The Elephant Man

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The black and white cinematography in The Elephant Man (1980) gives it a documentary, realistic, grim feel. Mel Brooks produced the movie but didn’t want it publicized because he wanted the film taken seriously. David Lynch is the right person to direct a movie about what society considers grotesque versus the frightening reality of the world at large. The first shot is of the close-up portrait of an attractive woman which is then offset by a heard of elephants marching across the screen. The elephants cry out and we see the woman on the floor silently screaming, supposedly being killed by the elephants. We hear a baby crying, implying a birth has taken place. We then shift to Anthony Hopkins’s character, Dr. Frederick Treves, a surgeon in London, at a sideshow, an appropriate setting for where so-called normal people go to reassure themselves that they are not what deviates from norm.

People either laugh or leave crying as they view those behind human cages, like scary animals in a zoo. Treves follows policemen who wish to remove The Elephant Man display because, as one says, it is inhumane to have this exhibit. The man who presents The Elephant Man, Bytes (Freddie Jones), says that there must be another move, indicating that his entry goes beyond even the average sights at the sideshow. He calls his act “my treasure.” It is an ironic phrase since it can be a term of endearment but also something of economic worth. Exploitation comes to mind.

The background sound of the film is like an industrial hum, similar to what Lynch used in Eraserhead. The usage fits with the scene that has Treves operating on a man who is a victim of a machine accident. The doctor says there have been more of these accidents lately, and he adds “you can’t reason with machines.” That echoes the ominous industrial landscape in Eraserhead and comments on the dehumanization ushered in by the Industrial Revolution. That feeling is backed up by the bleak urban setting with steam and fire present that implies a hellish backdrop. We later get a shot of polluting smoke belching out of smokestacks.

John Merrick (John Hurt) is the title character, and his extreme deformity may be due to a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome, although, as IMDb notes, the exact diagnosis was never discovered. That fact implies that it can be difficult for us to understand those that do not swim in the mainstream of society’s waters. At the beginning, Bytes says he “owns” Merrick and Treves calls him “it,” which shows that others do not think of Merrick as a human being. Bytes does a private viewing for Treves after being paid. He says that the mother met her fate in her fourth month of pregnancy on an “uncharted” African Island in an encounter with an elephant. This strange tale creates a fiction for the audience to escape into and to indulge human curiosity into what is considered the deviant aspect of the world. (According to IMDb, many parts of the film do not represent the actual story. For Instance, Merrick was not mistreated as described and could not speak as clearly as depicted).

Treves’s initial motivation in seeing Merrick is selfish as he wants to grow his reputation by also exploiting the man. However, when Treves sees Merrick he neither laughs nor is frightened. Instead, he shows some empathy by shedding a single tear. The first viewing of Merrick is in shadows, so Lynch does not present his physical appearance right away.

 When Merrick appears at Treves’s office, he wears a bag over his head and a bulky coat. It’s one thing for some to pay for a temporary viewing of the grotesque but it’s quite a shock to watch it circulate freely among society. Merrick initially will not respond to Treves and appears frightened of him, probably because of the harsh way others have treated him. It is interesting that his appearance should frighten others, but it is Merrick who is scared.

Treves displays him at The Pathological Society as a specimen, not a person, centering his talk on the extreme deviations from normal appearance. Again, we do not view Merrick yet as the camera shoots an outline of him behind a projection screen. The delayed revealing builds the audience’s suspense but also paves the way for us to get used to the idea of his deformity and accept him as a victim instead of as a monster.

Treves assumes that Merrick was deformed since birth and based on the man being unresponsive assumes he is an imbecile, adding he hopes so since being conscious of his condition would be unbearable. Treves is not exactly being empirically scientific in his conclusions here.

A drunken Bytes beats Merrick upon his return. Merrick has asthma and is suffering after the beating. The youth, who is Bytes’s assistant (Dexter Fletcher), shows concern for Merrick and goes to Treves who admits Merrick to the hospital. It is a young boy, possibly because he maintains some innocence in this depraved situation, who seeks help for Merrick.

