EARLIER THIS YEAR & SUMMER WATCH
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1. LITTLE CHILDREN
2. MEMENTO
3. THE WHOLE TRUTH
The long history of domestic abuse landed into court with the accusation of murder advanced to the family son. The authoritarian, despotic father was found stabbed in his home, with the son immediately confessing to the police that he committed it. During the process which is arduous, the Defense Lawyer (Keany Reeves starring) cannot effectively intervene because his defendant is keeping absolute silence. Patching the evidence it is clear that the victim (the deceased) had several capital sins like indulging in adultery regularly and violently abused his wife. His son was an indirect recipient of the constant abuse inflicted to his mother, both in the intimity of their home, as well as in public - rough verbal abuse in front of family friends. Once he even dared to confrunt the abuser in public, however more often he suffered alone. Finally, at the trial his last confession was an outregeous TRUTH that his natural father was raping him too, regularly since an early age. The convict is declared NON GUILTY, the act having been commited under the influence of affect: his father wanted to rape him once more before he would go to the University, so that it was the TRIGGER for his lack of discernment.
The epilogue however, reveals the tragic scene as it had happened and the LAWYER who used to be a family friend and had been a guest on several occasions, turned out to be that ”lover” about whom the abusive victim confessed before dying. The WHOLE TRUTH turns out to be more complex, the Lawyer having had a conflict of interest, was the one who had executed the abuser while alive, and turned the trial into a process of accusation and condemnation against the deceased victim.
4. BLACK SWAN
The present movie was a psychiatry case study in my group. The quoted genre is psychological thriller. Nathalie Portman, as the troubled ballerina Nina has complicated relationships with her mother, a ballerina herself, ties of dysfunctional attachment, that started to get in her evolution path. She is at a crossroads in her artistic career, so that she decides to detach herself from her former obedient child condition to get some distance from her mother so as to differentiate individuate herself. Her social relationships are not developed and her professional relationships are tense, marked by harsh competition in the mileue and exasperated by the favouritism-based promotion from the part of superior decision makers. In order to get the crown role in the performance but also of her entire career she had to undergo certain transformations. The endeavors to fit into the role lead her to a real split in her personality with all the bouquet of psychological symptoms - dissociations, hallucinations, dellusion, delirium, self-victimisation and suicidal ideation, intertwined with her constant physical pains, wounds, injuries, weak body constitution. Her behaviour is changed from regular, organized - to chaotic, destabilized. She finally is promoted for the role and executes it with mastery, although the empersonation of the white/black swan character and complete fusion with the role have her commit the supreme transgression - the suicidal act proper, which is the apogee of the story. The movie is considered a masterpiece by the Film Academy as it received 5 Oscars :) !!!
5. JOHN WICK
In John Wick I enjoyed the performance of my favourite actor Keanu Reeves all along with the versatility of technical tricks. The plot is simple, John Wick a skilled killer is hired for a task, involving one powerful, rich but dangerous and hostile clan fighting among themselves for supremacy in hierarchy and dominance. He had to move to the other city, had to get prepared for the assault obtain access plan, clading, weaponry and moved to the place where the ceremony had to take place. He had to assassinate the sister of the commissioner. However when Gianna understood she could not escape her destiny, she committed suicide by cutting her veins. It was surprinsing and strange for the mercenary killer Wick, but he finished his job. The way out of the place posed more difficulty, John Wick having to engage in the fight with the guards. One of them, another former killer followed the hero into the metro compartment, where they resolved the embroilment in John Wick's favour. John Wick saw himself obliged to kill the commissioner of the task, because it was the moment of survival of the fittest again, and that one would not have accepted his presence with the large sum of money he had to receive. The currator of the mafia sindicate was deeply displeased with Wick's act and not only that the earned sum was not inteded to be paid, he ordered John Wick to leave the country as he was excommunicated because he had infringed several rules of the denizens of the underworld. So once again John Wick is denied his retribution, is ordered deportation, and his chances to retire become misty. The red thread in the story is the brown dog John Wick kept and which waited for him at the start and finish line of the story - a hotel hall. The pet is evocative of Wick's resistant values of care for an inocent, weaker being - an animal, he had been forced to accept the bloody affair only after he had had his appartment exploded, so he had had strong intentions of retiring from the bloody business. His companion - the dog had more luck to have that owner than the mafia clan who sacrificed a sister - his own blood for the sake of triumpf.
