{"id":9951,"date":"2015-08-21T20:27:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=9951"},"modified":"2015-08-21T20:51:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T00:51:37","slug":"girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html","title":{"rendered":"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf War. Don\u2019t say I don\u2019t have range.<\/p>\n

Stonehearst Asylum<\/strong><\/em>: A new asylum movie from the guy who brought us Session 9<\/em>? Sure, I\u2019ll eat it! And Stonehearst<\/em> is a really solid horror flick, twisty and heartfelt and saddening.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a period piece, set between Christmas 1899 and New Year\u2019s 1900, at a remote asylum in\u2026 England? Scotland? Hogwarts? IDK. A starry cast, including Ben Kingsley\u2019s cognac voice, although I did not really get anything from Kate Beckinsale, whom I super loved in The Last Days of Disco<\/em><\/a>. Dr. Edward Newgate (a serviceable Jim Sturgess) arrives to find the asylum an unusually progressive place, where people cast out by their families can find a measure of respect and solidarity. But the asylum is hiding a dark secret\u2026.<\/p>\n

This is a smart<\/em> film. Some very fun dialogue: Why don\u2019t you cure this guy who thinks he\u2019s an animal? \u201cAnd make a miserable human out of a perfectly happy horse?\u201d\u2026 \u201cDeath cannot be prevented, any more than madness cured. You cannot cure the human condition.\u201d There\u2019s a bracing conservatism here: a recognition of the evils of revolution, the Animal Farm<\/em> \u201cThe creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, and already it was impossible to say which was which,\u201d but there\u2019s an equally ferocious understanding of the cruelty of the old regime. There\u2019s a lot of talk about modern times and the turn of the century, and it\u2019s completely earned.<\/p>\n

ETA: There\u2019s also a nice awareness of the cultural construction of madness\/mental illness<\/a>. It\u2019s handled with a light touch, but e.g. there\u2019s a woman whom the Victorian men diagnose with hysteria. Today she might get a diagnosis of PTSD. But the movie attempts to articulate her experience in a way that gets beyond labels and diagnoses, into her spiritual longings<\/a> and her need to have her common human dignity recognized.<\/p>\n

From the first shots of giant Stonehearst looming up through the fog you sense that the movie will be about powerlessness. It honestly plays like a reversal or counterpoint to the one thing I super hated about the otherwise-excellent Session 9<\/em> (or really, the thing I got intensely tired of after watching a series of horror flicks that all did it):<\/p>\n

I also saw Session 9<\/em> around the same time I saw these two movies, and between the three of them, I got thoroughly sick of \u2018being hurt by others makes you a bad person\u2019 storylines. \u2018I live in the weak and the wounded\u2019\u2013an idea that\u2019s more cruel than it is true; anti-Christian; and, three movies in a row<\/a>, just wearying<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whereas in Stonehearst<\/em> the good doctor\u2019s only tactic is vulnerability, whether he\u2019s apologizing or displaying his own wounds. Weakness is the source of his strength, his courage, and his kindness.<\/p>\n

Toward the end it gets preachy. It even does the loathsome thing where a phantom voiceover repeats a preachy thing a character has already said, just in case we\u2019ve forgotten it. I was also surprised, given how stunning Session 9<\/em> looked, to find that the movie is not especially visually-striking. But overall this is a memorable and unusual film. And I will say that it has exactly as many twists as it can bear, and no more<\/em>. All the twists have meaning; none are cheap. Horror fans should check this out. On Netflix streaming (like the next film in this post).<\/p>\n

Mr Jones<\/strong><\/em>: Maybe the most unusual setup for a found-footage flick that I\u2019ve seen. A troubled couple heads for the remote woods, ostensibly to make an artsy nature documentary but actually to work on their relationship. But in the woods they discover bizarre, creepy artwork, totemistic sculptures made with antlers and bones and twigs. Penny (Sarah Jones) realizes that they\u2019ve stumbled upon \u201cMr. Jones,\u201d an elusive artist whose works bear million-dollar price tags. The couple determines to film Mr. Jones and his works, even if they have to break into his home\u2026.<\/p>\n

The first hour or so of this film is phenomenal. Tense and tightly-paced (great jump scares), beautiful to look at, rich in character interaction\u2013and then there are those seriously eerie sculptures. The art is just so spooky!<\/p>\n

I found this movie via John Kenneth Muir, who defends<\/a> the long, drawn-out ending sequence. I like the idea of it, the reality-warping, the twist. But this is a short movie that eventually starts to feel long. Plus the movie really spells out its twist\u2013it doesn\u2019t trust you to get what\u2019s going on. Definitely worth a watch, but the air does start to leak out of the balloon toward the end.<\/p>\n

Days of Glory<\/strong><\/em>: Filmed during and after the fall of Mussolini<\/a>. (And not to be confused with the fictional WWII Jacques Tourneur flick Days of Glory<\/em>, released one year before!) Its style and ethos are well within the Soviet sphere of influence. There\u2019s a theme throughout of justice vs. vengeance. In the Italian context they argue that justice, the harsh exercise of power by a recognized human authority, will stave off vengeance in the form of escalating vendettas. But the movie gives plenty of evidence that telling the difference between justice and abuse of power is not that easy.<\/p>\n

