Faye (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
said_scarlett) wrote2011-03-31 11:52 am
said_scarlett) wrote2011-03-31 11:52 am
Turn Off Your Mind, Relax, And Float Downstream....
So....I saw SuckerPunch last weekend. And there is a lot of talk about this movie. I haven't posted yet mainly because of that. I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed it a great deal. I watched it from a feminist standpoint and by damn, I found it empowering! And since someone else has already said everything I want to say but better, here's a link: I Like Kicking Ass In High Heels - That Doesn't Make Me a Bad Feminist. Pretty much exactly what I took away from the movie.
I also think I really connected with this movie because the idea of feeling helpless and unable to change your situation in real life and escaping to a fantasy world inside the mind to cope, deal, and look at real life in a way that allows you to cope and change is...well...pretty much my life. That was the coping mechanism my parents taught me as a young child. Take things, put them into your mind in the context that works for you, and apply it to real life. To get through school, I was taught to envision it like a fantasy epic. Problems were battles. Things I had to overcome were monsters that needed to be slain. Bullies were evil villains.
Are there problematic issues in the movie? Of course! It's damn hard to find a movie in this genre that doesn't have problematic gender and sexuality issues. But I, personally, did not view it as two hours of exploitative confusion. Many parts of this movie spoke to me and connected with me, and I will be buying the director's cut DVD as soon as it hits stands.
Though I will say that it was a lot more depressing than I had anticipated. But it's depressing in an uplifting way, almost. I sat there crying through the first twenty minutes and the last forty. But everything worked for me.
I know a lot of people don't seem to like Babydoll's ending. I was sad - like I said, I bawled my eyes out through most of the movie - but I felt it was fitting. To me, Baby couldn't live with the memory of killing her sister, and escaped willingly into her dreamworld. Of course, it seems like a lot of people didn't get that that's what happened in the opening. Most people I've seen have described the events as the stepfather killing the sister, and Baby arriving too late and unable to pull the trigger. What I saw was Baby getting to the room just before the stepfather makes it through the closet door, tries to shoot him, the bullet hits her sister and Baby is overcome and cannot pull it a second time. The stepfather even uses the murder as the catalyst to commit her.
And personally I didn't have any issue with the various different realities, but one of my favorite movies of all time is eXistenZ, so....
Now, to talk about the most important thing! To me, at least. :D The soundtrack.
Oh sweet jeepers, the soundtrack. Now, I am picky about my covers. I like very, very few. Especially when it comes to songs that are very near and dear to my heart. SuckerPunch has three such covers. And I love them all.
Emily Browning's rendition of Sweet Dreams is haunting, chilling and gorgeous. The woman's voice is incredible. And the emotion that's poured into the song resonates on every level. Carla Azar doing Tomorrow Never Knows went straight through me and has remained. It's an eerie and beautiful song in its original, and that era of Beatles music is very, very hard to do justice to. Even the Across The Universe soundtrack dropped the ball there a few times, and I generally regard that soundtrack as the greatest collection of Beatles covers I've as yet been exposed to. Carla Azar blew it away entirely. The change from eerily wistful to almost militaristic choral in the vocals is so well done that I just want to listen to this song constantly.
And now the third. This was the only time during the movie that I made a noise. The moment I heard that oh-so-identifiable opening (which I cannot translate to text so I won't even try) I sat bolt upright and gasped. I swear, just slap this song on something fantasy-esque with epic visuals and I'm gone. Yes, I'm talking about Emiliana Torrini covering White Rabbit. Do I really even need to say anything other than Emiliana Torrini doing White Rabbit? Hands down, the only cover I've found that I enjoy. And I've listened to a lot of covers of that song. I don't know how I never heard the Torrini cover, but I hadn't until now, and I am so happy to have it.
Yeah, I promptly snagged the soundtrack after the movie. I needed it like burning. And besides that, the songs in the movie were placed and paced so well. The blend of music with action and visuals hit all of my happy spots. And the rest of the music was just as beautiful and well done.
I also think I really connected with this movie because the idea of feeling helpless and unable to change your situation in real life and escaping to a fantasy world inside the mind to cope, deal, and look at real life in a way that allows you to cope and change is...well...pretty much my life. That was the coping mechanism my parents taught me as a young child. Take things, put them into your mind in the context that works for you, and apply it to real life. To get through school, I was taught to envision it like a fantasy epic. Problems were battles. Things I had to overcome were monsters that needed to be slain. Bullies were evil villains.
Are there problematic issues in the movie? Of course! It's damn hard to find a movie in this genre that doesn't have problematic gender and sexuality issues. But I, personally, did not view it as two hours of exploitative confusion. Many parts of this movie spoke to me and connected with me, and I will be buying the director's cut DVD as soon as it hits stands.
Though I will say that it was a lot more depressing than I had anticipated. But it's depressing in an uplifting way, almost. I sat there crying through the first twenty minutes and the last forty. But everything worked for me.
I know a lot of people don't seem to like Babydoll's ending. I was sad - like I said, I bawled my eyes out through most of the movie - but I felt it was fitting. To me, Baby couldn't live with the memory of killing her sister, and escaped willingly into her dreamworld. Of course, it seems like a lot of people didn't get that that's what happened in the opening. Most people I've seen have described the events as the stepfather killing the sister, and Baby arriving too late and unable to pull the trigger. What I saw was Baby getting to the room just before the stepfather makes it through the closet door, tries to shoot him, the bullet hits her sister and Baby is overcome and cannot pull it a second time. The stepfather even uses the murder as the catalyst to commit her.
And personally I didn't have any issue with the various different realities, but one of my favorite movies of all time is eXistenZ, so....
Now, to talk about the most important thing! To me, at least. :D The soundtrack.
Oh sweet jeepers, the soundtrack. Now, I am picky about my covers. I like very, very few. Especially when it comes to songs that are very near and dear to my heart. SuckerPunch has three such covers. And I love them all.
Emily Browning's rendition of Sweet Dreams is haunting, chilling and gorgeous. The woman's voice is incredible. And the emotion that's poured into the song resonates on every level. Carla Azar doing Tomorrow Never Knows went straight through me and has remained. It's an eerie and beautiful song in its original, and that era of Beatles music is very, very hard to do justice to. Even the Across The Universe soundtrack dropped the ball there a few times, and I generally regard that soundtrack as the greatest collection of Beatles covers I've as yet been exposed to. Carla Azar blew it away entirely. The change from eerily wistful to almost militaristic choral in the vocals is so well done that I just want to listen to this song constantly.
And now the third. This was the only time during the movie that I made a noise. The moment I heard that oh-so-identifiable opening (which I cannot translate to text so I won't even try) I sat bolt upright and gasped. I swear, just slap this song on something fantasy-esque with epic visuals and I'm gone. Yes, I'm talking about Emiliana Torrini covering White Rabbit. Do I really even need to say anything other than Emiliana Torrini doing White Rabbit? Hands down, the only cover I've found that I enjoy. And I've listened to a lot of covers of that song. I don't know how I never heard the Torrini cover, but I hadn't until now, and I am so happy to have it.
Yeah, I promptly snagged the soundtrack after the movie. I needed it like burning. And besides that, the songs in the movie were placed and paced so well. The blend of music with action and visuals hit all of my happy spots. And the rest of the music was just as beautiful and well done.
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