Classics: A Review of The Glass Castle By Lauren Ennis

The holidays are a time in which we gather those near and dear to us to share reminisces and make memories. For all too many, however, the holidays mean the resurfacing of memories that we'd rather forget and the threat of continued conflict. While dysfunctional families are often played for quirks and laughs in cinema, the reality of true family dysfunction is far more complex than Hollywood would have us believe. 2017's The Glass Castle, however, depicts the bitter conflicts and struggles of the dysfunctional Walls family with an honesty and nuance that sets it apart from its glamorized counterparts.

A far cry from The Brady Bunch

Based upon journalist Jeannette Walls' memoir of the same name, the film depicts the by turns heartwarming and devastating experiences of Walls and her siblings as they come of age. The film closely follows its source material in its focus upon Walls' unconventional parents, Rex(Woody Harrelson) and Rosemary (Naomi Watts), and the couple's complicated relationship with their children. Although the children grow up worshipping and wishing to emulate their free spirited parents, it is obvious that the children suffer abuse and neglect in Rex and Rosemary's care. While both Rex and Rosemary are portrayed as capable and intelligent people, the couple's toxic relationship, which is built upon abuse, co-dependence, and shared delusions, makes them ill-suited to parenthood. The family is almost constantly on the move as Rex and Rosemary attempt to out run creditors and child protective services with their children in tow. This constant upheaval makes it impossible for the children to achieve any sense of stability as they are repeatedly forced to move just as they begin to adjust to each new town. The couple's unusual lifestyle and live and let live philosophy carries over into their haphazard parenting  as they consistently neglect their children, who are tasked with raising themselves. Beyond the blatant neglect that they are subjected to, the children also suffer abuse at the hands of alcoholic Rex and their sexual predator grandmother. In the midst of all of this trauma, however, Rex and Rosemary encourage their children's talents and teach them to see the world for what it could be rather than for what it is. As a result, when a grown and successful Jeannette reflects upon her tumultuous childhood she continues to be torn between understandable bitterness towards her parents and the unconditional love that she continues to feel for them.

Kodak moments with a twist

Through its nuanced portrayal of the Walls family The Glass Castle captures the instability and emotional conflict of life within a dysfunctional family. Through its faithfulness to Walls' memoir the film highlights the positive and negative aspects of her childhood in equal measure. This objective perspective creates a nuanced portrait of the family that shows the many shades of gray in what easily could have been a black and white tale of a broken home. As a result, viewers share in Jeannette's conflicted emotions as she watches her parents veer from their best to their worst without warning. This sense of conflict provides viewers with insight into Jeanette's evolving mindset, which in turn lends the entire viewing experience greater resonance. While the Walls' story is a unique one, its portrayal of family at its most complicated will speak to anyone who has ever wanted to outrun their past and perhaps even more so to those who have come to terms with it.

The film's cast aptly presents a portrait of the Walls family in all their outlandish complexity without ever drifting into stereotypes or caricature. Ella Anderson captures young Jeannette's youthful innocence and the maturity that she is forced to develop at an early age with equal skill. Brie Larson embodies grown Jeannette's practically perfect persona, while still conveying her hidden torment. Naomi Watts is all charisma as the enigmatic Rosemary. Woody Harrelson virtually steals the film in his heartbreaking portrayal of Rex. Sadie Sink, Charlie Stowell, and Shree Crooks turn in engaging performance as the Walls siblings and Sarah Snook, Josh Caras, and Brigette Lundy-Paine convincingly portray the adults that the children become.

At once a deeply personal true account and a universal tale of the trials and triumphs of family, The Glass Castle is a film that will continue to resonate long after its final credits fade. Through its unflinching script and superb performances the film brings Walls' memoir to vibrant life. This is a film for anyone who has ever wanted to avoid spending the holidays with their family, and for those who still long to.

Family, one thing that doesn't improve with age

4 Films that have Surprisingly Emotional Scenes

4 Films that Have a Surprisingly Emotional Scenes

By Brian Cotnoir

     Movies can bring out a variety of emotions.  They can make you smile, laugh, and sing, fill with you fear and fright, and other times than can pull at your heart strings and deep the deepest depths of your soul and cause an explosion of emotions.  Can anyone honestly say they don’t break down crying when they watch films like “Brian’s Song” and “Marley & Me”.  Well, it could be argued that some of those films are meant to be emotional, but what about the films that have a sad film that seems to come out of nowhere?  Have you ever watched a Comedy, or a romance, or an action flick, or even a Horror film that just seems to have one deeply emotional and sad scene in it?  Well we’re going to talk about five of those scenes today, some of these emotional moments are brought on by stuff that should be emotional, like the death of main character, but still feel out of place when compared to the rest of the film.

