Yellow Submarine (1968)

With a sureal adventure story about the Beatles taking a yellow submarine into the wilds of imagination, director George Dunning pushed the boundaries of animation.  With great music and eye-poppying  visuals and lots of wit, this really is a timeless film.  So check it out and drown out those Blue Meanies bringing you down.  The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is here.  Grade: B+

Amarcord (1974)

Federico Fellini made many great movies but none of are as fun and enjoyable as this one about the various people living in a small Italian village during pre-WWII Fascist Italy.  Like a wonderful collage he gives you a sense of memory and a celebration of life in all its ups and downs.  The central character is a young boy named Titta but for me it's the town that is the hero, and maybe the boy and the town are the same, symbols of all the growing up Italy is about to go through in the coming years.  Grade: A-

Another Woman (1988)

In this drama from Woody Allen, a professor played by Gena Rowlands overhears a conversation between a woman and her psychiatrist through a vent while working on her next book.   Hearing of this woman's problems, she starts to look at her own life and the choices she made.  As always an impressive character study from Mr. Allen.  Grade: B+

The Los Angeles Diaries by Jim Brown (Memoir)

This memoir is written with such raw honesty and soulfulness it is more than an account of a writer-teacher-husband-father-son-brother dealing with addiction but it's a work of art as well.  Mr. Brown could have avoided some details, but he doesn't.  He painfully paints an unflattering portrait of himself to demonstrate the destructive force of drugs.  If you want to read an engaging account of addiction and how the destroy families as well as individuals then you must read this.  Grade: A

Antoine and Colette (1962)

François Truffaut's sequel of The 400 Blows revisits Antoine Doinel as a teenager.  This isn't a feature film but a short that was originally shown in the anthology titled Love At 20.  Although brief this story about first love is wonderful.  No wonder Truffaut would return to this character again.  Grade: A-

Melancholia (2011)

Lars von Trier directs an astonishing film that takes place before a meteor strikes the Earth wiping out mankind.   There are two sisters, a manic depressive young woman soon to be married played to perfection by the underrated Kristin Dunst and the older responsible sister played by Charlotte Gainsbourg (last seen in von Trier's film Antichrist) who is married to a wealthy man and who has a child.  The first part takes place at the wedding of Dunst's character, Justine, and it is here we are introduced to a myriad of characters and where various themes are set up, such as fatherhood, respect and self destruction.  The second part focuses more on Claire, the older sister, with Justine come to stay with her and her husband when news of the meteor is on its way to supposedly graze Earth.  This is really an amazing movie, it sticks to the side of your brain and haunts you with its themes and images.  I would go out on a limb and say this might be Lars von Trier's best film (although I haven't seem them all yet).  While not really a happy film (does von Trier make any other kind), it does inspire with its brave nihilistic optimism (if that's possible which for me it was) and brilliant craftsmanship.  If you're interested in a challenging work of art that might spit on all your beliefs of hope and purpose, but at the same time make you appreciate the importance of life and love and all that your hold dear, see this film. Grade: A-       

Flight (2012)

Finally Robert Zemeckis returns to form making an actual movie again.  He's such a great cinematic storyteller.  Even with a predictable addiction drama like this one, he succeeds at making a film better than most directors.  The plane crash alone is visually amazing.  Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot who expertly crash lands a plane while intoxicated.  As he fights to keep his job, he battles the even bigger conflict of his own addiction.  Washington is so good in this, it would be criminal if he doesn't get nominated for best actor.  The screenplay by John Gatins is flawless in execution.  The only aspect of the film that keeps me from calling it a masterpiece (beside the typical music selections used on the soundtrack) is that I knew how it was going to end almost from the start.  The story couldn't (and shouldn't) really end any other way, mind you, but no matter how suspenseful Zemeckis tries o makes it, I knew how the story would unfold.  That doesn't ruin the movie for me, but it does lessen its impact.  Grade: A- 

Angel (Season 5)

