Category Archives: Dysfunctional Lives

2012, Comedy, Dysfunctional Lives, Love Story, Nothing special, Optimistic, Sex Scenes

Girl Most LIkely (2012)

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From Netflix:

After staging an unsuccessful suicide to get her boyfriend’s attention, a struggling playwright moves back home to live with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and a handsome lodger who sings with a Backstreet Boys cover band.

Exaggerated family disfunction is the basis for this comedy, and indeed there are some good laughs. Annette Bening (as crazy mother Zelda) and Matt Dillon (as crazy boyfriend “The Bousche” of the crazy mother Zelda) are probably the best known actors. Kristen Wiig (as mixed-up daughter Imogene) will play young Lucille Bluth in the 2013 addition to “Arrested Development”. Darren Criss (as the roomer in crazy mother’s house) and Christopher Fitzgerald (as mixed-up bother Ralph of mixed-up daughter Imogene) are two newish faces that do well in the film.

Just sit back and take in the antics of these improbable personalities in this light-hearted disposable comedy.

2012, Addiction, Amusing banter, Bicycles, Could Be Sad, Drama, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Explicit sexual discussion, Father-son relations, Flirting, Human spirit, Marital Infidelity, Masturbation, Medical Theme, Mostly About Sex, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Optimistic, Psychological Drama, Sex Scenes, Thought provoking, Violent

Thanks for Sharing (2012)

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From Netflix:

While making his way through a support group for sex addicts, Adam dips his toe in the dating pool to embrace a meaningful relationship. But the woman he’s attracted to has sworn off addicts altogether.

Sex addiction is the sole topic of this serious, thought-provoking, well acted, and hopeful film. Originally AA helped just alcoholics, but the idea of mentor-mentee organized group therapy involving public acknowledgement of one’s problems has expanded to all sorts of addictions. Plot line centers around four addicts and their associates. Expect very little comic relief from the problems of the various characters:

  • Mark Ruffalo (Adam) compulsively engages in all manner of sex acts. After a successful period of recovery he meets…
  • Gywneth Paltrow (Phoebe) who is both seductive and has her own set of eating and exercise compulsions.
  • Tim Robbins (Mike) is Adam’s mentor. In addition to his own personal demons, Mike was not a good father to …
  • his now drug-addicted son Patrick Fugit (Danny).
  • Josh Gad (Neil) is a young mother-smothered MD who loses his hospital job due to his compulsion to touch women in public. He helps and is helped by fellow sex addict …
  • Alecia “Pink” Moore (Dede) who needs sex following any emotional stress.

Each character during the course of the film suffers some setback (“falling off the wagon”) followed by a recovery. Hope and mutual support rather than a feeling of despair makes this film somewhat inspiring. Nobody is perfect. Good flick!

2013, Acceptable for children, Alzheimer's disease, B-movie, Could Be Sad, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Father-son relations, Feel Good For All, Mediocre, Melodrama, Optimistic, Plot Twist, Quiet

Straight A’s (2013)

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From Netflix:

Seeking redemption, family outcast Scott returns to his hometown, only to throw everyone’s lives into disarray. It’s particularly troubling for his sister-in-law, who was once his high school sweetheart.

Give this “Straight A’s” a rating of a Straight B.

However, it is (except possibly for many uses of the F-Word) a feel-good film suitable for children. Since it was a 2013 film made immediately available for Netflix streaming, you might suspect this film is not Oscar material.

Sorry, but for me Anna Paquin will always be Sookie Stackhouse from that TV vampire-fest “True Blood”. Ryan Phillipe played Louis Roulet in “The Lincoln Lawyer“.

There is nothing really wrong with this predictable melodrama except for its mediocrity. In fact, if you are watching while doing something else constructive, this is not a bad diversion.

2012, Coming-of-age, Crude Talk, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Police Corruption, Revenge, Sad small town, Suspense, Teenagers, Violent, Wonderful acting

Mud (2012)

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From Netflix:

Two Mississippi teens, Ellis and Neckbone, meet a mysterious drifter named Mud hiding on a deserted river island and get caught up in his tangled web of tall tales about bounty hunters, crimes of passion, lost love and a perfect woman named Juniper.

