Lie With Me (2005)

Eric Balfour can be found in quite a few of the films and TV shows that I’ve watched over the last 10 years or so. He’s Theresa’s fiancé Eddie in The O.C., he’s Milo in 24.  He also crops up in What Women Want and Six Feet Under. He’s also apparently is in this.

‘This’ is basically a teen film. It revolves around the relationship of two uni students (Played by Balfour and Lauren Lee Smith) and the twists and emotional bullshit that inevitably goes with it. That’s fine, except it’s far far far too sexually explicit to be aimed at teenagers. The plot isn’t complicated enough to really grip an adult audience though. It’s very loose, and probably not very believable, but never mind eh? It’ll do.

It’s directed by Clément Virgo, who doesn’t seem to have done anything else that I recognise except for odd episodes of The L Word and The Wire. What a contrast. The Wire is supposed to be so amazing (no, I haven’t got round to watching it yet), but The L Word… well… that was a massive pile of wank. Apparently Lauren Lee Smith was in it at one point. The only interesting thing she seems to have done apart from that is a bit of CSI. Meh.

As a film Lie With Me is fine. I don’t consider it a waste of time and at no point when watching it did I get bored enough to bother switching it off. The plot’s vague and the general idea is a bit teeny but it held my interest well enough. I recommend it as a highly suitable film for those lazy days when you don’t really want to concentrate on much. Or fancy watching some poorly justified ‘artistic’ sex.

Mysterious Skin (2004)

I’m not sure where I first heard of Mysterious Skin. Perhaps it was as a trailer before another film, or perhaps it was recommended by someone. Whatever the reason, this film ended up on my ‘to watch’ list before I really knew much about it.

It’s about two boys, Neil and Brian, who are sexually abused by their baseball coach as children. This has left different effects on them as young adults. Brian, who cannot account for large periods of time from that period, begins to believe that he was abducted by aliens and begins a correspondence with local alien-enthusiast Avalyn. Neil on the other hand is gay and considers it part of his sexual awakening along with reading his mother’s Playgirls and fantasising about her boyfriends. He resorts to prostitution throughout his adolescence to satisfy his sexual compulsion.

I was surprised to see so many familiar faces in this film. Mysterious Skin stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 things I hate about you, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises), and Michelle Trachtenberg (Eurotrip, Gossip Girl, Buffy). Another main character is played by Brady Corbet – a guy that I couldn’t pick out of a crowd but who has apparently been in three other films that I’ve seen this year (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Melancholia, and Thirteen) as well as a series of 24. He must be rather forgettable; he certainly didn’t leave any greater impression this time round. It’s a shame because he’s a good actor, and actually rather handsome when you come to look at him. I’ll try to pay better attention next time. His most recent film is called Simon Killer. No idea what it’s about but maybe I’ll give that a go and try to concentrate on him more. Maybe I won’t bother.

Perhaps I found him negligible because I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And Michelle Trachtenberg too come to mention it. Other actors do tend to get ignored if they’re on screen. And they’re very good – their relationship in Mysterious Skin, that of an old, comfortable friendship, felt real and believable. The whole film is rather slowly paced and was a nice easy film to watch. Despite the difficult themes of paedophilia, prostitution, and drugs, it wasn't difficult to watch. There’s only one bit where I winced.

I really want to watch this film again at some point, so I’m probably going to actually go to the effort of buying it, something which almost never happens these days. It might just prove one of my solid go-to films.

Baise-Moi (2000)

Under the guise of a film about female sexual empowerment Baise-Moi is really just an excuse for numerous gratuitous scenes of sex and violence. Excellent start. It’s in French, which takes any annoying American whiney element out of it. Even better. I don’t know about you but this was enough to sell it to me. A brief outline of the plot placed this film firmly on my ‘to watch – soon’ list.

Baise-Moi follows two young women, Nadine and Manu, as they travel through France on a sex-fuelled and thoroughly violent road-trip. After a chance meeting, their mutual hatred for the world and everything in it leads them to kill, first for money, then for fun and finally just for the hell of it. There’re a lot of guns, and a lot of blood, and a lot of sex.

Apparently my theme this week is ‘Is it a film or is it porn?’ - not hugely surprising for me but apparently this is my second film of the week to include the use of real hardcore sex scenes. Starring two real-life porn-stars Karen Bach and Raffaëla Anderson, Baise-Moi does not shy away from anything. There are scenes here which wouldn’t look too out of place in any proper porn film, and perhaps their inclusion is enough for some people to automatically class this as pornography – there has to be a line somewhere. For me though, this is definitely not porn. The music’s different. Or the lighting. Or the language… something. Something is there that definitely makes these scenes acceptable (if graphic) parts of film. Integral parts too as, at least in my opinion, anything softer would be at odds with the level of violence in the film. And toning down both the sex and the violence would render the whole film largely pointless. These women are angry and bored and drug-fuelled, and who wants to see a half-hearted, only mildly irritated with the world, semi-rampage?

