Side Effects: "One pill can change your life!"

I Just went to see Side Effects. It’s a psychological thriller, lets face it: it was going to happen. So it’s Directed by Steven Soderbergh who also directed Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve. So you know that you’re getting something that’s fast-paced and gripping. Jude Law’s in it and so is Catherine Zeta-Jones and the less famous Rooney Mara who played quite a convincing depressed person.

So without giving too much away, Emily, the main character, suffers from depression after her husband, Martin was sent to prison for some unknown crime. She waits for him (sweet), only her depression takes a toll on their relationship. She is treated by a new doctor, Jude Law’s character, who prescribes her a newly released antidepressant called ABLIXA. And this is when, surprise, surprise…things start going wrong. Like, really wrong.

Let me start off by saying that whatever expectations you have about this film are going to be shattered pretty much the moment the film begins. We are told after the beginning scene that this is going to be a circular narrative and so are naturally eager to find out about the events which led up to the bloody scene which we are presented with at the beginning.

Halfway through the film you think you’ve figured out the plot. Well let me just tell you that no. no, you haven’t. The full extent of the narrative will slowly dawn upon you within the last 15-20 minutes. In fact, I feel as though I need to re-watch this film in order for me to piece together all the information correctly, because (as my mind works at a glacial speed) I missed a great deal. But what I did get MADE SENSE.

Let’s just talk about the underlying message of this film. We take a hell of a lot of pills. Especially Americans. Oh, that reminds me; there was one quote which summed up the difference between pill taking tendencies of the UK and the USA: “In the UK, if you’re taking pills, that means you’re sick. In the US, taking pills means you’re getting better.” That quote has crazy connotations! But so has the film! There were people popping pills to get ready for job interviews. This is the kind of world we live in, people! At one point they even mentioned that a lot of the pills were actually placebos. What has that got to say about the people who take them and actually get better as a result? That they weren't really ill in the first place, that’s what.

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About the dialogue. I usually notice when dialogue is bad because when dialogue is bad, it is very, very bad, and when dialogue good…well, I’m less likely to notice. Sounds pretty lame, I know, but I’m far more likely to notice bad dialogue because, for example, someone answering the phone and saying “Hello, brother. Thank you for calling me to remind me that you are coming over to visit me later” well, its just crap and it negates all the effort that the director and actors have put into creating a believable world. So anyway, I didn’t notice anything bad about the dialogue, and I think the script overall must have been very good because just when you think you're secure in your own smug knowledge about what's going to go down, the writer (Scott Z. Burns) is like “PSYCH!” And then throws you off guard again.

The music was pretty good in creating suspense, and there were some interesting camera angles going on. Angles that almost had me tilting my head to the side and then I realised that, as an audience member, I shouldn’t have to do a damn thing but sit in my damn seat and be fed information.

So overall, I am experiencing some pretty good side effects from watching this film. (Sorry, it had to be done)

Good day!

P.S. If you enjoyed this film, you'll probably also enjoy Limitless. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/?ref_=sr_1

8/10

Equilibrium. “The disease is human emotion!”

This, I came across on Netflix last night. It’s a sci fi thriller/ action film directed and written by Kurt Wimmer. So a couple of seconds in, we’re told that, in this dystopian future, it is against the law to feel emotion. I roll my eyes at this point. Then there’s the explanation. Quite often in sci fi films set in a world differing from ours, there has to be some kind of explanation of what has happened to make it that way, usually with the assistance of a voice over or subtitles where one paragraph fades to make way for the next. However in Equilibrium we have both subtitles and voiceover, only the subtitles didn’t display all of what was said in the voiceover, but select highlights. It was like watching an advert. A really boring advert.

But stick with it. I’m so glad I did. Because after the back story is fed numbly to us, Christian Bale walks in with his squad of emotionless beings and the action begins.

