$4 Tuesday: Blue Ruin

I’d forgive you if you were crazy, but you’re not, you’re weak.

Last night I rallied my friends and we saw Blue Ruin, directed by Jeremy Saulnier. This film has won a bunch of awards and while I enjoyed the film making overall, the movie really dragged. I appreciate when a film builds up the tension and then is able to release it in a huge climax however I never felt like that tension was properly released with this one.

We meet Dwight (played by a transformative Macon Blair) in the middle of a complex story. The beginning of the film held that same slow pace but with acute attention to detail. Detail was paid to the routine and style with which the main character lived. a homeless man living in a busted up car in a beach town, the filmmaking leaves the impression that Dwight is patiently waiting for something, which allows him to organize his day-to-day life and cope with the present reality. That reality (and the wait) comes crashing down when a double murderer is released from prison and Dwight goes to meet him. Dwight is not a trained killer by any means and struggles to keep a clear head as he deals with the stress of seeking revenge, executing that revenge, messily executing the individual who was newly released from prison, and dealing with the repercussions. 

The film traverses the line between psychological thriller and gory violence and as we dive further into the psychology of the main character, we wonder ourselves how far we would go for vindication. But Dwight is poorly prepared, and is barely able to keep ahead of his antagonists, who are trained in weapons and killing. a strategically violent family, the antagonists of Blue Ruin are well prepared for confrontation, as the final scene indicates (whoops, spoiler!). Dwight is not without skill, though. He thinks ahead, he is quick and nimble, escaping from situations in the nick of time and problem-solving on the spot in times of tension. This allows him to confront the armed and criminal family who has so thoroughly damaged his life. 

a beautifully filmed thriller, Blue Ruin maintains it’s focus on the present events as they unfold. although it offers an explanation for the violence and revenge, the film doesn’t linger on the details. We’re left to imagine the grotesque murder of two lovers (the parents of Dwight) after a love affair goes array that has haunted the two families for decades. However, without offering more details, the film becomes difficult to follow since it fails to provide more concrete and timely explanations of who knows who, who is related to who, and who the families are. Part of this is by design, obviously, in order to provide a psychologically twisting narrative that keeps you engaged. However, the script, with all it’s “our parents, your parents, our aunt, your brother, this grandson, the guy in prison, this woman is your sister but the movie script makes you think they’re married” just ends up getting convoluted to the point that it becomes tedious to follow the plot line.

If the film passes the Bechdel Test, it barely passes. There are multiple female characters but they exchange only a few words between them, which may or may not be words that are about the men in the movie. 

Despite the dragging narrative at times and the complicated interpersonal relationships, the film is fascinating to watch and cinematically beautiful. I’ll be looking forward to watching this film again at home and further evaluating it in the future. The title, Blue Ruin, apparently alludes to a catastrophe but may also reference the bullet-holed up blue car that Dwight drives everywhere.

I recommend seeing it and making yourself watch the gory parts. Don’t shut your eyes or you’ll miss some great moments and dark humor!

– Hans 

 

$4 Tuesday: Finding Vivian Maier

She had a dark side.

Finding Vivian Maier documents the work and art of a New York nanny born in 1929. By diving into her life through the thousands of photographs and films she kept hidden in her lifetime, this documentary tries to uncover the elusive creature that is Vivian Maier. 

She probably didn’t want all this fame. ‘Oh No’ she’d say, ‘Oh No, now why did he do that?’ 

Vivian Maier became a nanny for the freedom it allowed her after working in an oppressive sewing sweatshop for little pay. In between nanny-ing, She traveled the world extensively, intruding into private and emotional moments of humanity in dozens of countries with her Rollieflex camera. She captured sadness, joy and the weathered effects of poverty in New York City with her camera positioned at her stomach. as the film explains, her photos often have a towering perspective, giving authority to her subjects. although a street photography genuis, Vivian had a dark side.

In interviews with former charges, it  quickly comes to light that Vivian’s  obsession with disturbing newspaper  headlines, her eye for the grotesque and  off-kilter, point to deeper mental issues.  Not only was Vivian terrified and angry at  men around her, but her grown charges  recount physical abuse, perpetuating a  cycle she no doubt suffered within  herself. One woman recounts how Vivian  force fed and choked her as a child, noting  that Vivian had likely been through  something terrible herself. Vivian  was also a hoarder, keeping piles of newspapers reaching to the ceiling in her small quarters with each family she lived with.

