Friday the 13th

Originally created to ride off of Halloween’s slasher film success, Friday the 13th has exploded into a huge franchise since 1980. There are currently ten Friday the 13th/Jason sequels, a 2009 remake and a big 80’s bad-guy mash-up: Freddie vs Jason.  But back when the horse was alive and not beaten to a pulp, Friday the 13th was just a simple slasher film set at a camp with a bloody history.

The film starts with some vague back story   We see teenage camp counselors having a sing-along.  Soon, a hormone charged couple sneaks off for some action and are killed by an unknown murderer.  The two main elements of the film are all laid out: sex and murder.

Flash forward twenty years to the present and the camp is being reopened.  As plucky, bright eyed Annie (Robbi Morgan) is strolling into town to work at the camp for a summer, the locals are uneasy about the news of Camp Crystal Lake reopening.  Besides the murder we saw, there are stories of a kid drowning and fires.  At the camp, a rag-tag bunch of late teens to early twenties kids (including Adrienne King and Kevin Bacon)are getting the place cleaned up.  One of their first scares is a black snake in a cabin, the few minutes of chaos and panic the snake causes is just a good indicator that they have no chance against a serial killer.  As evening turns to night, the counselors are picked off one by one as they separate from the group.

The camera works to create an uneasy feeling that someone is watching these people.  Many times, the camera is off in the distance, behind trees or something.  Then it starts to move and we realize that we could be seeing things from the killer’s perspective.  It’s a fun, kinda cheesy way to create some suspense.

When I get into a film, I have a history of yelling at the characters.  I had a lot of fun with this film, because these kids obviously don’t know how to survive a slasher film.  Strip Monopoly and sneaking off to have sex in a cabin, that’s fine, we need something to keep us interested while blood isn’t spilling.  But honestly, why on Earth would someone just waltz around on a stormy night with no pants on?  If these dumb girls weren’t already murdered, they’d surely wind up with very uncomfortable poison ivy.

This was my first time seeing Friday the 13th in one sitting.  From my film fascination, I knew quite a few spoilers and had seen the ending lake scene a few times.  While I found some of the acting just laughable, I got into the film enough to make it enjoyable.  The suspense was limp as a wet noodle, but I didn’t care, I was just waiting for the next dumb kid to wander off alone and meet a gruesome end.  And then I cheered about it, cause I don’t like those kids and want to see how the next will end up dead.

I would suggest seeing Friday the 13th with a group of friends.  Don’t take it seriously, laugh with your friends and raise a glass to every victim.

“It’s not bad enough to have Friday the 13th, we’ve gotta have a full moon too.”

Mystic River

Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River is a thriller, wrapped in a murder mystery, guided by a haunting childhood experience.  Set in Boston, the film begins with three boys playing street hockey and lose their last ball in the storm drain.  With no game to play, young Jimmy finds some drying cement and a stick.  He writes his name, then Sean, timid Dave goes last, but only gets two letters in when a man interrupts, “You boys think it’s okay to destroy municipal property?”  Scared, the boys assume the man is a cop and he takes Dave away without much fuss.  Apparently, nobody gave these boys the “Stranger-Danger” talk.  From a minimum of words and images, we assess that young Dave was locked in a basement, sexually assaulted and escaped through the woods four days later.

Skip ahead twenty-five years and the boys are grown and have grown apart.  Jimmy (Sean Penn) is a remarried widower favoring his nineteen year old daughter from his previous marriage, Katie (Emmy Rossum).  He’s also a convenience store owner and spent two years in jail sixteen years ago.  Dave (Tim Robbins) is devoted to his son, playing catch with him everyday and taking him on walks through the old neighborhood.  Dave’s wife, Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) is devoted to him, even though he can be distant.  Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a detective with Boston’s homicide department.  When Katie is found murdered after the same night Dave came home late covered in blood, the three lost boys are brought back together and we assume we know how everything will play out.