Carr Gomm (Sir John Gielgud), the head of the hospital, tells Treves that Merrick should be in a place that deals with “incurables” and not in the hospital. The relegation of those that suffer without hope of being herded into an asylum shows the lack of compassion that existed toward society’s outcasts.

An unsuspecting female aid brings breakfast to Merrick and witnesses his deformed body. She screams in horror. We finally see what she does, but the audience has been somewhat prepared, and the shock is less for us. Treves begins to show more humanity as he attempts to treat and shelter Merrick.

In addition to the background humming there is mechanistic thumping heard. Along with those sounds are the highlighted ticking of a clock, the tapping of shoes on the floor, the striking of a match, and the hiss of gaslights. These become ominous noises, especially to the vulnerable Merrick. He is immediately in jeopardy of becoming exploited by the night porter, Sunny Jim (Michael Elphick), quite an ironic name, who wants to make money off a freak just like Bytes.

Bytes shows up at the hospital and confronts Treves, saying he wants Merrick back. Treves is now in protective mode and says that he knows Bytes beat him and that he is capitalizing on Merrick’s suffering. However, Bytes argues that is exactly what Treves was doing when he wanted to display him for his own betterment. At this point Gomm appears and supports Treves, implying that the police would not look kindly at how Bytes treated Merrick. We have a more humane side appearing on the part of the doctor and Gomm. Treves also gets Merrick to start to talk with him, which shows that if given a chance society’s shunned can be heard.

Treves rehearses Merrick to make a good impression on Gomm, but Merrick is nervous and is not used to conversing. Treves taught Merrick part of Psalm 23 from the Bible, and as Merrick says how “goodness and mercy” shall be part of his life, it seems ironic since that is not what others have shown him. Gomm feels that if his bronchitis gets better and he has recovered from his beating, the hospital is no longer a place for Merrick as he concludes that no further progress is obtainable. But, Merrick continues to recite the psalm beyond the part they rehearsed. Merrick reveals to Treves and Gomm that he read the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer when he was young. He is actually intelligent and knowledgeable. Gomm implies that it must have been horrible for someone the world would not allow to reach his full potential because of the way he looked.

When Merrick’s story becomes known there are two different responses. An actress, Mrs. Kendal (Ann Bancroft, Brooks’s wife) is interested in his mind. Sunny Jim wants to capitalize on his deformed body and charges others to witness the shock of seeing him. Thus, we have the two aspects of the world toward what is aberrant.

Treves has a well-dressed Merrick at his house for tea, and his wife, (Hannah Gordon), treats him with sensitivity. He is overwhelmed that a beautiful woman would treat him so nicely, so alien it is to his experience. They look at each other’s family pictures. The doctor and his wife display photos of their parents and children, showing a connected family. Merrick has a picture of his beautiful mother who has been absent from his life, and says he would be a disappointment to her, which, of course, is no fault of his own. His appearance has deprived him of any sense of family.

Merrick reveals artistic ability as he constructs a paper replica of a cathedral and draws accomplished pictures. One displays what it would be like to be able to lie down like others and have the luxury of sleep without the threat of suffocation due to the weight of an oversized head. The actress, Mrs. Kendal, visits, and she gives Merrick the works of Shakespeare. They read a section of Romeo and Juliet. She is moved by his reading and plays the role of Juliet, and he is Romeo, with the scene ending with a kiss on his cheek. She sees beyond his superficial covering and declares that he is not The Elephant Man. He is Romeo, she says, because she sees he is a romantic at heart. The audience understands society has not nourished the possibilities for this man and has decided that he should not be allowed to flourish.

Because Mrs. Kendal accepts him, and she is regarded as a person of excellent taste, she, in essence, gives Merrick the stamp of approval, and other refined people seek him out. He says that “people are frightened by what they don’t understand.” That is so in his case, because our first impressions are by way of our senses, and we judge by what we see, the packaging, and not what the wrapping envelops beneath the surface.