The final season of this Buffy spin-off ends well enough for such a flawed series.  The first two seasons are excellent but by the third seasons things start to unravel.  Whedon and Greenwalt do their best to keep the series afloat with a great episode here and there but ultimately this series will go down as being less successful as the show that created it.  The fifth season starts anew with a different setting and each of its characters given new jobs.  Having Angel's crew head Wolfram and Heart was certainly a great way to change things up and start the whole "full circle" aspect of a final season.  Spike's arrival was also refreshing and surprising because I didn't think it would work but his presence helps bolster the overall drive of the story.  The problem is that almost everything I loved about the show was gone.  The comedy was still there (thankfully) but the characters were so disconnected from their past incarnations it seems inconsistent.  After seeing Fred fall in love with Gunn a year ago, I'm supposed to forget that and be happy with Fred's new hook up?  Rooting for Angel and Cordelia to get together only for her to be in a coma and Angel to so easily romance a werewolf girl, that wasn't too cool.  One of my pet peeves is when a show's character acts in away that would make you believe they forgot everything that transpired from past seasons.  Sure the writers threw us a bone every once and awhile with a reference here or there but it wasn't enough for me, a character's actions determine who they are not a throw away line.  A sixth season might have given this show time to return to its glory days, and with Spike there it was possible, but we'll never know.  At least this season gave us probably the show's best episode ever, "Smile Time" where Angel is turned into a puppet.  Genius.  Grade: B

Spoilers!
What I liked: the addition of Spike, Lindsey's return, Fred's death and transformation, all the Buffy references, "Smile Time", Gunn's betrayal, Wesley's overall journey, Lorne's sad walk away, the very end (that line about the dragon is one of the best last lines of a series ever).

What I hated: Angel's new girlfriend (talk about forcing a new love interest down our throats), Cordelia being written out of the show (because she was as much of the show as Angel was; too bad the writers didn't recognize that), the sudden and convenient introduction of the Circle of the Black Thorn (even the name sucked), having the show end without ever seeing Detective Kate Lockley again was a disappointment (I mean if you need another love interest why not go back to that red herring from season one)  and writing Cordelia off the show (it's worth repeating).

Series as a whole:  When I think about this show it's easy to point out flaws in hindsight, I mean the writers believe they're making smart decisions at the moment of creation.  But it seemed to me from the middle of season 3 they kept writing themselves in a corner and brilliantly fixing their mistakes only to write themselves back into another corner.  For me the aspect of Angel that was never utilized properly was his evil demon Angelus.  I always believed that when Angel looked upon his son, Connor, for the first time he should have lost his soul again.  Seeing his son would have filled him with great joy and hence cursed him back to Angelus.  That would have been a great element to the story as his friends protect Angel's child while Angel's evil self sets out to destroy the world.  Or how about this?  What if Angelus (still a bad guy) chooses to fight evil for a spell.  Then in Season 4 they spend so much time trying to surprise the audience with Cordelia's real reason for returning it seems they never considered how the audience would feel seeing her seduce a teenager and become evil for no reason.  But overall this is a good show with great writing.   It could have been better but still I can't complain too much.  Compared with most shows, Angel is a diamond in the rough, a wonder of wit and fantasy.  It's too bad there are not more shows like it.   

Garnethill by Denise Mina (Novel)

The first in a trilogy this Scottish mystery novel is a feisty read with a heroine on the verge of being arrested for killing her boyfriend who she learns was married.  Maureen O'Donnell is the kind of main character that you enjoy following but have a hard time really liking (at least for me).  She's a refreshing non-detective mystery-solver with a complex past.  Her family and friends are all over the place from a drug-dealing brother to a crazy mother.   As she bounces from relationship to police inquiry like a pinball in a pinball machine it's easy to forget at times that she has a murder to solve.  It's a fast read written with a wonderful dry wit that is quite fun.  I happened to see Demise Mina at a book panel earlier this year at the LA Festival of Books and was impressed by her clever wit and she certainly lets it fill her prose.  Will I be wanting to read more of Maureen?  That I'm not sure.  While the book ended well and I enjoyed Mina's writing style, especially the Scottish colloquialisms scattered throughout the book, I can't say I'm dying to read another four hundred pages dealing with this peculiar character.  I wish I could give a really good reason why but the truth is I can't.  I don't need all my heroes to be perfect but I like to connect to them on some level and I never did with Maureen.  I will check out another of Demise Mina's books though.  She is a solid writer worth reading a second time.  Grade: B

The Hill (1965)