Vivian’s mental health and accusations against her of child abuse beg the relevant debate: Can we or should we respect the artistic work of a person who knowingly used their power to sexual or physically abuse others? Does great art require a deranged mind? am I even asking the right questions?

In the case of Woody Allen, Hollywood refuses to acknowledge the victim’s perspective, a 7 year old Dylan Farrow who has had to live with the trauma of her molestation and also the problematic reaction of Hollywood- one which denied Dylan’s voice while lauding Woody for his work, as though his artistic work that can determine his entire character.

What if (dare I ask it) great art and being propelled towards abusively dominant and completely inappropriate behavior just go together. What if one enables the other and vice versa? What if this is the price we pay for great art?

These are not easy questions and I am without answers. The feminist side of me (and the side that has to live in a world all too accepting of perpetrators of violence) says, “No, we must not accept or condone sexual, physical or mental abuse of anyone, going so far as to deny the perpetrator an artistic voice in the world because they do not deserve artistic recognition unless they can make a valuable artistic contribution to society without perpetuating cycles of violence.” 

But then again, what if great art can and does emerge from the grotesque depths of our beings? The world must not shy away from these difficult dialogues and shun artists, but instead must engage with the art while not forgetting the darker sides of humanity and the real human lives that were negatively affected by abuse.

Surprisingly amusing at times and disturbingly dark, Finding Vivian Maier wove a complex portrait of an elusive photographer and disturbed person who is quickly becoming one of the most respected photographers of our century postmortem.

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Bechtel Test Score: Passes on all accounts. There are multiple women who talk to each other about Vivian and a variety of related topics.

 

–  Hans

$4 Tuesday: The Iceman

Rating: Blerrrrrrgh aka 1.3/4 stars

Notorious real-life contract killer Richard Kuklinski is thought to have killed between 100-250 people. The story is that he got to a point where anyone who annoyed him would get killed and he was abused and tortured animals as a child. A bona-fide sociopath. Such a good premise, right?

So, The Iceman has incredible potential, based on it’s story line (that is true!), to be a great drama. To be the type of drama that digs deep into the mind of the killer in a genuine way and has decent actors who can portray that difficult perspective. This movie had so much potential to be the dark, illegal, gangster version of Mad Men but it failed.

God this movie. Where to start? The music was so over top it felt like it was shouting at me “FEEL THE EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY OF THIS FILM.” It was so forced and the acting was boring. The dialogue was also boring. The script was just awful. It was written based on how people think gangsters sound rather than how they really sound (not that I know myself, but it sounded THAT forced). The whole movie was a glorification of male violence and traditional masculinity. It was downright annoying to watch. The music grated on my ears and I left with them literally ringing.

Winona Ryder is not a good actress in this. It’s so over the top. The scene in court she looks like she’s about to have a hernia. Her husband is abusive and she’s apologizing left and right to him for ‘provoking him.’

The main character, played by Micheal Shannon, also sucks. Part of the bad acting is the script, but a lot of it is the actors being crappy actors. Can no one make a good movie?! Jesus.

It also tried really hard to be, in fact, a drama. But a drama isn’t told through bullets, gore, and visual montages of various killing methods set to the “FEEL EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY” music, it’s told through the emotions of the people who experience these events. And while you can argue that the main character does in fact go crazy and irrational in the end in his desperation to save his family [from his own actions no less!!!!!] (which, by the way, he failed at) so the movie does actually have a savior/cold heart-ed killer complex, those relationships weren’t built up enough and there wasn’t a good development of the how the guy became a killer in the first place. He kept doing idiotic things to put his wife and kids in danger (he gets mad at someone who insults his family and starts a car chase down the block and through an alleyway nearly killing his wife and kids who are screaming at him to stop). THEN later at home he refuses to talk to his wife about it, flies into another rage, corners his wife in a chair and is ready to hit her, doesn’t hit her and instead destroys shit in their house. The scene ends with the wife sobbing into his arms saying she’s sorry for having asked.

uuhhhhhh ….. wut ?

She’s sorry? She’s sorry that he nearly killed them and would like an explanation for his behavior?

Or maybe I just missed something.

Either way, miss this movie and just read the Wikipedia entry about the guy. It’ll save you a headache from the movie’s terrible soundtrack.