Shakefire.com - Sarah Paulson

An intense, powerful, and deeply affecting film with scenes that will turn in your mind long after the credits roll, 12 Years A Slave is an unflinching and sober look at U.S. chattel slavery. It thankfully does not hold to the romantic ideation of the antebellum south, but shows in stark relief the daily realities of a slave. With clear eyes and sharp focus, Steve McQueen’s directorial style can almost feel documentarian. Based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, the film relates the tale of the author. Born free in New York, drugged, kidnapped, and sold into human bondage in Louisiana, Northup alternately labors and suffers under many masters until he is finally recovered after his twelve years of toil.

The film is chiefly carried by the abundantly talented Chiwetel Ejiofor, who I have been a fan since his role in Serenity and when I heard he was attached to this project, I was ecstatic. I knew Ejiofor, not only could, but would deliver. Believe the hype; Ejiofor’s performance is unforgettable. His face expressed the confusion, anger, and despair written in every inch of his body of a person who has come to accept that this living hell of slavery will be the rest of his life. Benedict Cumberbatch also does a fantastic job portraying Master Ford, who Northup (now renamed Platt) first sees as a kind person, considering his situation. However, Ford is still a slave master and his kindness is proven to be a mask that covers his cowardice. When Ford is confronted with the truth of Northup’s circumstances Ford advises him to be quiet, he has debts to pay and cannot do so without him.

Michael Fassbender, a Steve McQueen favorite, is the chilling, sadistic, and brutal Master Epps. Fassbender is terrifying as he tears through the slave cabins in a drunken stupor, waking his slaves from slumber to force them to dance for his pleasure and then whips them if they fail to fulfill their duties to his satisfaction the next day. He rapes and tortures his hardest work, Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) to appease his wife’s (Sarah Paulson) jealousy of her. Nyong’o shines in her performance as Patsey. She is light when is able to relax in the company of Mistress Shaw (Alfre Woodard), the ex-slave and now wife to a neighboring white farmer, but the air crackles when she is forced under the eyes of Epps to do his bidding.

Northup’s salvation and providence is realized in Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Bass; a traveling carpenter and Canadian who is unafraid to tell Epps how wrong he believes slavery to be. After gaining Northup’s trust, Bass agrees to send a letter to inform his friends and relatives in New York of his fate and location. The reunion of Northup and his family is as nearly heartbreaking as it is joyous.

Typically, films dealing with such heavy and raw subject matter effort to lighten the audience with comical scenes. Not only would this be inappropriate with this film, it would also be untrue to the spirit of the book. Long looks at the surrounding and greatly varying environment of Louisiana linger, some might feel these scenes drag (the film is a full 133 minutes), but they are meant as a respite for the heavy hearts of the audience.

This is not a film to to Redbox nor Netflix. It is beautiful, dark and horrible and truly one of the best films you will see this year, if not ever. It is an impressive feat executed with a true desire to get things right.

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12 Years a Slave

Peter Oberth — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 17:52:27 +0000

In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

Tags:

12 Years A Slave,

Chiwetel Ejiofor,

Michael Fassbender,

Benedict Cumberbatch,

12 Years A Slave

In Theatres:

Oct 18, 2013

Starring:

Chiwetel Ejiofor,

Michael Fassbender,

benedict cumberbatch,

Director(s):

Distributor(s):

Country(es):

Genre:

Running Time:

1 Hours, 13 Minutes

Written by:

John Ridley,

Solomon Northup

Official Website

Violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality.

Mud

Peter Oberth — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:14:40 +0000

A pair of inquisitive adolescents encounter a charismatic drifter with an incredible story in this drama from Take Shelter writer/director Jeff Nichols. Mississippi adolescents Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) are exploring along the mighty Mississippi when they stumble upon a small island inhabited by Mud (Matthew McConaughey), a desperado who claims to be on the run from brutal bounty hunters after killing a man in Texas. According to Mud, his true love Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) is awaiting his arrival in town, and together they plan to make a daring escape. Fascinated, the two boys agree to help Mud slip past his pursuers, despite the potential dangers of doing so. Sam Shepard, Sarah Paulson, and Michael Shannon co-star.

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Mud,

Mud

In Theatres:

Apr 26, 2013

Starring:

Studio(s):

Director(s):

Genre:

Running Time:

2 Hours, 10 Minutes

Official Website

PG-13

Some Violence, Language, Smoking, Sexual References and Thematic Elements

American Horror Story: Asylum

Peter Oberth — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:00:18 +0000

American Horror Story revolves around The Harmons', a family of three who moved from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish.

American Horror Story: Asylum

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American Horror Story: Asylum,

Starring:

Network(s):

Genre:

Drama,

Other,

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Official Website

Martha Marcy May Marlene (BLU-RAY)

Paul Arca — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:14:00 +0000

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Review:

Blu-Ray

Exclusive?:

Interesting Tidbits

Grade:

1.85

Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen (Michelle from "Full House").

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Elizabeth Olsen

John Hawkes

Sarah Paulson

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” is the story about a woman named Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who escapes a cult and seeks refuge with her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson). Martha was part of a cult that was being run by Patrick (John Hawkes), who renamed her Marcy May, raped her, and brainwashed all of the cult members. She was part of the cult and cut off all communications with her family and the outside world for two years until she finally built up the courage to run away. She tries to adjust back to normal society, but has difficulty separating reality and the harsh experiences she dealt with during her time with the cult.

This movie did a great job of creeping me out, which doesn’t happen very often. “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is filled with awkward moments and disturbing scenes that might not be appropriate for everyone. The picture quality was not as sharp as other Blu-ray movies I have seen, but it added a lot to the raw feeling and grittiness this movie chose to portray. Elizabeth was very impressive in her feature film debut and she carried the movie all on her own. Martha is a broken person that is trying to figure things out and wants to go back to being normal, but can’t. They also did a good job of including lots of extras, such as the short film that inspired the movie, a featurette about cults, cast interviews, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief several times while watching this movie and I think that was the reaction the director was going for.

