#movie explained

How Damian McCarthy recaptured true tension and rebuffed the tropes of "Hollywood Horror"

The following review of Hokum will be spoiler-free until it's not in which case, I'll warn you promptly.

It will also contain spoilers for Damian McCarthy's previous movies; Oddity and Caveat.

Brokeback Mountain directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee saw the theatres in the year 2005. Primarily, a romantic-drama set in old west theme introduces us to two American cowboys Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar; the story takes us through their terrain like lives after they meet in 1963 while working as sheep herders on pastures of Brokeback Mountain. The film keeping their relationship at its core threads various phases of Jack and Ennis lives as they ride ahead. The depiction of Homosexuals in a Homophobic society makes it first one of its kind.

Ang Lee won his first Academy Award as Best Director for this movie. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger gave two brilliant performances in their respective roles each demanding attention when on-screen, the cast also consisted names like Anne Hathaway, Michelle Willaims, David Harbour, Kate Mara.

Is Brokeback Mountain based on a true story?

The technically correct answer to this question would be a ‘NO’, the movie was adapted from a short story penned by Pulitzer fame American novelist Annie Proulx, the screenplay being written by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana.

Fictionally the story is about these two characters and their love and journey of twenty years from 1963 to 1983 but it in actuality it’s the untold stories of all those Jack and Ennis that really existed in the fog of homophobic society.

In the early 1960s to late 1990s homosexuality was dangerous notion to have in U.S, several hate crimes that occurred in these times are the alibi of the aforementioned statement until 2003 when Lawrence vs Texas case brought a change in the laws. Jack and Ennis discover each other sexually, emotionally on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming and keep seeing each other secretly in the name of fishing trips to hide from everyone. Duality in their lives makes the viewer a part of their journey since many of us live in duality, they prioritize responsibilities over love. Each of two leads get married to a woman but finding them in the want of each other’s company; the excitement in the body language and eyes of characters when they meet tells us all we need to know. Each of characters have different stands; Jack being more confident wants to have a life with Ennis divorcing his wife whereas Ennis even though divorced is afraid of the thorns of society they live in. In one scene Ennis says “If this things grabs hold of us again in wrong place, wrong time, then we are dead” all the while thinking about the thought process of his late homophobic father.

As the story rolls ahead both of them finds it difficult to maintain their dual lives showing the frustration and fits of rage in various altercations they have, both Jack and Ennis are distanced from their respective wives. Even through the tough times their love and emotional connection stays strong but they are not able live it to fullest. They live of the moments they spent together in Brokeback Mountain as Jack mentions aptly in a scene “All we have is Brokeback Mountain”. Since Brokeback Mountain stays as only standing proof of their relationship. The sexuality of the characters take a side seat while the film focuses on the mental struggle a homosexual person went through in those times.

The grounded and mature depiction of homosexual characters brings it more close to reality. In popular culture gay men are imagined of possessing flamboyant characteristics and being effeminate but in this film the characters don’t clad any of this colorful traits. So it seems Jack and Ennis could be anywhere or anyone hiding from the mindset of our social structure of this world we all belong to willingly or unwillingly. Once Ennis gets the knowledge about Jack’s death is taken aback and imagines him getting killed in the same way his father had described killing a homosexual person. This imagination of his brings forth the fear Ennis had in him throughout the story. The screenplay keeps the viewer guessing the validity of his imagination hence asking ourselves whether he died because of a hate crime or an accident, sadly the former option seeming more probable. In broader spectrum answering the big question that even though the film is fictional the building blocks are picked from reality of many homosexual men in those time periods.

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So, I’m going to make a series where I review movies that I watched to learn more about different concepts. This one was just, irritiating more than a slow movie. 

(There can be grammar mistakes, since I am writing this from an old keyboard, very old, mind you, but it still works thanks to me.)

Warnings: Dead humans, Spoilers, suicide, sexual themes, a karen main character, and a onesie wearing killer who hates the younger generation, and older generation, stalking, mentions of gore, drug use.

