Martha Marcy May Marlene Review

One morning in the mountains, a young woman named Martha flees from a cult that has damaged her emotional being over the course of time. Though urged to return by a fellow member, she refuses the offer and calls her sister for help, who picks her up and agrees to take care of her, at least while trying to figure out the vague details of Martha's disappearance for the last two years, and deal with what remains of her sanity (if any does at all).




Well the latest batch of Redbox reviews has concluded and I saved the best, and possibly only good one, for last. Hell, all I had to do was suffer through two bad handycam films and a delayed Eddie Murphy comedy in order to get my reward. Martha Marcy May Marlene, though certainly a mouthful of a movie, is a rather good indie drama with great performances abound. Elizabeth Olsen plays the title character, though that mercifully isn't her full name, but rather a collection of aliases she takes throughout the film's running time. I've heard some folks call her the lone wolf in the Olsen family, and it isn't hard to see why. The lady can act, conveying a great deal of emotions and making you believe that she truly has been broken by what this cult has put her through, as she can't seem to even readjust to some of the most basic rules of life. We're dealt a good number of flashbacks dealing with everything from Martha's first days in the cult (which is lead by the always awesome and rather gangly-looking John Hawkes), to what finally may have pushed her over the edge and led to her self-imposed exile. She also doesn't look like a mogwai, which is helpful, but it isn't a huge issue.


The film is a challenge at times to get through, and perhaps that is an intentional parallel to what Martha's sister and her husband are feeling with her sudden insertion into their lives. Sarah Paulson plays Martha's sister Lucy, and you could argue that the film is just as much about her than it is her younger sibling. It is rather surprising to see her tolerance for everything going on around her, even if it does involve family. The audience might get annoyed with some of the remarkable amount of patience from Lucy, but anyone who has ever witnessed behavior akin to post-cult inclusion (even on television or in print) will be more understanding.

All of that being said, I think some will be turned off by a handful of the ambiguous moments in the film. The last twenty minutes of the film, despite containing some of the best scenes in it's one hundred minute running time (which is criminally short for a story like this), do feel like they're leading up to something that never quite comes to be. There were hints of horror or suspenseful drama poking through, but it was almost like they were saving it for another segment that never comes to be. It is a minor complaint, sure, but a complaint nonetheless.

Regardless, Martha Marcy May Marlene is a very good film filled with great performances, though it JUST stops itself short from becoming a great film. If this one pops up on Netflix or television within the near future, I urge you to check it out. I'm definitely interested in the future projects of Ms. Olsen now, and I may even have to give the Silent House remake a shot now that it was just released to home video as well.

Project X Review

On the night of their friend Thomas' birthday, three friends set out to film and put on the most monumental party that one could possibly imagine. Over time however, things start to spiral out of control, as word of the party's existence takes things from 1, to 10, to beyond even that...




STRAIGHT! EDGE! REVENGE!


is nowhere to be found here. This is an exercise in insanity and partying, with Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover) serving as producer and a large cast of unknowns or first time actors taking the lead(s). Project X sets out to be not just an incredible party movie, but possibly THE party of the decade. Keep in mind that we're only 2 years into the new decade however, so while the bar is most likely high after this, it can, and will be broken. It is also the second time that someone has recorded a found footage film in the realm of comedy, the other being the already forgotten The Virginity Hit. So does it succeed, at least for the time being?

My apologies if the usual movie description beneath the poster seems a bit vague. Unfortunately, there really isn't any sort of plot to the film whatsoever, outside of "Let's throw a party and try to get as crazy as humanly possible." I'm alright with large parties in films, but I prefer to have a little something else mixed in, such as likable or even realistic characters or so long as the film doesn't go through the motions. With the former, I wasn't so lucky. I loathed nearly all of the main stars from the start, and there really isn't anything particularly sympathetic about any of them. The character of Costa, played by Oliver Cooper, is irritating to the point of being a cartoon character. Imagine the worst characteristics of a "wigger" combined with that obnoxious rich kid you knew at some point on in your life, and he's that to a tee. J.B. and Thomas, the other main characters, are your cliched fat kid and loser. At least Seth and Evan in Superbad felt like they could have been human beings, these just felt like fictional beings that were written over the course of one drunken night in college while struggling in creative arts. With the latter, the film does run out of steam at times, even when things get incredibly hectic. Hell, even the soundtrack seemed like it was trying too hard to stay in touch, as odd as that might sound.

