Review CXXXV - Mommy

Review 135
Mommy (2014)

Salut tout le monde! Des fois, j'oublie que ça fait, quoi, quatre ans que j'ai commencé ce blogue? Mais, pendant tout ce temps, je n'ai jamais oublié ma première critique, celle pour J'ai tué ma mère - principalement à cause de Xavier Dolan et François Arnaud... Ahem. C'est une blague (maybe?), mais de toute façon, après d'avoir vue Les amours imaginaires (je l'ai pas aimé), j'ai pris une pause avec Xavier Dolan. Avec la sortie de Mommy avec Anne Dorval (t'en souviens?), Antoine-Olivier Pilon et Suzanne Clément (Patrick Huard fait une apparition dans le film! Whaaat!), qui a gagné/était nommé pour des prix et des prix, notamment à le festival de Cannes, j'ai décidé que c'était le temps de le regarder. Wise choice, no?

Diane Després (Anne Dorval), "Die" for short, is still attempting to control her son, Steve O'Connor Després (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), after the death of her husband three years ago. Steve is prone to violent outbursts leading to a near incarceration in a psychiatric institution for minors based on a new law only for his mother to intervene and take the responsibility of caring for him at home. At her wits end of trying to pay for the fees of his destructive behaviour with little success in holding a job, her shy and stuttering neighbour, Kyla (Suzanne Clément), comes to their rescue.

At face value, Mommy is pretty similar to J'ai tué ma mère for the reason that it shows the turmoil of a mother dealing with her sometimes overbearing teenage son. You know all that yelling, all that anger, all that passion from J'ai tué ma mère? It gets even crazier in Mommy. I was sitting there wondering what the HELL was even going down half the time because seriously, the movie is intense. But that is Xavier Dolan's style (my judgement from the three films I watched) - he brings people to their wits end and shows their extreme anger and frustration and desperation, which I have to say is handled super well in Mommy. I remember finding it kind of blah in Les amours imaginaires, but he got it right in Mommy. Now, how he gets there is a different story. I would be sitting there thinking that Die was the most selfish woman in the world, and just wanting to rip out my hair thinking that any mother would give her life to her son. But I have to admit that one, I've never been a mother, so while I am told it is a selfless act, I don't know how much a mother actually forgets herself when caring for her child, especially when they're fifteen; two, Steve est FUCKÉ BIEN RED, he is insane, so I can only say that I'm sure any single parent would be driven to near insanity with the kid; and three, she struggles financially, so that stress is also there, and hence why she goes to men (like Patrick Huard) for "exploitation". It makes for an experience, I'll tell you that. If you're into films of real personal struggle, one that delves into the end of patience and the breakdown of a person, Mommy is definitely it and I recommend it for that.

But Mommy doesn't stop there because it also encompasses the struggle of the Québécois identity as it exists in the 21st century. I'll briefly explain Québec, which I can't remember if I've done previously, so bear with me please. Basically, like the Basque nationalists of Spain or the Venetians of Italy, the Québécois have always had an identity separate of that of the rest of Canada, which makes basic sense to me given that Québec is French-based and follows the France law system. Sure, provinces that border Québec will have French-speakers who don't identity as Québécois, but in the province of New Brunswick, lying east of Québec, a friend from there told me that the French speakers and English speakers kept to themselves - it was not as "bilingual" as I had imagined. A good example which has stuck by through and through is when a presentateur on a television show explained that while most of the English-speaking world was preoccupied with who had shot J.R. (a reference to the show Dallas), Québec was laughing at the jokes of Rock et belles oreilles. There were two referendums held, the last one in 1992, and I will say, living in present-day Québec in a larger city, separatism is no longer a goal. There are parties which stress it, but they've missed major points in the idea behind it and I can't really say anyone takes them seriously. Regardless of this issue, I still firmly believe that Québec has its own identity which differs from the rest of Canada, if only for language and the culture brought from by it.