Explanation:

So, for short, our main character is a young woman that lost his father by suicide, she loves to play piano but she sucks, but people say nice things to her even if it sounds bad. On the other hand, we have our second main character Harvey, he lost his wife by suicide, and his wife played piano as well. Olive (our main character.) decides to broke up with her boyfriend, then her annoying boss fires her. All of these happens very quickly, and she finds herself talking about it to her best friend, Lenore, which she says that she should treat herself and rent a house, stay there, off the phone, off the men, and even without wanting to, Olive listens.

Harvey, stays with his very old house keeper, Agnes. She clearly cares for Harvey, and his son thinks that he has dementia. (Which sounds reasonable considering that he is very old but without medical knowledge, no one can be sure.) He totally hates millennials, and he founds himself lost after everything he had done in his life. He wants things to change, so he decides to kill people, saying that he done everything but never killed anybody. Olive being his target, Agnes becomes his target as well, and the killing spree starts when Olive comes to the house and give alot of money to Harvey. Olive, geniuenly hates it, hates the house, get’s scared by Agnes, doesn’t trust Harvey, house being too big to get lost on, everything is boring to her. She still uses her phone as to get dates again, but all of them are old man that Olive isn’t interested in, expect one person, so she chooses that.

Harvey, in a rage, ties Agnes down after talking about his true feelings a little bit, and Agnes tries to reason with him by talking to him, that doesn’t work on him, of course.  Through out the film, you see both characters struggle. Olive trying to connect to her mother, by talking about piano’s and her father, while Harvey finds himself all alone after killing Agnes, (Stabbing her to be exact.)  having constant nightmares about two gender natural humans, sometimes three, male babies appear, it’s all chaos and misery for him. Both of them shows their struggle by pushing people out, or trying to connect to other things, hating and sarcasm on top of non-stop explanation as to why they feel this way mostly giving not much information about it. After killing Agnes, Harvey decides to kill Olive too, but he fails at it, putting a spider in her contact lenses case, then mostly stalking her.  He saves her by a local serial killer who kidnapped a girl, which was the date that she had choosen before. Thanks to him stalking her in a bar, he learned the guy is probably the killer, giving that he tried to drug her while Olive left for the bathroom. Harvey, of course, observes. After Olive leaves the guy at the bar, phone number exchanged, the guy walks out too. Harvey follows him. Second victim being the local killer, he founds the missing girl in the bathroom, eyes and mouth sewed, hands tied, so he kills her too out of mercy. The movie slowly goes to the end while Olive is heavly injured thanks to Harvey’s traps, he tries to explain to her that millennials suck, how his wife suicided, how she played the piano beautifully, while Olive gives the cold shoulder, still not wanting to die, in Harvey’s dead wife’s dress. He wants her to play the piano, which she does, and she plays so bad that Harvey screams her to stop, hitting the piano until it gets broken by him.  Olive never heard of someone saying that she played the piano bad, expect on a asit trip where her father mentions how she plays the piano horribly. She roasts Harvey, taking her time until her mother comes to save her. Mother comes, shoots Harvey while he’s in is onesies, accidently shoots Olive, and the movie ends with her having fun on a grass where she’s hanging out with her mother. Oh, Harvey, by the way, has a son, that is gay, and you see him several times through out the movie, scaring Olive accidently or her mother. (This character becomes important later on.) Harvey, kills  five people, there are kills that I didn’t mention for the sake of keeping this short. 

Review: 

On this lovely Saturday night, my husband and I watched a movie together as usual. We typically pick a few movies, spin them, and let the wheel decide. The Mother was determined twice today by the wheel! But because I'm a stickler, I pretended that Simba, my cat, hadn't yet said to "Go for the wheel," so I insisted Simba say Go! on the third time. As a result, the movie for tonight is Evil Dead Rise.

