Olsen is mesmerising in this role – makes it a great film

Website: foxsearchlight.com
Director: Sean Durkin
Lead: Elizabeth Olsen
Co-Star: Sarah Paulson
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Runtime: 102mins
Rating: MA
Stars: ★★★★★

The film starts off on a complicating premise. Just what is with the four names? Martha is her (Elizabeth Olsen) name. Marcy May is what the leader of the cult she is in calls her. Marlene is the name that she uses when she answers the phone in the compound (in fact all the women in the compound use this name).

The cult live in on a little farm in rural NY. There appear to be more women than men – but everyone is under the control of Patrick (John Hawkes). He is softly spoken but exerts great power. Martha Marcy May Marlene doesn’t exactly give the story behind how Martha ended up here – other than things have gone a little wrong in her life. But eventually she starts to worry about what she is seeing on the farm and decides to make a break for it. She hits the road and calls her old sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) who lives nearby. Lucy lives with Ted (Hugh Dancy) and she is relieved to hear from her missing sister.

What Lucy doesn’t immediately see is how damaged Martha has become. There are odd moments when Martha attempts to sleep on the same bed as Lucy and Ted who are mid-coitus. Martha doesn’t see the problem – the bed is plenty big enough. This should have rung more alarm bells than it did. Cult leader Patrick is clearly always evident in her mind and indeed he is out looking for her – so he is never very far away.

Olsen (an older sister of the twins) is a great find here. She brilliantly plays the innocent Martha who has been damaged beyond recognition. She is childlike and vulnerable – for a first major performance this is great.

The only difficulty I had, and it was not a major one, is the cutting back and forth in time. It really didn’t serve any purpose other than to maybe make us as confused as Martha is (or maybe that is the point).

Well worth checking out in spite of this.

IMDb

Not his most involving but Almodóvar makes a fine melodrama as always

Website: sonyclassics.com
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Lead: Antonio Banderas
Co-Star: Elena Anaya
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Runtime: 120mins
Rating: MA
Stars: ★★★★

With Pedro Almodovar we expect a film with loads of sex, plot twists and jumping back and forth in time and his latest effort The Skin I Live In does not disappoint on those fronts. That said this is a film that could induce some fairly harsh reactions from some – with the topic matter bordering on the horror/porn genres of the past with the mad scientist doing unspeakable things with bits of bodies. Almodovar avoids this going too badly with a liberal dose of camp humour added in for good measure.

The mad scientist here is Dr Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas as we have not really seen him before – intense). He is driven by his science – a brilliant surgeon – but his drive is influenced much more by the past traumas in his life. In an effort to fix these traumas he uses the bodies and minds of other people as tools – they are sacrificed to deal with his own issues. One of his projects is Vera (Elena Anaya) who is held captive in Ledgard’s house in Toledo. She dresses head to toe in a flesh-coloured impression suit – and she his Robert’s experiment into the development of a better artificial skin. The ned for such a skin is driven by the fact that Robert’s young wife was horribly burned in a car accident. He kidnapped Vera after his wife died and commenced operating on her to try to create a super woman who would be fireproof.

As is often the case with Almodovar movies – we know more about the main character than the character themselves. We know that his housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes) is actually his mother for example. But Robert is such a complex character that we will never be able to work him out in two hours allocated to us.

I shall not chronicle Robert’s other surgical adventures – but they too are rooted in healing himself and all I can say is I wish the kinds of results he achieves could be achieved in real life. Ultimately Robert is completely unlikeable – but the other characters around him are more so. There is a superficiality here which is going to unnerve some people. But ultimately I just enjoyed the energy of the film and the acting which was top notch.

Worth checking out.

IMDb