Gagging for It #2
Dogville
4 out of 5 pitchforks
A compelling film about some broad who tries to negotiate dignity for security among the locals of a dying mining town in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere. Or Colorado. Same shit. Although remaining true to any Lars von Trier film - where it starts off very badly and ends fucking horribly - the conclusion is kind of a surprise. The film is broken up into nine chapters. The setup is a minimalist stage production, relying on chalklines and ancillary props (i.e. door here, a bed there) to demarcate residences, stores and the abandoned mine and simple camera work and lighting. I quite like this alot and became accustomed quite quickly. Nicole Kidman - who does frail and delicate beauty so well - portrays Grace. Grace is a fashionable dame on the lam, who stumbles upon Dogville. Here, she meets Thomas Edison Jr. - played by Paul Bettany, who is great in this film, btw - to whom she supplicates for refuge. He likens himself a philosopher. I think he's just a douche who grates on me real quick. Anyhow, he talks to the townfolk and they all agree to help Grace out. At the beginning, we are led to believe that Grace is a runaway/missing person. She does odd jobs in order to appease and to belong. However, things change (and in true von Trier fashion, they get spectacularly worse) when Grace's status shifts from missing person to wanted person of interest, replete with the tantalizing prospect of a reward being dished out. You can probably, at this point, imagine how everything suddenly spirals nastily down the shitter. The disintegration begins and everyone's nature degrades, as does Grace's position and situation. Which - I probably don't need to emphasize but will - is totally shitty, writ fucking large. We witness to our horror, painful minute after minute, this dramatic shift: from servant to slave, citizen to denizen, stranger to friend and back to stranger and onto prisoner. Sigh. Of course, this goes on until the explosive conclusion. The result of what happens when you fuck with the wrong person and they fly off the handle. Sorta.
Stellan Skarsgård does a mean job as Chuck. So mean, in fact, we get to see his bare ass. Ugh. I heart Lauren Becall because she does "crusty crone" like it's no one's fucking business. In addition, Zeljko Ivanek does a bang-up job playing a social misfit/bad seed. In all honesty, I really do dig Ivanek. However, this role is not much of a stretch for someone who routinely plays serial killers, incestuous fathers, stalkers and wife-beaters. I'm just sayin' is all.
The ending was...disturbingly awesome. Plenty of people will disagree with me on this, but fuck 'em. I will not disclose details as to what happens; however, I will say that I certainly felt like doing the wave, the cabbage patch and the roger rabbit (all in that sequence) afterwards. I was that fucking delighted. As for the anti-American angle that many have bitched about: frankly, I didn't see it. Anyone who insist that it was the thrust of the movie are meth-heads. What I did see was a movie that crystalized humanity's foibles and perversity. Pretty universal shit.
4 out of 5 pitchforks
A compelling film about some broad who tries to negotiate dignity for security among the locals of a dying mining town in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere. Or Colorado. Same shit. Although remaining true to any Lars von Trier film - where it starts off very badly and ends fucking horribly - the conclusion is kind of a surprise. The film is broken up into nine chapters. The setup is a minimalist stage production, relying on chalklines and ancillary props (i.e. door here, a bed there) to demarcate residences, stores and the abandoned mine and simple camera work and lighting. I quite like this alot and became accustomed quite quickly. Nicole Kidman - who does frail and delicate beauty so well - portrays Grace. Grace is a fashionable dame on the lam, who stumbles upon Dogville. Here, she meets Thomas Edison Jr. - played by Paul Bettany, who is great in this film, btw - to whom she supplicates for refuge. He likens himself a philosopher. I think he's just a douche who grates on me real quick. Anyhow, he talks to the townfolk and they all agree to help Grace out. At the beginning, we are led to believe that Grace is a runaway/missing person. She does odd jobs in order to appease and to belong. However, things change (and in true von Trier fashion, they get spectacularly worse) when Grace's status shifts from missing person to wanted person of interest, replete with the tantalizing prospect of a reward being dished out. You can probably, at this point, imagine how everything suddenly spirals nastily down the shitter. The disintegration begins and everyone's nature degrades, as does Grace's position and situation. Which - I probably don't need to emphasize but will - is totally shitty, writ fucking large. We witness to our horror, painful minute after minute, this dramatic shift: from servant to slave, citizen to denizen, stranger to friend and back to stranger and onto prisoner. Sigh. Of course, this goes on until the explosive conclusion. The result of what happens when you fuck with the wrong person and they fly off the handle. Sorta.
Stellan Skarsgård does a mean job as Chuck. So mean, in fact, we get to see his bare ass. Ugh. I heart Lauren Becall because she does "crusty crone" like it's no one's fucking business. In addition, Zeljko Ivanek does a bang-up job playing a social misfit/bad seed. In all honesty, I really do dig Ivanek. However, this role is not much of a stretch for someone who routinely plays serial killers, incestuous fathers, stalkers and wife-beaters. I'm just sayin' is all.
The ending was...disturbingly awesome. Plenty of people will disagree with me on this, but fuck 'em. I will not disclose details as to what happens; however, I will say that I certainly felt like doing the wave, the cabbage patch and the roger rabbit (all in that sequence) afterwards. I was that fucking delighted. As for the anti-American angle that many have bitched about: frankly, I didn't see it. Anyone who insist that it was the thrust of the movie are meth-heads. What I did see was a movie that crystalized humanity's foibles and perversity. Pretty universal shit.
Labels: cinema
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