Set Me Free (Emporte-Moi) (1999)

   I'll go ahead and admit as a bad filmgoer and reviewer that I have never seen "Vivre Sa Vie" ("My Life to Live") by Jean-Luc Godard, and I considered watching it to get some perspective before reviewing "Set Me Free." "Set Me Free," though not directly related to "Vivre Sa Vie" thematically, is the story of a frustrated young girl who becomes fascinated with the prostitute character, Nana, is Godard's classic.

   It's also about growing up. And sexual awakening. And youthful confusion. And the moment as a child when you realize that you can't save the grown-ups in your life; sometimes, you can only help them along while they choose to sink or swim, to fight against the current, or drown. It's about the way movies influence young people, and how it's often the one's you wouldn't expect that change their ideology, for better or worse.

   Hanna (Katrine Vanasse) is a knowing yet naive 13-year-old who lives with her thief brother, Holocaust survivor father, and suicidally depressed mother in France. The year is 1963. Her father (Predrag Manjlovic) has a iron grip on the household. On the other hand her mother (Pascale Bussières) is as submissive and weak as her father is dominating. In an opening scene, Hanna gets her first period near her grandparent's house, and shortly after goes back home to her parent's.

   While she was hardly happy at her grandma and grandad's, things go from bad to worse at home. Her dad is a pretentious, lofty, and generally bad writer who fancies himself a great artist, and her mom is one twitch away from a complete nervous breakdown. Her brother Paul is a petty thief. In an opening act of general assholery, Hanna's father spits at her mother that her's is 'mongoloid family' because her brother (Hanna's Uncle Martin) has Down Syndrome (I told myself that 'Mongoloid' was not such an offensive term back in the 60's, but nah, it's still not excusable.)

   When Hanna goes to the theater and sees "Vivre Sa Vie" for the first time, she falls in love- with the movies, Anna Karina, and with Karina's 'glamorous' character. From what I saw of the film within this film she is totally misreading the message of the movie, as her teacher tries to point out. But as a confused kid (sexually and in life) looking for a role model, it makes sense.

   Boy, did the child actor knock it out of the park here! Hanna was a sweetheart. From what I understand, the child actress was sixteen when she did this movie, and in fact, she looks childlike in some shots and more womanly in others, probably a intentional decision on the part of the director. Hanna's father insists on masculinizing his daughter, cropping her hair down to boy length (the hair-cutting scene reminds me of the one in "Ma Vie En Rose.") As Dad cuts, a silent tear runs down Hanna's cheek, and she gradually is made to feel a little more helpless.

   Hanna propositions a man, maybe in hopes for a normal life or because it is the 'thing to do' as a girl, but exchanges intimate kisses with a female friend (Charlotte Christeler.) Does that mean she is bi, simply confused, or something else. Fed up with her family, Hanna runs away, but will a life on the streets be easier or harder than she was looking for?

    The acting was fabulous, but I wished the ending had offered a little more. There seemed to be a real lack of realization, and everything get's better quite abruptly. What was learned, except that being a ho' isn't all it's cut out to be? It's nice to have a happy ending for such a lovely character, but the story doesn't seem to have the most logical conclusion.

   "Set Me Free" is well made and most of all bittersweet and sad. It's is based on the director Lea Pool's life, so that makes it this much more authentic. I would love to know if filmmaker Lea Pool is gay, because that would shine a light to better understand the sexual elements of this movie. Note- You can watch this on Huluplus. Otherwise it is not available on DVD as far as I know. I hope you get the chance to watch this powerful film. Thank you.
                                                                             Rating-
                                                                                   8.5/10

Sister (2012)

Set primarily in Swiss ski resort and nominated for a foreign language Oscar, "Sister" is an emotional and mature work that is engaging from start to finish. All the actors are effective, but fifteen-year-old Kacey Mottet Klein steals the show as Simon, a youthful twelve-year-old dealing with responsibilities and problems way beyond his age level. Simon lives in a low-rent apartment with his immature older sister Louise (Léa Seydoux of "Blue is the Warmest Color."You might remember her as one of the LaPadite sisters at the beginning of "Inglourious Basterds.)

   While Simon makes money stealing equipment and luggage from a nearby ski resort and selling the philfered items, Louise shirks any kind of responsibility, mooching off the spoils of her brother's thievery and having sex with different guys. Although Simon takes from tourists with a cold and calculated  efficiency, you can't help but feel for the little guy as he does what he has to to survive.

   There is definitely a weird incestuous subtext between Simon and Louise. You don't feel that they are aware of this  or that they would even act on it, but their relationship is marked by an odd co-dependence and half-formed, burgeoning sexual interest on Simon's part, and maybe even on Louise's too. There's a very strange scene partway through (which I love and I think speaks volumes about this pair of outcasts) where Simon pays the angry Louise over a

hundred dollars to sleep next to her.

   He craves human contact, but Louise is selfish and exploits his vulnerability in a weird way, and is only able to offer comfort in the most basic manner. The cinematography is great and in it's own way, powerful, while the ending leaves you to draw your own conclusion. Scotsman Martin Compston (who caught my attention playing a sympathetic criminal in Ken Loach's social realism drama "Sweet Sixteen) has a role as a employee at the resort who gets in on Simon's thieving.

