Paging Dr. Freud…

Swagger like me...

Regarded as  the father of psychoanalysis- a systematic structure of theories concerning the relation between the conscious and unconscious mind- the name Sigmund Freud is synonymous with psychology.  When I took my first psychology course in middle school, I was convinced that I wanted to be a psychotherapist.  Fascinated by his  theories on dreams, the three-part personality, psychoses, and neuroses, Freud pretty much shaped my desire to dabble in the fields of psychology and therapy. 

Filmmakers too, have been largely influenced by Freud’s ideas on the conscious and unconscious mind.  Whether they be films about dissociative identities (i.e. The Three Faces of Eve, The Bad Seed), psychopaths, (Natural Born Killers, Monster, Silence of the Lambs) , dreams (Requiem for a Dream, The Cell, A Nightmare on Elm Street), or neurotics (insert any Diane Keaton film here) almost all movies explore the psychological undertones of man being shaped by nature, nurture, or both. 

Then again, some movies just flat out pay homage to Freud in a satirical sense.  In  What About Bob, Richard Dreyfuss’ character Dr. Leo Marvin, a psychiatrist who himself becomes unwound, names his son Sigmund.  And then there’s that  line from Analyze This, in which mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro), reluctant to talk about his mother, tells his psychiatrist Dr. Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), “Freud’s a sick fuck and so are you”.  Classic.

Whether you give credit to Freud’s theories or deduce his insights to those of a rambling cocaine addict, you can’t deny his appeal.  Principles rooted in psychoanalytic theory (i.e. repression, denial, etc.) continue to hold weight and are still discussed on doctors’ couches 123 years since their inception.  For this reason I want to pay homage to Freud by introducing my new rating system which shall describe the level of therapeutic merit in films.   All movies reviewed from here on will be rated as such.  Behold, the Siggy’s!

    1 Siggy: Mild therapeutic value.  Don’t waste your time soul-searching.

 2 Siggy’s: Moderate therapeutic value.  Scratch your head in awe at the things that make you go hmmm…. 

 3 Siggy’s: Strong therapeutic value. You might want to consider taking mental and/or written notes.

 4 Siggy’s: Exceptional therapeutic value.  Talk it over with a professional if you’re so inclined.

‘Wanted’ left me wanting more

 

…so I borrowed a copy of the graphic novel and wished I would have started there to begin with. 

To be sure, the story’s premise of passive, office-worker-drone turned world’s deadliest assassin was entertaining.  It reminded me a lot of  Office Space minus the blood,  bad guys, and a smoldering Angelina Jolie- but I’ll get back to the sex factor later.  If you’re anything like me and spend hours behind a computer all day with people demanding that you do X,Y, and Z, the thought of  punching someone out every once in a while is appealing.  And no, I don’t have anger management issues.  However, I repeat, this is supposedly a story of the world’s deadliest assassin.  So James McAvoy of Atonement fame was the best choice for this role, right?  Riiiiigggght.   

This is part of the problem that I had with Wanted- the  implausible character development.  I didn’t believe for one minute in the chemistry between McAvoy’s and Jolie’s characters.  And for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the part in the film that alluded to them having any attraction at all.  ***Spoiler alert***  Am I really to believe that their connection was so intense that her character took her own life to spare his in the end? 

Lest you think I’m completely cynical and incapable of suspending reality for a few hours to take in a comic flick, visually speaking, Wanted is one of the better films this year.  The action sequences definitely live up to all of the critical acclaim received.  The scenes of bullets zipping through the air miles away from their targets, car chases, and slow-mo shots of superheroes jumping through glass buildings was quite entertaining.  However, the poor storyline became so muddled in the end that I really had no other choice than to read the graphic novel, right?

“Say hello to the bad guy!”  I like to think of “Wanted”  as a handbook for sociopaths.  Wesley Gibson (McAvoy)  is inducted into the Fraternity where the motto is: “consequences are for the little people”.   Described by his peers as as having “effeminate affectations” a wimpy Gibson-who’s been picked on all his life-  is introduced to a world where all of the favorite comic book heroes have been killed by the villains and the bad guys rule the world.  In the Fraternity, Gibson is free to kill, maim, and rape (yeah, they go there) anyone he pleases without remorse or fear of reprisal.  Gibson’s personality operates on pure id.