The things about this movie I didn’t like were the movie’s pacing, the music (or lack of it), and the ending. The actual content and plot of the movie was great, but I felt the pacing was a bit too slow. I liked how they seamlessly transitioned back and forth between present time and the past, when Martha is with the cult, but it was a bit confusing at times. Also, the movie had a lot of scenes where music could have been used to enhance the scene, but it was complete silence. When they did include music, like when Patrick was singing about Martha, it was so bad I started to long for the silence again. Lastly, the movie had a great build to until the end of the movie, which was anticlimactic. If these items were addressed, I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more.

This movie isn’t going to be for everyone, but for those that do watch it “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” they will surely get something out of it. The movie shows an interesting view of cults and their effects on people. I would recommend this movie to horror and suspense fans, but personally I would not watch it again. I can’t remember another movie that made me feel as odd and creeped out as much as this movie. For those reasons, I am giving this movie a “C-.”

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Patty Miranda — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:29:06 +0000

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Review:

Theatrical

Exclusive?:

Did You Know?

Grade:

2.80

Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Tags:

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene is an exercise in esoteric filmmaking and how to be too esoteric. Yes, there is such a thing.

Martha and Marcy May are the same person. You'll have to watch the movie to figure out the story behind Marlene, and why they all got mashed together to form the title. Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) is a recent cult escapee who has trouble assimilating back into civilized society with her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and Lucy's husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) in their lakehouse in Connecticut. The film opens with wide open landscape shots which serve to set up the emptiness of the story. There's a lot of space, there's a lot of silence, and there's barely any music. It's a quiet movie; both Martha's cult life and non-cult life are quiet, but in much different ways.

The cult, based on a remote farm in upstate New York, has a very odd power structure: the ringleader, a greasy mole of a man named Patrick (John Hawkes), keeps a menacing eye on every member and on all activities. Beneath him, the men hold dominion over the women, eating first at meals. There's drugging and raping of the recently admitted women, "to begin the cleansing." Most of the movie is spent just like that, with jaw agape, which is par for the course in movies with this type of thematic material. I sometimes feared that the jaw-dropping lines were only in there for shock value, or to provide a moment so uncomfortable that the audience had no choice but to let out a shocked, hesitant chuckle. There were quite a few of those, because since Martha is so damaged from her recent experience, she's out of practice on basic social practices and cues. Things that seem to make total sense to us -- like not curling up on the same bed where two people are making love -- are foreign to Martha. And the weird sexual tension between she and Ted? I didn't know what to make of it. I gleaned that there was supposed to be a parallel between Ted and Patrick, to the point where they even look distantly related, as if one went to a bougie private school while the other dropped out of his country public school in the third grade. There was a flashback-cut-to-present scene where Martha snapped back from a memory of intimacy with Patrick, immediately to running away from Ted, eventually kicking him down the stairs. Was Ted trying to touch Martha? Who knows. More on these vague would-be assumptions in a moment.

It's clear that Martha is a very fragile, damaged person. Her cult experience certainly has a big part in that. What bothers me is that just seems to be the tip of the dysfunction iceberg, yet Durkin seems completely unwilling to explore any further. Martha and Lucy have a lot of very generalized conversations about the way things were when they were growing up together, but the audience never really gets to read between the lines because the lines are so thick with smoke and mirrors and double meanings. It was hard to not feel like the director was relying on the audience to make assumptions based on what was being said; the only problem is that there wasn't enough information to make a definitive assumption. There could have been ten different possible scenarios based on a conversation, but we'll never know which assumption is the correct one, the one truest to Durkin's vision. It's like the cast and crew of the film are on the inside of a joke that they don't want to let anyone else in on, even the audience for whom the film is intended. As it turns out, that inside joke doesn't even seem all that funny.

It has to be said that every single person delivers an incredible performance. It's hard to believe that this is Elizabeth Olsen's first starring role. Paulson, Hawkes (especially Hawkes, dude could write the book on how to play creepy and silently menacing), even Dancy all committed to their roles and it paid off. I just wish Durkin had committed more to the audience than to his fictional band of weirdos and seemingly every other detail than the most obvious one. The cinematography was great, the script was sparse, yet effective, and there was only one nagging stone of a detail left unturned.

This is one of probably three movie screenings I've been to in life where the closing credits elicited a collective, "WHAT?" from every single audience member, even non-film critics. If this makes you want to pay the price of admission to this cinematic freak show of a film, go for it.

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Martha Marcy May Marlene: Where Are You TRAILER

Pandora — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:29:54 +0000

Martha Marcy May Marlene - Where Are You

(Trailers Video)

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Exclusive?:

Tags:

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Movie:

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Talent(s):

Elizabeth Olsen

Sarah Paulson

John Hawkes

Video File(s):

MarthaMarcyMayMarlene_FilmClip_WhereAreYou_Textless_h264_sd.mov

MarthaMarcyMayMarlene_FilmClip_WhereAreYou_Textless_h264_sd_55054.flv

Cupid

AJ Garcia — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:48:02 +0000

Bobby Cannavale takes over for Jeremy Piven in Rob Thomas’ reboot of Cupid. Cannavale plays a man who believes he’s the mythical Greek God of Love sent to Earth as punishment for his arrogance who must match up one hundred couples before he can return to Mount Olympus, but all one hundred must be under the spell of true love or they don’t count. Will he be able to complete his task or will a psychiatrist from a mental ward bent on proving that true love isn’t real send him to the nut house?

Cupid

On DVD:

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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