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MOLLY PARKER as JACKIE SHARPE

HOUSE OF CARDS ( 2013 ) S2, E10 | “CHAPTER 23”

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The Road (2009)

I’ve seen The Road twice now and it’s still a wallop of an experience. This is not a horror film or a thriller but it will have you sweating throughout.

This post-apocalyptic story follows a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Cody Scott-McPhee) traveling in a desolated North America. After an unspecified global disaster, nearly all animal species have gone extinct and all plant life has been wiped out. Most humans have resorted to cannibalism to survive, but our heroes insist on holding onto their integrity in a world without hope.

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, The Road shows us the deepest depths of desperation. While searching for greener pastures, our protagonists have to dodge marauding gangs armed with guns while having to confront their own demons and the appeal of letting go of their ideals. This film is frightening in the same way that a zombie movie is frightening. With limited resources and rampant paranoia, who is more dangerous: them, or us? It’s interwoven with a powerful drama. A father, a son. Probably the last living family left on earth. How did they get there, where will they go next?

For what it is, this is a great-looking, film. The use of color is particularly striking because there’s hardly any. This world is so bleak you wonder if suicide isn’t better than another day of uncertainty. Then, we slip into flashbacks of before the disaster and see how carefree these people were. It helps you remember that survival isn’t enough, that hope and joy are what will keep you going. A warm fire, a treat that’s been overlooked, a pleasant memory, those are what will keep our heroes going.

Watching The Road, you become determined not to lose hope, no matter what. You desperately want to see this father and son make it out alive. They became avatars for you. If they make it, you will too. Perhaps more important than their lives are their code of ethics, their desire to remain good people in a world where all morals have been abandoned. This is the crucial human element that makes the picture an unforgettable experience. Though things get as bleak as they possibly could, you’re constantly reminded that hope can still burn bright.

I won’t call this is a depressing movie, but it’s a depressing story. You thought a zombie apocalypse was bad? At least zombies can’t help but eat people, and once you turn into one, there’s nothing you can do about it. Our heroes are dying. They’re starved, haven’t seen sunlight in years, regularly talk about suicide as an option, and have seen horrors only hinted at in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre time and time again. It’s not a question of “if”, but “when”. In their shoes, what would you do? Director John Hillcoat forces you to confront a scenario with no alternatives. It's kill or be killed. When confronted with such extremes, you're compelled to examine who you are.

All that and it’s got some powerful performances. It boils down its themes to the essentials, stripping away everything but the crucially important. What’s left makes a powerful impact. Is it the kind of movie you can just pop into your machine and watch anytime? No, but you’re going to forget it anytime soon and it will provoke something inside you. The Road might be the stuff of nightmares, but I can’t help kind of loving it. (On DVD, April 22, 2016)

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Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

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Solo 1 mes para el retorno de los Robinson. #LostInSpace 2. Diciembre 24. En @netflix. ☄☄ @netflixlat . . . . #netflix #lostinspace2 #perdidosenelespacio #mollyparker #tobystephens #maxwelljenkins #ignacioserricchio #taylorrussell #minasundwall #parkerposey #tobystephens #drama #scifi #us #panama #panamá #pty #507 #panama507 #panamacity (en Panama City, Panama) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5QbDUXHq7G/?igshid=k9pd255pkymy

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Gif by: https://jamesflintmcgrawhamilton.tumblr.com/

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MOLLY PARKER as EVANGELINE

Madeline’s Madeline (2018) dir. Josephine Decker

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Pieces of a Woman (2020)

Pieces of a Woman is a tough watch. You see these lives spiraling out of control and you’re powerless to do anything about them. Paired with robust performances from the cast and you’ve got an effective drama… with a couple of weird choices in the screenplay.

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are expecting a baby. The delivery goes bad. Sean is outraged. Martha seems indifferent. Their relationship begins falling apart.

Pieces of a Woman is light on plot and instead chooses to focus on the characters. More specifically, it’s about how this tragedy changes them, how it erodes what they had and makes them into different people. Martha is frustrating. It’s like she’s deliberating choosing to hurt her partner and her mother (Molly Parker as Elizabeth) by remaining cold. You’re torn. You sympathize with her. The intense opening, all shot in one take means you were there when things went bad. You know what she’s dealing with but seeing her choices puts you on Sean's side. He’s doing his best but he can’t do this alone and right now, he’s even worse off than Martha. At least she has a partner, a sister, and a mom that are eager to look after her. Him? The family’s never liked him. It’s only because they feel bad that the mood has changed.