   "Sister" is special in that it is pensive and character-based without being ever boring and it evokes deep emotions, yet is subjective and stays away from gooey sentimentality or blatant attempts at audience manipulation. There are no 'villains,' just despair and dead ends. Kacey Mottet Klein is just perfect as a kid who has many foils and has run into trouble trying to live a halfway normal life.

 

 Don't let the incestuous vibe I get from this picture deter you from watching a great foreign film. This is not a movie about pedophilia. It is a movie about secrets, responsibility, and what it means to be an adult. Léa Seydoux is practically his equal as a character you probably should hate, but you end up feeling kind of sorry for.

   "Sister" proves that 'art film' doesn't have to mean being bored out of your mind. If you don't mind subtitles, you'll surely find value in this fascinating film about a troubled girl and a little boy who is forced to take up responsibility for the two of them. I liked this almost but not quite as much as "The Intouchables," the French submission for best foreign film of 2012. While "The Intouchables" is heartwarming and funny "Sister" is quieter, sadder, and maybe a little truer. Do. Not. Miss.
                                                                        Rating-
                                                  9.0/10                                                                                            

East is East (1999)

 Incorporating a blend of humor and heartbreak with ethnic issues, "East is East" sometimes seems awkward and wrong-headed, but it's successes are more plentiful than it's failures. The talented cast is a big plus, led by Om Puri and Linda Bassett as the wildly divergent parents, and Jordan Routledge as the adorable youngest child, Sajid.

   Manchester, 1971. George (Puri) is an old-fashioned Muslim and stern father of seven rebellious children, who are more white than Muslim and resent their father's interfering ways. Their mother, Ella (Bassett,) is an fairly assertive and modern British lady who tries to work out disagreements within the family. When Nazir (Ian Aspinall) panics during an arranged marriage ceremony and walks out on his bride, the clan is thrown into discord.

   As George becomes increasingly domineering and abusive, Sajid clings to his childhood like his well-worn parka that he never takes off. Ella tries to maintain some control over the deteriorating situation, and George becomes determined to marry off two of his oldest sons to two ugly brides.

   The odd mixture of strident comedy and domestic drama doesn't always work. Something like a amorous Great Dane or a vagina-shaped art project might seem mildly funny, but seems discordant among frank scenes of domestic violence. The acting is strong from the leads, and they help the movie quite a bit along the rough patches.

   Jordan Routledge is cute and expressive as the youngest lad of the family. Linda Bassett is convincing playing the frustrated, beleaguered matriarch, and while I didn't agree with all her decisions, I sympathized with her for the most part. George is not a cartoon cutout villain, but I think his treatment of his family might have been treated a bit more seriously if he weren't a 'traditional Muslim man.'

   Ella might defend her husband, but we modern girls know better- if a man gives us a black eye and menaces our children, he is O-U-T out! Religion is neither a defense or an excuse. *SPOILER ALERT* I don't like how she gets back together with him at the end. I guess it happens, but it wasn't a satisfying ending. She should have shown that b**tard the door. *END OF SPOILER*

   For the most part, "East is East" is a charming movie. I liked the character-based humor and the kids' antics. It would be annoying growing up in a big family like that. You wouldn't have any privacy! The kids were pretty much stacked on top of each other like a cheese sandwich. I had some problems with the film but overall I liked it.

   I think the treatment of the unattractive women in the film could've been a little less cruel, but like the ending, it's a reality of life that might not be pretty to face, but exists all the same. The world has a long way to go when it comes to being unbiased and dispelling shallow values. Overall a good movie.
                                                              Rating-
                                                7.5/10

The War Zone (1999)

 

Actor Tim Roth's dictatorial debut is also an exquisitely acted masterwork about the dark secrets surrounding a middle-class British family, with Lara Belmont stealing the show as the abused daughter. Teenager Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) is horrified but initially fails to intervene when he realizes his older sister (Belmont) is carrying on an incestuous relationship with their father (Ray Winstone.)

   Winstone, who is primarily known by the public for imposing-baddie-with-a-cockney-accent kind of roles, really sells it as a monster of a human being. You will hate this man so much you will want to vomit. Tilda Swinton plays Mum, who is pregnant at the start of the film, and later has a baby girl named Alice.

   The weird thing is, Tom doesn't immediately see his older sister as a victim, even as he looks on as she is raped by her father. In fact, Jess (the sister) doesn't always see herself as a victim either. I don't think she thinks she deserves to be saved. She occasionally fancies herself a Daddy's girl, and may very nearly likes the attention and the meager pleasures of the ever more frequent assaults.

   She teases Tom, coyly denies it. Tom seems to blame Jess for the impending disintegration of their family, rather than the piece of human excrement who sits at their table, eats their food, makes love to their mother like his interests aren't directed elsewhere. While 'Dad' is a monster, Tom isn't exactly sympathetic either, and Jess initially raises question of whether she likes Daddy's attentions, and, in fact, is complaint in the incest.