For all this film promised (I had heard very good things about it), I found the beginning a little dull. It’s not hugely relevant, and the promised ‘violent gang-rape’ at the beginning was frankly a let down. In a very short film (only 78 minutes) they seem to waste a long time setting the scene. I forgot this after a while though, and was soon drawn into the plot. The film builds gradually, consistently and my opinion of it only improved as it went on. I did however start wondering how they were going to let it finish. Would they get caught? Would they make it over the French border? Would they both die in a massive gun-fight with the police a la Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? I wasn’t sure any of these would satisfy me and I hate it when good films are ruined by terrible endings (blaming things on aliens being the worst cop-out ending ever). Never fear though, it’s all good and while the ending is abrupt, it felt fitting for a film with such momentum.

Destricted (2006)

Destricted is not a film. Nor is it porn. It’s both. Or neither. Or something. I’m not sure quite what it’s trying to be really. It styles itself as an art-house collection of shorts that explore where pornography and art meet. It’s very sexually explicit. But it’s not erotic. Not really.

Notice the short sentences. I haven’t really had time to digest it yet and all I have is the vague feeling that I’ve just wasted a couple of hours of my life. Some of the shorts are barely more complex or arty than simply watching someone masturbate for a few minutes. Death Valley is a good example of one of those. It’s directed by Sam Taylor-Wood who also directed Nowhere Boy (Yeah – I bet that surprised you!). A more obvious director for such a genre is Gaspar Noé. No prizes for guessing which one he directs though. It’s exactly the same as Irreversible, right down to the weird background noise and the strobe lights. It does neglect to include the violent fire extinguisher murder though so that’s something.

Another of the films is a weird comedy-type thing about Balkan folk-law that involves various people in ‘traditional’ costume prancing about with their genitals on display. While it rains. And there’s a bit of animation there too for good measure.

This is definitely a contender for the weirdest film I’ve seen this year, if not ever. And it’s got some company. Irreversible, Dogtooth, Possession, Shortbus – knocks them all out of the park. The only strong competition I can think of is Missing. Korean cake-rape does class quite highly on the weird ratings. It makes me slightly long for the sweet innocent days of thinking Requiem for a Dream was fucked up.

The Help (2011)

The Help first appeared on my radar largely because my mum has been nagging me for a while to read the book. I’m sure it’s wonderful, but I haven’t got around to it yet. It made me notice the film though when it was coming out and I would have seen it then, were it not for my general preference of wanting to read books before watching the film version. Then came the BAFTAs, and the Oscars and there was no escaping the praise given to this film; particularly to Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, actresses who play two black maids working for rich white families.

The first thing I think is worth noting is that The Help is set in the 1960s. I am astounded at how ignorant about racism issues people could be as recently as this. Being born in the ‘80s and growing up in an overly politically correct society doesn’t prepare you for such attitudes and I feel really quite ashamed of my naivety.

The film follows Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan - a young white woman returning from university and embarking on a new career as a journalist in her home town of Jackson, Mississippi. As a girl she was cared for by a black maid and is now eager to publish a book telling the stories of maids in the city where she grew up. This is apparently an illegal thing to do and at first the only two to maids brave enough to talk to her are Aibileen and Minny (Spencer, Davis). As it turns out, they have a plenty of material. Skeeter’s attitude towards ‘the help’ is in contrast to the rest of her peers who, through disdain, fear, or peer-pressure treat their maids really rather badly, while trying to maintain their own position in the city’s social scene.

For all its difficult themes of racism, domestic violence, and generally dated attitudes towards women, this is actually a feel-good film. Davis as Minny provides enough comedy to almost carry the film herself (no wonder she won many Best Supporting Actress awards) and the warmth shown by Aibileen to everybody is genuinely uplifting.

While I won’t claim it is artistic genius, I enjoyed this film enough to almost want to watch it again immediately, and I will definitely sit down to watch it again fairly soon. I am also going to keep my eye out for any future work from director Tate Taylor. After a while acting in some rather negligible roles, I think he may well have finally found his niche.

The Woman in the Fifth (2011)

I want to like Kristin Scott Thomas, I really do. I think Sarah’s Key was one of the most moving films of last year and she’s fine (if rather forgettable) in things like Gosford Park and The Other Boleyn Girl. And if I’m thinking about it, she’s the reason I actually watched this film. It’s in French too and therefore my brain assumed it would be as good as Sarah’s Key. Yeah… not so much.

The Woman in the Fifth is about a man (played by Ethan Hawke who was rather awesome in Gattaca). As the film begins we see him going through customs – apparently he’s moving to Paris to be with his wife and daughter, who live there. That’s all well and good except it turns out they have a restraining order against him. Sad times. So, after he’s randomly robbed of everything except the clothes he’s standing in he’s forced to stay in some sleazy café/hotel on the outskirts of the city run by some kind of criminal. That he then has to work for to pay the bills. It all kind of goes wrong for him after that.

At a party, he meets an enigmatic woman, with whom he starts up a very vague sort of sexual relationship. This is ‘the woman in the fifth’, the fifth being the fifth arrondissement - an area in Paris. I don’t quite understand what’s going on there as she doesn’t really get very much air time but for some reason she becomes very important to him.

Not a lot happens in this film really - most of the time we see him writing a letter to his daughter. Most of what does happen is pointless and strange and seems to have very little motive behind it.

I’m giving up on French cinema.