Review: The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

“There used to be a time it was hard to tell a comatose person from a dead one, so coroners tied bells to everybody in the morgue. “
– Tommy

SYNOPSIS: A father and son, both coroners, are pulled into a complex mystery while attempting to identify the body of a young woman, who was apparently harbouring dark secrets. – via IMDB

I have been wanting to watch this for the longest time, and just never really got around to watching it. This past weekend saw the God of War release, which meant my husband was unavailable and all over that game. I watched a few things and finally decided it was time to get this off my watch list. Slowly but surely (after playing the whole day), my husband started watching snatches of this as I was watching, and eventually asked me if we could watch it, he would take a short break.

Why? Because this looked intriguing. He was fascinated about a whole movie revolving around a single autopsy, and I was also interested to know how it would be handled. Man, there was so much that I liked about this movie. Right off the bat, you can’t help but notice the cinematography. It’s beautiful – the colours, the lights, the shots, everything is so deliberate and works to bring you this gorgeous cohesive whole together. I was so drawn in by the visuals alone. Then came the music – never taking over, but never absent, just so moody and ever present. Cox and Hirsch also give super solid performances to this movie, taking it up another level.

The movie balances well, too, going from a regular drama movie, a thriller with questions almost, and embarking on a dark horror path, and it handles it all smoothly and work along well. The jump scares are placed strategically and while maybe not totally unpredictable, are pulled off well. My husband jumped at each one successfully, at any rate. I also really liked the story, and how the set for the movie might be limited, but never felt like too little. The movie is a short one, giving you just what you need and not stretching itself out.

I felt that this movie to be fresher and more creative than many horror films over the years, and I liked it. Cool, understated, solid, super atmospheric, it was pretty much exactly the kind of movie that was going to appeal to me. I think it will work for most horror fans. I am so glad I have finally seen this, and can see how I will go back to it in future. Highly recommended.

August Blind Spot Review: Into the Wild (2007)

“The core of man’s spirit comes from new experiences.”
– Chris McCandless

SYNOPSIS: After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life. – via IMDB

Alright, now I can finally cross this off my massive watch list, too. I must say that while I enjoyed the movie, I did not absolutely love and adore it, and think it is a little hyped up. Maybe a tad too much. Anyway, that being said, there was a lot to like about this. There was the huge, sprawling backdrop of America that Chris traverses on his journey to Alaska, and all the people he meets along the way and the influence that he has on them and, inversely, them on him is fascinating and worth checking out. Hirsch, of course, shines here, and I think he is quite a talented actor. Chris and his motivations to up and leave his family one day are very complex, and can be seen as both understandable as well as completely cooked, depending which side of the spectrum you fall on and how you look at it. I think the whole cast did quite well with what they brought to the table, and made the tale real. I did enjoy the concept of finding yourself, becoming your own person, and how society influences all of these things on one hand, but at times the movie was a little heavy handed with sharing these concepts with the viewer. I also took issue with how long the movie is, and I am not one to quickly point something like that, especially not in a drama film, but this movie took forever. I was interested, not riveted, and I enjoyed it, but I do think that it could have done with some tightening. There were also parts where the movie felt hollow – like it set out to be something else, but didn’t quite hit the heights that it had wanted. For me personally, that is. Anyway, I think it is worth a watch, but I was not as taken with it as I had expected. The film is shot well, looks good, has a strong cast carrying it, and is interesting, but ultimately it falls a little short of the ambitious mark that it set for itself.

Review: Killer Joe (2011)

“You ever hear of Joe Cooper? He’s a cop. A detective, actually. He’s got a little business on the side.”
– Chris Smith

SYNOPSIS: When a debt puts a young man’s life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance. – via IMDB

What the fuck?! Killer Joe had a great cast going for it that played their roles well with a disturbing as hell execution of the premise. I could get on board with the desire to kill your mother for insurance money, even hiring a hitman. I could get on board with how incredibly trashy some families are, and even smiled a bit at how much the film milked the trailer trash angle (I hear a lot about it in books and movies but we don’t really have that here). But then the secondary aspects of the premise came. The part about a grown man wanting a twelve year old girl, an adult male starting a sexual relationship with said child who initially did not even want him, that was terrified of the concept (and yeah, gonna say this), and suddenly was so experienced and enjoyed it from the off. For a girl that is not promiscuous, that should not have been her first reaction. Anyhow, let me move right on from that. Then there was her family that knew what the animal wanted and freely offered her to him. I mean what the hell, were they that desperate for cash that they were willing to pimp a child for it? However, the story was alright. Emile Hirsch was pretty good as Dottie’s brother, yet so damn trashy. I mean seriously now? McConaughey was definitely the show stealer here though, brilliant performance. The way the insurance money debacle went down was good, too, though I must say that there was a lot in this film that was just not easy to watch, that is just that. Then there was the chicken scene, and that was really pretty messed up, in all honesty. Dammit, why? The movie is unconventional, and I wouldn’t suggest you watch it with your parents/kids, it could get a little awkward. There is some pretty dark humour at times, and then there is a lot that gets uncomfortable, too. The performances are definitely worth checking out though! It is not something that I will be checking out again in a hurry in the near future, and I would definitely not recommend this to those that cannot look past the disturbing aspects of the film to see the content of it.

Review: Prince Avalanche (2013)

“So when you say something negative and insult the other person… You’re really just showing that other person what an unsure-of-yourself-type person that you really feel like you are.”
– Lance

SYNOPSIS: Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.  – via IMDB

I found this film to be incredibly long and incredibly tedious. I think there were a royal five minutes that managed to generate a smile from me. I felt like my time was wasted. I didn’t enjoy the story much at all, which was a pity seeing as the actors weren’t bad and I really wanted to like it. The only thing that carried the story the little bit that it went was Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. I really, really didn’t like Lance’s character – he was a real tool and annoyance and superbly rude. His nice moments were few and far between, though Emile Hirsch was very well cast to carry him out. Paul Rudd’s portrayal of Alvin was actually really good as it goes out of his regular comfort zone, and he does it incredibly well.  The settings were slow, the pace was non-existent, the story was weak and it was boring for me in so many places. There, I said it. I know some people praised it for being an alright comedy drama, but there was nothing that I was enamoured with (except maybe chasing someone with a wrench and throwing things at them). It almost felt like it was trying to go in a Napoleon Dynamite kind of way but missing the bus. I also really didn’t like the jittery camera work for this movie at the best of times though I really liked the sets they were working in. The conclusion was also incredibly sudden for me, and didn’t really explain much or wrap it up. I suppose there really are worse movies to watch in your precious free time, but after the many positive reviews I read about this I was not impressed.