   This is not a movie for the weak of heart. I was disgusted, but in a good way if you know what I mean. This movie is a hundred times scarier than "The Shining" and a hundred times more grotesque than "The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence,)" if only because it is firmly rooted in reality. The only thing I can think to compare it to is "Tyrannosaur," another great movie who was also directed by a UK actor (Paddy Considine.)

   This movie is not about ghosts, devils, evil entities, or masked killers. It's about the evils people do, the atrocities that can take place in a more or less regular household. While the lack of sexual boundaries the family exhibits is off-putting, it doesn't seem to incorporate abuse at first. Oh, how wrong you are, filmgoer.

   I recommend this amazing movie to people with very strong stomachs. The acting is great all around and the script is nearly flawless. I'm still floored that Lara Belmont did no professional acting prior to this movie. Her acting will blow you away. One of the most underrated performances ever. I hope Tim Roth can find time to make another movie in addition to his acting career. Purely, and simply... great.
                                                                Rating-
                                                      9.0/10

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

"Julien Donkey-Boy" is an occasionally emotional, mainly tedious foray into the art of Dogme 95, laden with grainy visuals and non-existent plotting. It recalls the much better film "Buddy Boy," which came out the same year. "Buddy Boy" director Mark Hanlon knew how to engage your interest and make you care about his main character, despite his shortcomings.

Julien is a 20-something paranoid schizophrenic played by Ewen Bremner, one of the most underutilized character actors of today. Julien lives with his equally disturbed father, younger brother, and sister, who he has impregnated before the film's beginning.

Uncomfortable yet? The whole movie works to make the viewer feel discomfort while also invoking sadness and emotion. At this it is only moderately successful. The dialogue is often random and directionless. The experience of the film is akin to having hundreds of puzzle pieces of differing shapes and sizes, none of them fitting together in the least.

Film Review: Killer Joe

I am married to a man who has learned more than he ever wanted to know about people who some folks uncharitably call "white trash." He's been a police officer for 18 years, and we have our share of bat-crap crazy here in Augusta County, Virginia.

I've heard a few stories about local families, stemming from domestic disturbance calls and people flipping out over being served warrants, that might rival Jerry Springer. Not to mention the poor guy who was being revived by rescue workers, after a heart attack, as his wife made her son go through his pockets for spare change.

So I guess it isn't surprising that John didn't see the penultimate rednecks in Killer Joe as excessively stereotypical. He reckoned he'd met a few of them.

Repost of an Old Favorite: Buddy Boy

    Buddy Boy, Mark Hanlon's debut, is a haunting and potent film about dead end lives that provokes more questions than answers but remains bizarrely interesting throughout.
 
   The film provides a look into the surrealistic existence of emotionally stunted, stuttering misfit Francis (Aidan Gillen), who lives with his trollish invalid stepmother (actual amputee Susan Tyrell), in a squalid apartment.

   Suffering from overwhelming guilt concerning his sexuality, his religion, and himself, he goes to confession monthly, admitting every impure thought and indiscretion. The contrast between faith and the id is revealed in the opening, which presents the viewer with a montage of religious imagery followed by Francis, uh... pleasuring himself to a pair of voluptuous breasts in a magazine.

Short Film Reviews: My Summer of Love and Ladybird, Ladybird

I sat through a Lars von Trier film. The world MUST be ending ...

As we all know, the world is scheduled to end in two days, right after the winter solstice. There have been many apocalyptic predictions made in my lifetime, as there have been throughout history. And every time, Doomsday comes and goes with nobody being raptured -- the husband and I are still stuck paying off our mortgage. And humanity keeps on goin'.

Nevertheless, I didn't want this pending event to go ignored. So my daughter and I watched Melancholia, Lars von Trier's apocalyptic film, to mark the occasion.

Archipelago

Archipelago is exceptionally well-shot, very well-acted, and filmed with such realism that you could be watching a documentary. It has so much potential, in fact, that I would like to gush about it for the entirety of this review. The catch? The pace is so lethargic that it might put you to sleep if you're not careful.

I know, I know. You've heard this all before. OMG! This movie is so BORING. I almost fell asleep. Zzzzz LMAO! But I can assure you, I am not one of those people who needs Michael Bay CGI masturbation to be entertained. I like drama. I like independent filmmaking.

But a film needs to have a hook. A family disintegrating is not a hook. As you and I both know, there are so many depictions of movie families disintegrating that the depiction of the disintegration itself has become a rather ho-hum affair.

Not to say this movie is a completely tepid experience. It's a good three-star movie, well acted, with a very likable performance from Tom Hiddleston (best known as the villainous Loki from Thor and The Avengers) as Edward, an awkward but good-hearted philanthropist. Kate Fahy (the bed-ridden matriarch in The Living and the Dead) plays Edward's mother, Patricia, stretched taut by the strain of her absent husband.

Book Review: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The five Lisbon sisters -- Mary, Therese, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecelia -- were a subject of endless fascination for the neighborhood boys. Carefully guarded by their stern, religious mother, they rarely left the house except to attend school. To the boys, they were beautiful and enigmatic, and their home, full of brassieres, tampons, and girls' clothes, was a treasure trove of feminine mysteries. During what came to be known known as The Year of the Suicides, the boys -- who fantasized about the girls and hoped to save them -- bore witness to the disintegration of the Lisbon family and the sisters' tragic deaths.

