Displaying items by tag: Kristen Stewart

SACRAMENTO

US, 2024, 89 minutes, Colour.

Michael Cera, Kristin Stewart, Michael Angarano, Maya Erskine, Rosalind Chao, Michael P. Angarano Sr.

Directed by Michael Angarano.

Sacramento, the capital of California, is the destination for the journey in this film, a road film from Los Angeles to Sacramento. However, Sacramento is also symbolic of the quest, a state of mind for the two central characters.

Sacramento has been written and directed by actor, Michael Angareno, who started his film career when very young. He is now moving into middle age and this is a middle-aged male story, not just of the character he plays, Ricky, but also of his longtime friend, now alienated, Glenn. It is their road movie.

Over the years Michael Cera has played a number of characters who are edgy, sometimes timid, sometimes forthright, but often with a touch of mental troubles. This time, as Glenn, he has been married for four years, his wife, played by Kristin Stewart, is about to give birth. But, she is the calm person, working, commonsensed, understanding and supportive of her husband even when he is exasperating. And, exasperating he often is, panic attacks, loss of job, prepared to be home parent, but almost throttling a cot they have bought which is not solid enough for him.

And we have been introduced to Ricky, wandering, erratic, casual encounters, one partner, Tally, I didn’t been giving birth but avoiding Ricky, going to live in Sacramento with the child. But, Ricki fancies himself as being able to read people, goes to discussion groups, intervening, and off.

So he decides to make contact with Glenn, persuade him to accompany him to Sacramento to scatter the ashes of his father. On the way, and exasperated, Ricki always on for the con, then the encounters with tally and the baby and matters going completely skew with.

Probably best to be an open mood in approaching Sacramento, maybe some difficulties and accepting the two characters, but, they are what some people are like, they need some help, some affirmation, some possibilities of breaking through past difficulties in finding a future.

1. The title, the destination, a state of mind?
2. Los Angeles story, the suburbs, homes, social groups? On the road, Northwest, the scenery, the stops along the way? The city of Sacramento, the views, homes, the river? The musical score?
3. The introduction to Glenn, sunbaking, reading, the woman calling out, into the water? Then discovering that he was four years married, Rosie pregnant? The introduction to Ricky, seeing with Tallie?
4. The film about mental issues? Glenn, anxiety, his job, loss of the job, symbolised in his breaking up the cot, Rosie understanding him, keeping him calm? Can Ricky and his being with Tallie?
5. Glenn’s story, his past, nerves, panic attacks, fatherhood, his relationship with Rosie, at home, her commonsense, keeping calm, accepting the pregnancy, going to work, content at being a house parent?
6. Ricky, age, temperament, going to the group, intervening, his theories, his jargon, the reaction of the doctor? The other members of the group and his interventions? The doctor warning him off? Yet his enthusiasm?
7. The background of Ricky and Glenn, growing up together, the friendship, the distance? Ricky his decision to contact Glenn? Arriving, trying to hide? Rosie’s response?
8. The two men talking, the significance of their mental upset, repercussions for their conversations? Behaviour? Glenn trying to avoid Ricky? Ricky persevering?
9. Ricky wanting to go to Sacramento, his explanation, the death of his father, coming from Sacramento, to scatter the ashes in the ocean? Glenn’s reaction, unwilling, disbelief? Out and the diner? Glenn and his motivations? Contacting Rosie?
10. The journey, an Odyssey, the gradual revelation of Ricky’s intentions, scraping up ashes to scatter, accommodation, his prized car, stopovers on the way, Glenn and his reactions, suspicions? Yet continuing on? The scattering the ashes and the clunk on the concrete?
11. Arriving at Tallie’s house, the real reason for coming, the flashbacks and the relationship between the two, the casual acquaintance, her pregnancy? The birth? Her character, reaction to Ricky, wanting gone, his continual perseverance in arguing with her? Wearing her down? Her treatment of the baby?
12. Her puzzle about Glenn, his sitting, observing, the phone calls with Rosie, knowing the truth about Glenn’s father? Going to the toilet, going to the baby, the cot and shaking it, taking the baby, driving off? At the service station?
13. Tallie’s panic, the scooter, catching Glenn, the arguments, unlocking the car, retrieving the baby? The cathartic moments for them all?
14. The year later, Ricky and the group, intervening, the discussions with Sal and his life and his case? The contrast with Glenn, the baby, getting some work done, the friendship with Ricky? Going home to Rosie and the baby?

LOVE LIES BLEEDING

US, 2024, 104 minutes, Colour.

Kristin Stewart, Katie O'Brien, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco.

Directed by Rose Glass.