Mothershed (Wendy Hiller), who supervises the hospital support staff, tells Treves that she does not believe that these sophisticated visitors should meet Merrick. She was resistant at first about caring for Merrick, but now she calls him John, and says that she and her nurses have “bathed,” “fed,” and “cleaned up” after Merrick, which shows “loving kindness.” She claims that the visitors only see Merrick to show that they are providing the appearance of caring so as to be accepted by their peers. She says that Merrick is now on display to be looked at again, only in a different context. She is implying that these upper-class citizens are not appreciating Merrick for his true worth. He admits that he may be like Bytes because he has used Merrick as a curiosity. Although his wife says Merrick is living better than he ever did, Treves still questions his motives. Despite what happens in the daytime, the nighttime (symbolically a demonic part of the day here) allows Sunny Jim to use Merrick as a sideshow freak.

The hospital governing committee meets to determine Merrick’s status. One member says that the man is an abomination and that the hospital is not a zoo which houses animals. That rant contrasts with a shot of Merrick using his imagination to complete the model of the cathedral he has only seen part of. However, Gomm has enlisted the support of the royal family, and the Princess of Wales reads a letter from Queen Victoria that urges a Christian attitude toward Merrick. Gomm gets the hospital to grant a permanent home for Merrick.

This benevolent act contrasts with the cruel actions of Sunny Jim and those who pay him to abuse Merrick, laughing at him, manhandling him, forcing women to kiss him, pouring whiskey down his throat, and making him look at himself in a mirror. Bytes is part of the crowd and kidnaps Merrick. (One could criticize the representation of lower-class individuals as the ones who primarily exploit Merrick).

The steeple that Merrick put on his model is knocked over, signifying the un-Christian-like activity that occurred. When Treves discovers what happened, he is enraged, and confronts Sunny Jim, who is ready to attack the doctor until Mothershed knocks him out from behind.

Bytes takes Merrick to France and puts him in another freak show. He continues to abuse Merrick, beating him and placing him in a cage next to violent baboons. After experiencing a taste of decency, it seems Merrick continues to be the victim of the depraved aspects of people. It takes the other carnival freaks to save him, helping one of their own. They place him on a ship to England. But again, he cannot escape the cruelty of others. Boys harass him, and in his escape, he knocks over a girl. Pursued by a gang he stands up for himself and others like him as he declares, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man!”

The police return Merrick to Treves. Merrick’s health is in decline after all that he has been through. He tells Treves that he has been able to experience happiness because he finally has felt love. After all that has happened to him, he somehow is not an angry, bitter individual, but remains a gentle, sensitive person. He is finally able to go to the theater, a place that Mrs. Kendal said was a beautiful spot to visit. He can experience the beauty of an evening of art, which he can appreciate since he himself is an artist. The show is a fantasy, an escape from the harshness of what most of his life has been. Kendal dedicates the performance to Merrick, and he receives a standing ovation as everyone there sees him, possibly acknowledging his inner beauty.

In his room, alone, he says his model is done, which may also refer to his life being completed. He looks at his drawing of someone who lays down to sleep. He removes the stacked pillows from his bed and lies down for his last mortal rest. It appears that he has finally received what he always wanted, the love of others, and is ready to leave this life in that state. We hear his mother say, “nothing dies,” and it appears his spirit travels down a tunnel to her. The film ends as it began, with an image of her, as Merrick is reborn, free of his mortal coil.

2025 Noteworthy Films

 SPOILER ALERT! The plots will be discussed.

Marty Supreme:

This film has a dynamic performance by Timothee Chalomet. He has already received the Critics’ Choice Award and the Golden Globes Award for Best Actor, and he is the favorite for the Oscar. He plays an unlikable person who wants the recognition of being the best table tennis player in the world. The story shows how the single-minded obsession to achieve notoriety can create havoc and collateral damage in that pursuit. In the end, he finally can show his talent without actually being the world champion, and he begins to care for others. The movie is too long and a bit of a mess in the middle (especially the part with the gangster, his cash, and the dog) as Marty moves from one ridiculous situation to another.