So how does this relate to Mommy? The film starts off right away with Die walking into a corrections facility (or jail? I didn't catch it, to be honest) to pick up her son and the woman she speaks to is francophone, but from France. She asks Die if she speaks French since Die seems to be ignoring what she is telling her, and Die bitterly tells her, "Well, I don't speak French from France, but yeah, I speak French." I was just there like, "Whooooah, damn!" I have faced this hate when speaking to French people from France, and apparently in France, French speakers are ready to tell you that they speak English if you attempt to speak to them in "québécois". I'm not sure if Brazilians feel the same level of hate in Portugal, but anyway... But yes, there is definitely a hate and Québécois, or at least the ones I have met, are ready to note a distinction between them and the French from France. So this scene, nearly the first speaking scene in the movie, is already showing a shadow on Québec and maybe just a critique on the dialect. The film has another prominent scene right after where Die and Steve are heading to Die's work and need to take a taxi there. The man, a black man from maybe Haiti (I can't really tell from the accent, I'm sorry), doesn't listen to Die when she tells him not to take a particular route since he isn't allowed to turn left, but he seems to ignore her comments. Of course a fight ensues where the man calls Die a "bitch", enraging Steve to no end. He insults him, and Die tells him to calm down and not be racist, with him telling her "I'm not racist, he's just an ass and shouldn't insult you" (I'm being kind). Now, am I saying that Die was perfectly cilivised in her behaviour and that Steve wasn't yelling profanities? No. The cab driver got pissed off and did overextend himself, though he had every reason to be angry, but Mommy is nonetheless throwing in this dilemma with mass immigration and miss-communication in Québec. I know it's this joke all around where cab drivers are always from a foreign country, but it nonetheless points out this stigma in Québec. Finally, at some point when Kyla asks Die what her deceased husband did, she mentions that her invented things, particular some instrument, which Kyla screams about and says she had. Die confirms, "Yeah, until the Americans came in." Honestly, these three instances were enough to put a little highlight on Mommy. Xavier Dolan's focus, at least this is my belief, is to tell the tale of a woman on the brink of insanity. But I can't say I felt a moment of pride when I saw these three scenes come in. Xavier Dolan is not just presenting a film, but making some commentary as well. Wonderful.

Mommy can resonate with any viewer in its message about strength about women and child, but it goes a little bit beyond as well. Be ready for Freudian catches in the film, which was probably the one thing I really didn't get... Anyway, great work, Xavier Dolan, as well as to the superb acting of Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, and Antoine-Olivier Pilon! Awesome!

Review CXXXIV - Office Space

Review 134
Office Space (1999)

There are some films you watch once and vow to never watch them again, and there are others that you could watch dozens of times. Apart from my holiday viewing of Withnail & I which you all know about, I always catch myself watching Mike Judge's Office Space starring Ron Livingston, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Jennifer Aniston, every few years. I remember my friend showing it to me back in elementary school, the meaning probably completely lost on me. But somehow its comedic-yet-tragic tone stuck with me, as years later in high school, I watched it again. I think I watched it again at some point in my post-graduate studies, but after searching for something to watch, I suggested that my boyfriend and I check out the beloved classic. In the end, he confused it with Falling Down, which I never saw, but apparently he had seen it anyway... Roll the tape!

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) hates his job - seriously. His bosses, particular Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), are atrocious, the job is demotivating, and he is reduced to a rat in a cage. His attempts at following the norm fail, but after visiting a hypnotherapist who proceeds to die midway through a hypnosis, Peter comes up with a plan. Following his colleagues, Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), they plan to steal the plot of Superman III by taking money no one will miss.

I mean, already you know that I like Office Space since I've watched it over and over again. The reality is, the film isn't historic, the film isn't a masterpiece, but I think that's what makes it so great. The movie really shows the life of a man who can't just accept his shitty working conditions. He can't accept that companies will fire dozens, hundreds, thousands of employees just to raise a stock. Bref, he can't live the way modern society exists today. Companies used to care about their employees, and they used to legitimately care about the well being of their workers. Now, given our throw-away culture, it is not surprising to see how a company (or any job, really) will attempt to put more work on a reduced number of workers in order to save bucks in the long run. I'm new to the job force, but from others around me, it is not always the case, but it definitely happens. And I see this as such an important message - we're raised to work, not to enjoy life. Of course work is a necessity; I would never advocate sitting on your ass and doing nothing because that isn't healthy. But some people don't fit that mold, and honestly, I wouldn't want to work a desk top with TPS reports... Honestly, eff software engineers, hehe (my boyfriend is a software engineer, so I'm actually not hating).

