Movie Reviews

An interesting spin on the Harry Potter universe.

Not as serious as the other movies.

Very funny with likable characters.

The ending was a little cheesy to be honest.

damn

also wow

also fuck

also what

my best review yet

Plot twits. Plot twits everywhere.

Based off a memoir written by Susanna Kaysen relating to her experiences as a young woman in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960's after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

I originally watched this movie in my highschool psychology class. At the time I really did not understand very much about mental illness so there were a lot of things I did not 'get' about this film.

I recently decided to re-watch it for personal reasons and I have a lot to say. Not so much about the movie but the disorder itself.

First of all the way mental health has been treated in hospital settings and in general society has drastically changed over the years. Part of the reason is that it's considered more acceptable rather than shameful to have an illness of the mind and a lot more people are open to understanding it rather then fearing it. At times people who have serious mental illness suffer alone which is one of the biggest reasons why so many people are driven to suicide.

Working in a psychiatric hospital myself and interacting with people who are severely ill has really opened my eyes in many different ways and has made me reconsider what people want to see as "normal" and why.

A lot of people fail to understand, often reacting in harmful and degrading ways. General misunderstanding often leads to negative stigmatization resulting in harmful ideas and approaches that are often more damaging then helpful.

The textbook definition of borderline personality disorder is basically described as the inability to manage emotions effectively. Impacting the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning. It includes a pattern of unstable intense relationships, distorted self-image, extreme emotions and impulsiveness. An intense fear of abandonment or instability and self damaging behaviour.

Borderline Personality Disorder is often the result of childhood trauma or neglect. Such as sexual, emotional and physical abuse. The loss of a parent or close guardian or other traumatic events such as witnessing a murder or horrible accident or being bullied in school. Strong evidence suggests that BPD is strongly linked to post traumatic stress disorder.

In the film Susanna is institutionalized after a half-hearted suicide attempt. She originally finds this experience terrifying as she is introduced to the characters in the hospital ward.

Susanna's mother is clearly a narcissist. When she calls Susanna or visits her she only ever talks about herself or how others are going to think of her when they find out her daughter is in a mental hospital which causes Susanna to become bitter towards her for not actually caring about her.

After a while Susanna begins to become close to the people she is living with. Particularly Lisa, who is a sociopath and initially terrorizes her.

Lisa manipulates Susanna to break out of the hospital and head to Florida. There they visit one of the outpatients Daisy. After verbally attacking Daisy driving her to commit suicide, Susanna finds her body in the morning. Lisa then steals Daisy's money without feeling any guilt about what she did.

Susanna decides to go back to the hospital without Lisa. Clearly traumatized by what happened. She starts to become more open to the treatments at the hospital keeping her thoughts in a diary.

By the end of the movie Lisa is taken back to the hospital against her will. When Susanna tells Lisa she is being released from the hospital Lisa steals her diary, leading Susanna to an underground tunnel and reads it outloud to the other patients then tries to kill Susanna with a syringe.

At first I thought this was just going to be another pessimistic war documentary about the devastating effects of war has on people and society.

This is not inherently a depressing film. It show the negative effects of war on people but it also brings out new ideas that war is what draws people together in the first place. That without conflict there would be no need to love or to care for another person. That people in horrifying situations are shown to connect at a deeper level then what can be considered 'bonding' under normal circumstances that society creates.

One thing I found interesting about this film is that it has many interview scenes that would have been normally completely cut from the final.

Where people struggle to say what they really mean, multiple times. A few times when they are in the middle of talking and abruptly stop and completely stare off into the distance for prolonged periods of time trying not to let the emotional aspects of their words and memories effect them. It makes it feel more real. As if you are actually sitting there beside this person listening to their struggles as they struggle to find what to really say.

The film starts off with Tim struggling to talk about his experiences with war itself and why he went to such horrifying places in the first place. He then decides to instead talk about his camera and passion why he finds capturing people important and why.

Tim Hetherington didn't photograph war. He photographed the human condition that was reflected by war. Showing a very different side of war.

A few statements about Tim include...

"Tim wasn't looking for the truth behind combat as a form of conflict. But the truth about combat as a form of bonding."

"And what he saw with his camera is his environment of killing, and fear...... and hardness was, connection."

At one point in the film a solider says "There was no social norms. I think that it doesn't happen a lot in our society. Out there, it didn't matter how you were dressed, how you looked. How much money you had. How hot your girlfriend was."

It makes you question what is normal. Even war itself.

One of the photojournalists that worked with Tim - James Barazon said:

"My grandfather was a professional solider. He fought right through the burma campaign. He lost all of his friends. And I said to him....... do you regret any of this? Would you change any of it? And he explained to to me like this...

He said; War is the only opportunity that men have in society, to love each other... unconditionally. And it's understanding that death, emotion ..... at war is what people miss."

Which is a really shocking statement that most people do not expect to hear when they think of war.

Towards the end of the movie Tim's introduction to fame comes as a shock as he ends up at the Oscars.

After leaving war he feels very dissatisfied with his every day life back in society. Unsure of what direction to move his art and life into he starts to create distorted personal films with his family and friends and new girlfriend which reflect how he's not really all "there".

He decides that he is done with war, even though he clearly misses it after being so deeply devoted into his work and what drew fame towards his life.

Tim decided to head back into the front lines to shoot more footage in more dangerous places despite people's warnings that he can only be lucky for so long.

A true story, kept a secret by the government for over fifty years...

In the late 1930's Alan Turing was hired by a secret British Intelligence agency to crack what was considered to be the unbreakable Nazi code 'Enigma' in World War Two by creating a machine that was basically the very first computer.

Heavily bullied in school, being a closeted gay and having his best friend die while he was in elementary school caused him to become a very unlikable person and at times extremely abrasive.

Having problems working with other members of the team he deciding to start his own project which the others ridiculed him for: building a machine.

"Sometimes, it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine." Christopher - Alan's childhood friend has once told him.

Alan was eventually blackmailed by the German spy he discovered working on the team after the machine was completed and problems started to arise.

The film shows us glimpses how gay people were treated back in the 30's and 40's and what his "treatments" were.

It is a very ironic film.

If World War II did not happen computers would not exist in today's society.

Someone who helped saved million of lives ended up having a terrible end.