After the Hunt:

The title may deal with the results following a trauma. This movie will be seen by some as a betrayal of the MeToo movement and views about discrimination. However, it should not be dismissed on that basis. It challenges entrenched views and can be admired for its courage to take on so many issues without becoming muddled. The story portrays the scholastic community, represented by Alma (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor at Yale, and Hank (Andrew Garfield), a colleague, vying for tenure. They along with others come off as pompous elites. The film presents the advantages of white privilege. It also shows the devastation of sexual abuse in the person of Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), a PhD student, who says that Hank assaulted her. However, she is not your typical Black oppressed person, since her parents are rich, she plagiarized material in her dissertation, and she violates Alma’s privacy. Alma lied about a sexual assault on herself, and gives advice to Alma that entails surrendering to male oppression in the workplace. Her ulcers symbolize her guilt, and she fakes a prescription to obtain pain killers. The supporting performances by Garfield and Michael Stuhlbarg as Alma’s neglected husband are particularly good.

Bugonia

Here’s another odd and inventive film from director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things). This one involves fringe characters kidnapping a female business executive, Michelle, played by Emma Stone, who they believe is a member of an alien race eliminating the world’s honeybees and manipulating people into passive victims. The story shows her at first to be a victim of a deranged man, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), who puts her in restraints and shaves her head, Samson-like, because he believes it is the source of a power to communicate with her fellow aliens aboard a mothership. He tortures her by inflicting electric shock treatments to prove his theory that the aliens can withstand high voltage. She eventually plays along with him, it seems, but as it turns out she really is the top extraterrestrial. Her race has found that their experiment of creating humans has failed since earthlings are too destructive to exist, and they terminate the species. The other creatures are allowed to live, and the bees again flourish. (The title refers to bees springing forth from the carcasses of animals, which fits here). The problem with the film is that it may inadvertently encourage conspiracy theorists to go down misguided rabbit holes. That is not what the film is saying. Instead, it points to people looking for hidden reasons outside of themselves for answers when it is they who are the problem. A Good performance by Emma Stone, who is again nominated for an Oscar. But the superior performance here is by Plemons, who was snubbed by the Academy.

Hamnet:

Chloe Zhao (Oscar winner for Best Director for Nomadland) directed this movie that uses the loss of William Shakespeare’s young son to place the writing of the great play Hamlet in the context of how to deal with the grief of such a tragedy. Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) is withdrawn, dealing with his emotions, it seems, internally, and not capable of comforting the grieving mother, Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley (Buckley is the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress). However, her husband is channeling his emotions into the play. Agnes witnesses the premier of Hamlet, in which Shakespeare plays the ghost of the main character’s father. Mescal, shrouded in white bandages and makeup, is like an apparition of himself after Hamnet’s death. Earlier, the playwright taught Hamnet sword fighting. Now the actor playing Hamlet repeats those moves, and the character becomes Shakespeare’s attempt to say goodbye to his son and grant immortality through the main character in his play. At the end of the performance, Agnes, at the front of the stage, reaches for the actor playing Hamlet, and he holds her hands in his. The rest of the audience extends their hands out also, showing how art and reality join together to raise tragedy beyond grief. It is a transcendent moment.

 One Battle After Another:

This may be director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s year. The film may win Oscars for Best Picture, Screenplay, and Directing. Like After the Hunt, this movie, derived from the novel Vineland by acclaimed and reclusive author Thomas Pynchon, critiques the many sides of the social and political landscape. Left-wing radicals are exposed for their violent tendencies, and the right-wing fanatics are satirized for their bigoted, sadistic ways. Sometimes some become attached to a cause just so they can be with the ones they love. That is the case with Pat (aka Bob) (Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar-nominated for Best Actor). He is romantically involved with Perfidia Beverly Hills (Tevana Taylor, rightly Oscar-nominated nominated for her role), a Black woman who is a leader of the revolutionaries. The name Perfidia implies being deceptive with hidden motives, and the Beverly Hills name suggests Hollywood liberalism. She is not admirable because she later leaves her child with Pat (now Bob after they acquire new identities) and betrays her comrades to gain safety in witness protection. Her name fits as she has a sexual attraction for Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn, in a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his scary, over-the-top portrayal), who presides over a detention camp she liberates. (Anderson is not subtle with his character names). Lockjaw admits later to Pat that he “loves” Black women. Thematically, the relationship between the two works as the they are hypocrites to their causes. But, in reality, it is easier to accept a white man’s exploitation of a Black woman as opposed to that woman being attracted to a fascistic white oppressor. The scenes with DiCaprio becoming exasperated by trying to remember the paranoid leftish code word security are hysterical. That Lockjaw becomes a victim of his own people shows how the right-wing white supremacists eat their young if they discover anything that deviates from their agenda. Benicio Del Toro plays a laid-back neighborhood protector who aids Bob. (Del Toro’s performance, in my opinion, is not as good as either Stuhlbarg’s or Garfield’s in After the Hunt). Perfidia’s grown-up daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), goes off at the end of the movie to join protesters, showing how there is, indeed, one battle after another. 