Sean Penn’s portrayal of Jimmy earned him the Oscar for lead actor.  He is able to pull off the family man side as well as the jail hardened man, seeking revenge on his daughter’s death.  His greatest moments are his depictions of grief with his face contorting in agony not even realizing he’s crying.  In the scene where Katie’s body is discovered, Penn raves, spits and wails like he’s going mad.  He becomes a frightening image and I’m not surprised that he requested an oxygen tank after shooting that scene.

In contrast, Tim Robbins won the Oscar for best supporting actor by playing Dave with a different kind of intensity.  He’s very calm, soft-spoken and seems distantly remorseful about Katie’s murder.  His horrible childhood experience has made him an enigma we’re afraid to touch.  It has caused him to become very close to his son and inspires bedtime stories of a boy escaping from wolves in the woods.  He’s very creepy and obviously messed up from his trauma, but is he dangerous?  And if so, to who?

I try not to give anything important away in my reviews, but I have to advise first time viewers not to assume anything right away.  I made the mistake of relaxing through the middle of the film, assuming the most obvious connections.  Because I had my mind set, the film felt sluggish for a while and when events started to turn I felt a little frantic, asking myself, “How did I not see that?”  Perhaps that’s what the plot is supposed to do, mislead you into a false sense of security then light a fire under your ass until the end.  Well played Mr. Eastwood.

“Sometimes I think, I think all three of us got in that car.”

Frost/Nixon

To enjoy Frost/Nixon you don’t need to be an old hippie itching to watch Nixon squirm or have lived though Watergate.  You don’t even need to know of enjoy politics.  The beauty of this film is that it simply comes down to a one on one duel and the way Ron Howard sets it up, fills everyone in and gets them all rooting for Frost.

In one corner, we have David Frost (Michael Sheen) a British television talk show host.  He did have a show in America, but now he’s most successful in Australia.  Interviewing Nixon is all his idea, a great way to gain acceptance back into American households and give Nixon the trial he never had.  But as he gets deeper into preparation for the interview, Frost is putting more and more at stake.  He can’t get major TV networks interested in his interview and ends up having to syndicate it himself and foot a hefty bill.  Even more important is can he get Nixon to admit to any wrongdoing, or will the crafty president just drone on and sound presidential throughout the entire interview?

In the opposite corner, we have former President Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langalla) fresh off his pardon from President Ford.   With the advice of his chief of staff, Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), he agrees to the interview for the money and because he does not think a British talk show host will put up any tough questions.  We easily see that Nixon looks down on Frost and does not consider him a adversary worth worrying about.  But Frost realizes the power of television.

Langalla channels a spectacular performance into portraying Nixon.  He makes the former president very human and nearly frail with emotions, faults, but extremely cunning with crafty mind games.  Langalla devotes most of his talents to live theater and does only a few movies.  In 2007 he won a Tony for his performance in the stage production of Frost/Nixon, but was beat out for his nomination at the Oscars.  What a shame, I really believe Langalla deserved the award that night.  Perhaps Sean Penn’s speech really summed up what happened in the final vote.

The crucial piece of film making that makes this movie work so well is the editing.  Throughout the film, we’re constantly filled in with back-story and details from present day interviews as the story progresses.  The individual interviews seem to chime in at perfect times, helping the viewer gain a larger perspective of what just happened in the scene.  In the beginning of the film, where we’re filled in with bits of old news shows and historical television to fill everyone in on what exactly happened toward the end of Nixon’s presidency, the present day interviews nearly make the film feel like a documentary, but soon the narrative takes hold.  I don’t know how, or if that idea was conveyed on stage, but on film it works perfectly.

Frost/Nixon is not a breezy film to veg out to, but it’s not so hard-nosed that it becomes a chore to watch.  Howard makes the film engaging and accessible to most audiences while keeping it very smart, political and fast paced.  Even if you have no real interest in Richard Nixon or never heard of David Frost, you can enjoy the film while learning a lot.  It could also be a great tool for students, but with an R rating for language, it becomes a judgement call.

“You could see it in Frost’s face. If he didn’t know the caliber of the man that he was up against before the interview started, he certainly knew it halfway through the President’s first answer.”