American Psycho,The Slumber Party Massacre,Office Killer and Sister My Sister - Movie Review Example

Movie Review, Visual Arts and Film Studies Topic: Four journals (essays) on four movies American Psycho (2000) With the word ‘Psycho’ in the title of the movie, my immediate reaction is to view this movie with my friend, who is a medical practitioner specializing in psychiatry. I greatly value his critical perceptions on movies on the subject of psychology. The script is based on the novel “American Psycho”, and it relates to the rich investment banker, Patrick Bateman. He wears the mask and lives the life as a serial killer….”The movie is based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. If one understands the character of Bateman that will give adequate information about the purpose of the movie. The question is why Bateman turned psychotic and a treacherous individual for the society? Who makes him thus or which circumstances mold him? This slasher movie has something beyond than a crime number. During a crucial scene of the movie Bateman confesses before his lawyer that he is a “pretty sick guy” and in another scene, he tells, “I like to dissect girls. Did you know I’m utterly insane?” Bateman is helpless to backtrack from the path of insanity and worst things are in store for him. He is to be pitied rather than condemned; the world he lives in is cruel to him. The unconcealed consumerism, the environment of racism in which he has been brought up, the double-faced society and people wearing masks and stay far away from the pursuit of truth, internal beauty crushed by mad race for physical beauty, and the world full of negativities viewed from all ends, what more is required to make the man crazy and turn insane? He wants to strike back at the society that has been cruel to him. The viewers must know the reasons that land him in the pitiable mental condition. The ground realities related to the materialistic civilization impacted by technological growth, the internet revolution and globalization, have engulfed the society in big scale and Bateman is the casualty of such a rotten society. The setting of the book relates to the year 1989. But the film is set two years earlier, resulting in gross irregularities. There is a scene where Patrick reads the 1987 Zagat’s survey. The televised speech of President Ronald Regan is set in the final scene. The President in fact has demitted the office by the time the events in the novel take place. The film has a major problem from the point of view of the discerning audience. To understand the character of Detective Kimball, one needs to avail the services of another detective! His mindset and inclinations are tough to understand. Why he is doing, what he is doing? Perhaps the concerned detective can only answer this question. He is a three-dimensional character. Firstly, it appears that the detective is aware that Bateman has killed the character Paul Allen. Secondly an impression is gathered that the detective is unaware that Bateman has committed the murder. Thirdly, the detective is not sure whether Bateman is Allen’s murderer. To keep the audience in the stage of uncertainty is the deliberate plan of the director. Bateman is a directionless, destination less and is a deranged individual. In any crime-drama the protagonist cannot be a divine character, and “American Psycho”, is no exception to this trend in the American movies. Christian Bale as the Wall Street blue-eyed young man Patrick Bateman is un-Christian like in all his killings. He has some responsibility in his father’s company and his passion and aggrandizement for wealth is not out of the economic necessities. The murders committed by him are deliberate and intentional. His life is engulfed in enormous wealth and yet the impact of materialism is so heavy on his mind-set, being mad after homicidal activities. One wonders whether this man’s soul is operated upon, removed from its place to transplant some satanic version there and most importantly what are the circumstances that drive him to such a hopeless position? The demon of a character briefs his lawyer with such horrific details about the dark deeds of his past, which is mind-boggling for the audience to accept. He briefs his attorney, “I think you should know: I've killed a lot of people". He mentions the details of about forty killings, and in one case he tries to eat the victim’s brain. He uses a number of weird weapons to execute the dark acts and one wonders what a monster occupies the cozy comfort in his Wall Street Office! This supposedly deranged man at times gives intelligent replies to queries about his life. An unfamiliar person asks Bateman what he is into. Bateman retorts, that he is into "murders and executions.” Not to be out-witted, he puts a counter question whether he enjoys the work, stating, “Most guys I know who are in mergers and acquisitions really don't like it." Most probably (nowhere in the movie it has been implicitly or explicitly stated) the protagonist needs the services of man who is willing to listen and respond to his emotions. Somewhere through his life, his emotional world has been left uncared for. His dialogues are difficult to interpret and derive any tangible meaning out of them. "Since...it's impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves." When