6. BLITZ
Jason Statham plays the bad guy again, actually a converted killer into cop. A strange serial killing case was unfolding - a killer was outrageously killing police people men and women. Detective Sergeant Tom Brant is paired in a partnership on the case with Sergeant Porter Nash. Nash had recently been transferred from another police branch and here was met with collective bullying and jeer because being gay. Nash during the entire campaign to identify and catch the serial killer demonstrated to be highly organized, skilled and vigilent, accurate in his work and decisions, unlike many other of his colleagues (a young policewoman who had failed an important promotion exam, who had been to the rehab for drug addiction, indulged in carelessness, took drugs again, endangering not only herself but also her dependents). The pepetrator turned out to be a psychopath who had once been fiercely beatten by Brant in a billiards playing club. That had probably been the trigger of his hate for the cops and the resulting revenge plot. I think, that combat baptism campaign was resolved by the two cop-partners off the legal framework, as the criminal had been caught once by police but shamefully released as there was no real evidence of his deeds. I called the resolution of the case a baptism for both Nash and Tom Brant because that had become very personal - Tom Brant had been the cause of the criminal's hate, but Nash - looked fantastically like the antihero.
7. KNOCK KNOCK
If at the beginning of the trite human story of falling into temptation the MAN acts like a typical male and responds instinctively; the entire story contradicts basic manish reflexes to respond to violence with violence. He had had numerous occasions during the nightmarish weekend to retaliate to pulverize to infinimal particle the hookers' gang - HOWEVER he never did it. This inaction of his with the expectation until the last moment to sensibilize them failed from worse to desastruous, all possible damage having been inflicted, from losing his honour, reputation, to defacing, vandalizing his HOME and derision of his family, up to closely losing his life. Not to mention the death of person by misdemeanour. My modest idea is that agent with his excessive familiarity - was somehow the TRIGGER in the story. The BASIC plain jealousy for having so easy access to his HOME and his wife and for having the sympathy of his kids
8. FREE FALL
There are no actors superstars acting in this movie, no any other appeal, almost the entire action takes place in the lift of a great company. The event is triggered by the sudden and incomprehensible death of an important person in the company. When the heroine comes to work however, despite of the fresh grieving - all the gears of the company had been retaken, all the places refilled, to her stupour. She finds a memory stick on which secret information was stored. Untangling the reports she understands that one possible cause of suicide of the previous boss might have been namely that compromising information about the enormous fraud going on. The CRISIS MANAGER called to sort out things in the created situation turned out to be not a facilitator but a liquidator, who was sent to wipe off the traces, and if necessary kill some more witnesses. Which he indeed did - he killled the security guard , the company financial security director and intended to kill the most dangerous witness - Jane Porter. The hour long fight in the elevator ends with Jane's winning the unequal battle. However she faught for her life and won, but she did not carry on her plan to denounce the schemes of enormous fraud in which prominent public people were involved. Jane chooses to marry her boyfriend and walk away from trouble to follow her own dream of heavenly happiness. From the very beginning I thought at the idiom to take the elevator which means to keep a secret, not to denounce something on landing on the ground floor to exit. The metaphor suits me as the heroine was intimidated however into not spreading the potentially explosive information.
9. THE ROOM
The action of the film indeed takes place basically in a room of a two-storied appartment - the common lodging of a young couple. They have been lovers for more than five years, with him still being profoundly in love and caring with his partner, however not valid for her. The heroine started to feel bored, oversatieted with her partner's attention and presents and nothing doing and started a treacherous affair with her boyfriend's friend Mark. She admited her intention to interrupt her relationship with Johnny to her mom, who attempted several times to convince her not to make such a mistake, because her John was providing for her and she would be in difficulty without that constance. Lisa had confessed to one of her friends girl about her intent. That room - a living room becomes the stage where all those scenes took place, her betrayal with Mark, her friend's sex with a boyfriend, Lisa's continuous mallicious discussions with her mom, the wedding arrangements, another guy who was paid a sort of scholarship by Johnny, and who also craved for Lisa. That was the ROOM OF BETRAYAL and EVIL. The wedding was already a nonsense, Lisa, however organized a birthday party for Johnny. The event took place in the same room, with guests and much luring flirt from Lisa with Mark. She was caught in the act by a friend, Johnny himself already was in the know. They had a fight. Mark had a disgusting behaviour. After the guests had left Johnny was upset locked himself in the bathroom. They had a final discussion with Lisa, he had taped the phone conversation between her and Mark. At confrunting her she showed contempt and left to go to live with Mark. Johnny commited suicide because of disappointment and despair, Mark revealed he had no intention to tie his destiny with Lisa. So that the resolution of the drama takes place in the same stained with blood and dishonour room.