After watching Sidney Lumet's last film a couple days ago I decided to watch one of his earlier works, this British military drama starring Sean Connery.  The story takes place on a military detention camp for British soldiers who need to be whipped back into obedience.  One of their punishments to do this is a man-made hill that soldiers are ordered to run up and down, breaking their spirits as well as wearing out their bodies.  Is this a little cruel or is this how one makes a soldier out of a disappointment?  The film has aged well, seeming as almost as contemporary as any film made today, regardless if shot in black and white.  Sean Connery does a great job distancing himself as 007 with his performance but it's Ossie Davis who steals the show as the lone black soldier in the camp.  Certainly a lost classic film, I hope more people discover this drama.  Grade: A-

Sound of My Voice (2011)

If you've seen Another Earth you know that Brit Marling is a bright new talent and this second project she did with director Zal Batmanglij is proof of her abilities.  The story is about a couple named Peter and Lorna, played by Christopher Demham and Nicole Vicius, who infiltrate a secret cult led by a woman named Maggie who claims to be from the future.  Marling plays Maggie and even though she's not the main character the power she controls over the group makes you forget sometimes.  Peter is the driving force of the plot.  While he might have intended to show the world Maggie is a fake, he starts to have doubts, especially when forced to do something he would otherwise not do.  The story does have a big gaping hole in it, a sub plot about a mysterious woman who supposedly works for the Feds, that distracts and confuses the story's logic.   I don't mind leaving some mystery for the audience, but I didn't think the script handled the ending well.  While I wish it had a more dramatic and jaw-dropping ending, it's still a very well made independent film worth checking out.  Grade: B+    

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Sidney Lumet's last film might be his best, or at least my favorite.  Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman play brothers who becoming involved in a jewelry heist in order to get out of their own money troubles.  There's more of course, but I don't want to ruin some of the twists.  I really enjoyed this movie.  The acting was intense and complex with believability.  The direction wasn't all showy but focused, letting the drama play out instead of forcing it with odd camera shots or distracting violence.  This really is a great a drama and proof that age doesn't deteriorate an artist's ability.  Grade: A

Kitty Foyle (1940)

The sexist beginning of this film might turn away most modern audiences, but once you get past the "History of Women" prologue (from a man's point of view of course) the story finally gets going.  Kitty Foyle has a choice: follow her passion and run away to be with her first love or stay behind and get married to the doctor who loves her.  It reminds me of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.   Be sensible or follow your heart.  Of course her first love is a wealthy young man incapable of loving her back like she deserves and it's not clear if Kitty Foyle has ever really known what her heart wants.   The plot is all a flashback as we watch her grow up and fall in love and out of love: to help the audience understand her choice at the end of the film.  Ginger Rogers won the Best Actress Oscar that year for this role.  I personally believe Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) for even Betty Davis (The Letter) should have won that year but Rogers did deliver a good performance nevertheless.  Grade: B

Skyfall (2012)

While nowhere near as well-written or as satisfying as Casino Royale (Daniel Craig's first venture as 007) this is still a very good movie that succeeds at feeling like a Bond movie and reinvigorating the franchise for a promising new run (if MGM can stay in business that is).  Here director Sam Mendes and his trio of screenwriters choose to celebrate the famous British spy by referencing classic Bond motifs and asking the question, is a spy like Mr. Bond relevant in today's world?  The answer is yes.  Especially with a villain like Javier Bardem, who really creates a dangerous nemesis for MI6.  Judi Dench is great as usual and I'm glad the producers gave us an updated Q to root for.  There's a lot to love about this movie.  I just hope that this is not the moment when this rebooted franchise gets soft and silly like during Roger Moore's tenure.  Grade: B+

Spoilers: Before reading any further I want to make it clear I will be ruining the ending, okay?  Here we go.  It's something cruelly refreshing yet unsatisfying to watch over 2 hours of an adventure film to see the hero lose.  Bond fails at doing everything that he was supposed to do.  He gets the sexy slave woman killed, he allows the villain to invade British soil and accomplish his goal of revenging Bond's boss, M.  The only thing Bond does right was keep his job (although why it's unclear since he failed so miserably; I mean really, realistically he would have been fired).  This has got to be the most displeasing Bond ever, even surpassing Her Majesty's Secret Service.  I would have liked to have seen Bond win at the end, even if just a little.  Maybe Bond should have stayed "dead" and retired, or maybe this tragic hero is never supposed to win.  He's damned to be a lost soul forever.  It doesn't really make me very excited for the next one if that's the case.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