Fanboys and girls need read no farther.  If you haven’t read Mark Millar’s original work  then get ye to a bookstore post haste!  This is the first comic book (err…graphic novel) that I have ever read and as is the case with many books made into movies, I found the written version to be much more intriguing.  In this case one should definitely skip the movie because the plot in the novel is almost completely different from the film.   I won’t elaborate on the glaring differences between the book and film but I can assure you that the pessimists out there will enjoy every minute of the read. 

Oh yeah, back to Angelina Jolie.  Remember that shot of  a naked and tatted-up Jolie sashaying through the bath house?  Why is it that sub par films almost always play up the sexy vixens in the theatrical trailers?  A ringing endorsement for a DVD rental, much?  Need I mention Jessica Biel in her underwear for I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?

2009 Golden Globe Noms Lack Diversity

Token?

Nominations for the 66th Annual Golden Globes were announced yesterday and surprisingly (or not) performance nods by African Americans were underrepresented.  What?  No love for Meet Dave? 

With the exception of Blair Underwood’s nomination  as Supporting Actor in a Miniseries for his role in HBO’s In Treatment and Beyonce’s contribution to Best Original Song in Cadillac Records there is not a Black face to be found on the nomination list.  And, like Santa, I checked it twice. 

Latino actors  America Ferrera, Javier Bardem, and Penelope Cruz were nominated respectively for their roles in Ugly Betty and Vicky Christina Barcelona and Indian music director, A.R. Rahman was nominated for Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire.  Great.  That brings the Brown Face count up to five.  FIVE!!!

But seriously, WTF?  I expected Hancock and Traitor  to be overlooked by the Hollywood Foreign Press but not The Secret Life of Bees.  No best screenplay?  I know it’s not a category but no best ensemble cast?  Nothing? 

I’m not saying that the powers that be should nominate Brown folks just for the sake of doing so but really, this is getting to be a bit ridiculous.  Tom Cruise as Best Supporting Actor in Tropic Thunder? And scene.

Sean Penn+Baby Voice= Milk Oscar Buzz?

Just give him the Oscar nom already.  I swear, no actor portrays a babyish innocence like Sean Penn.  As I sat through what was his whimsically passionate portrayal of  Harvey Milk in Milk I could not help but think that I’d seen this vulnerable, “goo-goo gaa-gaa” performance before in I Am Sam.  What a wuss!  I say this not at all in a demeaning sense but rather  in awe at how Penn effortlessly makes you believe that you aren’t watching him act for two hours- he just is.

Though I knew very little about the life of Harvey Milk (and even littler about George Moscone) I knew I was in store for a two-hour saga that would surely cause the tears to well up- and did they ever.  For the record I enjoyed Milk because of it’s political relevance. To be sure, it’s eerie at how the whole art- imitating-life-imitating-art phenomena rings true 30 years later in the era of Proposition 8.   Thus, I was quite intrigued at director Gus Van Sant’s chronicling of 1978’s Proposition 6- the initiative that sought to ban gays and lesbians from teaching in public school.  And then there was Anita Bryant.  You silly rabbit.

Not to be outdone the supporting cast too deserve their share of accolades.  James Franco’s acting chops have matured since his Spiderman days and he gives a sweet performance as Milk’s homie-lover-friend- to- the-end, Scott Smith.  Diego Luna also gives a powerful performance as Jack Lira, a lover with insecurities that are bone deep (almost painful to watch, really) and Emile Hirsch is solid as Cleve Jones, Milk’s friend and fellow defender of gay rights.  Josh Brolin rounds out the supporting cast as the troubled Dan White, San Franciso supervisor and assassin.

So why should you see this movie?  If not for Sean Penn then see it for the cinematography.  I still don’t know  which scenes were authentic news footage  and which were shot to look that way.  I don’t think I even want to know.  For 128 minutes I felt as if I were living in the Castro district rather than seeing the movie just a few short blocks away from it.  See the movie for it’s messages about tolerance, too.  Milk’s tagline reads “Never blend in”.  Who can argue with that?