Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Written and directed by Sean Durkin

Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, Brady Corbet, Julia Garner, Maria Dizzia, Louisa Krause and John Hawkes

I heard nothing but great things about Sean Durkin's full-length feature film debut. He won the directing award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. People were mainly talking about Elizabeth Olsen breakthrough performance. This film was recommended by a fellow film fanatic, Tassoula from the Cinebanter podcast that I listened to where put this as her number one film from last year. I have to say thanks for the recommendation, T.

An emotionally damaged young woman named Martha (Olsen) escapes from a hippie cult commune in the middle of the Catskills. She is scared, dirty, hungry and lonely. The first person that she calls is her big sister, Lucy (Paulson). Lucy brings Martha to her vacation home in Connecticut where she shares with her new husband, Ted (Dancy). Martha has been gone for two years and Lucy wants to know where she has been. Martha wants to tell Lucy about her whereabouts, but she has been brainwashed by the leader of the group, Patrick (Hawkes). Martha has a problem from differentiating from what is real and what is in her mind.

This movie hooked me from the first frame based solely on Elizabeth Olsen's performance. She was transcendent. I could see the pain in her eyes, face and mannerisms. I felt her pain and she struggles to bring back some normalcy in her life. She finds it very difficult to adjust. It's heartbreaking to watch. I cannot stress how good Elizabeth was in this movie. I was surprised that she did not get an Oscar nomination for her role. It is a crime.

I thought that the movie was going to go one way, but it didn't. I love that it was not predicable. I enjoyed the dynamic between Lucy and Martha. Lucy is trying to get into Martha's odd motivations and behavior. Martha's unpredictable behavior causes strain in Lucy and Ted's relationship.

I have to say one final thing to say about John Hawkes. I thought he was very good here, but I thought that he character reminded a lot of his character in Winter's Bone. A grimy, scruffy hillbilly who doesn't respect women that much. I hope that he doesn't get typecast in those roles in the future.

My Rating

LAMBs in The Director's Chair Series Spotlight (Lars von Trier): Melancholia

Melancholia (2011)

Written and directed by Lars von Trier

Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Cameron Spurr, Brady Corbet, Alexander Skarsgård,  Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier and Kiefer Sutherland

Seeing as controversial Danish directors is this month's LAMBs Director Chair, I wanted to see a couple of the movies that he has done. I have only seen Antichrist. I heard that his movies have a female protagonist that go through a lot of shit and awful things happened to them. This movie follows the same premise to meager results.

The movie slightly diverts for the von Trier formula by having two female protagonists in crisis. It is broken up in two equal parts. The first part deals with Justine (Dunst), a woman who recently married Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) and is going into her wedding reception. During the course of the evening, she slowly unravels and her behavior becomes erratic. The second part of the story deals with Justine's sister, Claire (Gainsbourg) and her husband, John (Sutherland). She becomes anxious that a planet that was hidden behind the sun, Melancholia would crash into the Earth.

This movie seems like it has every auteur formula down with the slow motion actions, weird imagery, the swelling orchestral music. It was same as his last film. This went on for eight minutes. I mean, come on. Get on with it already. I didn't get the point of the movie. I understand that von Trier's shtick is to torture his female characters. I got the message with Antichrist, but not this movie. I enjoyed the second part of the movie because it dealt with the psychosis of Claire and impending doom. I was left with a lot of questions than answers. I don't want it spelled out to me, but make a clear point about what you have to say.

My Rating