This is a powerfully grim film. It\u2019s very clear on what the stakes are: A voiceover lists the death camps, Majdanek, Buchenwald. There\u2019s this oddly flighty Mussolini version of the sieg-heil, the arm flying up like it should be wreathed in a feather boa. A woman whose testimony begins, \u201cWhen they came to take my son-in-law away again\u2026.\u201d The sacrifice of the Mass, which unites the separated people: The partisan men kneel by a makeshift altar in the mountains, and their mourning women kneel at the altars back home. The posters, with slogans like WE NEVER LOOK BACK, and a cursive signature M.<\/em> for that personal touch.<\/p>\n

Real corpses, real executions, real women having their heads shaved for sleeping with the enemy; and that last thing is glorified by the movie, that\u2019s justice. Triumphant music as the camera pans over huddled POWs. Chop-licking voiceover as a woman holds her shaved hair in her hands, anxiously shifting the tufts of hair from one hand to the other, no idea what she\u2019s supposed to do. Why does justice smell like metal?<\/p>\n

Some sarcasm, some filming the lawyer defending a Fascist cop in order to make the lawyer seem ridiculous. The American audience I saw this with laughed when they were supposed to.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of singing in this movie: \u201cThe Internationale,\u201d I think, and Italian patriotic songs. There was a time when all our replacement gods had hymns.<\/p>\n

Three Kings<\/strong><\/em>: What could have been a phenomenal movie\u2013and is<\/em> phenomenal for most of its run time\u2013gets Hollywoodized by the end.<\/p>\n

The basic premise is that at the end of the Gulf War, a group of renegade American soldiers head out into the desert to find Saddam\u2019s hidden Kuwaiti gold\u2013and steal it. Their actions provoke a spiral of chaos that costs both them and a group of Iraqi rebels dearly. Also, it\u2019s a comedy, or at least it\u2019s funny and satirical for a long time, until the sentiment starts to take over. So basically, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre<\/em> + Restrepo<\/em> + hmm maybe Team America: World Police<\/em>?<\/p>\n

The good parts of this movie are fantastic. The low, low view of human nature; the horror and chaos; the slo-mo and close shots, making the audience feel how disorienting everything is for these characters. The ferocious humor: Don\u2019t use racial slurs that are just repurposed slurs for black people, when \u201c\u2018Towelhead\u2019 and \u2018camel jockey\u2019 are perfectly acceptable alternatives.\u201d There\u2019s terrific use of pop music in this movie\u2013pop music, the best soundtrack for violence<\/a>, an ecstatic escape from the moral self and into the white darkness of the will. The great \u201cWhat is most important?\u201d shtik. The Rodney King video playing in the background on the stolen Kuwaiti tvs in Saddam\u2019s bunker. The stripping of the POWs. The football helicopter trick. The cow.<\/p>\n

But as the movie goes on it makes an increasingly sincere effort to convince us that these soldiers are the good guys. They won\u2019t abandon the rebels! They won\u2019t shoot their torturers! (They\u2019ll survive, if you recognize the actors.) Suddenly we\u2019re in a world of heroes and villains, not a world of chaos and sin. Self-justification gets replaced by pure motives. Things get feel-good and dishonest.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I think American soldiers never do good things. It\u2019s that I don\u2019t believe these specific soldiers would do these specific good things, because these specific good things are self-comforting fantasies. I generally like stories where the \u201chappy ending\u201d is humiliation and worldly defeat (those zip-tied hands waving goodbye, what a great shot), but here, even granting the soldiers a moral victory feels smarmy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf War. Don\u2019t say I don\u2019t have range. Stonehearst Asylum: A new asylum movie from the guy who brought us Session 9? Sure, I\u2019ll eat it! And Stonehearst is a really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[171,101,381,31,119,47,51,86,523],"class_list":["post-9951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-abuse-of-power-comes-as-no-surprise","tag-america","tag-girls-like-violence","tag-god-bless-the-1990s-because-no-one-else-will","tag-horror","tag-killing-in-the-name-of","tag-so-far-from-god-so-close-to-the-united-states","tag-the-dark-continent-europe-in-the-twentieth-century","tag-viva-italia"],"yoast_head":"\nGirls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-22T00:27:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-22T00:51:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eve Tushnet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html\",\"name\":\"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-22T00:27:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-22T00:51:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415\"},\"description\":\"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/\",\"name\":\"Eve Tushnet\",\"description\":\"Conservatism reborn in twisted sisterhood\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415\",\"name\":\"Eve Tushnet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Eve Tushnet\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/author\/evetushnet\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews","description":"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews","og_description":"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html","og_site_name":"Eve Tushnet","article_published_time":"2015-08-22T00:27:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-22T00:51:37+00:00","author":"Eve Tushnet","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eve Tushnet","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html","name":"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-22T00:27:08+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-22T00:51:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415"},"description":"First up, a couple horror flicks; then a WWII documentary covertly filmed behind Fascist lines in Italy; then a satire\/adventure tale from the first Gulf","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/girls-like-violence-short-movie-reviews.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Girls Like Violence: Short Movie Reviews"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/","name":"Eve Tushnet","description":"Conservatism reborn in twisted sisterhood","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/ca04686b93c92257f019070302a23415","name":"Eve Tushnet","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be87ff28da150cb07788911c22e42ae2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Eve Tushnet"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/author\/evetushnet"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}