Tag: psychological

THE PLAGUE – Review

Everett Blunck as Ben, in THE PLAGUE. Courtesy of IFC

THE PLAGUE is one of those horror films that taps into familiar childhood, in this case, early adolescence and the bullying that frequently comes with that, and uses this familiarity to create the horror. THE PLAGUE opens with on-screen text giving a very specific time, Summer 2003, the second session of Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp. The camp is supposed to instill a sense of camaraderie in the 12 to 13-year-old boys, but instead something sinister is going on. What develops is a kind of “Lord of the Flies” in the suburbs. The very specific date and setting suggests that personal experience, from first-time director/writer Charlie Polinger, lies behind this chilling mix of psychological and a bit of body horror.

Most of the boys at the camp already know each other from the first session but Ben (Everett Blunck) is new. He sits down at their lunch table and, after a little teasing about a faint Boston accent, seems to be accepted. When another boy sits down at the table, he gets a very different reaction: everyone gets up and moves to another table. After a few minutes, Ben joins them. The boys’ leader, Jake (Kayo Martin), later tells newbie Ben that the boy, Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), has “the plague” and is to be avoided, because it is contagious. Eli does have a skin rash, which might be contagious, but he is also an odd duck, maybe on the spectrum. Anyway, he is the target of the boys’ group, their outcast, who they describe as having leprosy, whose body parts might fall off, and who is degenerating mentally and physically. Touching Eli, even being too close to him, can give you “the plague.”

That bullying of the outcast is something everyone will remember from growing up. Another thing that is familiar is how this tale mirrors “The Lord of the Flies.” Even though adults are present in this tale, they might as well not be, for all they notice they take of what is going on, and of their ineffectiveness. Actually, the only adult we really see is Joel Edgerton’s stone-faced coach, who is billed as “Daddy Wags,” who varies between oblivious and ineffective. The campers are all boys, ages 12 to 13, who are attending this sleep-way camp, meaning parents are out of the picture. Edgerton’s coach is either unaware of the bullying or unwilling to step in. When he does, at a few moments, he is remarkably unhelpful, with the kid being bullied paying the price.

Later, Jake admits they made those gruesome details and “the plague” isn’t real, although Eli really does have a rash that might be contagious. And Eli does himself no favors, with a strange sense of humor, a “Lord of the Rings” obsession plus a good Gollum impersonation, and a willingness to just be weird. Ben is a kindhearted kid, and someone going through his own problems, with his parents’ divorce, and eventually, also becomes a target for Jake’s bullying.

The acting is overall impressive in this film, with standouts being Everett Blunck as Ben, who is desperate to fit in and worried he won’t, Kayo Martin as bully Jake, alternating between charming and a sharp, intelligent cunning when he spots weakness, and Kenny Rasmussen as Eli, strange but smart, and with an unsettling self-destructive side. All the young actors explore the depths of their characters, with hints of why, while Edgerton’s adult is ineffective and uninspiring, in a chilling way.

However, that rash is one of several odd things about this summer camp. If the rash is contagious, why is he at a water polo camp? It seems most camps would exclude anyone who is contagious. Also, the camp seems to be at a high school, or at least the pool is, but the kids are sleeping in bunks rather than going home. We only see the one coach/camp counselor, Joel Edgerton’s character, although we see other adults in the background and at a distance, running their own water programs at the pool. Late in the film, there is a kind of school dance mixer, with girls from a synchronize swimming camp at the same pool, who we see late in the film.

Director Charlie Polinger builds a great deal of the tension and dread in this chilling film by tapping into memories we all likely have of the time period in our own lives. He also uses a technique to create tension that I personally dislike, which is soft whispered dialog in close up, half-lit scenes, followed by very loud, jarring music or screeching sounds. The shift makes one jump but it seems like a gimmicky, unpleasant way to build tension.

Polinger does better on the visual side. Many of the pool scenes are shot from below the surface, a nice visual metaphor but also a way to create an intriguing visual landscape. In some scenes, the director even flips the camera over, so we are disoriented as to what is up and what is down. He also does a nice job of creating mood with dark and shadowy scenes for the boys discussion, or confined ones in the communal showers with boys in team swim suits, and alternating those with brightly-lit scenes of the angular pool and school hallways.

At 98 minutes, THE PLAGUE is mercifully short but it packs a great deal of horror in that time. I say mercifully, because it is not a pleasant time to revisit. It is an impressive debut feature from the scary side, although the ending makes less sense than it should and the puzzling, unanswered practical questions raised above are distracting. It is a clear way to find the horror in the ordinary, and people’s universal experiences.

THE PLAGUE opens nationally in theaters on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

HIDDEN FACE – Review

A scene from the Korean steamy suspense drama HIDDEN FACE. Courtesy of Well Go USA

The subtitled Korean export HIDDEN FACE is marketed as a suspense tale, but it’s a just-shy-of-soft-core drama about a romantic triangle that takes a few bizarre turns among a very attractive cast. Song Seung-heon plays the new conductor of a prestigious symphony orchestra, who landed his plum gig largely because he married the rich-bitch daughter (Cho Yeo-jeong) of a strutting soap opera star (Park Ji-young, looking alarmingly like Eddie Izzard in drag mode) who fancies herself the star of every scenario, on or off-camera… and convinces others to bend to her will. She provides the elegant apartment in which the newlyweds reside, as well as being the orchestra’s main benefactor. Mega-clout all around, wielded shamelessly by a mega-Karen.

