| Author |
Message |
|
| mo_flixx |
 Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:33 pm |
 |
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
|
I just watched RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. It is difficult to believe that this movie was based on a true story, but it was. I saw Bening on interviewed. She reported that the real life mother has deteriorated a lot since the period of the movie ('70's).
I found this movie depressing - as I do most Hollywood films about mental illness. FRANCES (very well made but also depressing) was the last one I saw before RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. |
|
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:42 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
| Mo - I honestly know what you mean. I have to be in a really good frame of mind to watch films that deal with mental illness. I think it maybe the "There but for the Grace of God Go I Syndrome." Same goes with films about homelessness. In fact, I won't watch those at all. |
|
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:41 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Being insane, but undetected and homeless but with a place to live, I have no trouble with those movies. I guess my aversion to slasher/serial killer movies stems from my narrowing missing becoming a murdering monster. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:56 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
mo_flixx wrote: I just watched RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. It is difficult to believe that this movie was based on a true story, but it was. I saw Bening on interviewed. She reported that the real life mother has deteriorated a lot since the period of the movie ('70's).
I found this movie depressing - as I do most Hollywood films about mental illness. FRANCES (very well made but also depressing) was the last one I saw before RUNNING WITH SCISSORS.
A Beautiful Mind was about mental illness. I thought the main element Bening represented was not mental illness........but kind of a Betty Friedan syndrome: housewife longs to be known for her skills at something besides cleaning/cooking/caretaking. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 2:02 am |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Syd wrote: Water is an excellent film[....] My favorite performance is Seema Biswas as Shakuntala. who finally puts conscience over religion.
Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so, because she won the Genie award for best actress in a Canadian-made film. It seems a bit odd because I'd consider that a supporting performance. |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:18 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| LOOOVED Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page. Not sure about the movie yet. Need to give it more thought. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 5:46 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Syd wrote: Syd wrote: Water is an excellent film[....] My favorite performance is Seema Biswas as Shakuntala. who finally puts conscience over religion.
Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so, because she won the Genie award for best actress in a Canadian-made film. It seems a bit odd because I'd consider that a supporting performance.
Non-Syd writes:
Well, the only other Canadian film featured a talking moose, so it was easy for the Indian film to win.
Syd, you're the only one here who has mastered the art of quoting himself (maybe Mo does that too?). I like it, it kicks my brain out of auto-pilot. I'm going to pay attention and figure out how to do that. Except I plan to take it one step further and disagree with my earlier points.
And Syd, is your cat peeking through white material or a black surface? It always appears white on my computer, but I fiddled with my browser settings yesterday and then your avatar had a black border. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:33 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
|
Befade wrote: mo_flixx wrote: I just watched RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. It is difficult to believe that this movie was based on a true story, but it was. I saw Bening on interviewed. She reported that the real life mother has deteriorated a lot since the period of the movie ('70's).
I found this movie depressing - as I do most Hollywood films about mental illness. FRANCES (very well made but also depressing) was the last one I saw before RUNNING WITH SCISSORS.
A Beautiful Mind was about mental illness. I thought the main element Bening represented was not mental illness........but kind of a Betty Friedan syndrome: housewife longs to be known for her skills at something besides cleaning/cooking/caretaking.
Befade, I am going on what Bening brought up in the TV interview. The character she played was definitely mentally ill. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:34 am |
|
|
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
|
I watched Last Days this evening. Something of an appropriate addendum to the run of films I've been watching that experiment with trying to say things without saying things (Three Times, The New World) and attempting to render behavioural studies (which is perhaps why Howard Hawks is the classic Hollywood auteur I'm drawn to most at the moment). Anyway, Last Days is a fascinating piece of work that quietly and tough-mindedly eviscerates the idiocies of what passes for alt-culture these days, and of both the alienation of the artist and the slow dismantling of a man. I identified with Blake; I've even quite often, like him, walked out into the world looking for something going on and found sweet FA. The film is too lean - much more could have been done with this material - but the evocation of mood and context, a pursuit in itself of this kind of art, is precise and valuable, and the black wit is deft.
Damn Michael Pitt looks good in a dress. |
_________________
A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:36 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
|
Non-Syd writes:...
Syd, you're the only one here who has mastered the art of quoting himself (maybe Mo does that too?). I like it, it kicks my brain out of auto-pilot. I'm going to pay attention and figure out how to do that. Except I plan to take it one step further and disagree with my earlier points.
[/quote]
-------------------------------
I have only quoted myself a few times to refer to comments (on films) I have written months ago that appeared to have been ignored. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:14 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
|
Just checked amazon.com for info. about the book _Running with Scissors_ by Augusten Burroughs. It looks like the movie is considerably cleaned up from the book. Some of the book's more shocking incidents are softened or omitted in the film.
However neither Burroughs nor the imdb.com goes into the mother's problems other than to say she was not stable. As I wrote before; according to Bening, her condition was more serious than that. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:33 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
|
Melody wrote: I want to see The Notorious Bettie Page, though, if for no other reason than director Mary Harron, whose I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho I liked a lot, plus she's one of HBO's go-to directors for their marquee series like Six Feet Under and Big Love.
I got this movie this week from Netflix and hope to post my thoughts on this sometime this weekend.
My recent increased knowledge about Bettie Page is from her 20 Questions in the recent issue of Playboy. Given this, it will be interesting to see how the movie plays out. |
_________________
Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
|
| Back to top |
|
| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:04 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
|
chillywilly wrote: ...
I got this movie this week from Netflix and hope to post my thoughts on this sometime this weekend.
My recent increased knowledge about Bettie Page is from her 20 Questions in the recent issue of Playboy. Given this, it will be interesting to see how the movie plays out.
Does anyone have a link to this? BTW (according to wikipedia) Hefner has always been a huge Bettie fan and has helped her out in the past. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:15 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
|
Unless you have a Playboy digital subscription, or someone has OCR'd the article from the magazine, it's not available online yet.
I could try and scan it to PDF from the issue and post the PDF. |
_________________
Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:46 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
mo_flixx wrote: Just checked amazon.com for info. about the book _Running with Scissors_ by Augusten Burroughs. It looks like the movie is considerably cleaned up from the book. Some of the book's more shocking incidents are softened or omitted in the film.
However neither Burroughs nor the imdb.com goes into the mother's problems other than to say she was not stable. As I wrote before; according to Bening, her condition was more serious than that.
Mo.......The book is a raucous ride........and the mother's role is less dominant. It's more about the crazy psychiatrist's family and Augusten's gay awakening and his unique struggle to find his way through this chaos. I loved it. I later read Dry.....which relates Augusten's struggle with alcoholism during the period he worked in advertising in NYC. This book didn't have the wacky humor......it had a serious reflective tone.
The mother had a mental illness (I think bipolar) but in Annette's portrayal I saw a character that I've come across in real life. An eccentric writer who wants to be famous and fails in her housewife role. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