When people think of great performances, they think roles that show off a full gamut of emotions. You see them laugh, cry, maybe play younger and older, with an accent you know they don’t usually speak with, etc. The great performances in this movie are not of that kind. These actors maintain a negative, distraught energy consistently, which is a lot harder to do than you think, particularly when we're talking about overwhelming grief and powerlessness. You look at Martha and on the surface, there isn’t much to see but beneath, there’s so much it’s like everything’s canceled each other out so nothing can be expressed.

The movie is not fun but it is rewarding to see something you would otherwise never be allowed to. No one would let you this close to a heartbreak this deep. And then, there are a couple of strange choices. Making Elizabeth a survivor of the Holocaust isn’t a bad idea but it feels like it’s there so Molly Parker can have a big moment where she tells her story. Was it really necessary? Same for a detail about the family Lawyer/Martha’s cousin, Suzanne (Sarah Snook). It’s just a little more complicated than it needed to be, which is distracting.

There are some great moments in Pieces of a Woman. The opening, for example, is intense and raw. The ending is also quite good, though a little by-the-book. It might take someone with a strong stomach to “enjoy” the film and I doubt anyone outside of those who study performances would pop it into their DVD player willy-nilly but for the one time, it’s moving and effective. (April 29, 2021)

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The Wicker Man (2006)

Remakes - particularly horror film remakes - have a bad reputation but the 2006 version of The Wicker Man takes it to a whole new level. If you want quotable, memorable, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and utterly baffling, look no further. After seeing the 1973 original, I wondered what elements would be changed and updated by writer/director Neil LaBute. Seems he chose to take out everything which made the horror classic creepy and replace them with lots of bees, a conspiracy that makes no sense, and lines so bad no one could make them sound good.

Policeman Edward Malus (Nicholas Cage) receives a call for help from the fiancé who abandoned him years ago. The daughter he never knew he had has disappeared. Willow (Kate Beahan) believes her mother, Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn) intends on sacrificing the girl as part of a strange harvest ritual.

This film's madness creeps up on you. At first, there appears to be potential. A mystery to be solved, an island full of weirdos. Malus is a nice guy. He’s forgiven his insane ex-fiance and is coming to help her. Immediately, things are creepy. The island's men are treated like servants, all of the little girls dress alike. Willow is so brainwashed or traumatized she’s hardly any help. Then, slowly, the movie begins tossing nonsense and bad dialogue your way. The further you get in, the more ridiculous it gets until you reach the jaw-droppingly awful conclusion.

A great “so bad it’s good” movie requires a story that’s interesting, but straightforward enough that your audience can interject with witty comments without missing too much of the plot. You need memorable, quotable scenes to turn into inside jokes afterward. You need bad dialogue, lousy performances, and ideally, noticeable mannerisms you can imitate. Unconvincing special effects are a nice bonus. The Wicker Man has it all. Willow’s dialogue is comprised entirely of half-finished sentences while officer Malus has lines so awful they're legendary. After this film, bees will never be the same. You'll find yourself compelled to scream “No, not the bees. NOT THE BEES! Ahhh! They’re in my eyes!” every time you see them. What kind of movie could hold that kind of power? A glorious catastrophe.

What this story is really about is the world’s stupidest police officer trapped in the most convoluted, hackneyed, “100 things should have gone wrong but none of them do” conspiracy. Try and write down every factor that should've compelled Malus to act differently than he does. It’s one of those movies where you can’t guess the ending because the ending makes no sense. Only a madman would be able to think as Labute does. As a special bonus, odds are that if you get this movie on Dvd, it will be a double-sided disc. One side theatrical cut, the other an “unrated cut with an ending too shocking for theatres. What you want to do is play the theatrical cut. While your guests are recovering from that glimpse of madness, you eject the disc, flip it around and play the ending of the unrated version. You thought it couldn't get worse? It just did.

I'd tell you all about my favorite parts but the less you know about The Wicker Man before going in, the better. Nicholas Cage is a gem. He delivers an extreme performance. Even when there's no dialogue, he's so eye-poppingly loony you'll be making dozens of computer gifs just so you can watch them on a loop and laugh. He's bad but proves himself a good actor. It takes a special kind of talent and dedication to be able to deliver this dialogue with a straight face. I love the remake of The Wicker Man; it’s one of my go-to movies that’s “so bad it’s good again”. (Theatrical and Unrated Cut on Dvd, May 9, 2015)