Film Review: The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm (1997) Directed by Ang Lee, Screenplay by James Schamus based on the novel by Rick Moody.

Film Review: Pariah

 
Year Released: 2011

Director: Dee Rees

Screenplay by: Dee Rees

Rating: (4.5/5 Stars)

Pariah opens at a nightclub that caters to lesbians; we hear raunchy music and see a particularly limber pole dancer flaunting her talent. After glimpsing this scene, the youth and innocence of the 17-year-old protagonist Alike (Adepero Oduye)  and her best friend Laura (Pernell Walker) come as a bit of a surprise.

I immediately warmed up to these two young women. Alike is exceptionally bright and creative. She is somewhat shy and reserved but has a smile that could light up a room. Laura is a bit edgy and boisterous. She works hard to make ends meet and pass the GED after being abandoned by her mother.

Our first glimpse of Alike is memorable. Instead of a camera zooming in on her, we see a tight shot of her back and face. This sets the tone for the movie. It's very intimate and real. I found myself feeling as if I were in Alike's skin, and when she was hurting, I had knots in my stomach.

Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (Possible Spoilers)

My Review of the Film Adaptation

Eva was a successful businesswoman and author as well as a wife and mother of two children. Now she is estranged from her husband and daughter. Her son Kevin is incarcerated, in the wake of a school shooting, for a series of brutal murders, Eva's world is cold and narrow. Her only real communication with anyone is through letters she writes to her husband, Franklin.

In this epistolary novel, Eva reflects on Kevin's history, starting before conception, leading to his becoming a vicious psychopath. She explores her own culpability in who he became, along with her conflicted relationship with Franklin.

From conception and birth, Eva was unable to bond with Kevin. Ambivalence about motherhood and the changes it would bring to her life, postpartum depression, an unsuccessful attempt to breastfeed, and the exhaustion that goes with comes with a baby who cries incessantly -- these are all normal experiences. Things many women have gone through before becoming basically happy moms who are madly in love with their children. But for Eva, this becomes a slippery slope, and things only become worse.

During her retelling of Kevin's earliest years, I felt trapped in Eva's mind, only able to see things from her perspective, and I suspected she was an unreliable narrator. I could only see things through the filter of Eva's memory, shaped by her own pain, frustration, and rage and by her knowledge of who Kevin became. She saw an infant who cried, not because of colic but because he raged at the world. A newborn who deliberately and vigorously rejected her breast. A toddler who slyly played his parents against one another and refused to be potty trained because he'd be losing a battle against the mother he hated. These perceptions are incredibly warped, not to mention developmentally impossible. Yet the novel drew me so tightly into the confines of Eva's reality that these things seemed quite real. And as Kevin grew into a cold, calculating boy, with an urge to destroy anyone who was capable of feeling real joy or passion, parts of it began to seem believable. Or did it? The line between delusion and reality is blurred here.

Would it have made a difference if Eva had been able to love her son? There is no clear answer. They are caught in a vicious cycle. Her attitude undoubtedly impacts his behavior and view of the world. His behavior triggers her rage and prevents her from bonding with him. This, in turn, deepens his hostility. They are locked in a cruel cycle which we know will end tragically. Nevertheless Eva, who has always relished pushing herself to tackle daunting challenges, works hard at being a conscientious mother.

In a parallel way, Eva and her husband Franklin are trapped in a destructive dance. Franklin is in denial about the fact that his son is deeply troubled. This enrages Eva, who pushes him to see things from her perspective. This only makes Franklin more fiercely protective of Kevin and distrustful of his wife. They have another baby, who becomes "Eva's child," and Franklin keeps their little girl at a distance, adding to the dysfunctional mess.

I didn't find Eva and Franklin to be likeable characters. They struck me as self-absorbed, a bit pedantic, and riddled with prejudices. Eva seldom views people with acceptance and compassion, she tends to view the world with cold detachment, and she maintains a slight sense of intellectual superiority. One of the most chilling and powerful aspects of this novel is the ways in which Eva and Kevin -- despite their animosity -- identify with each other. In her hauntingly sadistic son, Eva sees -- in an exaggerated way -- a mirror of her own dark side.

How much of this is her basic nature and to what degree is her personality painfully mutated by the tragedy she suffered? Again, we only have her perspective in the present, so it's hard to say. I also felt drawn to Eva by the insight and compassion she sometimes feels, her intense intelligence and curiosity about the world, and her love for her husband and daughter. She's a complex character who I couldn't love, or even consistently empathize with, but I certainly couldn't dismiss. And she is a character I will never forget.

This is a dark, miserable story which is likely to make you lose sleep, especially if you're a mother. That goes double if you're the mother of a child with any kind of emotional problems. And it's a brilliant novel. The central characters, and the themes this book explores, are so incredibly rich and multi-layered, it may take me months to sort through all my thoughts about it.

