Random Movie Review: The Tree Of Life

Reel Room Presents A Random Movie Review: The Tree Of Life

It's hard to imagine when you look at another human being what you're really seeing is trillions of microscopic organisms all living and communicating with each other in a symbiotic manner. From the textbook definition, life is nothing more than a reaction that was caused by a cosmic explosion that resulted in a domino effect of subsequent reactions that eventually gave birth to bacterial cells in the water. These bacteria grew and developed into cells which eventually came together to form tissues, organs and finally organisms. Organisms got tired of the water and left for land and millions of years later we sit in front of the computer screen or phone reading
this post. In the most basic sense, that is life. 

"You see that honey? That's where God lives." - Mrs. O'Brian

However we all know that life is more than just cells adhering to each other and the transmission of ions across a chemical gradient. What separates life as we know it from the definition of life is another four letter word that begins with L and yes it is love; but not the kind of "relationship" love that sappy teenagers gawk over. No this is having love for life and for nature and all things that happen to be involved with living. Recently I watched a movie known as "The Tree Of Life" and today as I write I look back on life and how our misconceptions about life are the greatest gifts known to humanity. It was a film directed by Terrence Malick, a well-known artist. Malick does not create movies like the ones we pay $9.75 for, instead he creates moving masterpieces transfixed on the most basic and yet deepest abstract ideas. Life, love, loss, innocence, holiness are just a few. I will refrain from explaining the plot in this one because it's truly a film that needs to be analyzed by the viewer. No amount of reviews or reading can prepare one for the emotional and conceptual film known as "The Tree Of Life."

Your mother's naive. It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world.
If you're good, people take advantage of you.- Mr. O'Brian

"The Tree Of Life" stars our new favorite zombie killer and hit man Brad Pitt, the cryogenically frozen mobster Sean Penn as well as the lovely Jessica Chastain. The Pitt and Chastain play the parents of a typical American family, the O'Brians, with three young and curious boys. The movie surrounds the life of the eldest son known as Jack and watches as his life is exposed to a multitude of variable from death to trust between brothers. The first half of The Tree Of Life is centered around the actual creation of life; we watch cells divide and multiply, nebula's and galaxies split apart and even watch a dinosaur get his head trampled. The movie isn't dialogue oriented, instead it is relatively silent and grants one the ability to use their heart and mind to understand and reflect on the themes present. Pitt's character is a maverick, he is an overbearing father who is teaches tough love to his boys (Major Payne style). I really wanted to hate his character for the way he treated his sons and wife but as I examined it closer I realized that he was doing what was necessary to train up his children. He eventually sees the error of his foolish ways and devotes himself to change. Chastain is a stay at home mother who reminds you of a hippie; various scenes she can be found wandering in the grass or forest barefoot. She is well kept and soft spoken. It is in her kind words that the boys find shelter from their father's harsh beliefs. Mrs. O'Brien is the guardian angel, she fills the boy's head with goodness and lessons that can't be taught through life.

"Funeral Canticle" - John Taverner 

 The main character Jack is beautiful, in a sense that he is innocent. The film literally watches him grow from an infant to a conflicted teenager. What makes this character unique is the way he reflects on his actions and the actions of others. Jack represents all of us, the child-like mind that so many of us repress and refuse to listen to. In the grand scheme of nature and life we are but a child, wandering the woods of experience. During certain scenes we hear Jack's prayer with God, it's untainted and naive; yet as we watch Jack go through his days we notice that his actions do not match with his prayers, thus creating a rift between what he wants to believe and what he actually does. He constantly questions God: when his classmate dies, when his father scolds him, and even when he loses something dear to him. We watch as his baby dimples and smile slowly diminishes into a solemn grin that is plastered on his sketched face at times. It's almost twisted how as we grow older the more we sacrifice for each day we are given. The movie has me at a true loss for words, it is poetically holy and scientifically demoralizing at the same time. I would recommend taking time alone to watch this movie, its very thought provoking and riveting. Also this film is not for everybody, some of us have yet to understand the beauty that is nature. It's more than a coming of age tale, it's a story about what happens while the world turns. 