10. A GOOD MARRIAGE
The story is about a serial killer who had raped and killed 12 young women, all along in his official life being a happy family man, in love with his wife, with grown-up children and a stable social status. During a family event he gave his wife some cute hanging ear-rings with small fish. They had a passionate night together with his wife, but only the next day his wife was to reveal the gruesome secret from their garage, his secret criminal life. Bob left for his work and Darcy searching through the garage found the secret nook, where he kept visiting- cards from all his victims. Darcy made an Internet search and found out all the details, closed the dots, and even more, discovered the fish ear-rings she had received in the previous night from her husband on the photograph worn by one of the victims - the last one. She was horrified at the idea that she was probably the next one on the list. Deeply disturbed, to the point of having hallucinations from time to time and dissociating reality from her imagination, she nevertheless had a conversation with him, obtaing a promise of armistice, when neither him nor her would engage in actions endangering the family reputation. After the wedding of their daughter, Darcy brought to realization her plan and killed Bob presenting it as an accidental fall from the first floor. After funeral she is confronted by a detective - an old man who knew very many details. The man however suffered a health accident and was taken by the ambulance. Darcy attempted to kill him too as she did not want to have her family suffer the dishonour. They had a discussion where she opened all the cards and gave him the most painful details for her as woman - the fish ear-rings as a token of her being the next, the little box in which he kept his victims' cards had been made by her daughter at school was made a present to him. The man understood and believed her, so that his last phrase was that all the rest of her life she would only have to pay her taxes, in the sense that he was not condemning her, he understood completely her situation, she had not been an accomplice all along but she had defended the honour of her children - she was nor guilty.
Solution-Focused Therapy, Existenstial Therapy, Drama Therapy, Narrative Therapy. A profound meaning drama with a wonderful team of great actors. The TALKING healing. The recovery from the grief crisis after the irrecuperable trauma - the loss of a child!!!
Costly in terms of money and human effort to trigger the much sought after - WORDS, catharsis - a forceful, caring push by the friends from the dead-end in which the Protagonist, Will Smith had been stalled for too long, long enough to trigger other troubles and more serious disorder and consequences. The caring colleagues and friends however were themselves tourmented by personal critical issues - of communication and post-divorce trauma after which his daugher had been manipulated into hating and rejecting the loving father. The other hero, literally was struggling himself with the ravages of cancer and communication dilemma - whether to tell or not to tell his spouse about the fact that he was dying. Not to mention the initiator of the salvation mission - who was herself single and feeling lonely, and was longing for genuine family life, besides her successful career.
The challengers - the theater actors who impersonated the major existential abstractions TIME; LOVE; DEATH, charged by the Protagonist for having committed the fatal mistake - brought an important contribution to the discharge moment. Nevertheless as solution-focused therapy considers - the first step, undertaken by the sufferer is the the first brick into the built-up future psychotherapeutic success. The Protagonist's decision and effort to join a psychotherapeutic group of people who suffered from the same trauma of grieving crisis post loss of object - mediated by a talented young therapist who herself said to have suffered such a loss, the death of her 6 year old daughter of cancer - had been the catalyst and determinant factor in RECOVERY. They both had received the collateral beauty of aggregating their enormous tragedies and only by joint HUMAN efforts to pass beyond, because "If only we could be strangers again" was not a lamentation or damnation but an inevitability of beautiful life. The metaphor of the enormous in size construction that was taking the Protagonist up to 5 days to build, obsessively reminded him of his time and enjoyment with his daughter, the domino effect at its demolishion had also a symbolic effect.