One of the things that makes it so unsettling is that it explores issues experienced -- on a much smaller scale -- by many parents. Difficulty bonding with a child. Raising a kid who isn't the child you expected or wanted. Seeing parts of yourself you reject mirrored in your own children. Disappointment in yourself as a parent and crippling guilt when their lives don't turn out as you'd hoped. These things sound ugly when you say them aloud, but I believe shades of these feelings exist in many "normal," loving parents.

This book also gave me insight into people with personality disorders: antisocial or borderline personalities. Eva seemed to have uncanny insight into the mind of her son, a person who seemed innately incapable of ordinary love, excitement or joy. This left him hollow and driven by rage. It's probably impossible to really see inside the mind of someone like Kevin, but there were moments -- in this novel -- when I felt I was extremely close.

This is a novel that left me feeling ragged. I want to put it out of my mind, and at the same time I don't want to stop thinking about it. I don't want to talk about it, and I'm burning to discuss it with someone. I want to see inside Kevin's and Eva's minds, but it's too unsettling.

Above all, it's a gorgeously written, challenging novel, probably one of the best I've ever read, and it's one of those rare books that shifted my view of people and of the world a little bit. It's definitely one I will never forget.

Have you read this book? If so, what are your thoughts?

Mudbound by Hilary Jordan

Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep . Any shallower and the corpse was liable to come rising up during the next big flood: Howdy boys! Remember me?

As this story opens, in 1946, Henry and Jamie McAllan are burying their father in the flat, muddy fertile land of Henry's farm. Henry's city-bred wife Laura, trapped in a grueling life she didn't choose, stands by with their two girls. As they dig, the brothers realize they've accidentally unearthed the grave of a runaway slave.

"We can't bury our father in a nigger's grave," Henry said. "There's nothing he'd have hated more."

No one seems to be grieving the death of "Pappy," an old man who was defined by his hatred and died under suspicious circumstances. Why did this happen? To answer that question, the story loops around, delving into the characters' history and how they came to this farm in the Mississippi Delta. It moves seamlessly among different points of view, each with a distinctive voice and personality.

The story revolves around two families: the McAllans and the Jacksons, a family of "colored" sharecroppers living and working on their land. Under the feudal system of sharecropping, the Jacksons and others like them farm the McAllans' land, barely earning a subsistence wage.
Their lives are shared by Henry's kind-hearted, charismatic brother Jamie, fighting a losing battle against the demons that followed him home from World War II.

The Jacksons' oldest son Ronsel also returns from the war. After serving his country in the 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion, and expanding the boundaries of his world through his tour of duty in Europe, Ronsel is no longer content to keep his eyes down and go through the back door. In Mississippi, where racial discrimination is enforced through vigilante violence, this is likely to lead to disaster. Ronsel's mother Florence, who loves him passionately and has prayed continually for his return home, knows he can't stay. It is only a question of whether he'll leave Mississippi before it's too late.

It's incredibly difficult to tell the truth about racism. Often stories written in a setting like this, exploring these themes, offer us characters who seem color blind and are willing to fight the injustices they see. This makes the topic palatable for us. But it also presents us with characters who seem out of their own time, and it often doesn't ring true.

In Mudbound,  racism controls the lives of people in the community, while in a hole in the muddy earth, the skeleton of a runaway slave takes us back to a time of even more vicious racial inequality. This powerful image reflects the themes in this novel, which explores the many strata of racism. Racial hatred rules "Pappy," who seems to thirst for the blood of black people. He is almost a caricature of a bigot, yet chillingly, he is wholly believable. But it also encompasses seemingly decent white folks who have a paternalistic sense of superiority over blacks, which they view as a simpler, almost feral race. And it includes those who are kind to "colored" folk, but never let them forget their place, and never consider their needs as equal to their own.

I admire this author for telling the truth, without hiding its complexity. Today, when racism seems invisible to many people, the picture she painted reflects what I've seen throughout my life. "Jim Crow" laws and lynchings are a thing of the past, thank God, buried like the bones of the old slave. Yet so many levels of racism do exist in my lifetime -- sometimes glaring and sometimes so subtle you just see glimmers of it, yet you feel its destructive energy.

I grew up in a university town in Eastern North Carolina. The street I lived on ran through my little neighborhood, which clustered around the university. It was populated with many faculty families like my own. We lived modestly, but quite comfortably. If I rode my bike up my street, and through downtown, it took me through what the locals shamelessly called "Nigger Town," a neighborhood made up of neglected roads and tiny, ramshackle houses. I met few middle class African American families in my town. People didn't talk about it, but my parents wisely made sure my eyes were open.

In my school, desegregation was probably only about a decade old. Black and white children rarely sat together in the cafeteria. it just wasn't done, and no one commented on it. Many students, like me, had what I'd consider privileged childhoods. My parents were always on a tight budget, but we never lacked for anything we really wanted or needed, and they always managed to scrape together money for ballet or music lessons. Other students -- many of them black -- wrapped up part of their lunches, because there might not be a meal at home later. It surprises me, and saddens me a little, that I never said anything or tried to help. But I certainly never forgot it or stopped being grateful for the tremendous changes I've seen in my lifetime.

