Change Your Image
lupis_noctum
Reviews
I Think We're Alone Now (2008)
An important study of unchecked delusion.
We have many terms for people who are crazy enough to claim an impossible or ridiculously improbable relationship with someone else. If the "relationship" is with a person indisputably fictional i.e. Captain Kirk or Spider-man, we simply call them delusional. If it's with a celebrity or other public figure we call them obsessed fans or stalkers when the obsession gets dangerous. When the imagined relationship is with a god or demigod, we call it religion.
Anyone remember 80s mallrat-turned-one-hit-wonder Tiffany? Jeff and Kelly surely do. They're the subjects of "I Think We're Alone Now," a portrait of two torn-up-from-the-neck-up wingnuts who've picked Tiffany as the target of their obsession. Jeff is a 50 year old virgin with Asperger's, Kelly is a thirty-something transwoman whose gender dysphoria is quite obviously the least of her problems. These two are a documentary maker's dream. Let the camera roll and you've pretty much got a movie just by letting them be themselves.
While intending to simply make a movie about these two incredibly deluded individuals, the filmmakers have inadvertently delivered a rarely-so-intimate treatise on religion-based delusion. By substituting the words "Jesus" or "god" in place of "Tiffany" in the pair's fantasies and soliloquies, one starts to notice that it's the exact same language used by fevered Jesus junkies when describing their "relationship" with their imaginary friend(s).
The parallels between Jesus enthusiast and obsessed stalker abound in this film. The imagined relationships and rampant cognitive dissonance are the most glaring examples, but there's so much more. For example, they both pray. Jeff uses his psychotronic helmet (I'm not making this up) to mentally commune with Tiffany from his basement, Kelly has imaginary text sessions with the singer. Collections of holy iconography and texts are everywhere in their apartments. There's even the hint of a holy war brewing during the ill-conceived meeting between these self-appointed popes of two different sects of the Church of Tiffany.
Jeff is an evangelist who'll proudly announce to anyone who will listen that he's Tiffany's bestest friend and quotes chapter and verse about her life and his imagined role in it at the drop of a hat. Kelly's version of the religion is of a more deeply personal nature. Kelly knows that she and Tiffany will one day have a romantic relationship and seems to be growing increasingly upset that it hasn't quite happened yet. Unfortunately, this romance will not take place in a fantasy afterlife making Kelly the far more potentially dangerous of the pair. In fact, by the end of the film Jeff has headed down the path of apostasy. While allowing that he and Tiffany will always be dear friends, he's switching his affections to another large breasted 80s celebrity.
I've barely scratched the surface of this film's exploration of delusion, religion, cognitive dissonance, and just plain old everyday lunacy. It's really got to be seen to be believed. For atheists, antitheists, and other right-thinking individuals it's a not-so-gentle reminder of the dangers of socially acceptable and government-enabled insanity. For the Jesus junkies, it provides a mirror in which they can hopefully see themselves as more stable people see them and gain a better understanding of just what all the concern is about.
There's one issue that the film doesn't really touch on. While Jeff and Kelly might be creepier than a French kiss from Grandma, the mere fact that Tiffany is still performing is in itself quite troubling...
Evan Almighty (2007)
It's not what you think you're getting, beware!
I'll admit right off that I wasn't a huge fan of Bruce Almighty, I thought that it wasted a great concept on a mediocre, at best, film. I was hoping that the owners of the franchise might have realized this and hired Steve Carell to make something as good as the first movie could have been. This did not happen.
My first warning was that it was rated PG, which is the new G since the first Star Trek movie debacle. But, the trailers made it look amusing, so we plunged ahead.
Let me cut to the chase, it's a movie tailored to the Jesus freaks. In the first few scenes, we have Evan's family and Evan himself... praying. Praying, and discussing prayer as blithely as if it was a topic or an act that actual people spoke of or did. Then later, we have the exact same people wondering just where their bible is. Wouldn't a pack of such religious people know exactly where one of the many copies of their bible would be? Wouldn't such a holy family perk right up when Evan mentions that he's been chatting with God personally? Wouldn't they pitch right in and get behind him 100% instead of running away like he's insane? I'm mostly ticked at the makers of the various trailers for the film, they should have at least dropped in one bit to show the film's real agenda. But then nobody but the Jesus freaks would have gone to see it, and it would have hit video in a nanosecond, much like the Jesus & High School Football flick that came out earlier this year that nobody but the delusional saw...
If you enjoyed the first film, miss this one. If you enjoy Steve Carell's comedic acting, stay home and watch 40 Year Old Virgin again, or see an actual movie that's playing now, Knocked Up, by the creators of that film.
Rest Stop (2006)
Could have been a minor masterpiece...
This film made me quite sad after I finally comprehended it. This story of a supernatural venus fly-trap could have been a excellent with a little tweaking to the script.
My take on the story: A serial killer snagging people from the area around a rest stop is killed by a family of even-more-than-usually freakish Jesus freaks. The family, the killer, and all of the killer's victims are caused to haunt the area, drawing in anyone who passes by the area, especially if they stop at the rest stop.
My overall view of the plot is taken only from elements presented in the actual film, but is supported by the "family album" by Scotty presented on the DVD. The killer DID kill the family, except for the father and Scotty, we simply aren't shown how the father manages to kill him.
Here are my suggestions for plugging the holes in the story and making it a tad more cohesive: 1) Make the heroine appear to be less appallingly stupid by showing that she's caught in a loop and can't leave the area. The fact that she didn't simply start walking parallel to the road but far enough away not to be seen from it was a constant thorn in my side while watching. Having her try this, but always winding up back at the rest stop would have alleviated this.
2) Work the bit of film Scotty shot of his father burying the killer into the fabric of the film once it's been established that we're not dealing with just a whackjob and that we're in the middle of a supernatural event. More of the family in any case would have been great, should have given more screen time to them and less to rather silly things like the scene in which sweetcheeks the heroine whiles away her time in the ranger's shack...
3) Rethink the role fire plays in the story. A puddle of gasoline on a cement floor do not cause a building constructed of cement to explode. Covering the hood of a truck with burning gasoline does not cause the truck to explode. Sure, these are minor points I suppose, especially in an industry where vehicles explode at the slightest provocation...
Handled differently, this movie might have been a great little ghost story. Sadly, it was not. All the elements were there, they just never came together.