The wife’s bestie and fellow cellist (Park Ji-hyun) have a chat in which the former pouts that she’s not getting enough attention from her stony-faced hubby and decides to disappear, leaving an unlikely suicide note behind. That opens up two spots for the bestie – a chair in the orchestra, and a horizontal one in the marital bed. With that almost Hitchcockian setup, we initially wonder how she vanished – is she dead, or just testing how much people will miss the preening Princess? Then the plot veers sharply into DePalma territory once we learn where she went and how she got there. The steamy bits come from several trysts with surprisingly generous displays of nudity for an East Asian production. Those scenes are beautifully staged and scored, both artistically and erotically.

The reveals are rather over-the-top, but the female performances and gorgeous sets are so compelling that one may not care about the logic or logistics of it all; or the fact that the male lead is a virtually blank slate, readily manipulated by the latest woman to pull his chain (or other appendage). The script is adapted from a 2011 Spanish film, THE HIDDEN FACE, which I haven’t seen. But some descriptions indicate it’s even more lurid. Time to start looking for that guilty pleasure, too.

Regular readers know how many Korean action flicks I’ve praised in the past few years. This tossed salad of psychological issues and titillation makes me think I should expand my genre repertoire.

HIDDEN FACE, in Korean with English subtitles, debuts on digital formats from Well Go USA as of Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

WHAT REMAINS – Review

Gustaf Skarsgard and Andrea Riseborough in WHAT REMAINS. Courtesy of VMI.

Inspired by the odd case of Thomas Quick, Sweden’s most famous serial killer, Gustaf Skarsgard (Floki in “Vikings”), Andrea Riseborough and Stellan Skarsgard star in the heavily-fictionalized, English-language WHAT REMAINS, which unspools a tale of convicted man in a Swedish mental hospital for the criminally insane who suddenly begins confessing to a series of unsolved murders dating back 30 years, based in part on recovered memories through therapy. What makes this psychological crime even more intriguing is its cast, with Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgard as the confessing murderer, plus his famous actor father Stellan as a police detective brought in once the confessions start and Andrea Riseborough, nominated for an Oscar for her role in TO LESLIE, as the criminal’s therapist. This is very much a Skarsgard family affair, with Stellan Skarsgard acting as producer and consultant after artist and first-time director Ran Huang reached out to him. Megan Everett-Skarsgard, Stellan’s wife, even co-wrote the script with director Ran Huang.

The story is nearly all fiction, with only a few points in common with the actual famous Swedish case, such as the convicted man’s name change, the late confessions after long incarceration for other crimes, the involvement of a therapist in the confessions and heavy medication, and a brother who throws doubt on the criminal’s recovered memories of childhood abuse at the hands of their parents. The confessions started in the 1990s, and the real Thomas Quick seemed to revel in the media attention, embracing the label as “Sweden’s Hannibal Lecter,” until he abruptly stopped talking to the press and recanted his confessions. It remains a notorious and puzzling case, with many questions still swirling about everyone involved.

The drama WHAT REMAINS starts slowly, but quickly begins to build tension and character depth, in the way many good Scandinavian crime and police dramas so often do. While the film is in English, it is set in 1990s Sweden, where the criminal justice system is far different than in the U.S. The drama begins with convicted child molester Sigge Storm (Gustaf Skarsgard), who also has a history of being sexually abused by his father as a child, preparing to be released from the experimental mental institution where he has been incarcerated and received treatment. But Sigge is not enthusiastic about the upcoming release, having been in and out of mental institutions for drug addiction and sex crimes for years, and less sure he is ready to cope with the outside world again.

On a day pass to find a job and an apartment, the demoralized Sigge is having the worst birthday ever. At the employment agency, the female clerk is coldly nasty to the soon-to-be ex-con, telling him there are no jobs for him and the best he can hope for is get on a waiting list for a possible job for next year. When she asks for his birth date, he responds and notes that today is his birthday, but does even get a terse, cursory “happy birthday.” When he goes to look at a modest fifth-floor apartment, he gets robbed of his life savings by the man who is supposed to be showing him the one-bedroom apartment. Dejected, he is picked up by his brother, who is encouraging until his younger brother asks for finanicial help, when he is told to stand on his own feet and the suggestion he stay on at the hospital a bit longer until they can find him something. Back at the hospital, he is greeted by staff with a cake and birthday wishes, but there are also constant reminders he is leaving soon.

So when Sigge Storm announces he wants to change his name to Mads Lake and, shortly after, starts confessing to a long-ago unsolved murder, we have to wonder about that confession. The therapist Dr. Anna Rudbeck (Andrea Riseborough), who has been working with Sigge/Mads to recover repressed childhood memories of sexual abuse by his father – something Sigge’s brother strongly denies ever happened – is instantly fascinated by this new revelation. She also sees how it can advance her own career as a therapist, once he hints he may be responsible for a second unsolved child murder. Heavily medicated and under repressed memory therapy, Mads brings forth more forgotten memories and details, both about his own abused childhood and the unsolved crimes. When Dr. Rudbeck tells him she is bringing in the police, in the form of inspector Soren Rank (Stellan Skarsgard), a hardened policeman with his own problems, Mads is panicked. But after a rocky start, the inspector begins to understand that he will get more confessions and more information by letting the therapist work in her own way. The therapist, detective and convict form a bond and a team, as one confession leads to another.

