Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

Let me start off with saying I would not go to this dollhouse.

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) is director Todd Solondz take on Middle School. Although it may be over-the-top in many areas, it's rich characters and incredible misé en scene make it an interesting watch.

The main character in the movie is Dawn Wiener, age 11. The film follows Dawn depressing and pathetic life through high school that gets spiced up by unlucky encounters and sheer craziness. The movie starts off with a great scene in the school cafeteria. Dawn is standing in the middle of the hall, wearing typical first day at school clothes that were bought seventy generations ago, and a having a look of sheer confusion. This scene captures the feeling of being in a new school where you don't know anybody. Dawn decides to go sit next to a girl who seems to be on her own. This is where the scene reveals its one of its over-the-top characters. The girl Dawn meets turns out to be a girl who has probably never washed her hair, all thanks to the fantastic misé en scene, and one of her quotes is the classic, "take a shit". The parents in the film also sport crazy personalities, the mother being one who has a clear favorite, possibly the most annoying character in the film, Missy Weiner. Missy is the standard "I didn't do anything mommy" and gets away with everything. This leaves Dawn in a tough situation.

The locations in the film are also great. The film jumps through multiple houses. Weiner's household and in one scene the film jumps to Brandon's house. This scene in particular shows the viewer, through misé en scene, the kind of situation Brandon's life is in. Not good. The Weiner household looks like the standard family house. Plenty of toys for Missy and plenty of pictures of her for the parents to be proud of. All the misé en scene seem to be pointing at Dawn. The scenes and locations show what kind of situation Dawn is in. She is in one of the many crossroads of her life. How is she going to fit in?

The film walks through some of the ordinary stuff that happens to a middle schooler. Except it takes them completely out of line. Instead of the ordinary bullying, Dawn nearly gets raped. Instead of the "wash your hands", Dawn has to... do stuff while someone else watches. This movie was meant to take the time period we all had some trouble with out of control. And this film does it very well.

Hitchcock (2012)

Recently, I watched Hitchcock (2012), directed by Sacha Gervasi and written by John J. McLaughlin. It was a surprisingly different film then I originally anticipated. I went into it thinking that I was going to watch a documentary about the great film director Alfred Hitchcock but was instead pleasantly surprised by a story about the making of Psycho (1960).

Whether or not the events in the film were a hundred percent accurate did not really concern me. The film was set in the time when Hitchcock produced the film, which was in the late 50's, sporting old style American cars and settings straight out of an American romance film. The only difference is that Hitchcock was not a romance film, at least not at the beginning. The film travels through some made up locations, such as the scenes of the original inspiration for Psycho, occasionally sprinkled in between the regular locations in the film. Speaking of locations, the film jumps between Hitchcock's house, office, film set, and Alma's secret hideout on the beach where she writes her story with Withfield Cook, a struggling writer. The film mainly focuses on the film which may trick many viewers at the beginning as to what the main plot line to film is. At first it may be the struggle Hitchcock has with the production of the film, but through character development and key moments in the film becomes something else.

The film's locations play a large role in the way the characters develop. The scenes containing Ed Gein and Hitchcock show how invested Hitchcock is in the film. They reveal the fact that Alfred has nothing else except this film to float him. If he fails to make this film a success, his career will burn to the ground. These scenes contain a dead calm Ed Gein often engaging in evil deeds while talking to Hitchcock who is often casually standing off to the side. Occasionally the scenes break out into Hitchcock waking up from a nightmare, realizing it was just a dream, and then considering what he just saw. Alfred basically lives the film. He is so invested in it he often mixes it up with reality. When fantasy mixes with reality, reality is often forgotten.

Alma is portrayed as a hard working wife of a lazy director. The film encapsulates the idea of how little Alfred considers the things Alma does for him. He whines about everything and lets Alma hear about his troubles. Alma's character arc moves away from Hitchcock throughout the film. She joins Withfield's script writing cabin after she starts to realize how little Alfred cares for her. She starts to realize that if Alfred is not going to listen to her, she is going to find someone who will. No matter what she does Alfred never appreciates what she does. This finally boils over when a heated discussion and exchange of views is 'talked through' between the two. Alma let's Hitchcock know that she is not his slave and that he should start to appreciate her work. While this is Alma's character arc climax, Hitchcock's only starts to angle away from the film and towards Alma.

The film comes to an end with Hitchcock finally realizing what he has been missing all his life. The very person he has spent his career with. Hitchcock comes to realization that without Alma, he would be nothing and honors her at the premier of the film. Alma also comes to realize that all it took to change Alfred around was a discussion and not revenge through another man. These two characters alone make the film. Their realtionship is the plot. One might of noticed that I did not talk much about the making of Psycho that occurs in the film. I felt that the making of Psycho was the process that made Hitchcock finally realize how important his wife was and how without her there would not of been the great Alfred Hitchcock.

Badlands (1973)

Recently, I watched the film Badlands (1973) directed by Terrence Malick and have to say I quite enjoyed it. It featured some of the most interesting and complicated characters I have seen and makes you think about the ethics behind their actions.

The film is set in the 50's when everyone has a cigarette in hand and people walked around in jeans with greasy hair. The setting of the film is well done and it really never makes you think the film exists in a fake world. Throughout the film, Kit and Holly, the main characters, take you through many different locations ranging from Holly's home to the badlands of Dakota. The characters themselves go through many changes. Kit starts off being a relaxed young man with a job into an unemployed maniac on a killing spree. To much surprise Holly seems to change a lot less. Although in theory she should loose her mind after the death of someone very close to her, Holly, contrary to Kit, becomes more sociable and more talkative to the people around her. While Kit is tying up innocent victims, Holly is having conversations with them.

When Kit and Holly escape into the wild, in my opinion, what they do is not very believable. They run around the forest and build bases and hideouts in what seems a very short amount of time. For me this detached me from the film for the span of the forest hideout period and then grabbed me back into the plot when they leave. For me the "on the run" aspect of the film was far more interesting and believable than Kit and Holly becoming woodland creatures.

For me Holly is the main character in this story. Yes Kit changes more visibly and faster than Holly does but Kit's line of change is straightforward. He falls in love with Holly and decides that society has screwed him over and that it is time to leave. He takes Holly with him on his adventures and slowly starts to become less and less sociable. He starts to become paranoid and shoots all his victims for the sad reason that they saw them. Once he realizes he has been caught and that the fight is over does he go back to his normal self. The scene of him talking with the soldiers in handcuffs reminds the viewer of the old Kit that they saw at the start of the film. Holly on the other hand becomes more social. She talks to the people they meet but never defies Kit's actions or questions them to a great extent. She just is like she was when her father commanded her every move. Only near the end of the movie she starts to realize Kit is not on a future strong path and decides to hand herself in. Her display of emotion is extremely minimalist compared to the rages Kit experiences through out the film.

Badlands is a suspensful and suprising film that is ought to shock the viewer. It is a film complete from start to end and without all the puzzle pieces figured out, can be questioned for being a mess. The plot surprised me from start to finish while never letting loose on the suspension. Overall, Badlands displays interesting ideas and concepts while keeping true to the fantastic crime genre.