On the same DVD as the 1932 version is this inferior albeit entertaining adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale staring Spencer Tracey.  Director Victor Flemming does a good job using a more psychological transformation from man to monster and it is effective.  The problem is Tracey is miscast in my opinion and it's too close of a remake of the '32 film than a fresh adaptation of the novel.  Ingrid Bergman steals the show with her terrified performance.  You can see why the producers cast her in Gaslight years later.  Grade: B.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story about duel personalities is given its best cinematic treatment with Fredric March playing the title roles.  Sure the makeup does seem a little racist (which was something I tried to ignore because I know the film makers intended to model the Hyde effects after prehistoric cave men; but at the same time this was a different time with less concern over the sensitives of minorities) nevertheless the effects are ground breaking.  What also impressed me was how director Rouben Mamoulian experimented with the first person point of view shot and makes it work.  Sure it's a little bit of a gimmick but he doesn't over use the technique.  I also must give a shout out at one of my favorite underrated female stars, Miriam Hopkins, who delivers the screams and the fear as the terrorized girl friend of Mr. Hyde.  Overall a great work of horror on so many levels.  Grade: A-

The Blue Angel (1930)

This German film is a dark cynical and weirdly entertaining masterpiece about a respected professor who falls for a showgirl, but it's not a love story.  If anything it's a warning about false love and how it can ruin ones life.  Marlene Dietrich plays the temptress showgirl Lola-Lola and you can see why this part made her a star.  She's devilish yet beautiful.  Josef von Sternberg directed and I can't wait to see his next film he did with Dietrich, Morocco (which is unavailable on DVD right now, of course).  Then there's character actor Emil Jannings who plays the professor, who I last saw in the silent film The Last Laugh.  He was so good at playing tragic fools.  Really this is a brilliant film that left my mind humming.  I strongly recommend this one.  Grade: A. 

The General (1998)

Martin Cahill was this Irish criminal mastermind in the late '80s who seemed destined to become the hero (or anti-hero) of a film.  Director John Boorman gives the world another expertly crafted work of art to impress for generations to come and Brendan Gleeson delivers one of his best performances, seeming to become the real Mr. Cahill.  This larger than life character fearlessly did what he wanted and took what he wanted and he did it by joyfully outsmarting the police and in some cases his own friends.   He is the kind of person that proves life is stranger than fiction.  Sure, eventually this past would come back to ruin him, but not before making him a Dublin legend.  It's weird to praise a film for in some ways celebrating a criminal, but I think there's more going on here than mere glorification.  There's a lot us average folk can learn from those willing to mock society and defy the norms that imprison us.  Grade: A-.

Night Train to Munich (1940)

Rex Harrison really was a great actor.   He is so much more than Professor Higgins from My Fair Lady.  Here he's a British spy named Dickie Randall who goes behind enemy lines just as WWII is starting up to rescue the young woman he fell in love with and her scientist father the Nazis want to force into working for them.  Carol Reed directs what is his best film (yes, I've seen The Third Man but this one really has suspense all the way through).  Two civilian Englishmen traveling through Germany almost steal the show as they become involved in the spy games.  Grade: A-

A Separation (2011)

Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film of last year, this Iranian film about the consequences of a couple trying to part ways is about as perfect a drama as one could want.   It gives a glimpse of the Iranian culture and its judicial system without having to explain itself.  The characters' lives unfold naturally and as their problems grow worse it never feels forced.  Director and writer Asghar Farhadi is an excellent storyteller and this is a masterpiece.  Perhaps it should have been nominated for best picture as well.  Grade: A

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

This spooky Korean horror film directed by Kim Ji-woon deals with sisters and an evil stepmother.  But things are not what they seem and you'll figure that out pretty quick.  I was a tad bit disappointed when I finally saw this, for I had heard really good things about it.  Kim Ji-woon's I Saw The Devil is far better.  This twisted Cinderella ghost story is well-made and does have some creepy moments plus Yeom Jeong-ah as the stepmother gives a complex and wonderful performance, but it does drag at times.  These kind of movies sometimes seem like they're only about the twist, and while there are some strong dramatic characterizations, I would have enjoyed more clarity as the plot unwinds.  Grade: B

Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)