 

Here’s the plot. Bale’s character, John, is a high-ranking officer of a team of law enforcers. The world in which these people live has been created separate from the old world in which there are too many relics which may inspire emotion (art, literature, etc.) Emotion is forbidden in this new world because hate is what caused a 3^rd world war. The inhabitants of this totalitarian society have to administer an emotion repressing serum to themselves using this strange injection which also looks like a gun (into their neck, no less). Yum. Bale’s character drops his daily dosage one evening. Eventually he grows addicted to emotion cue all the crazy sh*t that’s about to go down.

There were some weird visual effects. One scene had Bale shooting at people in complete darkness and so the only light emitted was that from the gun as he shot it creating lightening type visuals. It was pretty exciting. I like Wimmer’s style.

This is probably the only situation in which describing dialogue as being devoid of emotion be a complement. And that is exactly what it was for the most part. And, to be honest, I think that is probably a hard thing to do!

Another difficult task was actually playing the role of an emotionless human being. The cast were brilliant. Bale, after stopping his dosage, had to play a man who had feelings but had to act as someone who didn't  It was acting within acting. Inception acting.

 

Ironically, through trying to prevent a war by eradicating emotion, they were actually at war with emotion which, in turn, lead to the uprise of a resistance. Bottom line? Humans love war? I must say, this film did not leave me with a positive outlook on life or on human nature. I do, however, think that it was an amazing film.

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

And to all of you who are familiar with Blake Snyder: I thought it was pretty funny that Bale’s character’s “save the cat moment” was actually a “save the dog moment”. Lol.

Also, if you want to see Christian Bale in another emotionless role, watch American Psycho. He really nails it.

8/10

The Experiment

If you ever wanted to know what would happen in a prison simulation within 20 odd guys with no history of violence, watch this film. In fact, even if you weren't ever curious about watching a testosterone fest like the one this promises to be, watch it.




For those of you who, like myself, are interested in psychology driven films, this will be an utter treat for your perverse minds! Not only do we have an enclosed situation with potentially no escape, but *spoiler alert* we have Forest Whitaker Going absolutely mental.

This film had me sitting bolt upright in my bed. I couldn't even take any notes for this review because I was so tense. There were points when I was thinking to myself (my boyfriend had kindly fallen asleep and left me to battle it out alone) can I actually go through with this? I mean, it's not exactly scary...it's just twisted as ****.

Ok, it's not the most twisted I've seen but it's pretty high up there on the list. I'm being vague, I know. I'm doing you a favour here, trust me on this. Just watch it. Ugh. That's it.
7/10

Diversity in Alien species

Something that has always baffled me is Hollywood’s tendency to depict aliens in a certain way. The stereotypical alien is more advanced technologically and physically, and their intellect is a skyscraper towering above our humble shack of a brain. They usually have the ability and the tools to build space ships and weapons capable of shocking amounts of damage, have mastered movement at the speed, or exceeding that of light, and are often twice or even three times the size of a normal human being. Their skin is often translucent, and their bodies athletic and chiseled into the perfect shape for combat and running at high speeds.

                      

                          

Yet with all this in mind, they seem to lack one very important ability: coherent speech. I have only very recently noticed the lack of discourse that goes on between aliens in films, which is often limited to a series of grunts and high pitched noises. This is something I find highly confusing. Were it not for our ability to communicate with one another, our species of human would have died out thousands of years ago, and the less talkative homo erectus would be dominating the earth’s surface.

Could it be that aliens are conveyed to be the equivalent of our homo erectus? I find this utterly ridiculous for, without the ability to communicate with one another and share ideas, how would such a being be capable of building a paper aeroplane, let alone a spacecraft?

Another thing I find to be unfair in the depiction of alien beings is their lack of diversity. All aliens in one particular film look exactly the same, quite often it is hard to distinguish between the males and females. One exception to this would be the film ‘Aliens vs. Predators’, where two types of aliens (one from each planet) battle it out for the title of ultimate alien. Well done, Hollywood, for showing two different groups of aliens in one film. But again, we have to consider the fact that as human beings, we come in all different shapes and sizes, races and other physical differences. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in all alien films, aliens from the same species all look exactly the same.