Movie synopsis In the film, Beth, a young lady who has been estranged from her sister Ellie for a while, decides to reconcile with her. She arrives at Ellie's apartment complex in the hopes of mending their strained relationship and forming a bond with Danny, Bridget, and Kassie, her niece and nephew. A horrible incident, however, prevents their reunion since it transforms Ellie into a bloodthirsty monster by invading her body and mind. The demon plans to murder Ellie's sister and children in a night of blood and terror. Without a method to contact the outside world or leave the apartment complex, Beth and the children are stranded inside. They must contend with Ellie's demonic assaults and the deaths of some of the neighbors who stand in her path.  Ellie kills her own children in gruesome ways, without any compassion or regret. The sole survivors are Beth and Kassie, who kill Ellie's demonic hybrid of her children's corpses and her own body in order to escape. The film tells a horrifying and gory story of betrayal inside the family and supernatural evil. Our viewpoint This film explores the idea of exotic demon spirits and how they enter human bodies through possession. This film did not leave an impression on me and my husband for a number of reasons. One of the main problems is that it provides no context or explanation for the evil force that starts the possession. The spectator is left in the dark regarding the origin and purpose of the demons.  Another issue is that there isn't enough genuine tension or suspense in the film; instead, it overuses cheap jump scares and bloody effects. The characters are underdeveloped and behave in nonsensical ways, which makes it difficult to care about what happens to them. But this movie also sparked a more in-depth conversation between me and my husband. My husband and I both practice different religions: I am Christian and he is Muslim. We both believe in otherworldly entities, but our views on how they influence people are different.  Even if they so choose, my husband thinks demons are not permitted to interact with the human world since it is illogical for God to enable supernatural beings to do so. Why would there be a legal system to hold people accountable for their conduct if they could get away with it? People could readily justify their actions by citing their possessions. I somewhat agree with him, but I also believe that possession is possible under specific circumstances. I base this belief on the fact that the Catholic church still performs exorcisms today, meaning they must have convincing proof of the existence of possession. Additionally, I contend that the church's beliefs are the only way to explain some riddles that science has been unable to explain. We now recognize that we each have unique viewpoints on this subject and that we appreciate one another's opinions thanks to this movie.

Director David Fincher’s tenth directorial venture ‘Gone Girl’ is a psychological thriller released in 2014, adapted from novel of the same name written by Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay. Nick going through a tumultuous marriage comes home to find his wife Amy has gone missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. The story revolves around the mystery behind missing wife and unraveling Nick and Amy’s psyche. A “cult classic” Gone Girl like any other David Fincher’s explores the complexities of human psyche as the story unfolds gradually. As the question takes us to the end of the movie, we need go through the rollercoaster ride taken by the character Amy throughout the plot to get the answer. Keep reading, let’s find out the answers together. Spoilers Ahead!

What happens to Amy?

Before walking in the territory of theories let’s talk about Amy Elliot Dunne. The film narrative picks up from the point view of Amy through her diary entries. We know how Nick changed after marriage and assaulted her for wanting a child, sympathy sides with Amy automatically. Nick’s absence of empathy also pushes the viewer in favour of Amy. We are made to feel bad for her only to discover she planned her missing fiasco. On top of that making it look like a murder and incriminate Nick. The knot of plot opens showing us the elaborate plan Amy sketched to teach Nick a lesson for being unfaithful and making her feel unwanted. Amy is educated, beautiful, psychopathic and manipulative person who would go to any ends for fulfilling her needs. She takes us from feeling bad for her to feeling bad for people around her.