Mudbound is a beautiful novel but not a comfortable one. I found myself liking characters who had decidedly unenlightened views about racial equality. I saw the complexities of marriage in a time when a relationship was shaped by the man's need for dominance and control. I felt angry, hopeful, compassionate, horrified, and sad. The people and events in this book stuck in me like thorns, and they're still with me.

And damn -- this book was a page-turner! I kept finding excuses to pick it up, no matter what I needed to do, eager to find out what would happen next. It was heart-wrenching, but I loved it. It is one of those books I will never forget.

This novel won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction, which was founded by Barbara Kingsolver and recognizes outstanding literature of social change.

Read More Reviews:
Boston Bibliophile
Bookdwarf
MostlyFiction Book Review
Fyrefly's Book Blog
The Compulsive Reader


Rating: 5

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Mum & Dad

The movie world is made up of four different kinds of families: the normal families (much less common than the latter varieties, and debatable, as no family is totally normal), offbeat families, and crazy families, for starters. Then there's the titular Mum & Dad clan, which brings us to the scariest and most dangerous variety, umpteen steps past crazy, and reveling in their own perversion.

   It's hard to even call them family, as such. Only one child, the severely brain-damaged Angela (Miciah Dring), is their own. The others are kidnapped additions brainwashed into adhering to the family's rules. These are vindictive Birdie (Ainsley Howard) and her silent "brother," Elby (Toby Alexander). It kind of reminds me of the 1970 horror film Girly, in which "new friends" are brought forcibly into a family of depraved Brits, If Girly were applied with the visceral brutality of a blunt hammer.

   The newest addition is quiet Polish immigrant Lena (Olga Fedori), who meets the loquacious Birdie at the airport where they both clean. Lena isn't stupid; she's just awfully polite -- too polite to follow her instincts. When Birdie and Elby "accidentally"  make Lena miss her bus, she goes home with them, against her own better judgment.

   Enter "Mum and Dad" (Dido Miles and Perry Benson). Mum is a manipulative, slick sexual deviant. Dad is also a deviant, who hits Lena over the head and rapes raw meat in front of his family (the camera then closes in on the cum in the meat *gags*). It's the kind of family relatively normal people stay away from, and Lena is not only determined to survive, but to escape.

   To remain free of all pretenses, I will just call a spade a spade -- this is a torture flick, competently executed, but mostly devoid of any higher purpose, deeper meaning, or pathos. It does sport, however, an intense and cleverly executed ending and decent acting (best from Dido Miles, who plays a soft-spoken psychopath so well). As a note to people who, like myself, can stomach graphic violence but have trouble with sexual assault, there are no rape scenes in this film, although sexual perversion is prevalent.

   Lena is a likable heroine, and although she certainly doesn't bring about fascination, the viewer will want to see her through. The film is primarily set in the home of the killers, with shots of airplanes soaring overhead, conveying a feeling of distance and one's desperate need of rescue going unnoticed. Now that I have called a spade a spade, I recommend Mum & Dad to extreme horror buffs and those with (very) strong stomachs.

The Hate List by Jennifer Brown

When I was in high school, I read Stephen King's Rage, which took readers into the mind of a boy who went over the edge and shot some of his classmates. I found it a horrible yet fascinating premise -- safely in the realm of fiction.* Since then, this unthinkable act has become a reality at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and at least 50 other schools in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. It's not surprising that novels about school shootings are emerging, as we collectively try to make sense of this.

Jennifer Brown's The Hate List takes on the courageous task of peeking into the mind of a school shooter and especially of delving into the experiences of survivors. The protagonist, Valerie Leftman, had never fit in at her high school. However she had a small group of friends, and through them, she found her first love. Her boyfriend, Nick, shared her frustration with the cliques and bullying at school. Together, they filled a notebook with "the hate list." It was a list of what they hated, including bullies in their school, classmates they associated with the crowd that ostracized them, things like "Algebra" (you can't add letters to numbers) and pretentious newscasters.

This gave Valerie and Nick a safe way to vent their anger and express their rather dark, edgy sense of humor. However, Valerie began to see clues that Nick's mind was darker and more troubled than she had suspected. Then the unthinkable happened, and Nick brought a gun to school. While Valerie struggled to stop him, he opened fire, targeting people on their hate list.

After the shooting, in which Valerie herself was injured, she was suspected as an accomplice. Although charges were dropped, she is still under the shadow of guilt, even in the eyes of her own parents. Now, after spending the summer as a recluse, Valerie has to find the courage to return to school and face her grieving fellow students. Will they be able to forgive her? Will she be able to forgive herself?

The story alternates fluidly between the present, the time when she and Nick were together, and the actual day of the shooting. In the present, Valerie returns to the quotidian of high school life, struggling to cope with classmates' anger and her alienation from her former friends. She is also dealing with her parents' disappointment and distrust and the continuing disintegration of their marriage.

Jennifer Brown did a beautiful job of taking us inside Valerie's mind, and this, for me, was what made the book so difficult to put down. It played on my emotions, provoking anger, sadness, and hope, and I found myself wholeheartedly rooting for Valerie.