1.) The death of Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before on this blog, but I honestly do believe that this is probably the saddest scene in all of cinema.  I’m not even a fan of Star Trek, but I cry whenever I see Spock sacrifice his life and speak his final dying words.  I remember hearing critic Doug Walker talk about this moment in his top 11 “Saddest Nostalgic Moments”.  It was pretty shocking to kill off one of the best and well known characters in a series, and nobody knew that Spock was going to return in Star Trek III.  This came at a time long before we knew to expect a fake-out deaths of main characters *cough cough MARVEL*.                                        What I, personally, think makes this scene most sad, is that you have a character, Mr. Spock, whose is known to think of everything form a logical stand point, and then does something completely illogical; sacrifice his own life so that the lives of everyone else on the space ship can be saved.  He went in knowing that he would most certainly die, but knew; “the means of many, outweigh the means of the few”.

2.)  The Death of Bela Lugosi from Ed Wood

We now will go from the death of a beloved fictional character to the death of a real life Hollywood Legend...portrayed by an actor.  Ed Wood is probably Tim Burton’s least known film.  It’s the (mostly) true story of Writer/Actor/Director Edward D. Wood Jr., a man regarded by some of the top film critics in the world as the “Worst Director of All-Time”.  The film takes a look at many aspects of Wood’s attempts to make it as a Hollywood film director.  One of the more interesting parts in Wood’s life was the friendship he formed with Hollywood legend, Bela Lugosi.  You see when Wood (played by actor Johnny Depp) met Lugosi (played by actor Martin Landau), they both only saw each other as means to an end.  Wood, an aspiring film director wanted to capitalize and Lugosi name and fame, and Lugosi who had all, but disappeared form the movie spot light was just looking for a paycheck to help support his drug addiction.          

    Over time the two actually form a friendship and actually think the world of each other, in no scene is this more prevalent than one Wood gets the new of Lugosi’s passing away, which is followed by a scene of Wood watching the last clip he ever shot of Lugosi on a loop again and again, by himself.  He knows he lost more than his best actor; he’s lost a dear friend.       

     Now, I’ve read in articles about Wood & Lugosi’s friendship, where Lugosi’s family accuses Wood of taking advantage of the aging, drug dependent Lugosi, and tarnishing this acting career and legacy, but I’ve also heard that Lugosi really did think of the world of Ed Wood (or “Ed-die” as he was known to call him) and was glad that he gave him one more chance in the spotlight.  Actor Martin Landau actually won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lugosi.  If you haven’t seen Ed Wood, yet, I highly recommend you check it out.

*Unfortunatley I could not find a clip on YouTube for this scene*

3.)  Ralphie fights Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story

This holiday cult classic is filled with laughs and brings so many people joy, but there’s one scene in the film that gets me, personally, a little misty eyed.  It’s the scene where Ralphie fights his schoolyard bully.  After receiving a C on his essay about what he wants the most for Christmas, Ralphie is feeling pretty down, and then he is pelted in the head with an ice ball by his schoolyard bully, Scut Farkus.  After Farkus taunts him, Ralphie snaps and attacks his bully, beating him senseless while shouting every curse word that he can think of.  Ralphie is eventually caught red-handed by his mother, and then proceeds to breakdown and start crying himself.                       

      I think this moment is so relatable to the child in all of us.  As kids, our behavior came and went with our moods, but we all made sure to be on our best behavior right before Christmas, and you can just feel how upset and defeated Ralphie feels as he breaks down in front of his, Mom.  He didn’t mean to lose his temper and lash out in a fit of rage, but his emotions just got the best of him.  He believes at this point that he is going to face a severe punishment from his parents, and probably also believes that he blew his chance of getting a Red Rider BB Gun from Santa for Christmas.               Fortunately for Ralphie, though, things work out for him in the end, but yeah this scene sure does tug at my Heart Strings.

4.) “Noodles, I slipped” from Once Upon a Time in America

I’m finding that more and more people are slowly starting to discover this film.  Here’s the best way I can describe Sergio Leone’s masterpiece of Cinema, “Once Upon a Time in America”: Imagine if “The Godfather: Part I & II” were one film, but focused on Jewish-American gangsters instead of Italian-American gangsters.  The film follows the lives of two friends in Brooklyn who start off as punk kids running cheap little scams and follows them to Adulthood where they become rich and powerful gangsters, bootlegging during the Great Depression.  At a run time of almost 4 hours, this film has so much to show and offer, including a surprisingly emotional scene.                      