nothing connects in the world, the mindset of the people becomes thus and they turn cynical and ravel in negativities. To come out of the desperate state of the mind, they indulge in desperate actions. Such individuals are like a goods train hauling up several wrecked wagons. In the mad situation created out of his doings, Bateman yet seeks to know how the situations could be better, does not succeed in finding one and ends with even more darker note and gives up all positive tendencies. Editing of the movie seems to have been done in haste and cinematography has many errors. In many scenes the reflection of cameras and their lights is seen on other objects. Bateman’s Office is also badly presented with placement errors and things appearing and disappearing in the course of the scene making the obvious confusion in the layout when filming. The history details are conflicting. Bateman gives chocolates to two of his female victims from a company that does not exist at the setting of the film. It is established after two years of the release of the film. Bateman passes by the 9 subway train, but in 1989, that line does not exist. Even as we walk out of the theatre, my friend is in a thoughtful mood. I wait for him to regroup his thought processes that must be going on in his mind. After a while he says, “A precious life is wasted. I am willing to have Bateman as my patient-friend. All that he wants in life is the gentle breeze of the four-lettered word, ‘love’. Anybody’s mind will burst, when a thousand mad trains run from all directions. His office is in stock exchange, where outsmarting each other for aggrandizement of wealth is the way of life. Various facets of materialistic civilization have destroyed the inner world of Bateman and each and every molecule of his body and mind is surcharged with negativities, with devastating side-effects and such a society must own direct responsibility for creating more and more characters like Bateman. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) “A great comedy” says my friend. “You see comedians everywhere. What is it now? Any Sunday spoiler?” My friend is an extraordinary fan of comedians. Tell him that so and so movie has a comedy scene of five minutes. He is willing to drive fifty miles to reach out to the theater. “The Slumber Party Massacre”! You will enjoy every minute”, he says confidently. I succumb to his pressure and that is the reason I am in a position to write this journal about the movie. I must do some justice to those who intend to view this movie and help them to save their hard-earned money! “Slumber Party Massacre” released in the year 1982, is a horror film that shows the impact of the materialistic civilization (the negative aspects of it) on the combustible younger generation of America. Drinking, reckless, carefree and moral-less parties of the youngsters and an escaped deranged man makes to the venue of the party. This is supposed to be the mode of entertainment liked by the generation of the internet era, most of them directionless and destination-less and do not possess long term perspective about life and live for just today. The moviemakers do not make tall claims. The objective is limited; the youngsters must devote sometime for such good for nothing activities and the young age is meant for that. In the process, by making movies that appeal to the emotional world of the youngsters, the producer/director needs to make some money. The plot of the story is not even fit enough to be published in a college magazine. Let us recapitulate the story first before discussing the failure of the movie in other fronts. The beginning of the movie carries no suspense element. In the Venice suburb of Los Angeles an eighteen year young teen, Trish arranges a slumber party to entertain her friends who belong to her school’s girls’ basketball team. She must be getting handsome pocket money from her parents to hoist such parties. Without rhyme or reason connectivity is established between the party and a mentally deranged man Russ Thorn, who kills five people in 1969, and presently he has run away from a mental asylum and he happens to see Trish and pursues her to her house and under the cover of darkness attacks the party members. Gruesome killings follow. Ritualistic shots that go with such crime movies arrest the attention of the viewers, if at all you can call this as entertainment. Some female nudity is also shown. No reasons are given for killings, no motivated desires are articulated, it is just plain horror, when such a development in the plot is least expected by the viewers. Eleven killings happen, with lots of screams, girls running from one room to another to get killed and all sorts of graphic, gory scenes of killings are shown. As I said earlier, the movie offers nothing, except sadistic pleasure and some emotional strain. Those who say this is entertainment are fit cases to be sent to that place from where the manic arrives to go on the rampage in the party. No imagination whatsoever in the story and in fact it is not a story at all, you have to bear with the seventy-six minute boring stuff! Those with gender loyalties must see this film to know how the mind of women works these days and what is their perspective about the society in general and male gender in