In fact, quite an amount of hate, hateful characters, also lie bleeding.

The comment by critic, Sandra Hall, suggested that this film was a Thelma and Louise on steroids. But, it’s not just an image, there is quite an amount of actual steroid Ealing and taking. The film opens at a gym, men and women, muscles bulging, sweaty, exercising. The gym is managed by Lou (Kristin Stewart, Twilight days long past), tough, initially seen cleaning a dirty toilet, stalked by a fellow worker, but taken aback when she sees Jack (Katie O’Brien, martial arts instructor and actress) come in to work out.

The love of the title is the relationship between U and Jack, often intense, but immediately complicated. Who is alienated from her gangster father, an eerie and wrinkled Ed Harris, devoted to her sister Beth (Jena Malone) who is married to an extremely smug and dislikeable JJ (Dave Franco). JJ is doubletiming his wife, including with Jack, is violent towards Beth, hospitalising her. Lou is angry but Jack is even angrier with the result that JJ, his face brutally disfigured, lies bleeding.

And, so, this film becomes something of a gritty thriller, especially with the women deciding to get rid of the body in a vast pit, where Sue many other bodies are buried, hoping to implicate Lou’s father.

Jake has also had an ambition, to enter a body building competition in Las Vegas and, with all the complications and tensions with Lou, she hitchhikes there and enters the event, only to fail, experiences a repulsive hallucination which is dramatised for the benefit of the audience, humiliated.

While the setting is Nevada, the film was shot in New Mexico and, one wonders why, the year is 1989 and there are direct references to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the migration to West Berlin and freedom.

A number of responders to Love Lies Bleeding is to see it as a film noir, better, a neo-noir. A brief definition of film noir states a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace.. Black-and-white style was very popular in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in Hollywood. While this film is in colour, it is often in very dark colour, widescreen but the directors instantly using close-ups, especially faces, the screen sometimes turning red, which means that the director, Rose Glass (the horror film, St Maud) creates quite a menacing atmosphere.

Some audiences in the past found film noir too grim. And, despite the colour here, many audiences will find the narrative, the characters, the steroid atmosphere, the brutal interactions, too grim.

1. The title? The love? Characters bleeding? Deaths? Physical? Emotional?
2. The 1989 setting, references to the Berlin wall and freedom? The small American town, the gym, the gangster and his mansion, apartments, hospital, the streets, the precipice of the dump? Atmosphere? The musical score?
3. Lou’s story, age, background, sexual orientation, Daisy stalking her, her father and alienation, the disappearance of her mother, managing the gym, dealing the steroids, relationship with Beth, dislikeable JJ? Attracted to Jackie, intensity, Jackie talking, smoking (all the anti-smoking talk, yet the end), offering the steroids, the results, the sexual attraction, encounters, going home with Lou? The meal with Beth and JJ, as violent behaviour, later hospitalising Beth? Lou’s reaction, Jackie’s reaction? Jackie brutally killing JJ, Lou’s reaction, getting rid of the body, the carpet, the drive, Daisy seeing them on the road, a later use of this information, the car over the cliff, igniting it, the smoke? Lou and her meticulous cleaning of the house, her father’s arrival, knowing what had happened?
4. Jackie, ousted from home, on the road, bodybuilding, the ambitions for the competition, the sexual encounter with JJ, getting the job, the interview with Lou’s father, the smoke break and her encountering him, meeting Lou, the steroids, the exercise, the relationship, intense? Her angry reaction to JJ, killing him? Getting rid of the body? Lou wanting her to keep quiet, locking the door, Jackie getting out, going to the gym? The clash with Lou? Jackie hitchhiking, Las Vegas, entering the competition, the other women, the parade, the judges, her performance, going well, her being overcome, the hallucination, too many drugs, her being sick, imagining vomiting Lou? The humiliation? The return, Lou’s father and his control, giving her the gun, the jealousy about Daisy and the phone calls to Lou, shooting Daisy? Captured by the thugs, bound, Lou finding her, freeing her, her pulling the gun on Lou?
5. Lou’s father, gangster, the murders, memories of his wife, her death? The police in his pay? Confronting Lou, confronting Jackie? Lou and the gun, her father’s injuries, the gun in his mouth, not killing him, her informing the police, his arrest?
6. Daisy, at the gym, infatuated with Lou, jealous, seeing the cars on the road, confronting Lou, staying the night, the breakfast, the threats, Lou talking head down? Jackie shooting her? The finale with the body, dead or alive, Lou burying her in the desert?
7. The style of the film, neo-noir, the use of close-ups, faces, widescreen? Atmosphere? The colour shades, screen red? The room, sometimes ironic, touches of horror?