Change Your Image
hendinerik
Reviews
Bitch (2017)
Intense and different but also refreshing in a strange way (spoilers)
This movie was way better than I thought it would be in that among other things it takes a concept and looks at what would that would look like. While there are funny scenes, it does not shy away from the disturbing: 1) The movie starts with the woman attempting suicide - this brings home reinforces how far things have gone with her getting no support at home with raising 4 kids. 2) The woman believes she is a dog and is treated like she needs to be and is basically locked up in her own home because she is dangerous. There is an almost traumatic quality to it, and at times I found it hard to watch. 3) The sound of the dog is loud for what I think is intentional and sometimes there is a sort of surprise bark or growl to throw off the audience. 4) The husband refuses to get her real treatment because he wants to retain the illusion of control. This was also disturbing to me because of just how serious the woman's condition is.
They show the transformation of the husband and the family around the condition of the mother and that was kind of interesting. I did not completely find this to be a comedy but I found it refreshing - I actually did think it portrayed what psychosis can look like.
I think it does also show how an emotional contract between two people can go horribly wrong and signal a need to change.
There are obvious messages about roles of men and women which are largely outmoded in today's society - the woman in this movie has given up everything and has next to no space or time for herself, and the husband has never given up anything and at least in the beginning is more emotionally connected to his job than anything else.
One might say well what about the affair he is having with the secretary - I believe this is an extension of the husband's narcissism or at least intense self-involvement. It is so pronounced that I almost questioned how he could have had 4 kids in the first place.
Wakefield (2016)
Worth seeing
This is definitely worth seeing for Bryan Cranston's performance. Some random observations/thoughts: The interesting twist on this is that here we have a man who is leaving his family but actually just staying right next to them to watch them the whole time. The pain of that is palpable - it's almost as though he has done so to re-evaluate all the choices he has made and to examine those in his family (his wife in particular) as a way of connecting with himself somehow. This is more involved than a simple movie about escape, because he doesn't really change his identity, he more just vanishes to the people he loves and lets circumstances control the rest. There is something disconnected about Howard generally, and perhaps he has become a stranger to himself, in the sense that the life he has lead up until the point he leaves is not really "him" somehow.
The ending is fairly frustrating but I think it makes the point that it's almost not about what happens when he returns but about the transformation or introspection and internal searching that happen when he leaves his life yet is right there "next to it" somehow.
The thing I had trouble with as a parent of young kids, is that the kids are almost an afterthought somehow - clearly he cares about them but perhaps it has been so long since he had connected with the children it was less of a conflicted thing for him. He seems to rationalize leaving by saying they are all happier without him.