So while Office Space resorts to a clear message, it is still fun. You still get laughs out of it. The film is really not stupendous - the acting is usually mediocre and kind of... weird - but its message is clear and I still find myself returning to it. Check it out - if only for the crazed loner (Stephen Root) and awesome neighbour (Diedrich Bader).

Review CXXXIII - Lunacy

Review 133
Sílení (2005)

Somehow I always stumble back on Jan Svankmajer. In fact, I’d say he’s the director I have visited most consistently over the years, well, in terms of blogging, anyway. There’s something eye-catching about raw meat making love or creepy dolls running around in endless circles. So of course when I finally got the opportunity to watch Sílení, or Lunacy in English, starring Pavel Liska, Anna Geislerová, Jan Tríska, and Martin Huba, I was there. Normally I force my boyfriend to watch these films with me, but I sat through this one solo – I think maybe he’s getting tired of having to watch such messed-up stop motion.

Lunacy starts off a bit differently than Svankmajer’s other films as our beloved director steps in front of the camera and describes the film we are about to see. He describes the film as a horror movie, describing how the current world as it stands places lunatics in mental wards that encompass the worst of both libertinism and religious dogma. However, while he claims the film to be about mental wards, the film should be placed as an explanation for society today. Also, major spoilers ahead, so be warned!

Jean first experiences the horrors of nihilism when he witnesses the Marquis’ orgy the first night he is there. The whole scene is the most extreme it could be – the Marquis hammers nails into a life-sized crucifix, three women and three men eat – seriously – feces-looking chocolate cake until they commence an orgy, and a woman is raped against her will. I was waiting for a blood ritual, but I think the Marquis’ Baphomet mask was enough. In an argument with Jean, the Marquis reveals that God would never create man in order to let him live such a life unless to make us suffer, as well as claiming God has done worse than he has. This alone is definitely an argument many atheists and agnostics place in front of creationists whenever religion comes on the table. Even if not consciously debating, those who do not hold a moral standing in line with God can’t really argue that what the Marquis did was wrong, and hence, orgies or even one-night stands exist and are prevalent.

Now, apart from this topic, we learn that the Marquis attempts to recreate his mother’s demise every so often when he pretends to die only to come back alive. When he does it in front of Jean, he chokes on a banana, which, given the circumstance, is quite a particular food to take, if you know what I mean. Anyway, this leads to the Marquis explaining his “purgative method” of helping the possibly mentally ill; he and fellow psychiatrist Dr. Murlloppe believe that letting the mentally ill do as they wish will help them in their recovery. This somehow seems flawed when you think of depressed patients who may wish to kill themselves, although the film does say the patients there are not ill yet. But if you think of other circumstances, such as letting your child have reign on what they want to eat or what they can do, you realise this is a current-day situation.

On the other hand, we have, toward the end of the film when the original directors of the psychiatric ward, a Middle-Ages type of view on the disease. The head director believes in extreme forms of punishment to ward off the mentally ill, claiming he has thirteen forms of punishment in store for those who disobey the rules, including the removal of the tongue and eyes. This was definitely Marquis de Sade all over again, but now with the idea of God behind it. We find out that the director also attempted to follow his punishment method by removing his penis, but in the end, buys a replacement in order to fornicate with Charlotte. So really, the mentally ill are considered mentally ill, even if they aren’t, but they never learn to truly escape their problems. After starting to complete a psychology degree and stopping, this definitely reflects practice today. At least in Western medicine, people believe medication can be the one all, end all for a psychological disorder when we actually don't know the effects of antidepressants over long periods of time, and the reason you take medication is only to stabilise a problem so therapy can be effective and thus, one day get off the medication.

I suppose before I close this off, I should mention the little meat segments. While somewhat disturbing to a new viewer, a knowing fan will be reminded of Svankmajer's shorts. The segments themselves often reflect what the previous scene was about in the film, while really showing us as "nothing but meat".

I think Lunacy is a great surrealistic piece of work as it tries to do something weird, but brings the viewer along. With Svankmajer's introduction, you know what you will be seeing in the film, so everything is there. But even without the introduction, I'd say you could get the message Svankmajer was trying to convey. And that is surrealism I like - some things are messed up, but I get the message. Unlike Black Moon...

Crazy as usual, Lunacy stands up to its name, all while giving an interesting message in an interesting way. Thank you, Svankmajer!