Once the media gets wind of the cold-case investigations, things really explode. The real focus of this drama is the evolving relationships between these three characters. The film picks up the pace as it goes down its rabbit hole of confessions, sometimes taking Mads to the scene with hopes of recovering more memories. The murders go back 30 years, with the first committed when Mads was 14, so evidence is sparse and statutes of limitations apply. As the drama picks up, the tale and the characters grip us, as the actors build character depth and things get complicated. Like many Scandinavian crime series, all the characters in this story have their own complicated backstory and issues, and the film becomes more interesting and complex as it unravels the confessions and the cold-case murders. Motivations complicate matters, with all the three main characters having their own agendas, ambitions, and fears amid their deepening, complex relationships.

It is a strange, strange story and there is plenty of tension and twists, but the film has few of the gory details of the real Thomas Quick confessions. When we get the end of the drama, where there are more twists, we get the biggest shocks, some summarized in title cards at the end.

That the acting is superb is no surprise, given this cast. Each of the three principle actors are excellent, crafting multi-layered, complex characters, sometimes caught up in the juggernaut that the case becomes once it captures public attention. Gustaf Skarsgard’s performance is a standout, as he takes his character through the biggest transitions, going from a passive, frightened man who could easily be robbed, to an angry one with flashes of violence, to one with a growing sense of self-possession, in a well-crafted, chilling transformation. Father and son Stellan and Gustaf Skarsgard are terrific in their scenes together, but the real acting sparks fly in the scenes with Gustaf and Andrea Riseborough as the therapist, where the shifting dynamic between them is fascinating.

Director Ran Huang’s film fictionalized the true story so thoroughly that no one should view this drama as a summary of that strange case, but it does make for a fascinating psychological crime drama and strong showcase of fine acting by three very talented performers. The truth behind this odd case is still debated today, with various theories about it and accusations about cult-like manipulations, heavy medication, and who was using whom, in the events that unfolded around the confessions.

WHAT REMAINS opens Friday, June 21, in theaters and VOD.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

ANATOMY OF A FALL – Review

Sandra Huller as Sandra and Samuel Theis as her husband Samuel, in ANATOMY OF A FALL. Courtesy of Neon

ANATOMY OF A FALL begins with a deadly fall but another kind of fall is much of the fascinating, emotionally searing story, starring Sandra Huller, who was so outstanding in TONI ERDMAN. Huller plays Sandra, the German wife of a French man, Samuel (Samuel Theis) who is killed in a deadly fall from an upper level of their remote Alpine chalet home, a fall that quickly becomes suspicious, with circumstances pointing to the wife. The couple have a son who may or may not be a witness to what happened – if there is indeed a crime. Questions and doubts abound in this excellent drama.

ANATOMY OF A FALL won director/writer Justine Triet the Palme d-Or at Cannes, wowing both audiences and critics, and creating considerable awards buzz. Director Justine Triet’s drama is a near perfect combination of police procedural, courtroom drama, and psychological relationship drama with a deep dive into an unraveling marriage and complex family dynamics. The cast is outstanding, the photography striking and storytelling gripping.

The film is French and the story takes place in the French Alps but the film is mostly in English, the language shared by the German wife and French husband, and spoken at home with their son, with some French and a little German with subtitles. But because of the rules for the Oscars, this excellent film is not France’s submission for the International Oscar due to the amount of English spoken versus French.

Regardless, it is an Oscar-worthy film, and an impressive example of how an engrossing, edge-of-your-seat crime thriller film should be made.

In the film’s press notes, the director said that the idea of the film was to depict the downfall of the couple’s relationship, which we discover is teetering even before the fatal fall. References to the potential for a fall, physical or emotional, is everywhere.

From the beginning, with a shot of a ball bouncing down stairs, the photography emphasizes the steepness of the Alpine chalet home, giving us a sense that falling is an ever-present threat. Even the location of the house, perched on a mountain, reinforces this feeling of imminent falling.

The action begins with the German wife Sandra (Huller), an author, being interviewed in their home. Although the interview is why the young woman journalist is there, the author seems to keep delaying the interview’s start, asking questions about the interviewer, refilling her own wine glass and offering a glass to the interviewer, even though it is only mid-day. Eventually, the interview does start but as the interviewer switches on her digital recorder for her interview notes, loud music starts blaring from upstairs.

The author says it is her husband, who is listening to music while working on their attic, yet she makes no move to go and ask him to stop. After struggling for awhile to conduct the interview despite the noise, they finally give up and agree to meet another time, maybe in town. The author only looks slightly irritated, more sorry to lose the company than anything, while the interviewer is clearly frustrated, after having made a long trip.

The subtext that something else going on in this household is palpable, and our anticipation that something will happen as soon as the interviewer leaves is keen. Instead, the loud music continues and the camera’s focus turns to the couple’s son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), who leaves the house with his dog, for a walk in the snowy landscape.

When the boy returns, it is to find his father’s lifeless, blodd-spattered body, face down in the snow, just outside their home. He yells for his mother, who rushes out of the house to find the shocking scene. Emergency services are called, as well as the couple’s long-time friend Vincent.

From then on, there is a flurry of police and ambulances, with the couple’s long-time friend Vincent (Swann Arlaud), a lawyer, arriving for moral support and to act as a buffer between the woman and the investigators. The first question is what happened: was it an accidental fall, a suicide or, perhaps, murder? The evidence seems to point to something suspicious, and those suspicions quickly fall on the wife. What had been an emergency response becomes a crime scene investigation.