This documentary about the infamous Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie the Butcher of Lyon is over four hours long.  You'd think that would be ridiculously long, especially with a film with mostly interviews.  But director Marcel Ophüls makes every minute count and I found myself so intrigued that its length didn't bother me.  The narrative of the documentary deals with Klaus Barbie's childhood, how he joined the Nazi Regine, his very comfortable and equally abhorrent life on the run in South America and all the irony of his capture when he was an old man.  If you're a history buff, you'll enjoy it.  But if a bunch of interviews about a torturer who never really pays for his crimes depresses you or makes you yawn, stay away from this.  Grade: A-     

Looper (2012)

Time-Travel Noir from the filmmaker who gave us Brick, Rian Johnson: how could I not love it? This is one of the best science fiction films to come out in recent years, a stylish and dark story with a wonderful cast and subtle, terrific special effects (meaning the special effects don't derail the story by being eye-popping and exhausting.)  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Looper, an assassin who kills people from the future.   Loopers are paid in silver bars attached to their target (who appears hooded out in the middle of a corn field for the Looper to gun down a second later).  When the Looper kills the target with gold bars on their body they are officially retired having closed the loop by killing their future self, that's right the guy with the gold bars is them.  A great mind warp that does bump into some pesky time-travel-paradoxes along the way but still very entertaining.  The always excellent Emily Blunt also stars along with Bruce Willis as the older version of Mr. Gordon-Levitt.  More for the Blade Runner crowd than those who like happier science fiction like E.T.  Grade: A-

Spoilers:  There's a fun sequence where a Future Looper escapes near the beginning of the film.  While on the run he looks down to suddenly discover that he is missing two fingers.  Next a message is scarred on his arm that tells him to go to some address and turn himself in.  Basically the younger or present Looper is on some operating table and when the organization cuts off one of his limbs that limb also disappears from the future version.  As the Future Looper hurriedly tries to get to the address he loses his legs and then ends up crawling.   Really cool idea, but there's one problem.  If you cut his legs off when he's in his twenties, how would he be able to run away in the first place without legs?  Also by changing the future doesn't the Organization risk changing something that will happen that they need to happen?  There's a big paradox here that is explained away by saying these kind of paradoxes work themselves out.   Nice try, Mr. Johnson, but it seems like you were more interested in focusing on the story than the science, which is fine.   The story is king so I'll let you slide on this one but that's one of the hang ups with Time travel stories, the more you mess with time the more you'll write yourself into a paradox. 

Red by Jack Ketchum (Novel)

After watching the Woman, I decided to read something from Mr. Ketchum.  This short novel is a fast and enjoyable read, more a thriller than a horror story about an old man avenging the senseless murder of his dog.  The main character of Avery Ludlow is well-developed and relate able without feeling like some kind of simply everyman character.  The plot unfolds like a snowball rolling down a mountain, getting bigger and more intense as you read without feeling forced.  Grade: B+

Top Ten Election Movies (Commentary)

In celebration of Election Tuesday, I've researched election-themed films and came up with the below list of what I deem the best of the sub-genre.   So go out and vote and then pick one of these to watch while the votes are being counted and recounted.

10. Primary Colors (1998)

9. The Great McGinty (1940)

8. The Ides of March (2011)

7. Wag the Dog (1997)

6. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

5. Dave (1993)

4. Bulworth (1998)

3. The American President (1995)

2. Election (1999)

1. Bob Roberts (1992)

*Films I have yet to see: The Candidate, The Campaign
** Strange that so many came out in the '90s. 

Election 2012: Final Thoughts (Commentary)