12. SPLIT
The protagonist Kevin Wendell Crumb is a frequent patient of the psychiatrist and psychoterapist Dr. Karen Fletcher. He is a long-time patient with DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder, or Multiple Personality Disorder with attested 23 different separate identities. The offpatient was monitored by his psychiatrist who pretended to already know him in all his aspects. However, an intensified urge and frequency to visit her from her patient, puzzles her. The doctor was confused, was in vain trying to guess which of his triggered identities had contacted her multiple times on the previous night, she was vaguely imagining who she was exactly talking to, who she had in front of her during the reception. Only establishing some additional technical intervention - web camera tracking she detected the identity who possesed the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The gripping crime in progress unfolding and presented on TV about the kidnapping of three young girls was another mystery which added to the Doctor's direst presuppositions. Kevin was a victim of childhood neglect and abuse, he had suffered all kinds of physical violence, some admitted in therapy, some still hidden, lingering in the abys of his unconscousness. Either an aggravation of the progress of the illness or some unaccounted event or subject had triggered finally the diabolic 24th identy - the "BEAST" who was murderous and cannibalistic. Dr Karen dies foolishly at the hands of her enraged patient after coming unsolicited at his premises. His ”premises” turn out to be in the basement of the Philadelphia Zoo. His case was labelled by the Crime Investigators as the HORDE.
The movie has met some criticism for stigmatizing mental illness. The profound suffering of the patient is seen when he was trying to establish some contact with one of the girls, herself a childhood victim of abuse. He fetched her in his ”room” - another cell from that scruffy dark basement, and she discovers with stupour that his stereo player that he had described as placed by the window - was actually placed in that concrete compound bellow a shit of paper on which a window was clumsily drawn by the regressed identity, he proudly hefted up that shit of paper - thus allegedly - opening his window. His dancing to his music at his ”girl's" request - was genuine - all impulse and torment. A psychological thriller.
13. SHERLOCK: A STUDY IN PINK
Beneduct Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman starring in A Study in Pink, was a lucrative partnership in the neo-modernist version of Conan Doyle's classical A Study in Scarlet.
Cumberbatch's style of speech and acting is unconfounded :) reflecting the speed of his mental activity - information processing, synthesis, analysis, -DEDUCTION, I liked it (!!!) His agitated manners and movements, his flashing eyes , his impulse, his concentration, his motivation, involvement in action - reflect his temper.
All these were at first incomprehensible for the recently retired ex-Afganistan veteran, who was disabled after a trauma in the war, and suffered badly from PTSD with all the spectrum of symptoms - flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilence, isolation, re-experiencing of the moments of trauma. He had been in psychotherapy, but not very successfully, with all the burden of his sequela he decided to move on with his life and his destiny collided him with Sherlock in full action involved in the detective investigation of a strange series of suicides. Three had been known, the fourth happened at the moment when finally police was alerted of the scope of crime and stepped into investigating the dilemma, Sherlock being in high esteem, was also called in to intervene and bring his reflections and deductions.
I like detective stories, I have read many, but this time I rejoyced enormously from this therapeutic effect that dedication and talent, mastery, versatility, involvement in action for a noble cause (!!!) had upon Dr Watson. He was badly limping, felt crippled, used a cane, was morose, inhibited, behaved like a fallen disabled invalid, but at the moment of action, he completely forgot his cane in a pub, he ran faster than a healthy man, his already total involvement in the investigation as an official partner of Sherlock - transformed immediately him. Not only that he was involved in the whirl of events, he was forced to take decisions, he was tested by Sherlock's brother - a high dignitary, who tempted him with money in exchange for information; he at the end literally saves Sherlock's life by tracking him into the building where the murderer lured him, and his exact target-hitting shooting, stopped Sherlock from certain death. The killer was playing a sort of pill picking game, from two offered one was a powerful poison. He was manipulating his victims to engage in his game. The victims were selected, the killer knew intimate details about them. Sherlock was on the list.
I liked the apogee when Sherlock was hesitating strongly, as a former drugs user, and experimentator with different substances and chemicals, he was not able to abstain, he was too deep into the game plus the tentation of the former user. Watson interrupted charply the deadly game in which Sherlock was already playing voluntarily. Sherlock not always played according to the rules, but as he was not validated officially by police investigation forces, they detaining the mechanisms and instruments - he was levelling the playing ground by his predictive, deductive powers - outplaying them - it was him who got the pink suitcase which was the capital piece to resolve the crime so as to discover and confront the killer.
14. A BEAUTIFUL MIND
15. BLOOD HUNT
16. THE SAINT
17. STONEHURST ASYLUM
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