There are no different shades of alien, no particularly short or particularly tall aliens, and for god’s sake, where are the overweight aliens? I’m sure other planets out there have a problem with obesity, considering how little humans have to exercise with the surplus in technological advancement which limit us to playing tennis in our living rooms. Surely aliens with even more advanced technology have even less reason to move at all…shouldn’t they all be overweight, then?

Or perhaps they choose to only send the strongest, most intelligent aliens to invade earth, in which case, I fully understand. But when it’s humans who invade (which is hardly ever the case – aliens are always the bad guys) still, there is no trace of diversity among the native alien clan. Why is it that they are all the same? Is there only one country on other planets? Do they all speak the same language? These are things that we, as casual sci-fi film watchers, don’t consider often enough, if at all. One exception that I can think of is the portrayal of aliens in Men in Black. From what I can remember, there is some diversity there. However they still look ridiculous.

I just want some more realistic representations of alien life forms which are relatable to humans. Not only would they be more realistic, but also they’d actually seem more threatening because their lack of tentacles or extra mouths/heads would hint at hidden capabilities. If we know what their weaponry is we can find ways to defeat it. if we don’t…well we’ve got the potential for an interesting sci-fi film

Ghostly encounters

It's the 2012 remake of the1989 film which is an adaptation of the book by Susan Hill and starring Daniel Radcliffe. And breathe. Yes, it's The Woman in Black. Can I please have a show of hands of people who are wary of seeing Daniel Radcliffe in any non-Harry Potter related role? I thought so. I felt the same way when the trailer for this film came out last year. But let me just say that I was spellbound non the less.  

So he plays a mourning widower and father - bleak, yes, and if that's anything to go by, which it is, I think it's safe to say that this film does have a *spoiler alert* bleak outcome. Despite this, his son provides a bit of comic relief or us in the beginning with a drawing of his dad with an unhappy expression on his face. Accompanied by "that's what your face looks like daddy". Well I thought that was pretty hilar.

The first scene hits the spot. It's dramatic, tense, and leaves us wanting to know more. You know what you're getting with this film: creepy 19th century gothic thrills, and thrills there are a-plenty. 

Establishing character scenes are good. There is a substantial amount of information given to the audience without a lengthy voiceover or too many flashbacks. And I don't know how you feel about flashbacks but I love them. I just find them a bit confusing in a film which is already set in the past. Because the film itself acts as a flashback, therefore we essentially get flashbacks within a flashback and now we're just losing all sense of time.  That being said, the flashbacks used in this film were not confusing and were placed at very relevant points making the scene transitions very fluid and graceful.

So the basic plot is that Radcliffe's character is a lawyer and Is sent to this village to sort out the papers of a dead widow who lived, or shall we say still lives, in the house. Cue the creepy incidents which are to follow. That's not really a spoiler guys, we all saw that coming. But what we didn't see coming is anything else. I'm not going to lie to you all, this film will make you jump. 

So with that in mind, emotion of the scenes is good, the character building is great. Acting - I mean the spellbound comment really says is all. I was captivated, not just by Radcliffe's performance, but by those actors playing more minor roles. The pain reflected in their eyes was tangible. As I said, the emotion was spot on. What was important was the ability to portray the misery of the whole village, and James Watkins did this faultlessly. From the dodgy unapproachable villagers, to the dark clothing worn by all the characters, to the misty weather and the crows cawing in the background, a real sense of foreboding and isolation is created. This is what helps the film to attain its thriller status: the sense that Radcliffe's character is trapped from the moment he steps into the village.

Another important element of the thriller genre is the protagonist's inability to follow the signs or to see reason. The film is filled with warnings - from the villagers, the environment, even from the ghost, for God's sake. And like all protagonists, he fails to heed these warnings. But you know, where would we be without the irrational thinking of the Hollywood protagonist? Well I certainly wouldn't be here writing this blog, that's fo' dayum sho'.

The other thing I was impressed with was the music. I felt that it fitted in with the theme perfectly and the sounds used throughout really made the film that extra bit creepy. Flapping, creaking doors, howling winds, blood curdling screams- and there were a lot of those- we're all perfectly placed, in my opinion. 

