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The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (2013)
This movie is the worst representation of Romanian culture I've ever seen.
This. movie. is. horrible.
Shia's performance was great (and the score was pretty cool-props to Beck and Deadmono), but the 'hollywood-esque' portrayal of Romanian culture is so far away from the truth it makes me barf. Romania is not just filled with gangs, drugs, and gypsies. In fact, it's everything BUT that. Romania is a country that has a rich history and a beautiful culture steeped in old traditions. It isn't some gang banging country...and it sure as hell isn't this 'openly James-Bond-esque' corrupt. It is beautiful. The people behind this film made it out to be some kind of horrible hell-hole. And it's not.
Oh, and another thing that makes this movie so bad: the only Romanian guy in this whole movie dies within the 1st 2 minutes, and the 'Romanian Beauty' lead ISN'T EVEN FREAKING ROMANIAN.
It's not like they could've, oh I don't know, HIRED A ROMANIAN ACTRESS TO PLAY A ROMANIAN? No...that'd be too hard wouldn't it? It's not like Romania is filled with competent people who can act just as well as any American or Brit. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE???
I sincerely wish Romania got a better representation in Hollywood...but it's because of people like these that everybody has a negative connotation to it. What a shame...the country is so beautiful.
Oh and also, P.S., Evan Rachel Wood should've gotten a hand double for the cello. I know her playing was only in one scene but it was noticeable that she didn't know how to play. At all.
J'ai tué ma mère (2009)
J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother) - What an absolutely fantastic film!
Just...wow. This movie is written, directed, and produced by Xavier Dolan (who was 19 at the time), who also stars as the main character in the film. This movie is also semi- autobiographical.
This movie is absolutely fantastic. The way that he crafts the characters and shows the arguments between the mother and son are amazing. He, Xavier Dolan, both as an actor and director, is brilliant. I really connected with the relationship presented between mother & son...my family has a very similar relationship between my sister and our mom...I saw many parallels with how they talk to each other, what they argue about, how they feel towards one another, it really spoke volumes for me.
The thing that I really enjoyed about this film is how real it was. The relationship between the mother and the son was not sugarcoated, and it was very confusing, almost like a paradox, which is what real life is like. Not every familial relationship is as cut and dry as "I love you, I appreciate you and all you do for me, tada." The fact of the matter is, their relationship is complicated: he loves her so so so much but at the same time can't stand her. He wants to be independent of her but at the same time, he's still too young and he needs her, whether or not he wants to admit that. She, has sort of become desensitized to all of his insults and spats keeping her love for her son ever-present throughout all of their living together. But, at the same time, she's incredibly manipulative, and while she does love her son, she has a hard time of showing it except through caring for him and providing for him (but she does show it in the pivotal scene with the boarding school director). One claims that the other ruins his life while in reality, they both ruin each others. It's not that one is more at fault than the other, it's that they are both equally at fault here.
The relationship between Hubert and his mother wasn't a typical mother son relationship, it had grown and developed over time to be more of a wife/husband relationship. Hubert's mother is a single mom, and because Hubert was the only other person she had to live with for the longest time, both of them started to see each other as equals in a sense, and the unspoken boundary between mother and son dissolved...mother and son only became titles. This is how their relationship became so toxic.
All in all, this film is amazing...it has a brilliant director, emotional and astounding actors that gave very worthy performances, and a relationship between mother and son that people can relate to. It is a must watch!
P.S. If you'd like to see this film, it is on Netflix. His other film, Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) (in which he also stars), is there as well (I haven't personally seen Heartbeats yet, but after seeing this movie, I really want to).