ANATOMY OF A FALL unfolds like a police procedural and then a courtroom drama, but the whole while, an interpersonal drama is unfolding, one that reveals the nature of their marriage and the family’s history as layers are peeled back. A key for us, the audience, is the presence of the lawyer friend, who to be on hand during the investigation and to help support his friend, moves into the remote mountain home. There, he both consuls the widow legally and provides emotional support, but allows the audience to have a narration of what is going on, physically and emotionally. The lawyer is an old friend of the couple, and his awareness of their shared history, gives us an entry the couple’s private lives we would not otherwise get. One of the things we learn is that their son is legally blind, which may have an impact on what he can tell about what happened before the fall.

Through flashbacks to the couple together, including confrontations, we learn that things have been unraveling for awhile and why. These insightful scenes and conversations with the old friend, now her lawyer, alternate with the police investigation in the home, their interrogations, and crime scene recreations and later courtroom scenes.

In addition to the talks between the accused wife and her lawyer friend, we get scenes between the boy and a court-appointed advocate for him, who also keeps an eye on any attempt by the accused to influence what her son might say. There are, of course, scenes between mother and son, where she is solicitous and caring but also worried, both about how he will be affected by what has happened and what he may say or do with all that is happening.

ANATOMY OF A FALL is a film that always keeps you guessing. The woman appears dazed by what has happened and proclaims her innocence. In fact, she does not seem guilty to us but there are a lot of secrets about the couple’s relationship and a good amount of acrimony between them is revealed. Doubt creeps in, and we waver back and forth about whether we think she is guilty. We can’t rule out something that might have happened, maybe in the heat of the moment, but maybe more deliberate.

The effect is chilling but the film also makes a deep dive into the characters, revealing their past and their conflicted thoughts and emotions. This excellent film builds up a thriller tension as the investigation and trial unfold in parallel to its tense family drama, with deep insights into a failing marriage and complicated family relationships, all of which grabs and holds tight to our attention.

Sandra Huller is the amazing center of all this, delivering a powerful, multi-layered performance, while on screen nearly throughout. The other actors are excellent as well, particularly young Milo Machando Graner as their son Daniel, who undergoes a transformation as the secrets of his parents’ marriage are revealed. But the biggest acting burden falls to Huller. And she is supremely good, keeping us on our toes, revealing her character’s inner conflicts, her fears and anger, in creating this complex character.

ANATOMY OF A FALL is a title that might evokes another film, the classic ANATOMY OF A MURDER, a 1959 courtroom drama directed by Otto Preminger and starring Jimmy Stewart, but apart from being a courtroom drama (in part) with an accused central character, there is not a lot of overlap. In the case of ANATOMY OF A FALL, we follow the events of the fall from start to finish. Everything is in doubt, all characters may not be what they seem, and even whether a crime has occurred at alls is a mystery. It almost could have been called “anatomy of a marriage” but that does not cover it all either. One thing is certain in this fascinating drama is that there is more and more, as each layer is peeled back, in its riveting examination of relationships and events.

ANATOMY OF A FALL opens Friday, Oct 27, in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN – Review

Natalia Solian as Valeria, in HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN. Photo Credit: Nur Rubio. Courtesy of Shudder

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN is a subtitled Mexican psychological thriller with dangling supernatural questions. It isn’t an easy film to watch but many will find the story and lead performance well worth the discomfort. Valeria (Natalia Solian) is a young wife eager to bear a child with her loving husband. She becomes pregnant early in the film, but nothing seems quite right about what should be making Valeria, her family and friends ecstatic.

Guilt over an unfortunate childhood left Valeria painfully insecure about her fitness for motherhood. That doubt is magnified by her mother and sister-in-law, who gleefully pound her with reminders of it at every opportunity. She starts having disturbing, surreal visions that could be signs of psychosis or something occult. Either way, her fears of maternal failure escalate greatly throughout the pregnancy. The only support and comfort she can find come from a kindly aunt with a circle (or perhaps coven) of mystical friends, and a former girlfriend, Octavia (Mayra Battala). Hubby is loving, patient and willing to be supportive but his effectiveness borders on the vestigial.

Most first-time parents experience at least some nagging concerns about whether they’ll be up to snuff. Valeria’s reaction to the pregnancy she craved ramps them up to panic levels. As we see what she sees, or at least thinks she sees, we wonder about her backstory, and from whence this terror comes. That includes learning whether an occult ritual (hence, the title) might provide a cure.

The tenor of the film, directed by Michelle Garza Cervera, is mostly that of looming menace from an unknown origin, real or imagined. The score consists of more unsettling sounds than music. Soft focus and dim lighting add to the eeriness of the presentation. We can’t be sure if we’re watching a ROSEMARY’S BABY, or a case study in schizophrenia. Or a combination of the two.

There are long stretches with little or no dialog, made compelling by one factor – Ms. Solian’s performance. Her expressive face carries most of the load, which is all the more impressive since it’s her first feature film, after only a handful of TV gigs.

I can’t mention more without spoilers but there will be plenty of fodder for discussion about a number of issues by the time the final credits roll. Patience is required, since it may seem longer than its 93 minutes but many will find the effort worthwhile, including what is likely an introduction to Ms. Solian and the bright future she should enjoy.