Good acting and an involving storyline make this somewhat violent film worth seeing.

For once Matthew McConaughey is neither romantic stud, tough cowboy, nor clever lawyer. His role here as a fugitive from a revenge killing seems to me to be his best effort at acting that I have seen to date (2013).

Similarly Reese Witherspoon is not a bouncy blonde but plays well the part of an imperfect, sad, basically good-hearted young woman. At first I almost did not recognize her (because at the time one of the villains was giving her a beating – did I mention “violent”?).

Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, the two kids, are good but do not steal the show. Their tough, down-to-earth, terse, somewhat abrupt manner of speaking seemed to me at times to be too mature for their age.

During the entire film I kept wondering how people can stand living where and in the manner that these somewhat down-trodden characters lived. Beasts of the Southern Wild took place in the same ambience.

Essentially not a violent film, but at least a suspenseful film, this one is worth catching.

2012, Basically Sad, Chase film, Clever Plot, Crime, Crude Talk, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Motorcycles, Police Corruption, Police Story, Talking Heads, Violent

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

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From Netflix:

Luke is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer, their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud.

By this time (2012) in their lives 32 year old Ryan Gosling and 37 year old Bradley Cooper may well be in their young adult film prime. Each already has a long list of credits. Of the two, Gosling can better play more eccentric roles as he does here in this film, although he belongs to that school of acting which promotes the idea “The less you say the better, let the audience think the thoughts that you should be having in this particular scene”. Call it the silent meditation school of acting. Cooper is a more direct actor. In a certain sense the acting style is often a natural and very real “talking heads”, but the story line is so good that it all works together.

Good writing and plotting has produced a story with two parts: Part One portrays the events that affect the lives of the characters in Part Two, fifteen years later. Without giving much away (plot is paramount in this film), Gosling and Cooper are crook and cop, each with a son Jason and AJ respectively. Interaction between the fathers early in their lives has strong repercussions later in the lives of the sons. Dane DeHaan (as Jason) and Emory Cohen (as AJ) did fine jobs as lost teenagers.

All that I feel that I must tell you is: Do not expect a happy ending. Century 21 is the century of unresolved conflicts.

Based on a Book, Basically Sad, DO NOT MISS, Dysfunctional Lives, Emotional child abuse, Not Feel Good, Wonderful acting

What Maisie Knew (2013)

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From Netflix:

In this updated rendering of the timeless Henry James novel, a perceptive 6-year-old girl becomes a bargaining tool when she gets caught in the midst of a toxic custody fight between her self-seeking, childish parents.

How on earth did the directors (Scott McGehee, David Siegel) get Maisie (played by incredibly young Onata Aprile) to act so perfectly? Granted much of her mannerisms are what you would expect from such a little girl. But at certain points, especially in one final painful scene with her egocentric failure of a mother (Julianne Moore) just one subtle facial expression says it all.

Congrats to Steve Coogan for playing such a similarly egocentric repellent failure of a father.

But eventually you just smile seeing Alexander Skarsgård and Joanna Vanderham together as two misused victims of the ugly couple. Here are the only two people in the world that really love Maisie.

Just beware that the 21st century is the century of unresolved conflicts. If you can stand the heartache, DO NOT MISS!

2013, Clever Plot, Creepy, Dark, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Erotic Thriller, Flirting, Mental Illness, Mystery Film, Plot Twist, Psychological Thriller, Rape, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

Stoker (2013)

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From Netflix:

An impressionable teenager grieving for her late father lives with her unstable mother and is bewitched by her enigmatic uncle, who has mysterious motives for his sudden appearance in her life.

“Creepy” is the first adjective that comes to mind. “Stoker” is not a horror film. Rather it is a psychological, suspense-filled, well-written story with unexpected plot and character twists. In addition it is somewhat of a mystery story that asks “Just who is this suddenly appearing uncle?” At each step you think you know what will happen, but you are probably wrong.

Does Nicole Kidman get more beautiful each day? Matthew Goode, the British actor who played Charles Ryder in the 2008 production of “Brideshead Revisited”, is the perfectly cunning psychopath. Mia Wasikowska, the Australian actress who played Jane Eyre in the 2011 production of “Jane Eyre”, steals the show as an enigmatic and unpredictably strange teenager.