The author also created a cast of secondary characters, with mixed results. For example, I really liked Mr. Hieler, her therapist, and found him believable. However Valerie's eccentric art teacher seemed wafer-thin, which disappointed me, because I thought she had the potential to be a strong, interesting character. I never really got a sense of who Valerie's classmates were, and I would have liked to have known them better. However, I got to know Nick, the killer, as a multi-dimensional person. I never felt I really understood what prompted him to commit murder and suicide, but I think that is part of the story. No one -- even Valerie, who loved him -- could get inside his mind. He committed acts which simply defy explanation.

Despite some flaws, this was an unforgettable book for me, one that was thought provoking and wedged itself into my heart. The author deftly explored the themes of grief, forgiveness, and coming of age, and she showed Valerie grow, deepen in her capacity for empathy and acceptance, and gain freedom from the past. Jennifer Brown is definitely an author to watch!

*I read that since school shootings have become a reality, Stephen King has pulled this book out of print.

Thanks to the author and to Reggie at The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really) for this book, which I won in a random drawing.

Read More Reviews:
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Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Wild Roses by Deb Caletti

Cassie Morgan, the smart, funny and edgy 17-year-old narrator of Wild Roses, is adapting to her parents' divorce. She's also coping with the fact that he father is still madly in love with her mother and is obsessed with digging up dirt on Mom's new husband. But that's not the worst of her problems. She also has to coexist with Dino, the self-centered, mean-spirited and emotionally unstable composer and violinist who is her stepfather.

My stepfather was both crazy and a genius ... Supposedly there's an actual, researched link between extreme creativity and mental illness, and I believe it because I've seen it with my own eyes. Sure, you have the artists and writers and musicians like my mom, say, who are talented and calm and get things done without much fuss ... But then there are the Van Goghs and Hemingways and Mozarts, those who feel a hunger so deep, so far down, that greatness lies there too, nestled somewhere within it. Those who get their inner voice and direction from the cool, mysterious insides of the moon, and not from the earth like the rest of us. In other words, brilliant nuts.

As Dino prepares for the concert that will mark his comeback to the music scene, an event eagerly awaited by his admirers, he turns a corner. He becomes more hostile and increasingly paranoid. Cassie learns that he was on psychiatric medication and stopped taking it while preparing for the concert because it dulled his ability to compose music. As Dino increasingly loses his grip on reality and slips out of control, Cassie and her mother struggle to keep a grip on the situation and hide the truth about him. This is the beginning of an erratic, terrifying journey, and as Cassie will soon learn, Dino is hiding secrets of his own.

In the midst of this maelstrom, Dino takes on a violin student, seventeen-year-old Ian Walters; he is gifted, handsome and gentle. From the moment he rides up on his bicycle, "his violin case sticking out from a compartment on the side, and his long black coat flying out behind him," Cassie feels a passionate attraction. But dating Dino's student provokes conflict with her stepfather, causing tension in both families. How could this possibly work?

From the first paragraph, I was pulled in by Deb Caletti's beautiful writing and by Cassie's voice, which was intelligent, hilariously funny and heartbreakingly honest. The author painted each scene so vividly that much of the novel felt wholly really. And the frightening story unfolding among Cassie, Ian, Dino, and Cassie's mom was quite compelling; I found it this novel difficult to put down.

I especially loved Cassie's character. I connected with her immediately, loving her brains, honesty and snarky wit. And as I sank deeper into the story, I also saw her compassionate side. It broke my heart when she decided not to move out of her mother's house, to protect herself from Dino, because she cared too much about Mom to let her think she'd failed her daughter. Cassie's fluctuating reactions, sometimes angry and edgy and sometimes open-hearted and wise beyond her years, made her a fully developed, believable character. And I saw her grow and mature during the story, which gave the novel depth and richness.

The weakest point, for me, was the development of secondary characters. There were many interesting characters in the mix, including Cassie's best friend Zebe, who is also edgy and funny, Siang Chibo, a budding musician and passionate admirer of Dino, who becomes Cassie's friend, and Cassie's father, who is unable to break his emotional bonds to her mother. I never felt I fully knew these characters, and I wanted to. At some points, this dulled the clarity of the story for me a bit. I was especially disappointed in Ian's brother Bunny and his friend Chuck. At first glance, they were unique, interesting and fun characters, but throughout the story, I found them one dimensional and predictable.

Overall, this is an outstanding Young Adults' Novel, passionate, funny, and unafraid to tell the truth about serious issues. It also gives readers a narrow glimpse of mental illness, one that is unsentimental but not without compassion. I admire this author's wit, honesty, and above all, her ability to create an unforgettable seventeen-year-old character. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Read More Reviews of This Book At:
Once Upon a Book Blog
Book Addiction
The Zen Leaf


Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

So I got kicked out of school today, which is not so great but also not entirely unexpected, and I went back to Public Housing where I live to tell my parents all about it but my mom went visiting someone or other and probably isn’t coming back and my dad is stoned off his ass on the couch like he always is, so somehow I’m not getting the vibe that he’d really, you know, care, so I think – here’s what I’m going to do: first I’ve got to make a plan. And this is part of the plan – making a plan – so really I’m doing good already.

If my dad were awake part of the plan would be telling him about the trouble at school so he would know it was not entirely my fault. This is how it happened:

Me: (coming in late to Spanish class because I followed a hot new girl)
Can I sit here?