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN, in Spanish with English subtitles, will be available Video On Demand starting Thursday, Feb. 16, from XYZ Films.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

ATTACHMENT – Review

Josephine Park as Maja, David Dencik as Lev the bookseller, and Sofie Grabol as Leah’s mom, Chana, in ATTACHMENT. Photo credit: Soeren Kirkegaard. Courtesy of Shudder

ATTACHMENT is a strange little Danish indie drama that keeps viewers off-balance in several respects for a psychological, and possibly supernatural, suspense tale. It opens with Maja (Josephine Park) and Leah (Ellie Kendrick) having the sort of meet-cute at a Danish bookstore that usually kicks off a rom-com. Maja is a local actress whose career highs may already be behind her. Leah is a student from England who was raised in a Hassidic community. She came to Copenhagen to connect with her mother’s Danish roots. Chemistry kicks in quickly, and the two young women become lovers.

When a leg injury puts Leah on crutches, she stays there a few days longer than planned. That’s enough time for Maja to become so enamored that she accompanies her to London. The two move into Leah’s flat, which is the second floor of her mother’s building. That’s where it starts becoming obvious that this ain’t gonna be no comedy.

Leah’s mom, Chana (Sofie Grabol), is wildly over-protective, secretive and surly towards this outsider. Hassidic communities are always rather self-contained, and this blonde gentile is swimming in strange waters. Leah is mostly bed-ridden, and surprisingly tolerant of her mother’s hovering, which includes all sorts of rituals, amulets and artifacts to ward off evil spirits.

The only one who educates Maja (and the audience) about the culture, including Jewish mysticism, is Lev (David Dencik), the bookseller. Maja hears strange sounds at night, as a sense of danger lurks around the edges of the home and its occupants. Is Chana a nut case? Is Leah pathologically co-dependent? Or is there a valid reason for all the precautions against evil spirits?

That all makes ATTACHMENT a multi-pronged title, covering Maja’s romantic devotion to Leah; the tight mother-daughter bond; and whether some demonic entity is nesting within the home or its occupants. I can’t give you more without spoilers.

Writer/director Gabriel Gier Gislason does well wearing both hats. The script fills in a lot of essential Jewish education without detracting from the unfolding tale. As director, he keeps viewers in suspense and engaged within a rather claustrophobia-inducing set. Very little of the running time occurs outside the abodes of the three women, or in bright light. That accentuates the spooky side of the production. Performances from the three are excellent, which is especially admirable considering the range of moods required to flesh out their personalities and story arcs.

ATTACHMENT, in English and Danish with English subtitles, streams exclusively on Shudder starting Thursday, Feb. 9.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

LIZZIE – Review

Kristen Stewart and Chloë Sevigny in LIZZIE. Photo credit: Eliza Morse. Courtesy of Saban Films and Roadside Attractions ©

Lizzie Borden and the gruesome murders of her parents remain in the public imagination, due in part to that memorable childhood rhyme about 40 whacks. Andrew and Abby Borden were found brutally murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts on August 4, 1892, when no one else was there except Lizzie and a servant girl. Yet Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders, partly because the jury just could not believe that such a well-brought up young lady from a respectable family could possibly have committed such a horrible crime.

Over the years, there have been lots of theories about what happened that day. LIZZIE is a psychological thriller that tells one possible version, one that delves into the family dynamics within the Borden family and the restrictive lives of women in that patriarchal era, particularly unmarried, respectable ones like Lizzie.

Chloe Sevigny plays Lizzie Borden, with Kristen Stewart as the Bordens’ young Irish servant girl Bridget. Making a film about Lizzie Borden has been a years-long passion of Sevigny, who grew up in New England, after she visited the Borden home and learned about the many mysteries and myths surrounding the murders. The film is directed by Craig William Macneill from a script by Bryce Kass, which had been commissioned by star and producer Chloe Sevigny.

LIZZIE is a moody, atmospheric film that focuses on what may have driven the well-brought up Lizzie Borden to such extremes, a told with a feminist bent. The Bordens were a prosperous, well-respected Massachusetts family. As expected for an unmarried woman of her era, Lizzie lived in the home where she grew up, with her stern father Andrew (Jamey Sheridan), her stepmother Abby (Fiona Shaw), and her also unmarried older sister Emma (Kim Dickens).

Andrew Borden was a very wealthy man but he was also frugal with his money, refusing to install electricity or even indoor plumbing in their house, although those amenities were common in the homes of people with their degree of wealth. While the family was well-respected in the community, Andrew Borden is more feared than loved, and had made many enemies.

Lizzie’s father was concerned about presenting the proper respectable public image to the community, and was strict, even controlling, towards his daughters. At 32, Lizzie was already considered an “old maid” and was expected, by the social rules of the time, in remain in her parents’ home and live there unobtrusively for the rest of her life. While her older sister accepted this fate, Lizzie chafed at the restraints placed on her as an unmarried woman, particularly for a socially prominent family like the Bordens. Lizzie had no money of her own, as women of her social standing did not work outside the home, and was dependent on her father.

Abby has never been close to either of her stepdaughters, as she tells their new maid. Feeling isolated, Lizzie forms a bond with the new maid Bridget, despite the differences in their social stations.

Sevigny delivers a tour-de-force performance that conveys the frustration at the suffocating circumstances under which Lizzie must live. Sevigny paints Lizzie as an intelligent, independent woman who is also a bit of an eccentric with a feminist bent ahead of her time.

The film focuses on the events leading up to the murders and the gruesome killings rather than the trial that followed. The friendship between Lizzie and Bridget grows into something more, something that had been rumored about the real Lizzie Borden. We frequently see Lizzie rebelling against her strict father Andrew, and her defiant behavior leads to talk of sending her to asylum, something completely within her father’s legal power. At the same time, we see her father making arrangements for his wealth and business matters to be handled by his brother-in-law John (Denis O’Hare), an oily social climber that Lizzie dislikes.

