it is normal.  Human beings are kind of assholes.

Another theme seemed to be alienation.  Are immigrants more alienated?  Are richer people more alienated than poor folk?  Are queer folk more alienated?  The more alienated you are - does that mean you're more likely to commit crimes?  Is that a specious line of questioning?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I'm thinking thoughts like this, because of this movie, and that's pretty right on IMO.

I liked the music too. I guess Jean-Louis Murat is a big deal singer in France, and I can see why.  He's got a smooth easy listening sound, and he's easy on the eyes too.

Also, the murders in the film are based on real crimes.  Thierry Paulin killed at least 20 grannies in late 80's Paris. He died in jail within a year of his arrest due to AIDS related complications and was never convicted of the crimes he stood accused of, and confessed to BTW.


And sadly, Yekaterina Golubeva, the actress who played the Lithuanian beauty Daiga, committed suicide this past summer.   She was 44.

Dream Lover

directed by Nicholas Kazan (1993)

I caught this playing about 1/2 way through.  It's an early 90s thriller starring Mädchen Amick and James Spader, but it feels like it was written in the 50's.  It's an old school story, with some ridiculous bits, but overall it's a lot of fun. It's got a Hitchcock feel with the suspense. Spader doesn't get to be weird much in it, as this was back in the days when he was a straight up pretty boy, but he does a good job.  So does Amick with the femme fatale role.

Mädchen Amick is lying to her husband about her past and James Spader gradually twigs to the fact that his wife is not who she says she is.  He finally confronts her with proof of her lies when he tracks down her parents and brings them home.  The scene when he bugged eyed watches her reaction is priceless.  I missed the beginning where they get together, but I didn't really mind because I think the best part of the movie is probably the cat and mouse gamesmanship.  It's a gas....light.

Bonus: there's some crazy carnival dream segments that would make David Lynch proud.

 

It's all on youtube, so I'm gonna watch what I missed.  James Spader and Mädchen Amick are both looking gorgeous in this, so I expect there will be some steamy seduction scenes.

Amick - "Getting to know someone is like peeling an onion.

Spader - "It makes you cry?

The Cry of failure

directed by Bernadine Santistevan (2007)

I just finished The Cry.  What a crappy horror flick.  It was in my DVR stinking it up for god knows how long, and for whatever reason, I'd marked it to be saved from automatic deletion.  Too bad, though because it wasn't worth my time.  I have to be more careful in sussing things to watch later, because if I choose summat, just my choosing it creates an impetus for watching that is hard to overcome.  EVEN when I can tell it's stinky from the description or right from the start with it's crappy DTV look, I'll be still full of hope, thinking maybe it's a buried treasure, or when it's gone a ways and it's still not looking good, I'll think, maybe it'll pull out all the stops and get genius at tying up all the loose ends, or that it's gonna have crazy awesome special effects or a super great performance that elevates the dreck beyond the sum of its parts.  I'm too quick to commit and I want to believe and that's ok if you're religious, but not so good when it comes to movies, especially horror flicks. 

This horror is particularly distasteful since its focus is child deaths, actually murders, the saddest kind - moms killing their kids. I had to look this up, because the way it's explained in the film makes very little sense, but there is a legend/story called La Llorona, about a woman who killed her kids, either because her husband left her, or she wanted to be with another man. She kills herself too, and when she's trying to get into heaven, St. Peter is all where are your kids lady?  Can't get in here without them, so she has to go back and wander around looking for them, and that's never gonna happen because they are dead right? And probably already in heaven too I guess.  The movie is based on that spooktastic tale, but it takes what's admittedly a tragic and scary premise and doesn't bring anything more to the story.


Anyhow, it's about a cop who's investigating child disappearances, or deaths?  I forget, and that's pretty sad that I'd forget such a key point, but the fact that I could forget that is an indication of how little sense this movie makes.  Lead guy, (Christian Carmago - I was wondering where I'd seen this guy before - turns out he was in Dexter), is a cop who used to be a wall street investor. In the course of the film you find out he became a cop after losing his son - there are ominous flashbacks that never explain this and the way his son died is finally revealed in a tasteless scene. I guess his career change means something, but I'm at a loss to figure out why he couldn't have always been a cop, since that part seems integral to the story.  He's got to be trying to solve the disappearances of the kids.  Oh yeah, they are missing, because at the climax of the film, he finds them.

He's got a partner who's obnoxious and doesn't know his partner lost his kid.   I guess they haven't been partners long, or they're not close.  Maybe the movie starts on the main guy's first day as a detective?  I dunno.

I just decided I'm not gonna even bother with figuring out my feelings and making fun of this flick.  It's not bad enough to warrant the energy.  It's a shitty feel bad idea, that's one part cop thriller, one part ghost/possession story, one part mental patient as the monster trope fail, toss a child in danger as the cheap fulcrum of suspense and mush all those elements together in hamfisted fashion until you plop out this stankness.

The best thing about watching it, was Karma, the short that played right after.  That one was satisfying and well done. It had some of the elements of the first one, a bit of spooky, a vengeful spirit, and a child in danger, but it made sense.  If The Cry had been condensed down to a short, then I might have given it a pass, figuratively, instead of wishing I had literally.