Hero in Lunatic Fringe

Franklyn (2008)
Director- Gerald McMorrow
Starring- Eva Green, Ryan Phillipe, Sam Riley

The lives of three strangers become intertwined and deeply affected by a masked vigilante in an alternate world.  Emilia (Green) is an artist who struggles with her mother's detached nature and attempts suicide once a month as part of an art project.  Milo (Riley) was dumped before his wedding, and returns to pursuing a childhood sweetheart.  Peter (played by Bernard Hill) searches the streets for his son who escaped a mental hospital.  Last, but by far not least, Jonathan Preest (Phillipe) wears a mask and battles religious oppression in the darkened Meanwhile City while searching for a girl abducted by the cult-leader named The Individual. 

While none of these lives seem related to one another, it becomes apparent that they are connected not only through some personal interactions but also because of the level of suffering and apparent mental instability involved. 

Emilia not only suffered mother's neglect, but father's abuse.  Milo's childhood sweetheart was not what he thought she was, nor is what he thinks she is, forcing him to deal with reality on terms not his own.  Peter, perhaps the most sane in the group, comes close to finding his son, but at tremendous cost.  And Preest?  He comes to realize his reality is flickering as it becomes more difficult to focus on enacting vengeance on The Individual. 

The acting was a bit over-the-top at times, though it seemed well-fitting in with the surreal nature of some of the scenes of the movie.  Transitions between one world and the other were smooth; realities were not confused with one another, but also the switch was not jarring to the viewer. 

Special Effects were great in this movie.  It played well as a superhero/fantasy movie, but switched gears into mental-illness drama with no weird incongruence in how the effects were utilized.  The costume, though somewhat basic and reminiscent of the Watchmen's Rorshach, was still pretty cool. 

The lives of these four come together at last toward the end in a dramatic, bittersweet finale.  All in all, it was a weird movie that dealt with mental illness in a way I haven't seen done much in cinema, but very much liked.

Rating:  4/5 Bonedaddies.

Depths of Obsession

Deep End (1971)
Director-Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring- Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Karl Michael Vogler

15-year-old Mike (Moulder-Brown) experiences life as an employee in a public swimming pool/bath house. He meets some strange women, including one who sexually abuses him in a strange, not-very intrusive way, but becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan (Jane Asher), who is not only engaged, but is also seeing the lascivious swimming instructor (Vogler).

Despite her engagement and pool flings, she still flirts a bit with him, enticing him all the more to be with her at any cost. He begins following her to places like he theater, restaurants, even home. She seems to fluctuate between enjoying it, tiring of it, and enjoying it again throughout the movie.

One day, after crashing a foot race organized by the swimming instructor, Mike decides to pop the tires of the man's car, which had been loaned to Susan for the day. Susan chases Mike in a rage, and ends up losing the diamond on her engagement ring in the snow. They decide to bag up the snow surrounding them and take into the pool after hours to thaw, which leads to an awkward tryst and a downbeat ending.

The pacing in this movie wasn't great. There were times it seemed to drag on, and Mike got himself into places that didn't seem to go anywhere in the movie. At one point he finds a nude cardboard cutout of Susan in front of a peepshow, suggesting she is much more well-known to men than he had previously known, but no more explanation is given.

Despite the pacing, the acting was done well, and the minimal effects did nothing to take away from the effectiveness of the movie overall.

Rating: 3/5 Bonedaddies.

Another Day, Another Time Hole, Another Fantastic Thing

Time Bandits (1981)
Director- Terry Gilliam
Starring- Michael Palin, David Warner, David Rappaport

Young Vincent (Palin) gets caught up in a cross-dimensional crime spree run by employees of the "Supreme Being", using a stolen map of the universe. The time-jumpers are led by Randall (Rappaport), and are actually on the job of fixing time holes, using the opportunity to loot what they can before closing the hole up.

During their adventures, they meet various historical characters, such as a very polite Robin Hood (nailed down in Monty Python style by John Cleese), and King Agammemnon (played by a young non-yet-bald Sean Connery). They also find a time hole that places them precariously on the Titanic before they finally attempt to find the "most fantastic thing", placed in their heads by the Evil Genius (Warner), who want to understand "technology" (VCR's, cameras, etc) in order to control the universe, and therefore control the Supreme Being.

The effects were decent enough for 1981, the pacing and acting were brilliant--I don' think this movie could have been effectively pulled off without the slight Monty Python flavors added. It was also cool to see midgets(?) playing a heroic role here (or maybe antiheroic) instead of being given stereotyped munchkin-style roles. Their personalities definitely trumped any size differences.

The weird thing? This movie makes more sense than Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Rating: 4/5 Bonedaddies

Midnight Spaghetti (Spoiler Alert)

El Topo (1970)
Director- Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring- Alejandro Jodorowsky, Robert John, Mara Lorenzio

Gunfight el Topo (Jodorowsky) makes his way through a desert with his naked son seeking some kind of enlightenment. What that enlightenment is, exactly, I think is mostly known to the director/star himself.

The movie begins with the pair coming upon a village recently massacred. Bodies litter the streets and buildings, blood is puddled everywhere, and the one still-living inhabitant they find begs for death, a somber task el Topo leaves for his young son as a "life lesson".

Moving on, they take on a small group of bandits, then happen upon a group of monks being terrorized by more bandits, who are soon dealt with. El Topo leaves his son behind with the monks, and takes with him a woman who was being kept there "(Lorenzio)--he eventually names her Mara.

Being forced to prove his love for her, el Topo embarks on a mission to seek out four master gunfighters and best them in battle. The first is a blind guru who takes a shot to the head. The second is a gypsy who makes copper trinkets as a hobby. The third is a crackshot rabbit herder (yeah, you read it right) whose one-shot pistol and excellent aim ironically prove his undoing. The fourth no longer cares for gunfighting, and deprives el Topo of his victory by taking his own life--to prove how meaningless it is.

After he's accomplished the harrowing task, a cowgirl dressed in black (who decided to accompany them following the first major gunfight) shoots him up and leaves with Mara. A group of deformed underground dwellers find him and take him in. Somehow he survives the wounds, develops light hair, and decides to help the underground dwellers by digging a tunnel out, so everyone can live above ground with normal society.

He is accompanied in his dig by a little woman who eventually becomes his wife. He also runs into his son, who harbors some serious ill will for having left him so many years before (I can only guess he spent a lot of time underground). He agrees to put off killing el Topo until the tunnel is finished, even helping dig himself.

After all is finished, he finds he can't kill his own father and heads back into the nearby town. Meanwhile, all the deformed underground dwellers become overly excited about their new exit door and all leave at once. They are met at the outskirts of the nearby town by the paranoid townspeople, who subsequently open fire on them. El Topo makes it in time to see the last one fall, and is then shot down as well. His little wife, who has just given birth, takes off with his grown son, and that's that.

This movie, though confusing, kept my interest for the entire two hours, something that hasn't happened often with spaghetti westerns--at least, not since Django.

It is full of symbolism. The only hitch is that one must probably watch the movie a dozen times with some religious texts to try to catch what they can, or else contact Jodorowsky and ask him directly. I saw the obvious signs of hypocrisy and demented leadership, but never really got what el Topo was looking for all this time. Perhaps it was simple "enlightenment", maybe just a better home.

A strange midnight movie, to be sure, and an entertaining one, if for nothing else than the weirdness.

Rating: 3.5/5 Bonedaddies