Are You watching me? I want to know what You are.
I want to see what You see. - Jack

The musical selection was everything. Full of harmonic choruses and deep strings. At times it creates a sorrowful lamentation and yet it turns into the sound of nature itself. Even now as the music fades in the background I feel as though I can hear each note dropping with the raindrops falling outside. The other breathtaking aspect about "The Tree Of Life" was the visual effects. The first thirty minutes of film which we observe the origins of life are immensely powerful. You want to feel emotions when you watch the cells ingest each other and yet you take a step back and realize that this is a mechanical process that happens every day. And suddenly your caught in between sympathizing with the complex autonomous aspects life but relating to the vastly unpredictable virtuous acts that we know. 

How do I get back? To where they are. - Jack

The theme I resonated with the most in the film was the dual teaching the boys were getting from each parent. Mother and Father both essentially represent the two sides of life, the realistic and the abstract. Ever since we were children we were told of the abstract ideals associated with life, and yet as we continue to grow, develop feelings and experience impurity, we soon begin to question whether these ideals are true. The Father figure wants us to be fully prepared for the world and not rely on things like hope faith and joy; but rather hard work, suffering and self-motivation. However the Mother is instilling in us those values neglected by Father in order to give substance to life. One particular quote that  Mrs. O'Brian said was "The only way to be happy is to love, unless you love your life will flash by". This ultimately brings us to the point that it's not enough to simply live a life. As cliche as that sounds, there is often truths in cliches. Life happens all around us at any given moment. While we constantly debate whether God exists or life began from a cosmic explosion, we must always remember that it is ours to hold for a time period so trivial things such as money and success matter not. What is it that separates us from the pseudomonas aeruginosa that plague murky waters, or the extinct dinosaurs? How can we pride ourselves on a thing such as life but yet we have no idea how much value is truly in it? Why is it that when a life is lost that it hurts humans so bad, yet in the animal kingdom a death is considered beneficial? Why do we not marvel every time we grow a hair or a tree sprouts seeds? Our desensitization of life has caused us to often forget the bareness and simplicity associated with it. And yet we still continue to enjoy the sights and sounds that nature orchestrates for us. What is it that makes life worth sacrificing our God-given infant-like purity? What keeps the tree of life rooted into the soil? It's simple. Love. 

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own
way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. - Mrs. O'Brian

~The White Rabbit

Random Movie Review: Mysterious Skin

Random Movie Review: Mysterious Skin

I'm not too entirely sure how to begin this post. Wow. That movie touched the strings that keep my heart floating in my chest. It tickled the nerves that display emotions. This movie was one of those gem's hidden under layers of cinematic junk. This movie was selected in the Sundance, Venice, and Toronto Film Festivals. It was directed by Gregg Araki and released in 2004.

"Mysterious Skin" is the name of this movie and my reason for watching this film was to see our boy JGL in his earlier years. That's Joseph Gordon-Levitt for those of you who have never seen "Inception", "The Dark Knight Rises", "Looper" and the unromantic comedy "(500) Days of Summer". Either way JGL is proving to the world that he is a versatile and prominent actor. He stars as Neil McCormick, a teenager living out in Kansas. Neil is almost your average punk-rock kid, except he's gay. How he became that way is explained in the beginning of the movie. (I'm not here to debate whether you're born gay or you become it. My opinions are my own and if you don't see eye to eye with them then move your mouse northwestward and click HOME). The other main character in this movie is a boy named Brian (played by Brady Corbet) who explains that when he was a child, he was susceptible to nose bleeds and frequent episodes of fainting. Brian is your average goody-two shoes, who has a slight fascination with extra-terrestrial life.Wendy (played by Michelle Trachtenberg who starred in "The Ice Princess" and "EuroTrip"), is something like Neil's best friend/girlfriend if he were straight. One can easily tell however that she is indeed in love with him, by the way she touches his face and gives him the long stares. Typical teenage love.