She mentions about her two sides initially in the film when she speaks about ‘Amazing Amy’ a character her parents created, a perfect Amy in all sense; other side of psychopathic, controlling, narcissist not so ‘Amazing Amy’. The real Amy shows all the traits of Munchausen Syndrome and quite possibly Borderline personality syndrome. Amy Elliot had put on a mask of a ‘cool girl’ as she mentions to make herself suitable for Nick when she met him. After marriage she sees Nick growing apart from her which slowly yet steadily pushes her to remove the façade of Amazing Amy and planning a revenge on her ‘clueless’ husband. So the amazing Amy is ‘Gone’ and the real Amy takes her place. She puts Nick’s unfaithfulness as the reason for her treatment towards him which is similar to psychopaths justifying their actions. According to her plan she decides to commit suicide bringing a closure to her intention of putting Nick behind bar but narcissism takes over and she doesn’t go ahead stating “Why should I die?”

While staying in a motel few days after making she is missing to the public eye her money gets stolen forcing to reach Desi Collings for help. She uses manipulation as her weapon to find her way yet again but soon her intentions change as Nick apologizes on television. She plots her way back to Nick by the end of film remorselessly killing Desi in the process.

Why does Amy go back to Nick at the End of Gone Girl?

Initial intention of Amy comprises of getting back at Nick for cheating on her and mistreating her. She goes to cunning, vicious lengths and meticulous planning to make all that happen as we see unravel in the second half of the film. Henceforth the question arises ‘why she goes back Nick?’ especially after all that efforts she put to get away from him.

The turning point comes when Amy sees Nick on television apologizing for all his wrong doing, she realizes this charismatic Nick is the one whom she was attracted to when they met. She wants that Nick in her life and so decides to go back to him. This is one of simplest reason on the surface of story. In actuality one cannot help but imagine what Amy’s intentions are because she is a puzzle. It possibly could be she wants Nick to be under her palm and tailor-make him a perfect husband material in accordance to her will. The screenplay leaves a clue about this too when Amy gifts Nick a ‘robot dog’ for anniversary which tells she wants him faithful like a dog and under her control like a robot, the controlling side of Amy is shown throughout the film confirming theory. Secondly, she truly believes in the notion Nick and her made for each other in some twisted way. She also says to him “I killed for you. Who else can say that?” The validity of this theory lies in how she plans her pregnancy in the hopes of starting a family and extorting Nick to stay with her. Eventually Nick decides to stay with her much to the surprise of his sister. One more theory as she says herself “I am not a quitter” and she wants give this marriage a chance. But the movie ends Nick asks the same questions as the start only this time “What have we done to each other? What will we do?” seems to be launched towards the viewer and everyone can reach their own conclusions.

Last night, my hubby and I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was a romantic love story about two normal individuals with different characteristics. Joel is quite the old-fashioned type,and tends to keep to himself. He's not one to share his thoughts or feelings openly, preferring instead to jot them down in his journal. Clementine, on the other hand, is a ray of sunshine, or as she puts it, an open book. She's a confident and independent person who speaks her mind and follows her own path. Two individuals with distinct personalities cross paths and unexpectedly develop romantic feelings for each other. It's funny how we often find ourselves drawn to what we lack. Joel is enamored with Clementine's exuberance, while Clementine finds Joel's shyness endearing.

They've fallen in love and are enjoying their time together. But that's where the distinctions become apparent. The latest memory that comes to mind is a late-night fight between Clementine and Joel. It wasn't pretty - Joel called Clementine a "wino" and "irresponsible," while Clementine fired back by calling Joel a "old man" before storming out. Following the altercation, Clementine visits a clinic to avail herself of a "memory erasing service" in order to erase the memories of Joel. As the movie progresses, the unpleasant memories start resurfacing. Clementine expressed her desire to have a child, but Joel responded that he is not prepared yet. He implied that Clementine may not be a good mother due to her impulsive nature. On the other hand, it seems like Clementine is feeling that the relationship is lacking a connection because Joel doesn't share much with her, while she is always sharing things with him.

