Lights, Camera, Action.

I haven’t written about movies I've seen in a while so here goes my lists. I have also included their corresponding movie trailers below.

Nocturnal Animals

2016 | Psycho Thriller

Amy Adams - Susan Morrow, a successful art gallery owner 

Armie Hammer - Hutton Morrow,  a businessman, unfaithful husband of Susan

Jake Gyllenhaal - Edward Sheffield, a writer, Susan’s ex husband; Tony Hastings, a character in Edward’s novel. 

Isla Fisher - Laura Hastings, Tony’s wife

Michael Shannon - Detective Bobby Andes

Nocturnal Animals was based on the 1993 novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright. I find this movie interesting because it’s not one of those average psycho thriller type flick.

The story began after Susan received a manuscript from her ex-husband Edward. Susan started reading the manuscript and later on became too engrossed with it. Immersed with the novel, Susan found herself in Laura, one of the characters in Edward's novel. Along with this, Susan’s marriage to Hutton is also beginning to decline because of the later’s infidelity. Flashback: Susan divorced Edward for Hutton. She also had an abortion with Edward’s child. Susan felt that Edward's novel is specifically made for her as a form of revenge. 

Edwards’s novel on the other hand was about Tony Hasting’s family who were murdered after they come across Ray's gang on the road. Tony’s wife Laura and India Hastings were both raped and murdered after Ray and his gang took the two ladies in their car somewhere. Tony was taken by a guy named Lou to an abandoned lot, Tony fortunately survived. Detective Bobby Andes helped Tony with the case, he was however diagnosed with lung cancer and when he found our that Ray’s gang will be set free due to lack of evidence decided to put the matter in his own hands with Tony’s approval. Detective Bobby Andes killed Lou, Ray ran away, Tony found him and eventually shot and killed him. 

Going back to Susan, she made an attempt to fix her relationship with Edward but he did not show up during one of their supposed meet up. The End.

I am not a fan of fragmented chronology but this movie used it to keep the momentum high and not bore the audience. Once you’re immersed in Edward’s story with Tony on it, the movie will send you back again to Susan’s realm making me as an audience more squeamish to know about Tony’s fight against the criminals. I was irked at one point because when something significant is about to happen, your excitement will die down as you will be looped back to Susan’s collapsing marriage which I wasn’t interested that much. 

Overall, I enjoyed watching this movie because it kept me on my seat wanting to know more about its outcome. I was bored at first but when Edward’s novel started to unfold, the movie caught my full attention at it was pretty interesting.

***

Paterson

2016 | Drama

Adam Driver as Paterson

Golshifteh Farahani as Laura

I thought Paterson is just one of those boring movies with voice-over narrations, but, after watching the whole thing I actually ended up liking it. 

The movie was about Paterson, a bus driver from a town coincidentally similar to his name, Paterson, NJ. He’s married to Laura, also an artists and bakes cupcakes for a living. Laura dreams about becoming a singer who plays an acoustic guitar someday. They have a dog named Marvin. 

Paterson carries a notebook with him everyday to work where he writes his poems; before the bus leave the station or during his spare time which he spends at his favorite place, the Great Falls of the Passaic River. Laura loves Paterson’s poetries and would love for him to publish them someday. One day, Laura took Paterson to dinner because she sold all her cupcakes at the country fair and left Marvin the dog home alone. However, when they came home later, they found that Marvin chewed on Paterson’s little notebook of poems leaving nothing recoverable. Paterson was devastated (although it was never obvious since he’s the calm and stoic kind of guy) because his little notebook of poems was an extension of his creative thoughts which he can never bring back like an event in life once passed. He instead spent his days lamenting over his notebook sitting by the falls until one fine day again a Japanese guy sat beside him, talked about poetry and ended up giving him a blank notebook to start writing poems as if he knew he’s a poet. Paterson started writing poems again from scratch. The End. 

I find this movie quite profound considering the plot was very simple. I guess it’s just how you look at things. All I can say is that if creativity is a crime then Patterson would’ve been dead. 😂 I enjoyed watching this flick because I love poetry myself and poets can be one the most eccentric people in this planet. I am not a fan of movies with voice-over narrations except for some (such as the movie The Diary of a Teenage Girl) however, I couldn’t think of a much better concept for this movie. To sum it up, Paterson is a breath of fresh air in this dystopian/sci-fi movie filled world.