The movie revolves around Neil's downward spiral into a life of  promiscuity, drug usage and the eventual realization of how cruel and fucked up life is; whereas Brian's world being unraveled by re-occurring nightmares and aliens. Brian grows up believing that he was abducted by aliens and that is the reason his memory from certain moments are awash. The two share a strange and traumatic secret that will eventually bring the two boys back together in an effort to find consolation. An interesting feature that the movie makes frequent use of is flashbacks, telling the story of how the boys met and what exactly links the two together. JGL's performance is epic, it is my belief that to play a homosexual character as a straight man takes courage and extreme focus, especially during suggestive scenes.  Neil is best described by Wendy when she warned Eric, their other queer friend. "Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole. And if you don't watch out, you can fall in and get lost forever." - Wendy.  His devil may care personality is invasive and intoxicating. He subconsciously finds his way to your core and rests his head there, staying under your skin. Credit also goes to the actor who played Neil as a child, he was quite the bad ass and helped shape the character.  Overall he sells the character so well that we eventually begin to wonder if we had a friend like Neil or if we were in fact Neil. 

"I hear something, it's the voice of God."

As far as the soundtrack of this movie goes, it incorporates a great deal of instrumental pieces. I particularly liked how the song "Samskeyti" by Sigur Ros would abruptly cut off during the final scene where Brian is remembering the past. The constant on and off aspect of the music made you feel time shifting back and forth while the boys realized how the past can be so defining. Aside from the music the other outstanding feature was the camera placement during the key scenes. One particular shot is at night where Wendy and Neil are standing at a Drive In theater and snow begins to fall on them. The giant screen can be seen and the two shadows are cast on it. This scene is where the movie begins to wear away at your superficial layers, much like how skin can be easily removed. Wendy and Neil begin to marvel at the giant screen wishing their life could be like a movie and end with them standing together in front of the screen. The atmospheric music places the two in a dark world that has yet to be touched by the goddess, Hope. 

"Mysterious Skin" is more than just a film about a homosexual teenager and his reckless lifestyle. What this movie does is reach into your soul, it fishes in the deep for any memories that are worth catching. We were all lost children at one point in time, and during our wandering our souls occasionally stumble upon a path to a new area. An area that they would eventually call home. Within each of us lies secrets, sometimes epic and others traumatic, that the world is not ready to hear. In fact often times we ourselves are not ready to experience what has already been experienced. It may be Freudian in concept, but some areas in our lives will always remain blank even though we lived through it exactly like we are living now. I sometimes wonder if that is God warning us not to worry about where we came from and focus on where we are headed. Other times He may be trying to free us from the hidden chains that prevent us from moving on with life.

"And as we sat there listening to the carolers, I wanted to tell Brian it was over now and everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus, I couldn't speak anyway. I wish there was some way for us to go back and undo the past. But there wasn't. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and trying to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what had happened. And I thought of all the grief and sadness and fucked up suffering in the world, and it made me want to escape. I wished with all my heart that we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically... disappear." - Neil's Monologue

Neil's Monologue YouTube

Overall I would rate this movie a 4/5 for an outstanding performance by the actors, the emotional message it conveys to the audience and the portrayal of the conflicting life of teenagers. I also am impressed how it handled the homosexual aspect of the movie. In conclusion, "Mysterious Skin" is definitely a movie that should be watched with a spare towel and a phone to call your childhood friends and question the past. I wouldn't recommend it for a Friday night gathering with your friends but if you have a moment to yourself then find it on Hulu.  

Skin is the largest organ in the body but is only two layers deep; underneath the layers is where we find out what we really are. We are all empty husks ready to be filled with countless memories. 

