Movie Reviews - Gravity and The Sessions

Brought to you courtesy of netflix. Or rather to me. I finally got around to seeing these films, which have been sitting on my tv stand for weeks now.

Of the two, I'd have to say I preferred The Sessions, which surprised me, expected to like the other one more. Gravity - I suspect is better in 3D and in the theater than on a 25-32 inch flat LCD screen. It's all about the effects, the story and plot are interesting and I enjoyed it, but felt The Sessions was more intricate and had more going on. Both - interesting enough - are about survival, quality of life, and what keeps us going. And both deal with death and transformation.

1. The Sessions - this is an independent film starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, it is based on the article "On Seeing a Sex Therapist" by poet Mark O'Brien, who was paralyzed from the neck down by polio. Not at all what I expected. Rather funny in places, and unlike most movies and books, it doesn't exaggerate sex. (Most movies and books seem to go to one of two extremes in regards to sex - either they make it into the BEST THING EVAH! or they turn it into a joke. It appears to be one or the other. Also either one or the other gender is overly objectified or they aren't at all. This story tackles it from a more realistic and humble angle and makes gentle fun of our tendency to well, overrate it.)

It's a quiet little movie, without a lot of dramatic fanfare, which may explain why it didn't clean up at awards time or get nominated. It gently wraps you inside its story and leaves you smiling afterwards.

The film describes various types of love, many of which aren't sexual. And it is told through the points of view of the sex therapist and Mark O'Brien.

O'Brien, the aforementioned paralyzed poet, lives in an iron lung which breaths for him most of the time. And he lives alone, with a nighttime and daytime caregiver making periodic visits to aid him in his bodily care. For various reasons including the fact that he is approached by his employer to write an article about sex for people with disabilities, Mark decides to hire a sex therapist. He's told by the sex therapist that she is not the same thing as a prostitute. The difference is the prostitute wants his return business, she doesn't. Her goal is to help him find a way to be intimate with someone he loves or another partner. To get past the anxiety. It's a touching and funny film - that is also sort of poignant.

Highly recommended.

2. Gravity - while the Sessions was underrated, Gravity is highly overrated.
I enjoyed it - but it is at it's heart a simple space survival story.

This is another movie that is more interested in great special effects and "wow" factor than story. We learn very little about the characters. And to a degree they are stock. The acting takes it a step above. And the special effects are impressive, possibly more so on a huge Imax screen in a movie theater. I've only watched a few movies in Imax - I find Imax exhausting. Of course, Apocalypse Now may not be the best movie to watch in Imax. So there is that.

At any rate - I'm not sure I recommend watching this flick on a small screen.
The story is still there, and it is a gripping one of survival. The protagonist, Dr. Stone, has to figure out a way to get back to earth after being stranded in space during an accident that takes out various satellites, the explorer ship, and space stations. It's reality based, the time period is now, and the accident is plausible and not avoidable.

She's a lonely character - who has made her life about work. And is faced at one point with the question of whether she wants to keep going. It would be easy to just turn off the lights, and go to sleep. At the root of the story - is what makes us want to survive. What do you hang on to?

I found it moving. And haunting in places. But I think it would have been better on a big screen.

3. On the books to film front - there are some books that I do not want to see as movies - they are books that feel too...something. Don't know what it is. One of those books is "The Fault in Our Stars". I really have no desire to see a film version of it. I like the book in my head too much.

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1. TV Plot-Twists and Tropes that have gotten old:

* "This Week One of these people will die!"

Sorry, stopped being shocking two years ago. When every drama does it, it sort of loses it's shock value. Now I go into television series betting myself on who they are going to kill off this year. (Hint - check out the actors availability. Anyone remember the good old days when they just had the character take off for a new job (George Clooney/ER) or a vision quest (OZ/Buffy) ?)

* I know we'll torture them for the information

Note to television writers - torture doesn't work. People will tell you anything, including lie when tortured. Invest in sodium penthol. Or find someone they care about. (Kudos to The 100 for showing how ineffective torture truly is. And kudos to the BlackList for following suite.)

* the rape trope

Was discussing fictional sex tropes with a friend this afternoon. I said that the problem with television, movies and books - is people either over-romanticized sex (erotica) or they made it crude, rude, and lewd (the Hangover and Girls). My friend pointed out - or they make it violent. Unfortunately television writers love sexual violence. Yet, seem for some reason to repeat the same trope over and over again.

It's either - "not-so-nice guy is on redemptive arc, but we're not ready to redeem him yet, let's have him rape the woman he's in love with - it will be controversial and spike ratings!" (I blame General Hospital, way back in the 1970s, for starting this trend. Although the fact that prime tv shows have done it, is another story.) OR it's let's spice up a story and have a strong honorable female character raped, to give her hubby something to angst over and fret about.

This is hardly helpful or realistic. It's becoming cliche.

4. Hair-pin plot twists

Yes, I know you need to make people watch it live in fear of spoilers. And get them to tweet about it. (I think twitter, the internet and social media has somehow managed to change how people tell stories. There's more of an immediacy to the story-telling than there was before. It has to be wrapped up faster. And told quicker. Also written and created faster. Plus, the creators now have the unfortunate pleasure of finding out how their audience received it. Gone are the days of writing television in a vacume, with no idea whether anyone was watching outside of the Neilsen ratings. Now - you can find out instantly. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. It has resulted in hair-pin plot twists, some of which feel terribly contrived and unnecessary. The story would have been better off without them. And less focus on building character and relationships - which requires more time (Marvel Agents of Shield). )

Plot-twists work best when they are not over-used. If you do a plot-twist every single episode or week, the audience begins to expect it. So when you don't do it - they are disappointed, and also, they begin to predict what will happen. If they can't predict what will happen - you risk falling into daytime soap opera plotting, where the plots make no sense so of course they can't predict it.

That said, I actually think some series utilize it well. I rather like how Scandal, Vampire Diaries, and Once Upon a Time uses the device.

2. Once Upon a Time is doing their red herring happy ending again. They lead you to believe everything is fine and dandy, that the characters will live happily ever after. But I checked the time - 8:46 pm, we had 10 minutes left, and a two hour season finale next week...so, you just know there's a twist coming up. Plus - if it ends too happily ever after, no one will turn in next year.

This is a clever approach to the series though - this way, if they discover they are being cancelled, all they have to do is chop off the last 15 minutes and the 2 hour season finale. More television writers should use this model.

( spoilers )