Fine acting and the strong cast are a major factor in making this film work. Kristen Stewart brings a depth to her often silent character, which acts as a sympathetic ear to the stressed and lonely Lizzie, and makes it believable that they could grow close.

Sevigny is the real creative force behind this film and she is well-cast as Lizzie Borden, bringing an intelligence and complexity to the character, and the sense of a woman suffocating under the restrictions of the era, her social position and her family.

Fine acting and the strong cast are a major factor in making this film work. Kristen Stewart brings a depth to her often-silent character, which acts as a sympathetic ear to the stressed and lonely Lizzie, and makes it believable that they could grow close. Jamey Sheridan’s natural warmth helps moderate Andrew Borden’s nasty behavior, suggesting an element of over-protectiveness towards his daughter although it does nothing to excuse his habit of foreclosing on properties. Fiona Shaw’s Abby Borden seems simply disconnected from her stepdaughters rather but Denis O’Hare brings a sinister cunning to his role as her brother John, raising questions about her motives.

All in all, the cast paints a more complex picture of the Borden family than we expect, as well as a surprisingly complicated Lizzie.

Photography by Noah Greenberg gives the film an unsettling sense of voyeurism as well as foreboding. Many scenes take place in the Borden home, where a spare and sparsely decorated space lends a feeling of claustrophobia despite the relative emptiness. As we follow Lizzie around the house, going through her daily routine, a sense of tension and oppressiveness builds. The cramped and cluttered space of the shed just outside the house seem free and relaxed, as well as hidden, by comparison.

The film focuses on psychological tensions and brooding mood, more than action and confrontation, which some audiences might find dull at times. Once we get to the murders, that shifts.

Sevigny and screenwriter Kass used trial testimony as inspiration to help capture Lizzie’s personality, transcripts that Sevigny felt revealed a forthright woman with a dry sense of humor, quite bold, even feminist, for her time. With little known about what actually happened the day of the murders, the filmmakers were forced to invent a plausible scenario, and the version they come up with is an intriguing one, the act of a woman with limited options and driven to extremes to escape an insufferable situation.

LIZZIE opens Friday, Sept. 21, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema and the Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM – The Review

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THE MIDNIGHT SWIM is a hauntingly beautiful character study about three half-sisters who return to their mother’s lake house to handle her affairs after she was deemed drowned in the mysterious Spirit Lake. Technically classified as horror, the film can be psychically disturbing at times, but this does misrepresent the film’s true nature.

Writer and director Sarah Adina Smith presents her film in a semi-faux-documentary style, allowing the viewer to get close and personal with the characters as we learn about them and feel how they’re coping with the relationship flaws and loss of their mother. THE MIDNIGHT SWIM feels like a deeply personal film, but with an edge of having experienced something with which we never should have been given access.

Dr. Amelia Brooks, played in retrospect by Beth Grant, was a researcher and activist in support of saving the lake. She frequently dove to take samples and explore, as no one has ever reached the bottom of the endlessly deep body of water. On her last dive, she never returned and was not seen again. Officially pronounced dead, her three daughters spend time in the house together, coming to terms with each other and their mother.

Annie, played by Jennifer Lafleur, is the eldest daughter and a mother. Isa, played by Aleksa Palladino, seems to be the youngest, free-spirited and fun-loving, new age hippie out of her time. She rekindles an old flame with Josh, played by Ross Partridge, with whom she spends time when not with her sisters. Isa is also the most interesting character in the film. June, played by Lindsay Burdge, is a photographer and is shooting a documentary on their experience. We see and hear the least from June, given she is in part telling the very story we’re watching on screen, but she also has reflective and revealing moments on screen, some of which are entirely silent but equally unnerving.

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM is not a traditional horror film. Instead, the three sisters find themselves exploring their own states of mind and each others’ as they talk, argue and reminisce about their late mother. Occasionally, their is a slight, thinly-veiled breach of the fourth wall as if the characters are interacting directly with the audience, due to the faux-documentary style, but because this is not maintained consistently throughout the film, we’re caught off guard. As the story develops, strange occurrences do begin to raise concerns amongst the sisters, at first assuming pranks being played in poor taste, later seen as signs of something more paranormal in nature.

Sonically, THE MIDNIGHT SWIM almost seems to occur in a vacuum, with little music and laid over mere natural sound and white noise. Occasionally, and usually when cutting to or featuring the lake itself, we are given hauntingly, unearthly soundscapes as an ethereal audio pathway leading us into the unknown. Tempting us to take a swim. Equally alluring is the picturesque quality given the lake, especially at night, dark and enchanting, calling for us to submerge within in abyss.

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM contains several small, easily missed moments of finely crafted detail, much of which suggests theories and clues as to the events being portrayed on film. From microscopic views of their mother’s lake samples, revealing creepy natural beasts invisible to the naked eye to hand-written research notes indicating strange anomalies within the lake as she ventured deeper with each dive. Carefully placed bits of dialogue are also integrated to suggest connections to things larger and beyond our normal comprehension. These are the textures that help create layers of curiosity, avoiding the pitfall of being just a film about three sisters and their drama. This helps create the mystery.

Roughly 45 minutes into the film, the experience whiplashes the viewer out of the pleasantly coma-inducing family drama into a surreal, music-video like scene that injects a surge of joyous adrenaline into the previously sedated mind. This excursion from the tone of the film is never truly explained, in any conceivable way, but aside from this moment, all makes sense in the end. For viewers of THE MIDNIGHT SWIM that enter into the experience without preconceived notions or misguided expectations, this may prove an enlightening, even oddly uplifting film.