~Mad Hatter

Reel Rooms Random Movie Review: Chiller Thriller's

Random Movie Review: Chiller Thrillers “The Thing" 
(More RMR's can be found by clicking HERE)

Tis the season for snow, the color red and warm fires to keep you warm, the movie I am about to review has all three of those  as well as you’ll come to find out. Tonight I am dropping my review of the classic horror film known as “The Thing", both the original 1982 version and the 2007 remake. Before I get started I really think that this movie has the most usage of fire and flamethrowers ever. Everything in this movie is set on fire, I’m not lying. Burn, baby Burn. Both films revolve around a similar plot, an alien life form (never explained) is found frozen deep within the ice of Antarctica and is uncovered by a group of scientists or workers and the creature wrecks havoc in the most unconventional way. Stealth. The 1982 version focuses on a group of workers and in my opinion this movie is truly terrifying in a unique way. It employs a type of horror this generation has been lacking and that is the suspense and atmospheric horror. There are no jump or fright scenes within this movie, just the slow build-up and then climatic act and it falls back into another suspenseful buildup. Helicopter Pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) does a great job of being a totalitarian leader during this movie, he thinks quickly and focuses solely on the eradication of this life-form rather than survival. The Thing itself is grotesque, there is a certain type of gore, blood and malformation that the 1980’s employed in their monster movies and this is no different. I’m talking this thing is ugly as ____. Fuck. And it is never seen the same way which I personally liked. As I said earlier the atmosphere plays a major role in the fear factor, the dark blue tint that is seen mostly throughout the movie is chilling and the only light seems to be from the flamethrowers and flares. The soundtrack as well…horrifying. Who knew two beats could create a symphony of fear and death. It is played in the right moments as well, so when you hear it you know that shit is about to pop off.



Now taking a look at the 2007 version. It approached this movie from a different angle, from a more scientific and exploratory viewpoint. The obvious difference is the main character. Columbia grad student Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) plays a vertebral paleontologist who is asked to identify a new specimen that was recently found under the ice. However after a turn of events it becomes a game of hide-or-die. The creature follows a more brutish and violent way of killing its prey than the original which is understandable (because people today like violence apparently). The creature is much more vicious looking and less freakish this time around but that is mainly due to technology. The soundtrack does not stray too far from the original which I appreciated. Those same two beats. Duhn-Duhn. It reminds one of a dying heartbeat before it begins to fade. This movie has more fright scenes than the original as well. One thing I didn’t like however was how the main character went from a regular college student to a total bad-ass without a major catalyst for her transformation. I think we as horror-movie connoisseurs have adopted a new archetype for characters and that is the “Betty Rubble Bad-Ass" (Totally just made that up). But basically the character is usually a middle age female (brunette) who lives an average life until it’s turned upside down by some unfortunate events. Now granted I know people can work under pressure and all that but I don’t see how Kate goes from scoping dead dogs to burning every piece of flesh in sight. But I digress, enough rantings.

(Disclaimer: This next part contains spoilers.)

What I found amazing after watching both of these movies in the same sitting is how they are intertwined. The entire time I’m watching the remake I’m thinking like “Shit, another classic movie messed up by these trashy directors these days" until the end and my mind is blown. They set up the remake to serve as a direct sequel to the original. At the end of the remake the leftovers from the carnage caused by The Thing is seen and the remaining survivors are seen chasing after a dog (which is the creature) that escaped the hell. The beginning of the 1982 version opens with a dog being chased by a helicopter by two Dutch men. Crazy, but it goes deeper than that. The block of ice, that the creature was found in, the spaceship site already explored and destroyed, the death of one of the individuals but what I found the most interesting was how one of the creatures remains was found. One scene in the remake, an individual is attacked by the monster and their faces and bodies begin to mold into one being, and the creature is shortly burned and killed. Now in the original, when MacReady and his partner venture to this camp they find this same creature and take it back to their base…It’s amazing how these movies were made 25 years apart and yet they take place only a few hours…if that after each other. Genius.Word on the internet is that this is based on a novel by a Mr. John Campbell called “Who Goes There", I’ll have to check it out in my spare time. But if there’s one thing I learned from The Thing is to "Trust No One"Cheers.

~Mad Hatter