This election has been analyzed to death by so many people I almost didn't write this blog.  The problem is I am compelled to by the simple fact that I'm worried.   I'm worried that America is about to make another mistake in the same way they did when they elected George W. Bush into the White House, not just once, but twice.  For me this election is about two colliding ideologies.  But don't be fooled.  It's not about the size of government.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan keep shouting that they want to decrease the size of our government.  That's not what they want.  They just want government to stand back and let corporations and markets make profits without consequences.  They want the government to let free markets run wild without any guidelines.  There's a reason we have traffic laws and that's because if we didn't a lot of drivers would be killed.  This same rule should be applied to our economic institutions. Yet when it comes to women's heath, same-sex marriage, voting rules, censorship, unions and a whole lot of other issues Romney and his Republican ilk do want big government, they just want it to protect different parts of what they define as American by limiting the population's free will.  Democrats aren't really interested in big government they just realize that in a complicated world government is necessary.  If anything they want an efficient government, not a big one.  This is an election where billionaires are trying to buy the election once again, spending huge sums of money to back any candidate that represents their interests (and they have the gall to say special interests are ruining this country).  It's not that these rich people are evil it's just that they're blinded by their own unique perspective.  They've isolated themselves from society and no longer see those with less money in the same way.  They feel it's unfair that Obama wants to tax them more, when we've had a progressive tax system in place for sometime now and it just needs to be re-adjusted.  No one likes to be attacked and so they are fighting back.  So for this election its a choice between two wealthy men.  One is a lawyer who has spent his whole life fighting for the common man, a man who is highly educated and believes that when times are tough we all need to stick together.  The other is a business man who has spent his whole life making big profits, playing with lives by breaking up and rebuilding companies for success and failure, a man that loves his country and has helped many friends and neighbors as a good Christian yet believes we the people must fight for ourselves.   One man believes in the idea of many to help the individual and the other believes in the individual helping themselves is the only way to help the many.   Both men are good men but one stands firm for what he believes in and the other flip flops and lacks consistency.   I trust one and fear the other.   Barack Obama for me is a great President because he will always fight for everyone and represent all our interests.  I have no doubt that Mitt Romney is the kind of guy who will fight for whoever will stand for what he believes in, which is a murky interchangeable question mark.   That's not a President we deserve and that's why I will be voting for President Barack Obama tomorrow.  If Obama loses I don't think our country is doomed but I do think Romney will lead this country toward a future where corporations and the wealthy play by different rules than the rest of us.  That's not fair and that's not American and that will destroy the spirit of this county in ways that will take decades to repair. 

Blood Feast (1963)

This Herschell Gordon Lewis directed low-budget gore film is more of a novelty than a good movie.  It's amateur hour all over it with only a minutes of decent anything.  The acting is bad, the story is bad, the look of the film is so bright and bleached out that it feels more like a home movie than anything meant to entertain an audience.  The story revolves around a man who worships Ishtar and is preparing a feast of human flesh.  Detectives are on his trail but will they catch him before he serves up his human dishes?  More famous for its gory details and low-budget feel, I would only watch this if that kind of thing thrills you.  Grade: C.

Martin (1972)

In many ways this is George A. Romero's best work, not because it's better than Night of the Living Dead but because it's more personal to his artistic heart.  Martin is a vampire, or so he believes, and he is out on the hunt while dealing with all the complex emotions we all deal with as we adjust to who we are and who we interact with.  There are some really freaky moments as Martin drugs his victims so he can drink their blood.   One of the better and more clever vampire themed films made.   The low-budget quality never diminishes what is a well told story.  Grade: A.

Satan's Little Helper (2003)

This horror film is like some kind of cruel joke that keeps on going and you want to laugh (and you do) but at some point it's hard to find it funny anymore.  This isn't a bad thing for a horror film and in fact I applaud director/ writer Jeff Lieberman for coming up with such an evil little movie.   In the tradition of mistaken identity comedies, a twenty something college student named Jenna, played by Katheryn Winnick, gets her little brother's deranged masked murderer mistaken as her boyfriend.  Her little brother Dougie is a bit annoying and it's completely unbelievable that he would become so enamored by a stranger dressed up as Satan.  I get what Lieberman is doing though, making more of a statement then crafting a realistic story.  It mostly works and there's enough going on here to recommend it for what it is, a dark comedy about a serial killer.  Grade: B.

The Woman (2011)

Based on the Jack Ketchum novel, which is the third part of a trilogy which I didn't know about until after watching this disturbingly wicked film, tells the story of a psychotic, father and husband country lawyer named Chris Cleek who finds a wild woman in the woods.  So he decides to take her home and chain her to his barn as a project for his family.  His abusive son is the apple not very far from the tree and his daughter the only one starting to see what's wrong with her family unit.  This is a great fun little horror film that works on so many levels it's hard to know where to start.  It's surreal, it's funny, it's gross, it's funny, it's unpredictable, satirical, and yes, it's funny.   Director Lucky McKee of the cult classic horror film May, proves he understands the genre and has a unique style that's his own.  The cast is pitch perfect especially Pollyanna McIntosh who plays the woman; she really goes all out and it's an unforgettable performance.  This film certainly makes me want to read the entire trilogy.  Grade: A