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM is slow at times, can be disorienting or slightly confusing, but is best described as an uncomfortable, intimately personal invitation to invade the emotional psyche of these three women at their most vulnerable. Its equally off-putting and tantalizing, philosophically and spiritually suggestive, making for a film that is not perfect, but far from boring.

THE MIDNIGHT SWIM Dives Into Cinemas and VOD Nationwide on Friday, June 26th, 2015.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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THE HARVEST (2013) – The Review

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At one time or another, we’ve all felt we’ve had the worst parents in the world. We have our reasons, but watch THE HARVEST (2013) and you’ll quickly reevaluate your thinking. The question arises… what is a child’s life worth and how far will you go to save that life when certain death rears its unfriendly head?

THE HARVEST tells the story of a seriously ill boy named Andrew, bed-ridden and bored out of his mind. He’s not allowed to leave the house, play baseball, have friends or go to school, and is barely allowed to leave his room. Andrew, played by Charlie Tahan, is weak and can barely stand on his own, but he still has desires just like any boy his age. These desire have been successfully subdued by his over-protective, borderline psychotic mother Katherine, played by Samantha Morton. Then a misunderstood, rebellious girl his age named Maryann moves into her grandparents’ house nearby and changes everything.

Maryann, played by Natasha Calis, doesn’t waste any time exploring and looking for some way to entertain herself in this secluded area, tucked away in the woods. This is how she happens upon Andrew’s house where the two quickly develop an awkward but empathetic friendship of kindred spirits. For the first time, Andrew actually appears to be experiencing some level of happiness, that is of course, until Katherine discovers the existence of Maryann, which had prior been kept a secret.

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THE HARVEST is set almost entirely inside or in the immediate vicinity of Andrew’s home. What Andrew’s house may lack in physical size, it more than compensates with the size and severity of its secrets. With Andrew basically confined to his bed in his room, the house is essentially a prison. Katherine, a medical doctor by profession, is obsessed with curing her son’s ailment at any and all costs, which serves as her prison. Andrew’s father Richard, played by Michael Shannon, is also a prisoner, but his confinement is his hopelessly lost marriage to his mentally unstable wife Katherine.

Written by first-timer Stephen Lancellotti, THE HARVEST is a passionate film steeped in fear, guilt and lies kept by every major player in the film. The emotional scale of the film tilts heavily toward the darker, unsavory elements of humanity. Despite this, Lancellotti’s strong, well-written characters hold the otherwise excessively depraved nature of the story together, keeping Andrew’s world from crumbling around him until the very end. This is most clearly illustrated in Michael Shannon’s surprisingly subdued performance as Richard, a man so beaten-down by his wife’s insistence on being a controlling emotional mess, that he can often barely speak or move in her presence.

Richard is not a coward, but he is weak. Having left his career to stay home and take care of Andrew while Katherine works, he has but a single purpose that drains his very essence, and yet Katherine will not even allow him to fully embrace this role. Other weaknesses of Richard’s emerge in the film, but they all tie back into his desire to do right by his son, however he must. Sadly, that often means protecting and supporting Andrew against his mother’s abrasive, even violent behavior spawned from a truly demented sense of ensuring her’s son’s well-being.

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Samantha Morton delivers a performance so absolutely frightening that the concept alone of their being a real life Katherine out in the world somewhere alone sends chills down my spine. On the most primal, stripped down level, her heart is in the right place, but the manner and methods by which she pursues saving her son’s life are so utterly deplorable that virtually every moment she is on screen is cringe-worthy. Consider Kathy Bates’ performance as Annie Wilkes in MISERY (1990) and then notch that sucker up to 11 on the bone-tingling terror scale.

Andrew’s helplessness is made convincing by Charlie Tahan’s performance, not just in the physically demanding nature of the role requiring him to appear weak and broken, but in his emotional state and virtually non-existent level of energy. In pulling this off, Tahan only increases the next-level insanity that emerges from Morton’s performance. Meanwhile, Natasha Calis is perhaps the most normal and well-rounded character in the film, despite her own demons, which are relatively minor in comparison to Andrew’s. Finally, for good measure, McNaughton throws a familiar seasoned favorite in the mix with Peter Fonda playing Maryann’s grandfather. While his role is rather small, he does provide a crucial line of dialogue in the film that, for Maryann, serves as the equivalent of Uncle Ben telling Peter Parker “with great power comes great responsibility.”

John McNaughton is a filmmaker of notable cult status, but many of you reading this are scratching your heads, I am sure. Having made his mark early in his career, McNaughton is best known to true horror movie aficionados for HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), his debut film that also introduced Michael Rooker to movie audiences, who is now something of a household name amongst The Walking Dead fans.

Well-known for the gritty, faux-documentary style of his feature film debut about what makes a killer, McNaughton takes a sizable step away from that visual style. The film still has a hint of that voyeuristic element, but its subtle and will go mostly unnoticed. I realize how strange this will sound, but THE HARVEST actually conveys more of a prime time Hallmark family movie night vibe to its visual style, with its contemporary, shot-on-digital video looking, real life drama sort of stuff, that actually adds to the creepiness of what takes place.

McNaughton is no stranger to delving into projects that develop as much controversy as they do cult following, such as MAD DOG AND GLORY (1993) and WILD THINGS (1998). I feel this will not be an exception to that rule and I am certainly grateful for McNaughton sticking to his guns. I will end with this… if you are not even a little bit afraid of Samantha Morton after seeing this film, please do me a favor and never introduce me to your mother.