Mrs. Brando: (confused) I think you have the wrong classroom.

Me: (correctly) No, I’m in this class.

Mrs. Brando: (really patronizing) Son, it is December and I have not seen you in this class even once before, so I don’t know what classroom you are looking for. Are you new here too?

Me: (being real patient) Nooo, I am in this class and if you’d just check your list from the beginning of the year you’d see that. (under my breath really freaking quietly) Bitch.

Mrs. Brando: (flipping out) Are you threatening me? Do you have a weapon? Are you on drugs? Someone get the principal. Call security. Help! Help! Help!

These opening lines immediately pulled me into the story, and they told me three things. One, this protagonist, like far too many children, is growing up without the protection of stable, caring parents. Second, we have an unreliable narrator. He reminds me of every troubled teen-aged counseling client I ever talked to who, according to his own account, was arrested or suspended from school with minimal provocation. Third, we have a main character who is edgy, funny and endearing.

Iggy Corso's meth-abusing mother has gone "visiting," and hasn't been seen in a month. His father is usually passed out drunk on the couch. So when Iggy goes home to the housing projects after being expelled from school, there is no adult to talk to except for Dad's vicious drug dealer.

Despite the environment he lives in, Iggy does not use alcohol and other drugs, but his path through life has been slippery. Born addicted to crack, he has attention and learning difficulties. He has been in and out of foster care, due to his parents' addiction. He has also failed several grades and has been in chronic trouble at school. Nevertheless, he is determined to turn his life around. He comes up with an agenda that includes:

1. Make a plan
2. get out of the Projects
3. do something with my life
4. change everyone's mind about me
5. get back into school

What will it take to change everyone's mind about him? What if he does something heroic?

With no place to go, he seeks out his only friend Montell, a law school dropout who's seeking spiritual enlightenment through illicit drugs. He looks to "Mo" for help and guidance. However he inadvertently leads him to the drug dealer who helped destroy his parents' and his lives. Then he finds himself in Montell's family home, with Mo's mother, a wealthy, kind-hearted lady who's hiding problems of her own.

There are many compelling moments in Iggy's journey, which takes him from the projects, through the streets of New York, into drug houses where he searches for his mom, in the heart of a wealthy neighborhood, into the apartment of a young immigrant mother, and inside a church. He is a memorable character, paradoxically limited in understanding and impulsive yet wise and compassionate.

This is the first book I have read by K.L. Going, and I will probably look for more books by this author. She did a convincing job of speaking in the voice of a teenage boy, and she has a good ear for dialogue. She wrote about grim reality, in a way that seemed mostly authentic, yet she also captured glimmers of transcendent spiritual moments, and she managed to seamlessly blend edgy humor, hope, and tragedy. I recommend this novel to mature teens and adults.


Rating: 3

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Thank You For All Things by Sandra Kring

Thank You For All Things is told in the voice of eleven-year-old Lucy Marie McGowan. She and her brother Milo are highly gifted twins, homeschooled by their struggling single mom, Tess, in Chicago. Unlike her profoundly gifted twin, who enjoys writing about string theory and calculating pi to as many digits as possible, Lucy has an I.Q. of "only" 144. She is gifted at reading people. She plans to be a psychologist someday, and she knows more about Freud and Jung than most college psychology majors. She also longs to learn the truth about her missing father.

The family learns Tess's father, a grandfather the twins have never met, is dying. Lucy, Milo and Tess make to trip to Timber Falls, Wisconsin with Lucy's New Agey grandmother, who is determined to care for her ex-husband until he dies.

Lucy gets to know her grandfather as she watches his strength and mental acuity diminish. She is also on a quest -- she's determined to learn about her paternity and, in the process, to unravel secrets about her mother's past. She questions neighbors and secretly reads her mother's diaries. She is upset by what she uncovers -- a family history fraught with cruelty. Yet ultimately, as she watches her mother grieve her painful childhood, Lucy begins to accept it, grasping the balance of good and evil in the grandfather she's grown to love. At the same time, she must move toward accepting her grandfather's death.

At first glance, I saw stereotypes in this book, such as the New Age-obsessed grandma and the uber-smart, geeky homeschooled kids. But as the author guided me more deeply into the story, I came to know a cast of richly developed, quirky, likeable characters. These characters, along with the intriguing story of a family's journey through coping with a death and making peace with the past, are interwoven with a wealth of description, rich with color and detail.

I smile as the breeze brushes my cheeks and dries my eyes as if I'm ice skating. I look to the north of the house, where the red maples in low-lying spots are blotched with deep red, and to a patch of sugar maples that are just beginning to tinge with a brighter, orangier red...

The part of the book that touched me most deeply were the accounts of coping with death -- one character was mourning the loss of a baby and others were watching a parent and grandparent die. These experiences resonated with me, of course. And I found the author's description of dying and grieving to be remarkably clear and real.

I liked nearly everything about this book -- the memorable characters, the family drama, its quirky spirituality and the vivid imagery. I highly recommend it to fiction lovers, particularly those who relish family dramas.

There's a beautifully written review of this book at Write Meg Check it out!

Rating: 4.5

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me