Review CXXXII - Please Like Me

Review 132
Please Like Me (2013 - present)

Hey guys! Long time no see. Life has been hectic since I finished school given some pretty scary events, as well as a (temporary) move for the summer. While my last week back home was about seeing as many people as I could, I've spent the past week relaxing as soon as I get home. It's amazing how different work and school are, being able to clear your mind when you get home, unless you're your own boss, of course. Anyway, my friend recommended a site that is kind-of like the pretentious version of Netflix, and trust me when I say I've had great fun (although I have to say, the films I've watched so far are no substance and all emotional and artful views - but I put the site up in case you're looking for a new film). He also recommended a show based in Australia called Please Like Me starring Josh Thomas (also the creator of the show), Thomas Ward, David Roberts, Debra Lawrence, Renee Lim, and Caitlin Stasey. I was willing to give it a shot - I mean, I'm always looking for weird shows. Plus it was Australian, which I thought could be interesting.

Josh (Josh Thomas) is faced with a difficult decision after his girlfriend, Claire (Caitlin Stasey), breaks up with him over a nineteen-dollar sundae as she believes he is gay. Initially oblivious to the idea, he is soon faced with a potential love interest at his roommate's, Tom (Thomas Ward), work. In the meantime, his mother (Debra Lawrence) attempts suicide, distressing his father (David Roberts) and stressing his new girlfriend, Mae (Renee Lim), and it seems like Josh will be in the middle of more drama than he wants.

I was really hopeful, guys. I really was. I checked out the first episode, and it had the awkward cute humour of Short Poppies. I was down, so down. It was a bit more oddly executed, but it was similar enough. So I checked out the second episode. Again, I laughed at the Montagues and Capulets scene with Geoffrey (Wade Briggs), so I checked out the third episode... But it was stale, and turning sour. And then I finished the season, but it felt so... pathetic and melodramatic. So I checked out the first episode of the second season, and I checked out a season in the middle of the second season, and I watched the last episode of the third season, and I dropped it. What the hell? What happened? What happened to the cute humour of the first and second episode? It was gone - just gone! I was so hopeful, and it was just obliterated!

The reality is, while Short Poppies was awkward and thus cute, Please Like Me just got less awkward and more infuriating. I won't continue with the Short Poppies comparison because that show doesn't deserve it, so I end it here. Basically, Please Like Me spews out asinine characters who are the most incompetent cardboard cutouts I have ever seen in my life. Literally, I can separate the men and women into categories: men are pansies who belittle themselves, and women are super dominant to the point of insanity. The only exception is maybe Josh who gets out of the formula a little bit, but basically, any man who is attracted to a woman is getting his balls curb-stomped. And I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Tom, the roommate, is the most horribly undermined, weak, pathetic, FLACID excuse for a man I have NEVER seen in my life. No man - or woman for that matter - is as two-dimensional as this guy. The series starts out with him going out with the lord of bitches (we'll get to this). He always says he'll break up with her, but never does with fear of rejection and never finding anyone else. In the end, he makes out with Claire and, after a baby scare (because he's an idiot, if I forgot to mention), he dumps his girlfriend. But then he continues to sleep with her after Claire leaves for Germany. I get that Josh Thomas, the creator, was gay, but are you seriously telling me he doesn't understand how women AND MEN act in relationships? I feel like the show almost promotes being gay because then you aren't dealing with shit women - instead, you get to deal with super hot guys who will sleep with you at a moment's notice.

Anyway, Tom, while the epitome of the weak guy, is not the only one. Josh's dad is also a poor excuse for a man. He is dating a Thai woman who treats him like shit. She bitches about everything he does. Check it - I complain about my boyfriend (more jokingly than anything), just as he complains about me. But literally, I feel like this woman was just using him in order to get citizenship. She insults him in Thai to her parents, and he just waits on her and says he's sorry for thinking so much about his ex-wife and her depression. They end up having a baby together (great) and I think she admits cheating on him, but I didn't see the episode. But in the last episode, they're still together, so I think she just wrapped him around her finger, just like every woman's plan, muahaha. Seriously, where are the balls? I need balls! I need some women-smacking men in here!