So all in all, a great film: flawless in its creation of suspense and tension right until the very last scene. This film was great in the cinema and still great at home with the lights off and a solitary candle burning on the mantelpiece, creating ambivalent shadows on the walls.

A solid 7/10

Starship Troopers

Its a Friday night, I'm home alone and I'm bored. I'm not trying to get your sympathy but I'm sure you will feel some for me after the end of this review. So I went on Netflix and, for those of you who live in the States, I've got to tell you how lucky you are because your Netflix has a way bigger selection of films. Our one in the UK has about 20 films on it. Not really but you know, we have limited choices. So I searched the thriller section as I usually do and came across this film called Starship Troopers. The name sounded familiar, it was under the "action thrillers" genre so I went onto the IMDB website and looked it up. It got 7 stars; I was sold.

So I got myself all cosied up, lights down low, iPad propped against a cushion, hot water bottle; the whole shebang. The first thing that struck me was that it was not going to be a serious film. It starts with an advert to join what they call the "Federal Service" which is, in essence, a space army. It's completely spoofy. The music was over the top while a reporter stood in front of a backdrop of disembodied limbs, encouraging viewers to join. Then suddenly we get thrown back a year to a high school classroom full of stock jock characters, bimbos and over-eager teachers. Then it slowly dawns on me that it was essentially going to be a teen-sci-fi-action-spoof-thriller and I'm thinking "how the hell is that going to work?" *spoiler alert* It didn't. 

"Kill them! Kill them all!" really does a great job of summing up the whole plot. And by them, I mean the giant alien bugs and by "kill" I do mean kill. Netflix wasn't lying when they said it was an action film. There were plenty of people getting blown up, ripped apart and having their brains sucked out, but what it did lack entirely, was suspense. The main criteria for a thriller is suspense which is why I felt cheated by Netflix and it is also why I feel as though, by putting this on my thriller review blog, I am, in a way, cheating you. I'm sorry. I just had to make those hours I wasted watching this film count.  

One positive thing I can say about this film is that the makers played around with the voyeuristic nature of us humans. There was another advert at one point for a live execution that evening. There was also live coverage of soldiers being killed. I was shocked at this, but then I thought, hey, isn't that what we're doing by watching this film? People do die in wars and, by watching war films, in a way, we want to see a reenactment of those deaths. We are sick, people! 

But back to the criticism: I remember thinking to myself, at various points: "interesting things are happening, but I'm not interested." I didn't care if any of the characters died. And that's because the characters were completely two dimensional. For me, there were no interesting character traits portrayed in any of them. They were all just basically killing machines. The above quote somewhat proves this.

And killing the bugs was very necessary. They, like most extra-terrestrial beings, were hostile creatures, and there was one bug in particular that I found very alarming. It kind of looked like a giant brain and, coincidently, it's favourite past-time seemed to be eating brains. So the one thing I can say I've learnt from watching this film is you are what you eat.

A fair 5/10. Watch it if you want to see lots of people dying in terrifyingly horrific ways.

Why?

This picture encapsulates everything we should be feeling after watching a good thriller: cathartic, slightly traumatised, yet undeniably serene. The thriller genre evokes our voyeuristic tendencies and underlying fears in order to entertain us. There is something about seeing the world through the eyes of someone just like ourselves, and seeing that world transform into something deadly. 

What is it about the thriller genre that attracts millions to it? It is the ability it gives us to live our greatest fears through a fictional character in order to help us purge those feelings of anxiety that we link with certain things. It is a need to be scared, a need to feel the instability, not in our own, but in other people's lives. Why else would we read gossip magazines? Why else would we use social media to find out about the personal lives of others? Why else would we stop to gawk at an accident on a busy road? Because it gives us a way in which to live an alternate life temporarily, while forgetting about our own. 

What is is about the thriller genre that we love? We love to know that, whatever happens to us, someone, somewhere out there is worse off than us. We want to know that our lives aren't all that bad, and that, in fact, in comparison to some others, our lives are pretty great, so great, that we can afford to waste our time experiencing simulations of alternate existences.

I happen to be one of these people. Join me in my quest for the perfect thriller.