particular. This movie is written and directed by two women and they depict what all problems the women have to face from a manic (this can be referred to the male-dominated society that still believes in oppression and controlling women) and how boldly they face it. Women know that nudity is the permanent and foremost subject with the syllabus of men and within 8 minutes of the beginning of the movie, the entire female basketball team is shown fully naked and hits the showers, to add to the titillation of the male viewers. This part of the movie is just porn and camera rests on their boobs and buttocks until sufficient heat is generated! There is no other surprise in the story, no suspense and frankly speaking where is the story at all and who is interested in the story after such generous exhibition of nudity! The women who make the movie know the source of the strength of women and the weak areas of men! I appreciate the fair sense of the movie-makers; they have not hidden anything from the viewers and have revealed everything in the title of the movie as to what you are going to get out of it. Their dealings have maintained the discipline of transparency in public dealings. The movie somewhat clicks due to the element of humor introduced in dialogues and the driller killer Michael Villella has done well. The music is good. Other technical aspects like cinematography and placement of camera for different types of killing are imaginative. They look real. But again coming back to the storyline, that the killer does his gory business without any motivation or any supporting reason looks ridiculous. Thus the character viewed from this angle loses creditability, except for some tension generated through the style of massacres. It is a small budget film that motivates the genius among the middle class to venture into the area of movies. But low budget does not mean that it has to be a low quality movie. Think about the storyline and create characters that will infuse some positive values in societal terms. That helps to build the society, not break it. Spilling a large quantity of blood need not be the hall- mark of a movie. Terrorists are doing that all over the world. As for nudity, thanks to the internet revolution, thousands of porn sites are available on the computer either free or by paying nominal charges. Comparing to other worse films in this genre, this movie is tolerable, though not acceptable. Office Killer (1997) Frankly speaking, the title of the movie, “Office Killer,” does not inspire me. An employed individual, next to his home, spends most of the time in the office. This title brings before the picture of Manhattan, New York and I get the feeling that an Office Killer is roaming in that area looking out for his kill! Strange it may seem this is the response from my inner world to this movie. Serial Killers are having a field day in American movies, but that does not mean a movie of this genre needs to be that messy. Photographer-turned-filmmaker, Cindy Sherman should have remained true to her original love, photography. No downsizing procedure will affect such professional photographers! If termination of services creates such individuals, America by now should have millions of serial killers! The transformation from an employee with Constant Consumer Magazine to turn into a serial killer of that magnitude, (she virtually kills each and every former office associate that comes into her contact) need not take that shape. She being a technical hand and with editorial skills could have tried for alternative avenues of employment, before thinking of establishing a private limited company for the specialized job of serial killings! After a fairly long stint of service of fourteen years, reduction in the strength of office staff affects her already difficult life, her only source of earnings is lost and she becomes a serial killer, continues to kill her unsuspecting former colleagues and transforms her basement in to a wild life-less park of decomposing human trophies. Assuming that it is fun and satire, even the plotline is difficult to digest. Maintaining the decomposed body is a specialized job and what are the methods adopted by her to prevent bad odor from spreading in the neighborhood? The news report on missing persons is the sensational one, that too for the one working in the print media. But nothing of that sort happens in the movie. She has been working in an unfriendly office atmosphere and each day when she returns home she has the responsibility of taking care of the invalid mother and her fond dreams of independence are shattered. That is the plain truth. Years of submission at the office to her boss has been constantly putting pressure on her psyche. But the effort of Cindy Sherman to create funny characters in different molds in an office atmosphere fails miserly. Comedy is a tough and a great art and is not meant for everybody. As for storytelling, the plot lacks the basic art and it is handled inaptly. It fails to create emotional electricity with the viewers. To create a comedy out of the subject of serial killing is impossibility. If attempted, it has to end in a failure. The viewer’s emotional world for the subject of serial killing is entirely different. Moreover, the character of Dorine does not get support from any angle for her deeds. The only question the viewer will ask in his mind is, ‘why it is happening? What purpose it is going to serve?’ He will never get the answer, not Sherman seems to be interested in providing the answer. So, the movie gets going because it has to complete the running time of eighty two minutes. In that period, one can laugh or scream depending on one’s mood, if one does not decide to take a short nap. To create a psycho character is a tough assignment. Carol Kane has not succeeded in shaping one. The director and the actor both are responsible because there is no strong motivation. Office politics and mediocre gossiping are too timid subjects for the emergence of a great plot. Simple situations can create great humor, but the creators of such humor need to be great and men of intuition and caliber. Even the counting of deaths has been reduced to kindergarten stuff with no sequences, gory situations and protests before death. Even the chickens put up a struggle before death. So at any stage, the viewer does not get involved into the storyline. ……and yet I can be wrong. I do not admit it immediately, but I am trying to know the motives of Dorine to turn a psychopath, ignoring for a while her unemployment problems. The flashbacks provide a part of the answer. Some distressing events happen relating to her parents. Life has not been kind to her and her actions can be the reactions to her bitter experiences. When it is the time to enjoy her life, she is confronted with certain weird experiences, and the pressure is building within her. When she becomes totally desperate, she strikes at the society, and strikes again and again very hard. Downsizing provides the ignition spark to her being boiling from within and she has been on the edge, and perhaps readying to strike. The murderous results are the outcome of that violent streak within her. Destiny plays its part and her avenging devil is released from the decades-long suppression and she goes on a rampage like a mad bull! The message is clear. The woman can no more accept injustice to her because she is the twenty-first century emancipated woman. She finds bitter outlets when she is challenged from the wrong end. Her viciousness beats even men and she can be the societal bomb, and she will not accept humiliations from bad men and domineering women. Sherman is true to her original profession. The photography in the movie is stunning. She has her sharp focus and her eyes are gyrating on all the scenes. Her cinematic experiment fulfills the best technical aspects of cinematography. The close-ups are brilliant. In serial killer movies each killing has a purpose and the sequence and consequences of killing are shown. When an individual is killed, his near and dear ones and the community to which the individual belongs do not remain inactive. The law enforcement authorities move into action. Political storm takes place. In the present set of killings by Dorine noting of that sort happens and as such this movie suffers from the weakness of the plot and handling whatever structure of the plot that is being made available to the director. In the absence of an arresting storyline and the motivating characterization the viewer remains uninvolved and distanced. Sister My Sister (1994) In this movie, I have discovered the France of the 1930s and the way of life in the countryside bourgeois households and their mental attitudes. The sociological conditions and the social and cultural trends prevailing then have been ably handled by the script director first and then the director of the movie. When familial love and love between the brothers and sisters has become a rare commodity these days, this is refreshing recollection of the past, that there are sisters in the mental mode depicted in the movie. Firstly the title of the movie, “Sisters My Sisters”, appeals to the emotional world of the viewers. Presently, the society impacted by materialistic civilization, people have no time to budget their own day to day schedules, where is the time for neighborly camaraderie? God forbid, even when a murder is committed in the other apartment, the neighbor comes to know about it only when the foul smell emanates from the rotting body. People are self-centered and just do not care what is happening to others. We are accustomed to earthquakes, plane crashes, rail-accidents, rapes, and murders and massacres and our emotional world is hardly disturbed. This movie takes place in that part of the world, where big events rarely happen, and if they happen it draws the attention and anxiety of the entire community. The news of murder that happens in “Sister, My Sister” would have been the small news item in the third page in the eighth column, in today’s circumstances. But this murder of the 1930s shocks people, as it happens in a place least expected by people. Two girls raised by nuns, and two persons of the family they serve, live under the same roof as if the soldiers of the two enemy countries are stationed across the borders. There is a zone of silence that separates their existence. The family is proud that they have good servants and the servants are ‘proud’ that they have good masters. Suddenly the servants murder their masters and no one knows why they have committed that act. In the present day crime movies