Before I drop this (because those are our main male characters, folks!), I have one last comment to make about how disgusting this whole thing is. It's related to Tom again (spoilers). He ends up going out with this eighteen-year-old woman and they have a rabbit or something and the rabbit ends up dying... somehow (it's never explained). Tom calls up the girl, tells her the news, and she says, "Come over, we're having a funeral now!" Tom puts the rabbit in a birthday bag (I don't see the humour, at all), brings it on the train, and they bury it the girl's backyard (as she commands him to dig a deeper hole). In the end, they go to her room, and she slaps him, kisses him, slaps him, and tells him to take off his clothes. She then has intercourse with him BAREBACK (i.e. no condom. Jesus Christ, freakin' idiot) while she sobs and whatever. He ends up cumming quickly because bareback, and she calls him pathetic and tells him to leave. He does, and on the way back, he sobs after being "raped". Now, I'm not saying men can't be raped - they can. But this? This is rape? This is the equivalence of a little boy commanding a full-grown woman to take off her clothes, i.e. SHE CAN KNOCK THE SHIT OUT OF HIM WITH A SIMPLE WHACK. At no point does he make any initiative to say no. He could easily have walked out - Thomas Ward towers over this girl. If she had tried to stop him, he could have easily have overpowered her and held her down. A man IS STRONGER THAN A WOMAN in more cases than not. This? This is not raped. This is being so psychologically submissive to women that you make bad decisions. Had she drugged him and he woke up naked and psychologically scarred? Yes, rape. This? Not rape. NOT RAPE.

Now that I have the men out of the way, what about the women? Well, you know by now since it takes two to tango that the women in Please Like Me are bad. It's insulting how bad they were. Tom's first girlfriend, Niamh, as I said already, is a bitch. But seriously, you need to understand that she has no saving grace. NONE. Any time she opens her mouth, she is complaining, saying something bitchy, being a complete whore. People are not all bad, for god's sake. Yes, you have bitchy women, yes, you have annoying ones, but she is literally always angry and being a bitch. Do you not see how many times I used the word bitch?

Claire is just... I don't even know. She makes out with her ex-boyfriend's roommate and it's all cool somehow, and she fights with Niamh and ultimately makes Tom's decisions (from what I saw). She tells Josh they are still friends, and somehow this is cool again. Honestly, she wasn't saying enough for me to complain that much because she mostly just made out with Tom. In fact, she makes out with him while he may be a father. "But he did it too!" you cry. Yes, they both kissed, but she felt NO REMORSE.

As for Josh's mom, I, shit, well, I have nothing to say. She doesn't act like she has depression - unless she is bipolar and always feeling manic or something. At first she was okay, staying at home (though she really doesn't care for her son, but anyway), but the moment she started this Internet dating and started talking, it was gone. She is an idiot and honestly, I'm done with her.

Finally, Mae. As I said already, she is a bitch to her boyfriend/husband, Josh's dad. She was okay at first, but again, the moment she started talking more, including that Skype chat with her parents, it was over. It was over. I had not a single female character who was normal. The only thing is that the one female mental patient, Hannah, is okay from what I saw, but you want to know why? SHE DIDN'T TALK. But even she was bitter all the time. So really, I had no one. It felt like The Social Network (which I hated, by the way) where every single female character is a bitch, except I think for one girlfriend who we see only at the beginning. Yeah, I still remember that and I saw it in theatres in 2010 - and I will always remember this about this show.

So what about Josh? I have refrained from discussing him so far. Well, as I said, he doesn't quite fit into the pathetic man category, but he's an idiot as well. Guys, WHY. He is so two-dimensional AGAIN and just a jerk in situations where it is completely uncalled for. And honestly, this series just sees him hooking up with the most random guys, and I got the impression it was just because he was gay and they were gay, so hey, hook-up time. Seriously, he's a jerk. I actually liked Geoffrey, though a bit uncalled for sometimes, coming out of nowhere and being weirdly jerkish, like during the baseball game. Anyway, Josh is shit, and while I thought his attitude initially might be funny, it turned disastrous. DISASTROUS.

Please Like Me is bad. The first two episodes were okay, but I feel like the writers just put in the most unbelievable characters in order to get the story that they wanted. Seriously, watch the last episode of season three and tell me you know people like that. It also brought in pretty unimpressive views of life, like just settling for who you are now and never improving (what?). It also had great fun telling me about the war on terror and Syria (the show just copy-pasting the media - yay!) to try and make it seem like the show cares... NO ONE CARES, OR THIS SHOW WOULD NOT EXIST. Please Like Me? No. I will not.