#CR5FC #moustache

Everyone in film club seems to be at a different place this month. Jeffrey is overloading on films, John can't seem to focus (should we blame his recent foray into Twitter?), Brandon is killing it on the 60's, Chris has ceased blogging while he works on his mustache, Jason and I have connected over our girlish natures, Adrienne has dubbed us a cult, and Lisa is, I can only assume based upon her absence, floating around the gorges somewhere.

I know that Jerzy's Lonely Are the Brave post went up a little bit early. I think I told him the wrong date. Of course, I still haven't watched it yet; so, I'm glad he's representing it here in the meantime. 

The movies that I have watched this week are: Martha Marcy May Marlene; The Secret World of Arrietty; Minnie and Moskowtiz.

Let's start with the one that is going to pull Brandon and I even further apart. 

Martha Marcy May Marlene (dir. Sean Durkin, 2011)  

Normally, I don't like stories that are told with flashbacks. I think that it's difficult to do well and that 9 times out of 10 a different literary device works better. However, Martha Marcy May Marlene uses them to put us into the mind of Martha rather than as an expositional catch-up. Indeed, when we go back to Martha's experience with the cult, we only gets snippets, brief flashes of memory. We experience the past and present as fragmentary, which allows us a privileged look into Martha's disintegrating mind. It's a strange thing when a movie can simultaneously put us into the character but also allow us room to wonder at how they can feel/act in a certain way. 

One of the things that I appreciate about this film is that it isn't just a movie about a cult. By following Martha in the weeks after she leaves, the film chooses to to explore something more specific: the psychological impact that people can exert over each other and the aftereffects of manipulation and control. We see how this manipulation has toyed with Martha's identity and watch her struggle to regain trust in herself and in others. "I'm a teacher and a leader," she tells her sister during an argument, quoting what she was told by the leader of the cult, Patrick. It's painful to watch her search inside, grasping for whatever true pieces of her might be left. 

The film is shot in a way that adds to the confusion. The farm sequences are always a bit dreamy, faces somewhat shadowed, events blurred around the edges. At the lake house everything seems bright and modern and somewhat confrontational. 

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the acting. Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes turn two incredibly difficult characters into something complicated and believable. Some of the best performances of the year in an ambiguous psychological thriller that makes my updated Top Ten list.

The Secret World of Arrietty (dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010)

Brandon's post covers it all. This was a really fun movie. 

Minnie and Moskowitz (dir. John Cassavetes, 1971)

A favorite of John and Brandon and now a favorite of mine. This picture sums it up.