Movie Review: Room (2015)

    Rating: A-/ Room is a pleasant surprise; a film that lives up to the novel on which it was based. Most of this is due to the two fabulous leading performances, including some of the best child acting I’ve seen in ages by Jacob Tremblay, who plays Jack, the five year old protagonist. While Brie Larson, as Jack’s mother, nabbed a best leading actress Oscar for her role, I couldn’t help but think Tremblay should have gone home with one of those suckers. As my dad, who reluctantly saw this movie with my mom and I, said, “To Hell with Leonardo DiCaprio. Give this kid an Oscar!”

Movie Review: Dark Places (2015)

Rating: B-/ Flaws aside, I don’t think this movie is as bad as the critics say. Sure, the characters are fairly unlikable and the plot twist doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny, but I was invested throughout the entire film in what was going to happen next (which is strange, since the lead character actually kind of annoyed me.) Plus, I love Charlize Theron, no matter what kind of fucked-up head case she’s playing (take the Oscar-winning crime drama Monster, for example. )

Jug Face (2013)

Yet further evidence that no good can come of incest, low budget fright flick “Jug Face” tells the story of Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter,) a teenager bound by the laws of a backwoods cult who gets impregnated before she is to be wed off to a local boy- by her brother (Daniel Manche,) no less, a ruffian of a kid with no compassion for his naive sis. Tradition requires that Ada, having broken the rules of her people, must be sacrificed to a monstrous pit occupied by a supernatural entity not far from her village.

Enter Dawai (Sean Bridgers,) resident town fool and prophet. Dawai’s a little on the simple side, but the powers of the pit work through him as he sculpts ‘jug-faces’ in the likeness of the pit’s next intended victim. After her misstep with her brother, Ada’s next on the list, but she hides her jug-face with the intent of saving her own life, tipping the balance and unleashing hell on the locals.

Firstly, the bad- convoluted plot points, cheeseball dream sequences, and awkward, formally conveyed dialogue by people who look far too polished and pretty to be playing backwoods hicks. The good- decent acting all around, good character development for this kind of movie, and a genuinely original premise. Bonus points for the development of Ada and Dawai’s friendship, as she tries to smuggle him of of a town that offers nothing but dead ends and shadowy menaces.

I was not completely convinced that Dawai was developmentally disabled- it seemed to me he could score mild to moderate on the Asperger’s scale, but Sean Bridgers gave a sensitive performance. Lauren Ashley Carter portrayed Ada with a wide-eyed innocence that comes with being a perpetual victim in a strange world. Most of the other characters range from ignorant hicks out for blood to sadistic abusers with persecution on their minds.

I loved, loved. LOVED the creepy montage at the beginning. The rest of the movie is a steady mix of highs and lows, a perfect candidate for a 3/5 rating. Alternately engrossing and contrived, “Jug Face” is a movie that will most likely be really enjoyed if the viewer considers it’s low budget roots and the filmmaker’s beginning baby steps toward horror greatness.

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The Woman (2011)

The events that unfold in “The Woman” are not always believable or even serious, but they are consistently intriguing and have a thought-provoking message behind them. The acting adeptly drives home this message- ‘the woman’ of the title (Pollyanna McIntosh,) a feral human wandering the wilds of rural North America, may be more animal than human, but she is more of a person than her sadistic (and supposedly ‘civilized’) male captors.

The Cleeks are an all-American family that have done well for themselves- Dad Chris (Sean Bridger) is a successful lawyer, while the others fall into traditional roles of housewife, jock brother, feminine sister, and cutie pie youngster. But something is terribly wrong. Chris rules his frightened family with an iron fist, bullying them into compliance, while older daughter Peg (Lauren Ashley Carter) hides a terrible secret from the rest of the world.

So when the unthinkable happens- Chris brings home a feral woman to force his family to participate in her ‘reintroduction into society’- the others are bullied into playing along- but such a decision will have explosive consequences. While brother Brian (Zach Rand) follows in his dad’s footsteps and downtrodden mom Belle (Angela Bettis) frets, sister Peg’s secret becomes increasingly hard to hide.

The acting here is quite good- I was especially impressed by Lauren Ashley Carter as Peg, who portrayed her alienation, aching loneliness, and increasing empathy for her father’s prisoner startlingly well. I really started to care for her- I felt she was a good person trapped in a very sick family dynamic, and felt keenly for her.

Polly McIntosh and Angela Bettis were very good too- Bettis, who impressed in director Lucky McKee’s 2002 horror film “May,” here shows her versatility as a weak, frightened wife and mother, while there is no trace of actor in McIntosh’s portrayal of a wild woman who has met her match in sadistic captor . I felt Sean Bridger’s ‘family-values-gone-awry’ dialogue was a bit silly at times (like a close descendent of Terry O’Quinn’s “The Stepfather,”) but he did alright with the resources he had.

“The Woman” raises this question- what is more dangerous, a person who is taught to put on a mask of success and normalcy but remains a wild animal, or a person who has never been taught these resources. This would make a great companion viewing with the Stephen King essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” which goes into the dark urges we are taught to keep in check.

I urge you to pay attention to the scene where youngest child Darlin’ Cleek (Shyla Molhusen) demands a cookie from her mother, to which Mom responds, “That’s not a very nice way to ask.” Promptly, the girl says “Please may I have a cookie Mommy, I love you” (not a direct quote.) We are taught these techniques from an early age, but when the person being taught in a psychopath, does etiquette make him a less monstrous monster?

The editing in “The Woman” is sometimes a little overbaked, as is the writing, and the bombastic ending is so gory and disgusting that it is hard to take seriously, but the films performances and psychological aspects make it worth seeing and discussing.
Rating-
6.5/10