the murder scene is shown as the flash back or in the beginning scene itself, to enable the readers to get the viewers hooked, and the processes of solution of the puzzle will keep them busy throughout the movie. The movie lets us know what happens when the human emotions are suppressed, animal tendencies begin to sprout within and grow up over a period. In the absence of human relations, demonic relations take over. Not only take over, they overtake the concerned individuals, and reckless overtaking must result in crash! The rules of aristocracy in the French society in that era are so strict; the daughter has nothing to do with them except that she is somewhat attracted to the younger sister. Mother won’t talk to them unless duty demands on special occasions. That too the style of communication is such that it must attract the attention of a linguistic scholar. Even when she is displeased with her work, she uses just one finger in glove to indicate that it could have been done in a better way. There is a scene in the movie which reveals the ‘history’ of aristocratic culture of the French. In that scene the mother talks to her daughter for some minutes what improvements are necessary and the corrections needed, and the two servants are standing nearby and not a word is addressed to them. They are treated as if they are dumb statues and have no emotions. They would have appreciated some rebukes but that silence and negligence is threatening to their existence as if! They have been carrying the head load of history of their existence, know not what is love and affection right from childhood, rejected by mother and not wanted by the nuns, with no chance of meeting anyone for interactions, their room is like the place of punishment of solitary confinement, and they are part of the hypocritical community, wherein their duty only is counted and not the existence. Of the four important characters I take it that the Isabelle, the affluent one suffers much. I would call it the aristocratic suffering. Her existence is like that of a pillar cut in alabaster! The injustice against is so subtle and severe that the viewer of the movie ignores the merits of the script, that does not say about her much. Her silence is more grave and eloquent than her limited speech. She is the only child in the family, the prized assets in the house, like a decorative tea set or an antique chair. With no opportunity to interact, she has no chance to grow and develop and that is the worst thing that can happen to a human being. This all-woman production is set in provincial France in the early 1930's, an era of apartheid in South Africa. What is happening within the four walls of the house is nothing short of private apartheid. The protagonists of the women-lib movement must be happy at this all-women production. The technologies of photography is not advanced in the year in which this movie is produced and yet the results achieved by cinematographer Ashley Rowe is remarkable, where the location of the major part of the movie is confined to the house where light is dim and the ambience is bordering madness, and eventually where murders take place. Christine and Lea treat each other as sisters and perhaps as lovers and Madame Danzard whose sixth sense works to find out the relationship between them. She spies contemptuously on the girls and that is the one reason for mistreating them. The issues of class, oppression and social stigmatization are cleverly entwined in the plot. The direction and depiction of the scenes is controlled with no excess charge anywhere. I am not a trade unionist but the movie is the reminder about the working conditions about the domestic workers and they are not in a position to look to any administrative set up or social organization to attend to their grievances. During the 1930s, lesbianism, worker’s rights, incest are the taboo subjects and these have been handled by the author of the screenplay Wendy Kesselman, well. How an ordinary episode can send strong social messages, “Sister My Sister”, is an example. Those who are sensitive to human emotions will not forget the theme of this story for life. The characters do not smile; they do not dance; they just exist at their levels. From the point of view of cinematography, the shooting takes place within the dark interior and even the outdoor scenes are in grim weather. The story is built on the negativities of humankind like guilt, tension and suspicion and financial constraints, and exploitation of labor. No male characters and no fist fights (except in the last scene that leads to murders) and gun battles! This is all-female movie, except for certain male voiceovers. Let men and women know that everything is possible, without men! This is a movie that creates tension throughout, while viewing and after viewing Works Cited Harron, Mary (Director). (2000). American Psycho. USA, Boston Club http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/ Jones, Amy Holden. (1982) The Slumber Party Massacre. USA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084695/ Sherman, Cindy. Office Killer (1997) USA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119819/ Meckler, Nancy. (1994) Sister My Sister. British Screen Productions, UK http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111205/ Read More