You will stay glued to your seat during this frighteningly possible sequence of events.

2013, Abduction, Bullying, Cancer theme, Child Molestation, Clever Plot, Crime, Crude Talk, Dark, DNA, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Explicit sex, FilmReview, Gritty, Love Story, Made For TV, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Rape, Revenge, Sad small town, Suspense, Trailer Life, TV Series, Violent, Vulgar, Wonderful acting

Top of the Lake (2013)

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From Netflix:

When pregnant, 12-year-old Tui tries to kill herself in a freezing New Zealand lake, Detective Robin Griffin has plenty of questions for the girl. But when Tui suddenly disappears, Griffin finds herself knee-deep in small-town secrets.

Just about everything happens in this gritty, tough TV series taking place in a remote location in New Zealand. To name just of the few features:

  • An amoral, cruel hillbilly family that kills, rapes, manufactures illegal drugs, etc.
  • A cult-like compound for women who have had bad experiences and are sometimes completely naked.
  • Child molestation
  • Gang rape
  • A mother dying of cancer
  • Self-flagellation
  • Dishonest police officers
  • A very capable woman detective (played by Elizabeth Moss) trying to get on with her life while dealing with her troubled past
  • Quite a few nude sex scenes
  • A not quite civilized society
  • Several murders

Yes, this is one crazy TV series. Elizabeth Moss, who played Peggy in “Mad Men”, does a terrific job. But all the actors do wonderful jobs.

You might not want to eat a full meal before watching. Nonetheless, for me at least, in the category of gritty this series is a DO NOT MISS!

2008, AIDS, B-movie, Barely Acceptable Trash, Corny, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Explicit sex, Gay theme, Gritty, Marital Infidelity, Melodrama, Murder Investigation, Not Recommended, Nudity, Prison, Religious Theme, Ridiculous plot, Sadism, Suicide, Suspense, Terrible acting, Unrealistic, Violent

The Fall (2008)

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From Netflix:

When his loser brother is accused of killing a priest, Frank (Scott Kinworthy), a hotshot lawyer with lofty political aspirations, steps in to defend him. But as Frank digs up the truth, he uncovers damning revelations from the past that could ruin his future. Written and directed by John Krueger, this suspenseful drama follows the conflicted attorney’s difficult choice between saving his sibling or himself.

If you are ever teaching a course in film writing or acting and you need an example of really bad writing or acting then have I got a HORRIBLE film you can use to great effect!

Only the (somewhat farfetched) plot kept me watching. Not that it would have cost me anything to stop watching this film streamed from Netflix. At times I sat watching in open mouthed wonder that anyone could act in such an amateurish and exaggerated manner. Think high school actors (although I have seen better acting in high school plays).

If the acting seems bad, wait till you learn the plot. Although I will spare you the gory details, this film manages to dredge up plot lines involving a hotel for gay encounters, a priest who commits a theatrical suicide, adultery, a psychotic gay prisoner, attempted murder using the AIDS disease, sadistic prison guards, a completely amoral and ambitious wife of a lawyer, and the list goes on.

Do not claim that I did not warn you! On the other hand, aren’t you really curious to see just how bad this film really is?

2012, Crime, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Explicit sex, Gritty, Love Story, Murder Investigation, Nothing special, Nudity, Police Story, Suspense, Violent

Deadfall (2012)

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Netflix:

On the run after a casino heist, siblings Addison and Liza split up. When Liza gets a ride from a prison parolee heading to his parents’ home for Thanksgiving, unexpected events lead the two families toward a collision in this suspenseful thriller.

You might expect good things from a film in which Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek, Olivia Wilde, and Treat Williams appear. In fact the film offered a good plot, good acting and well-done suspense. Note that the film is violent and gritty.

Essentially the story brings together a brother and sister who recently robbed a casino, a young man Jay recently released from jail but estranged from his father who together with his wife expects his son for Thanksgiving, and a young woman police officer whose police captain father does not respect her choice of career even though she is very competent. Eventually they all converge at the Thanksgiving dinner table with lots of guns in sight.

Liza and Jay’s falling in love is unrealistic. Jay could possibly be a better actor. Nevertheless …

Really not bad at all.