***

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

2015 | Comedy/Drama

Setting: San Francisco 1976

Minnie Getz (Bel Powley) - 15yo. girl from SFO, who wants to be a cartoonist

Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) - Minnie’s bohemian/drug addict mother

Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) - Charlotte’s 30 something year old boyfriend.

Kimmie (Madeleine Waters) - Minnie’s friend

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a pretty interesting coming-of-age drama flick as it was based on an illustrated novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner. If you may have seen the trailer, it wasn’t as promising as the movie itself really. 

Minnie came from school one day to narrate her first time having sex via a voice tape recorder. She thinks she’s not as pretty because she wasn’t noticeable at school until she started having sexual relations with Monroe, her mother’s boyfriend. Mini started fantasizing about Monroe after the later accidentally touched her bosom like it was nothing. Monroe, despite Minnie being a minor did not cease from seeing her until it came to the point Charlotte learned about it by listening to Minnie’s tape recorder. Charlotte, Minnie’s mom, who’s often high did not really pay attention to her growing up daughter thus explains the mishap. Minnie’s only confidante was her best friend Kimmie who knew about Monroe. Minnie on the other hand is a creative teenage girl who loves to draw and dreams of becoming a cartoonist someday. Mini and Monroe’s illicit sexual affair did not last long after Minnie realized he’s been taken advantaged upon by Monroe and Charlotte’s realization she’s been an awful mother for letting the situation turn full blown. 

The movie has an interesting twist to it plus the musical score (I love the OST). I guess it’s my love for the bellbottom jeans and the hippie era thus explains why I like this flick.

Last but not least, The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

***

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

2016 | Horror

Austin Tilden (Emile Hirsch)

Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) 

Emma (Ophelia Lovibond)

I was drawn to the movie title and poster quite frankly thus explains why I watched this flick and I did not regret it. I think it’s one of the scariest horror flicks I’ve seen to date second to The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Conjuring 2 (yes it’s a tie for me). 

Jane Doe is a name often used for an anonymous female (legal). So, imagine my curiosity why the movie title was The Autopsy of Jane Doe. I thought it was another crime/murder movie but I learned it was indeed a horror flick to my delight.

Tommy Tilden, a small town coroner and his son Austin just finished their autopsy of a burned victim when Emma arrived at the funeral parlor. Emma, Austin’s girlfriend asked why one of the corpses has a bell in one of it’s toes. Austin explained that the bell’s purpose is to tell whether the corpse is just on a comatose state or totally dead because it will ring once the person is awake. Austin was also supposed to see a movie with Emma but he decided to stay instead. Along came the sheriff with an unidentified corpse he called Jane Doe due for autopsy to determine the COD (cause of death). The sheriif said they found the body half buried in a basement with no signs of forced entry and looked as though she was trying to escape from the house. 

Moving on, Tommy and Austin noticed the body had no wounds nor any visible proof it was killed by an outside force. They however noticed that Jane Doe have broken wrists, ankles, tongue cut off and cloudy eyes (which was not possible because the corpse had only been dead for a few days). The father and son decided to cut the body open and found more interesting and mysterious things about Jane Doe: her lungs blackened, missing tooth wrapped in a piece of cloth which she swallowed, her skin had prints of what seemed like letters and drawing which made them conclude she’s a witch. 

Strange things started happening over the course of one night, Tommy and Austin started hearing a bell then saw one of the corpses with stitched lips and eyes came to life, light started to flicker etc. They attempted to burn Jane Doe but failed. I’ll just cut it short, Tommy accidentally killed Emma with an axe because she saw her differently (she appeared as a bewitched corpse), he whispered to Jane Doe to spare his son Austin and release her wrath to him alone (which she did). She made Tommy feel every pain she might’ve felt after she was cut open although in the end Jane also killed Austin sparing no one. The Sheriff came back the next day and saw the mysterious death of Tommy, Austin and Emma. He then asked for Jane Doe’s body to be sent to a different county. THE END.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe scared me to my wits because I watched it late in the evening aside from Jane Doe’s corpse also looked effin real especially when they spliced her entire body open (I hate gruesome movies but this one is about performing an autopsy so gore should be out of the question). Overall, the plot was interesting because I haven’t seen something similar having watched tons of horror flicks about witchcraft and stuff because in my understanding, Jane Doe did some sorcery of some sort to her own body to avenge herself and anyone who would come contact with her corpse will endure her wrath or should we say curse. Not for faint hearted though.

I hope you enjoy these movies as much as I did. Happy watching then. 🙃