THE HARVEST opened in New York on April 10 and is available on VOD now.

The film opens in Los Angeles this Friday, April 24th at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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BORGMAN – The Review

BORGMAN_Bedroom: A naked Borgman (Jan Bijvoet) crouches over Marina (Hadewych Minis) as she sleeps in Drafthouse Films’ Borgman. Courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

Most of us think we have a solid grasp on the definition of good and evil. This is good and right, but that over there is so bad and evil. I’m good because I do this, but what they do over there is evil. We like to throw these labels around like they are black and white, carved in stone and not at all subject to interpretation or context. At this, I laugh heartily with the best of intentions. One of the many things I love so much about cinema is the freedom it gives the artist to explore sides of humanity that most of us would otherwise dare not even think of acting out in real life. Nor would most of us ever wish such things on others, but there is something to be said for exploring such things on a philosophical and artistic level instead of avoiding and ignoring the urges and curiosities.

BORGMAN is written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam. The film begins harmlessly enough, with a small mob of angry men and their dogs led by a priest carrying a shotgun. Nothing out of the ordinary. The priest and his posse appear to be hunting a vagrant who has ingeniously dug out an underground home for himself beneath the forest floor, complete with a hidden entrance and furniture. The vagrant’s name is Camiel Borgman, played by Jan Bijvoet, and he will prove to be much more complex than he appears at face value. Camiel is a relatively small, skinny man, filthy and unkempt with long ratty hair and beard. Despite our first impressions, there is something about the way Camile moves and carries himself, right from the beginning, that sets him apart and conveys an unmistakable intelligence.

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Having caught wind of the intruders, Camiel abandons his home and warns his neighboring vagrants as he stealthily retreats from the oncoming threat. He happens upon an upper class home nestled within the woods and takes it upon himself to knock upon the front door. Richard, played by Jeroen Pereval, answers and with perfect politeness, Camiel asks the man if he may take a bath, or even a shower would suffice, as its been ages since he’s had the opportunity. It may come with great shock when Richard refuses, politely enough at first, but this is when things really begin to get interesting. Masterfully improvising as he goes, Camile begins to spin a seemingly believable tale of how he knows Richard’s wife Marina, played by Hadewych Minis. This, of course, reestablishes Richard’s interest which ultimately leads to Camiel receiving a testosterone-fueled beat down from Richard on his front lawn. Shocked and genuinely concerned for his health, Marina feels drawn to help Camile and make up for the barbaric display of masculine pride her husband has bestowed upon him. After all, Camiel appears harmless enough, right?

With each step he takes and boundary he pushes, Camiel reveals more of his true nature. Simultaneously, Marina — an artist — falls deeper and deeper into his spell as we watch her loyalty shift. Meanwhile, Richard’s corporate career is falling apart and their family life is beginning to crumble and Camiel leaves out of boredom. As a crucial turning point, Camiel returns to Marina’s house as their new gardener. He is cleaned up, almost unrecognizable except to Marina. With him Camiel brings a motley crew of fellow confidence artists who share his diabolical taste for manipulating others’ lives and, in some cases, ending them as well. Pascal, Ilonka, Brenda and Ludwig — played by Alex van Warmerdam — are a team of brilliant misfits who thrive on anarchy and deception. As the new gardeners, they begin constructing their intricate design which will forever change the lives of Marina and her family. Equally disturbing, but on a much less noticeable scale than Camiel, is the quietly discomforting performance given by Elve Lijbaart as Isolde, Marina’s blonde-haired white-skinned daughter. Isolde gets credit for the most shockingly unexpected and disturbing moment in the film, revealing that perhaps she too is predisposed to being a sociopath.

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BORGMAN is rich with dark details and curious notions. Camiel comes across as some mysterious Loki-like deity of mischief, playing with peoples’ lives like so many fragile tin soldiers in a young boy’s toy chest. Camiel operates with a malevolent modesty that is disarming. He picks and chooses those he knows he can control and discards those he chooses not to control, instead toying with them first like setting ants on fire with a magnifying glass. They slowly feel the burn, not knowing the source, then suddenly they are dead. Warmerdam leaves plenty open to interpretation and discussion. While BORGMAN has a complicated but accessible plot, there are many elements that raise questions rather provide answers. Pay close attention to these key moments in the film and enjoy discussing them with fellow viewers afterwards. Few films since PULP FICTION have provided this caliber of debatable cinematic content.

What begins as a dry, quirky tale of a homeless man rapidly escalates and transforms into something more sinister. BORGMAN is often surreal and edgy, never ceasing to surprise the viewer as Camiel gradually unfolds his devilishly wicked wings from beneath his mild-mannered cloak. Such a change might prove too much and over the top, but Warmerdam does it with such subtlety and attention to keeping the tone of the film calm and almost meditative, that the transition from good to evil appears almost seamless and natural. In a sense, BORGMAN attempts to blur the lines between what is good and evil. Marina and those close to her are Camiel’s playthings and Camiel is the filmmaker’s master of puppets in his deadly and seductive game of chess.

If you enjoyed Michael Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES, I highly recommend Warmerdam’s BORGMAN, as it falls somewhere on the slightly less psychotic end of the scale for such films.

BORGMAN opens theatrically in NY on June 6th, 2014 at Lincoln Plaza & IFC Center with an expanded release on June 13th & 20th, 2014

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

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