It seems to me that Joel and Clementine feel like they are not being understood at this point of the movie. It seems like Clementine is feeling misunderstood by Joel regarding her desire to become a mother, and feels like he is avoiding the topic. She felt like he was making her feel irresponsible and then he just walked away from the conversation. Clementine on the other hand, expressed a desire for more conversation, but he responded by saying that he doesn't feel the need to talk about things constantly. To Clementine, it feels like whatever she thinks is bothering her, Joel seems to think that there's nothing wrong. Joel's concerns are his own, and they may not affect Clementine in the same way. For example, Joel may not appreciate Clementine going out late and drinking without him. For me, it's such a shame that they struggle with communication. When there's a lack of communication, it can easily lead to misunderstandings. And unfortunately, even small misunderstandings can eventually cause a relationship to break down.

Clementine undergoes a memory erasing service at a clinic to erase her memories with Joel after their breakup. The pain of a breakup can be so intense that people often seek to forget everything in order to move on. Is this the correct and effective approach? It seems like the movie is asking us this question. Joel is devastated to discover that Clementine has erased his memory. The person he loves is now looking at him without any recognition, and he can hardly believe it. He was completely devastated, feeling immense sadness and pain

Hence, he frequents the same clinic to erase Clementine's memory. As the doctor put him to sleep and began the process, Joel's memories with Clementine became vividly clear to him. Memories, both good and bad. As Joel reminisced about his happiest memory with Clementine, lying on the icy lake, he expressed feeling an overwhelming sense of joy in that moment. And the moment of realization that erasing Clementine is not what he wants. He longs to hold onto her memory and cherish every moment they spent together, whether it was filled with joy, sorrow, beauty, or imperfection. It dawned on me that erasing bad memories also means erasing good ones. After all, how can there be good memories when bad ones don’t exist? Life is a rollercoaster ride, with its fair share of highs and lows. It's a mosaic of both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Without the bad, we wouldn't appreciate the good. Ultimately, life is beautiful. Joel was filled with a sense of urgency as he realized what was happening. He desperately wanted to wake up and put a stop to the procedure, but found himself unable to do so. In a last ditch effort to save his memories of Clementine, he buried them deep within his mind, hoping that the doctor wouldn't be able to erase them. But eventually, the doctor was able to successfully erase Clementine's memories from Joel. He wakes up feeling blue and empty, as if something is missing.

As fate would have it, the two individuals crossed paths once more. Clementine posed a question to Joel, "Do I know you?" Despite erasing all memories, these two individuals have managed to rekindle their feelings for one another. But unfortunately, they stumbled upon some tape recordings of their partner's innermost thoughts during doctor visits, and it seems like they're filled with negative feelings towards them. Sad reality. Upon listening to the tapes, they were hit with a wave of disgust and now, despite their current emotional connection, they fear falling back into the same destructive pattern. Seems like they have a history and it didn't go smoothly. They seem to be afraid of hurting each other and themselves again. Joel says he can't find anything he doesn't like about Clementine, and Clementine responds with a hint of skepticism, "But you will." Despite everything, they decided to give their relationship a chance. It's a bit of a dilemma - logically, it seems like they shouldn't give it another shot since their previous attempt didn't go smoothly. However, emotionally, their hearts are telling them that they still have strong feelings for each other and want to be together despite their differences. Love can be complicated like that. The hue of Clementine's hair is another thing I noticed while watching the film. Her hair was green, which is a fresh hue, when she first met Joel. Then, after a honeymoon period of intense love, her hair becomes red. When kids begin to notice the distinctions and problems, the red hue begins to fade towards orange. When they split up, her hair becomes blue to symbolize despair. The filmmaker makes excellent use of color in this movie. The medical staff at the clinic makes up the other line of characters in this film. Dr. Howard had an affair with Mary, one of his staff members. However, they eventually came to an agreement, and Mary used the "service" to get rid of her memories of Dr. Howard. After some time has passed, they nevertheless manage to rekindle their kiss. When Dr. Howard's wife discovered them, she said that this was not the first time they had done so. Mary then recalls utilizing the "service". She asked Stand, her college friend and the man she hooks up with that what did she look like when she was with Dr. Howard when Stand caught her and Dr.Howard were kissing in the car.