     There’s a scene that depicts the two main gangsters as teens being pursued by a rival teen gangster, named Bugsy, in their attempts to flee Bugsy, he opens fire on them striking and killing the youngest member of their group, Little Dominic.  As Little Dominic lies in the street dying, he is comforted by his friend David “Noodles” Aaronson.  With his dying breath he softly utters the phrase to his friend “Noodles, I slipped” before passing in a way in Noodles arms.                             

      In a blind rage, Noodles attacks, Bugsy with knife stabbing him to death, and when a New York City Police officer tries to intervene, Noodles unintentionally stabs him too.  For his crime Noodles, is sentenced to 12 years in Prison.  Just seeing the raw emotion on Noodles face as he goes from great sadness to rage and anger is enough to make you feel something, and is definitely the saddest death in this epic Gangster flick.

Classics: A Review of Heathers By Lauren Ennis

Adolescence is easily one of the most confusing and frustrating periods in many of our lives. It is a time when we begin to question the world around us, even as we continue to question ourselves. It is little wonder that this confounding period full of drama, heartache, and conflict has earned its own genre in cinema; the teen flick. This week’s review turns the spotlight onto a film that takes the familiar teen drama beyond its genre trappings into darker territory; the 1989 satire Heathers. With a plot that explores murder, suicide, and school bomb plots with a wicked wit, Heathers is easily one of the most twisted and relevant teen films in cinema history.

Sociopathy never looked so sexy

The story begins with geek gone popular Veronica (Winona Ryder) playing dumb to maintain her wavering place in her school’s in-crowd. Veronica owes her status to her association with, and willingness to perform the dirty work of the school’s most notorious mean girls, Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk), Heather Duke (Shannon Doherty), and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), collectively known as ‘the Heathers’. While Veronica enjoys the privileges of being an honorary Heather, she also continues to question the value of the school hierarchy and begins to resent her supposed friends. Just as Veronica reaches her breaking point, she meets and is instantly attracted rebellious transfer student J.D (Christian Slater). The two outsiders band together and concoct a plan to teach the Heathers and their cohorts a lesson that quickly spirals out of control, setting the stage for one of the darkest tales in teen cinema.

While Heathers explores such familiar topics as bullying, cliques, and the high price of social acceptance, it stands out from the plethora of teen films released during the 1980’s and 1990's through its darkly satiric approach. Rather than merely portraying the archetypal tale of a teen losing their sense of self in pursuit of popularity, Heathers takes a cliché of teen disillusionment and portrays it to its logical, if absurd, end. Instead of struggling to belong, as most protagonists in teen films do, Veronica and J.D. not only reject, but attempt to literally annihilate the school hierarchy, beginning with its top members. The film extends its social critique to modern media and pop culture as the ‘suicidal’ Heathers are portrayed by the local media as martyrs and their vindictive behavior is excused as part of a greater ‘societal problem’. In a twist that plays off of the both teen fads and media frenzies, as the school’s most popular students continue to perish their classmates begin following suit with genuine suicides. Even parents and administrators aren’t immune to the script’s scathing wit as the adults in the film cling to the mass media hype and fail to recognize the ‘suicide’ epidemic for the killing spree that it is. While the plot packs a powerful punch decades later, the script deftly manages to walk the line between biting satire and tasteless humor through its sympathetic portrayals of supporting characters such as bookish Becky and outcast Martha. The script also succeeds in its complex portrayal of conflicted Veronica as she battles her own weaknesses and insecurities to finally stand up to both J.D. and the Heathers. The script also commendably makes an effort to portray J.D. as a villain rather than glamorizing his violent behavior. Through its razor sharp wit Heathers ushered in a new era of the teen film, paving the way for such later films as Jaw Breakers and Mean Girls.

What's your damage?!

Heathers’ cutting comedy soars through the work of its stellar cast. Kim Walker is the meanest mean girl this side of Regina George as queen bee Heather Chandler. Lisanne Falk captures a vulnerable charm as the delightfully ditzy Heather McNamara. Shannon Doherty aptly portrays the insecurities that drive social climbing Heather Duke. In spite of an excellent supporting cast, the film belongs to Christian Slater and Winona Ryder as lovers gone loco J.D. and Veronica. Ryder imbues Veronica with a vulnerability beneath the sardonic sass that makes Veronica an everywoman with an edge. As J.D. Slater exudes an effortless cool that makes him an endlessly watchable foil to the uncertain Veronica.

After decades of tired teen clichés, Heathers marked the start of a new era in teen films. Part social satire and part thriller, Heathers is a film that continues to defy genre classification. With its razor sharp writing and engaging performances the film remains a gruesome good time for both teens and adults. For a killer comedy, take a seat at the lunch table with the Heathers.