"But Ryan, who gives a crap about the plot? Or the characters? Does the party deliver?" It absolutely does. The main gathering in Project X is a pretty large one, and a rather epic one at that. It is the one truly redeeming factor to this otherwise dumb film. It even made me pine for the days when I was younger and more foolhardy and didn't have to worry about odd work hours squandering any opportunity to "get fucked up." There was a brief second where I myself wondered "You know, I bet I could pull off something like this some day." Thankfully, that thought disappeared once things truly did get out of control, though it takes quite some time for that to occur.

Make no mistake about it, this isn't a particularly good film. It uses the handycam style in order to attempt and fool you into thinking that it has a single original bone in it's body. You're better off watching Superbad, Risky Business, or The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down. But in all honesty, I really couldn't bring myself to hate it. If you stumble across this on cable late night, or it pops up on your Netflix Instant Queue with no other titles worth viewing at the moment, you could do worse.

The Devil Inside Review

In 1989, Maria Rossi committed three murders in the midst of an attempted exorcism. Twenty years later, Maria's daughter Isabella is filming a documentary about exorcisms, and hopes to uncover more about what happened to her own mother through a series of unauthorized exorcisms and a visit to the psych ward in Rome housing Maria herself, though she may have wished she stayed in America...





Well as you can tell from my last review, I've been feeling like a sadist lately and have the urge to satiate myself with atrocious cinema. And what luck! William Brent Bell's found footage film The Devil Inside might be just the film to fulfill that need. Oh Mr. Bell, I haven't forgotten about you. After all, your laughably bad 2006 horror film Stay Alive spawned an early, if not short lived, internet meme did it not?

First and foremost, let's face facts: the found footage genre is already running it's course. True, we'll get a gem like Troll Hunter once in a while, but outside of that, most of it is comprised of sequels, remakes, or "more of the same." The Devil Inside falls into the category of the latter, though it isn't derivative of better found footage films, but just better horror films in general. Shades of The Exorcist, [REC] (okay, that IS a found footage film, but bare with me), and even Evil Dead II can be found here, except with none of the soul or scares that peppered those releases. And no, I don't count having cheap jump scares as real scares these days, you should be able to induce fear without the means for that cheap tactic. Above all else though, while the film is soulless and outright eye-roll inducing with it's insistency that this could be legitimately real, it is agonizingly tedious and boring. I was struggling to even make amusing commentary while viewing it due to how uninteresting it turned out to be. Mind you, this is a film about possession and exorcism, two subjects that can still instill terror in the hearts of most people these days, so that certainly wasn't the best of signs. Chemistry between all actors and actresses present seems to be nonexistent too, as Isabella's concern for her mother felt rather forced and not genuine whatsoever, and the priests assisting her in her documentary display Wiseau-level acting at times.

When the film isn't boring you to death, it gives you some truly unintentional comedic gold. Heck, I laughed more at this than A Thousand Words, though I suppose that wasn't hard considering that the latter got approximately two chuckles out of me. Scenes of Maria having her fits on camera are too reminiscent of those "drunk and drugged out prisoners" scenes you'd find on a TRU TV special from the 2000s. A scene with a priest attempting to drown a baptized infant in holy water had me laughing instead of being shocked, but then again, I also masturbated furiously to Visitor Q, so maybe I'm to blame rather than the film.*

All of that being said, there IS one glaring problem most audiences, even those who enjoyed it, have had with the film. I feel the need to say that I can't recall the last time I've witnessed a more ridiculous or flat out INSULTING ending to any film, be it horror or not. It did the honor of taking this film out of the "bad, but mostly just forgettable" territory into the "FUCK. THIS. MOVIE." territory, and all within less than ten seconds. I'd spoil it here just to piss off those who do have any interest in spending their hard earned money on it, but I feel that by even typing it out, I may be sent into an uncontrollable rage, and that it might result in a broken keyboard. So instead, I insist that you just ask me in person or on one of those social networking sites that seem to be all the rage these days.

The Devil Inside might have been one of the first films released this year, but it also stands as one of the worst. Its an unoriginal, stupid, non-threatening, and weak attempt at horror that just continues to prove how much the American horror movie market is hurting. The film's early buzz presented it as "The film the Vatican doesn't want you to see!" and I can only guess that can be due to the Vatican having better taste than most people would believe (and this is coming from a pretty stern agnostic). I know for a fact that WBB is working on a third project in the horror field set sometime for a 2013 release, and I'll bet my entire vinyl collection that one of two things will occur prior to it's release:

-It won't be released in any month not named January or February.
-Movie studios WON'T advertise it as "From the Director of The Devil Inside."































































*No, I didn't really wank it to Visitor Q you silly billies. Cigarette Burns on the other hand...