Obviously everything is made 10000000000 times better if you insert cats and these classic paintings are no exception! My only qualm is that these masterpieces are featured on the website sadanduseless.com which I don't understand because these are neither sad nor useless as you can clearly see:
I've been having difficulty lately trying to choose a film to watch. After the let down that was The Descendants, I have been reluctant to go and see any of the rest of the big films of the year so far which really is a shame because I love the cinema! The other day a friend asked me if I wanted to go and see Martha Marcy May Marlene and I agreed to go, partly to avoid working on my thesis but mostly it was because I had heard nothing about it. All of the hype surrounding The Descendants is probably why I thought it wasn't great so I figured this would be a nice change seen as I couldn't even remember the name of this film!! I couldn't be happier with my decision.
Martha Marcy May Marlene is definitely the best film I have seen this year, and one of the best I have seen in the last 10 years. First time writer-director Sean Durkin won the Directing award in Sundance last year for Martha Marcy and he really deserved it. I still can't believe its been completely over looked for the Acadamy Awards but anyway...The film is a psychological thriller about a girl who escapes from a cult and her attempt to settle back in to normal life, staying with her sister only 3 hours away from the farm where the cult is situated. The only other film about a cult that I have ever seen was a painfully boring video we were shown in school that was subconsciously meant to teach us how to recognize a cult and stay away from them. The idea was that we were to think we were just getting to watch a video instead of class, completely unaware that we were in a way being brainwashed! Needless to say, Martha Marcy is a far cry from that so called film.
The psychological thriller is a difficult genre to master but Durkin has hit the nail on the head here. To explain the title Elisabeth Olson plays Martha, a young girl who due to unexplained circumstances has wound up in a cult in upstate New York where she is renamed Marcy May by the leader Patrick (played by John Hawkes) and Marlene is the name all of the girls in the cult use when in contact with the outside world. The confusion between the names and personalities might seem unnecessary before seeing the film, but Durkin has expertly and purposefully confused the audience so that we almost feel every emotion, thought and fear that goes through Martha's head. Things she cannot remember are left unexplained, if she doesn't know what happened well then neither do we. The story is non-linear and sometimes we don't know where or when the things we are seeing have taken place but rather then being a direction mistake, this is to pull is further into Martha's mind. Although she has physically removed herself from the cult but mentally she doesn't seem to know where she most of the time; shifting between reality, dreams and flashbacks in a heart beat.
Martha Marcy May Marlene is on limited release only so if you can go and see it then definitely do. Its not for the faint-hearted as there are scenes of rape and violence and it's extremely disturbing but it is BRILLIANT
The Descendants was one of the films I was most excited to see this year. It has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor and I am predicting it wins each award, although undeservedly in my opinion. The film is technically good, which is my least favorite type of good. It hits all the marks, huge actor; beautiful though misunderstood setting; family drama; tears of a clown etc etc. George Clooney is good enough in the lead role but I don't think it's an Oscar worthy performance, I just don't!
The director Alexander Payne is best known for directing Election a brilliant comedy about a high school presidential election, least known for penning the script for Jurassic Park III the only Jurassic Park installment not to be directed by Stephen Spielberg i.e the shitty one. He has made an aesthetically enjoyable film. The dreary representation of Hawaii is a refreshing change and I think the setting is what saves the otherwise boring film. It moves extremely slowly, with the most interesting parts being sped up so fast that we miss them and are dumped back into another ten minutes of Hawaiian music over long shots of the landscape in the rain.
I felt there were a lot of holes in the script, holes that usually would go unnoticed but because of the hype surrounding The Descendants I was watching very carefully. The character of Troy appears only once early on, and I felt we were waiting for him to reappear for the remainder of the film, although small it was something I didn't forget about. The major mistake in this film though is in the older daughter Alexandra. She is good and enjoyable but she changes into a completely different character very quickly after her introduction. I understand that she is meant to have grown up but its done so recklessly that there is no transition period. She goes from a drunken mess of a teenage girl to a wonderful daughter in the time it takes to duck her head under the water. I think an opportunity was missed to really break down Alexandra and make her a into a deeper character, one that could be related to easier.
All in all, I'm glad I watched The Descendants just to say I have seen it but I would never watch it again for the simple fact that I don't like being bored to death and now that I know all of the (small) twists and turns that take place, I think it would be unbearable!
