Saturday, August 30, 2014

movie reviews! AGAIN

Three MUST SEE movies about mentally ill girls and psychiatric hospitals.

G O D   H E L P   T H E   G I R L (8/10)

(I downloaded this teaser right after I watched it)

Recently, there was a film festival in Auckland, so M and I decided to check out at least a couple of movies they were showing. The movie I suggested was an indie musical directed by Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian) himself. Basically, it is an adaptation of the songs by the band God Help the Girl (aka his side project). GOD I LOVE THIS MOVIE. It became one of my favorites right away. I was v quiet when we left the cinema analyzing what just happened and broke into speech as soon as we ordered our dinner. We were talking and talking about all the thoughts and feelings the movie evoked.



Eve is a girl with emotional problems who's getting a treatment in the mental hospital where she constantly trying to run away from and pretend that she is not ill.

I'm bored out of my mind
Too sick to even care
I'll take a little walk
Nobody's going to know
I'm in Senior Ward
That gives you a little free time
I'll just use it all at once
***
Took the fence and a lane
The bus then the train
Bought an Independent to make me look like
I got brains
I made a story up in my head
If anybody would ask
I'm going to a seminar

[This song is also very very important (like every song in the movie), go and read the lyrics (i need to print them out and stick them to my wall)!]
  • I love how Eve stays a girl even though she is going through so many mental / health problems (severe depression, anorexia) and just pour all her emotions in the songs she writes all the time making them her diary.
  • I love the costume designer! I've never been so impressed. I want all these clothes (except for creepers. yes).
  • I love how Stuart goes about the storyline inspiration: "a better summer, or at least a summer when something happened".
  • CREDITS!!


  • And I also love his description of Cass, another main character:

Cass is 16 going on 17, is into dressing up (especially berets), playing scrabble by herself in cafes (right hand against left) home baking, and feminist literature. She has a dog called Captain, and she rides a tandem bike that her parents bought her in the hope she would make a friend... She has opinions on most things, though most of them are pretty wonky.

Another issue raised in the movie is never ending problem of two people in love when one of them wants to move on (uni, career, LIFE) and another doesn't want anything to change. Although, I never faced this disaster myself, I'm very concerned about it for some reason.

But anyway, enough said. You simply need to watch this movie. I think, it's already in cinemas. Except for US. The release date in US is Sept, 5.


*  *  *

G I R L, I N T E R R U P E D (7/10)


(The trailer is very good)

Another movie about mental institutions. But this time, based on a true story (autobiography to be precise) about a girl who was sent to a mental hospital and spent there a year and a half surrounded by the girls who unlike her do need help.

Susanna: I didn't try to kill myself.
Dr. Potts: What were you trying to do?
Susanna: I was trying to make the shit stop.



Why I like the movie:
  • All the girls are different. Each one is ill in her own way but all of them are so real, there is no shallow characters in the movie. They are in no way just superficial labels, they all have personalities and are interesting to watch.
  • Always-was-always-will-be-cool Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie hamming throughout the whole movie.


  • This quote from a review: "The most striking and yet most frustrating part of `Girl, Interrupted' is that everybody that's been 19 years old can relate to Susanna, the main character".
  • And this one: "there is nothing actually wrong with [Susana] Kaysen, except that she is a typical teenager, and refuses to conform to the life her parents want for her. However, after spending some time with her ward mates and numerous doctors, she starts to believe that she is insane, but can't understand why or what exactly is wrong with her."
  • And also this (you rock, mom): "My eighteen year old daughter and I went to see this movie last night, it was excellent! A must see! Even though I cried through the whole last hour of this movie, it was not a sad film, but a lifting of the human "spirit"!"
  • Everyone made parallels between Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest because, yes, the movie was made this way. I don't know many (any) examples when writers / directors change the male characters to female and it turns out to be good but this movie is an exception. And the good one.

Sorry for the picture quote but this is the most obvious reference to Ken Kesey's novel ("It still made me smile a little to think about it: I have to keep on acting deaf if I wanted to hear at all") I found.

Susanna: [narrating] Have you ever confused a dream with life? Or stolen something when you have the cash? Have you ever been blue? Or thought your train moving while sitting still? Maybe I was just crazy. Maybe it was the 60s. Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted.

*  *  *



R U S A L K A (or   M e r m a i d   2007) (9/10)



One of ten(?!) absolute must see Russian movies. Furthermore, this movie is one of the best movies about girls ever. You must find English subtitles and watch it watch it watch it!




This is how it sounds in English:

Her name was Alisa, she lived by the sea. Her life was pretty ordinary. She dreamed about the ballet, sang in a children's choir and studied at a school for the mentally challenged. At the age of six she stopped speaking. At 17 she moved to Moscow and at exactly 18 she met Him. and disappeared. That sort of thing happens all the time in the big city.

When I was 11 (or maybe 12) and watched the movie for the first time, I became obsessed with it. I played it on repeat for several days and then showed it to Mom (she never liked it (like 99% of movies I showed her)), and then to my best friend with whom we painted the DVD with copic markers, that's how we liked it!

It seems like every one who watched Rusalka and write about it thought of Amelie:

"Amélie Poulain in Moscow ... however, "Rusalka" goes farther than "Amélie", openly showing that City is not only a place of romance and unexpected adventures, but in fact a get-together of very very lonely people who find each other to remain alone."


I hope you enjoy the movies! Or maybe you already watched them all which is also v cool (you have to message me your thoughts on them)! Have a nice weekend, everyone! (=^・ω・^=)