Martha Marcy May Marlene Review

Elizabeth Olsen finally delivers the best piece of acting in her family since her two eldest siblings coined the phrase "You got it, dude!" Martha Marcy May Marlene is nothing like the days of Full House, however. In fact, it is extremely critical of the "American Dream" life. What if the dream of a big house, a nice marriage, the hope for children, living in a loving family with a vacation home overlooking a beautiful lake, was something our culture has simply brainwashed us to desire? What if American culture was nothing more than a cult, trapping each individual in it's twisted ideologies? This film tackles topics such as this and presents them in ways that will shock the audience. Half way through the film I was asking myself, is this film really going here? That is something you have to find out for yourself, but examining and pondering on the questions the film presents is a worthwhile experience.

The film opens on Martha Marlene (Olsen), a girl escaping from a cult she has recently become apart of. Her sister, who has not seen her in years, takes her into her own home oblivious to the experiences her sister just went through. The film cuts back and forth to the life she experienced within the cult, who named her Marcy May, to her life living with her sister after her escape. Every actor brings something to the table in this film: John Hawkes plays the chilling leader of the cult, Brady Corbett, an underrated and talented actor, plays another creepy member of the bunch, and Sarah Paulson plays the sister who is horrified by how strange Martha has become. The power of this film would fall flat without the performances within it. The best coming from Elizabeth Olsen, whose performance has enough range to represent the ways in which Martha's environment molds her. The audience watches a normal, seemingly happy girl get re-socialized from what is considered "normal" to our societies standards, as she learns to find her own "role" among her new family.

While the movie is dark, the visuals are aesthetically pretty. A friend of mine commented on the fact that the film almost looked like a polaroid picture. It has an interesting look to it. The cinematography is not the strongest point of the film, but it does help. There are a couple ominous and unsettling wide shots of the main character being surrounded by the setting around her. Some shots, she can barely be seen, which develops the idea of how we are all at mercy to our environments. The editing is full of explicit match cuts that parallels and connects the world of the cult with the world of "normal" life. The more and more they match up, the more and more the audience starts to question its own way of life. Moments left audience members so uncomfortable, all they could do was laugh because they could not handle it, others sat there in silent fear. You may want to laugh at moments when Martha asks her sister "Why is your house so big?" as if it is a stupid question from a person who has completely lost touch with normalcy. And then you'll realize she is sort of right. And it will be horrifying. Just as Martha is separate from what is considered normal in our culture so will the audience start to become separate from it. So much so, that they can get an outsiders perspective. Even though Martha leaves the cult, she is consumed by it constantly. It is interesting how we view our culture when we see it from the outside; what will we find? What will we say? While some aspects of the film are explicit and undeniable, some aspects are left in ambiguity and are not so easily explained. It is hard to say if the film fully makes a statement on American culture, but it certainly questions it. The film gets better with subtle links and ambiguous moments, but even those moments give a sense that something is missing, which I think helps the film for not beating the audience over the head with it's statements and meaning. The audience already gets a harsh beating from just watching the film. A warning to the light hearted: this film does have unpleasant sex scenes, and moments that will scare you as if it is a horror film. But for it's thematic qualities, possibly harsh convictions, and strong performances, this film is a must see.

Melancholia Review

After Von Trier's controversial remarks and Kirsten Dunst winning best actress for the film at Cannes, Melancholia has been greatly anticipated. It finally hits theaters tomorrow. While, it will not be widely distributed, please make sure to go and see this film. If you are not familiar with Von Trier's work, this is a good one to start with. The film is more merciful than Antichrist, but still has all the 'Trierian' style you could ever want as he creates yet another beautiful world for audiences to behold. Von Trier does not seem to forget that the end of the world does not solely bring about the end of life, it brings up an examination and reflection of life. For this apocalyptic film is just as much about living. Even when facing the end of life as we know it, Melancholia displays how emotionally vivid, and visually stunning the apocalypse can be. 

The film's style, performances, and tone are very Von Trier, but very strange. The story focusses on two sisters. Justine (Dunst), on her wedding night, and Claire (Gainsbourg) who is facing the end of the world. People within the world Von Trier creates, an alternate Earth, are aware that another planet entitled Melancholia is approaching Earth. There is debate on whether or not the planet will either hit or pass the Earth, which provides a great tension between skepticism and absolute knowledge. But there is not just another planet closing in on the world of the film, the audience itself is closing in on the world. The best aspect of the film is its ambiguously strange sequences. The audience will get a sense that they are missing something, some understanding of how the characters are interacting, and will slowly close in on these aspects slowly throughout the film just as the ominous planet approaches Earth. While the film is is still incredibly intense and dark at times, this is Von Trier's most humorous film. There are instances that resemble the dry and depressed humor of a Wes Anderson film. Kiefer Sutherland does a great job at being subtly hilarious. And there will be times where you will laugh during the film. However the title of the film is Melancholia, so you will get your dose of sadness and depression. Much of this comes from Dunst's performance. Her moments of happiness are undercut by her subtle looks of sadness, as her depressive background starts to be revealed more and more. It is extremely interesting watching her try to pretend to be happy on her wedding day, a day in which everyone expects the bride to be happy. It is probably her best performance to date. 

I cannot ruin much, because part of the film is feeling like you really do not know what the hell is going on. But I will say Von Trier does an amazing job compressing time within the film. One of the first shots shows a huge sun dial, so you know time becomes an issue. There is this motif of counting and keeping track of the world, in the way we track time; at the wedding there is a competition to see how many beans are in this vase, and Kiefer Sutherland's character, who seems to be a symbol for reason in the film, constantly reminds people that the golf course on his property has 18 holes. One would think that'd be a given. The film explores whether or not we can truly know or be certain about anything. What will we realize when another world we know so little about is going to crash into our world, which we know even less about? All we can do is hope that the universe will miss the Earth after it perishes.