“Coyness is nice,
and coyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life that you want to,
So if there’s something you’d like to try…
Ask me, I won’t say no, how could I?
Because if it’s not love,
then it’s the bomb that will bring us together.”
– “Ask” by Morrissey & The Smiths
[cont’d]
The following post discusses taboo
themes, and contains language that
could be triggering.
I’m late to the “Downton Abbey” party, so I wasn’t aware (or spoiled) that one of season 4’s serials stems from the sexual assault of a major character.
This event – stupefying though off-screen – is earned narratively, by virtue of my invested connection with the players. Original properties usually have to really convince me that their using rape, implied or otherwise, isn’t either for shock value, or out of creative laxity.
Having said that, if an intrepid & shameless (mostly shameless) Reddit user hasn’t already asked what ‘The Most Disturbing Rape Scenes of All-Time’ are, I have now walked into that trap myself.
I have my own personal picks that needn’t be discussed here, but the potency of said scenes would be dissonant were it not for the mettle of the actors involved: particularly those who may not already have a propensity towards violence.
[cont’d]
“Dead of Winter” (or DOW) is the antithesis to ‘Golden Topping Land:’ a movie you are actively conscious of while watching; an unremarkable composition that will pass from your brain as quickly as consumed, like cinematic Benefiber.
Actress Emma Thompson has had a robust & trustworthy career, and here, she plays the unlikely heroine of a kidnapping thriller. An Executive Producer credit ensured her creative autonomy, lest we forget she also won a screenwriting Oscar.
With control comes accountability – ergo, no one else is responsible for today’s wretched protagonist, except for Thompson.
[cont’d]
“Innovation is not always embraced and art is to be interpreted… I’ve had a career of making classic movies that weren’t critically received…”
– “Him” actor Marlon Wayans, comparing its critical disparity to the ‘cult’ status of 2004’s frequently-cited ‘worst movie ever’ “White Chicks”
[cont’d]
“…there is a fear among studio executives…about some of the subject matter [of modern independent movies]. …everyone is going to films based on IP or something that’s very familiar, and that is the absolute antithesis of filmmaking…”
– Director Chris Columbus (“Home Alone”; “The Thursday Murder Club”), who was fired as producer on 2005’s “Fantastic Four”
[cont’d]
theory of a daskeman 