Sinners:

The title of this movie may be exploring who really are sinners given the context of the story. Writer/director Ryan Coogler does not use horror until later in this movie. He first deftly reveals the main characters and their plight. Michael B. Jordan, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, portrays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack Moore. The last name suggests that these two men can accomplish a great deal more than one might think. Their nicknames suggest fire, implying they are two fellows not to be trifled with. They have been living in Chicago, and their sojourn in the North has given them a news perspective on life. They bring a feeling of empowerment back to their hometown in Mississippi. With the money they earned working for the gangsters up north they buy an old sawmill and turn it into a music club, hiring local talent.

When the vampires do show up, they are symbolic of how the scary local Klan and “crackers” have been scaring the Black folk here for generations. They whites drained the life out of the African American population and now are there to do the same to the formidable Moore brothers. An epic battle occurs with many losses, but there is survival until dawn and the vampires are vanquished.

There is a remarkable scene at the club before the fight. The brothers recruited their cousin Sammy (Miles Canton) to play guitar at their joint. His magical music channels the indomitable African American spirit that can be found in this form of artistic expression. This surrealistic sequence transcends time as we see primitive performers and others that represent modern hip-hop artists.

This is a rich film, and I hope to do an in-depth post on it in the future.

Frankenstein:

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (disappointing that he was not nominated for this film), as he did in his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, subverts our preconceived notions of who are the true monsters. The film is structured to show the story from two viewpoints. It begins near the North Pole where an injured Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is brought aboard a ship. He tells his story. His father, Leopold (Charles Dance), an aristocrat, was a tyrant. He controlled every aspect of his son’s life to make him into a surgeon. He beat him in the face with a cane to enforce his agenda. Victor lost his mother in childbirth which suggests that is why he wants to use science to defeat death (the subtitle of Shelley’s 19^th century work is The Modern Prometheus which reminds us of the mythological being representing hubris and human advancement because Prometheus stole fire from the gods).

Victor is able to fashion the Creature (Jacob Elordi, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), because arms merchant Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) offers Victor all the funding he needs. Harlander is dying and wants his brain transferred to the Creature so he can live forever. The film here suggests the power of the ultra-wealthy. The Creature’s body heals any wound and is extremely strong. Victor repeats his father’s cruelty when he tries to teach his creation how to speak. Victor also is attracted to his brother’s fiancée and lies when he says the Creature killed Harlander, who died trying to subvert the experiment for his own purposes. The thrust here is that humans are selfish and sadistic toward the outsider, the other, who is an innocent. Victor tries to burn his lab and the Creature, but he does have a change of heart. However, he is unable to stop a catastrophic explosion.

The Creature, after fighting the sailors in self-defense at the North Pole, then tells his story to Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). He says that he escaped the explosion and was attacked by hunters who killed him, but he revived. He eventually helps a family of farmers, which shows his natural benevolence. He then encounters a blind man (David Bradley) who teaches him to excel in reading and writing. His blindness appears to signify that he can relate to the Creature without any prejudice, just like the statue of Blind Justice. His teacher dies when wolves attack the man, so the Creature is on his own again.

The Creature says he returned to get Victor to make him a companion since he knows he is immortal and suffers from extreme loneliness. Victor refused, and the Creature attacked him. Elizabeth (Mia Goth), the fiancée of Victor’s brother, sympathizes with the Creature. Victor is jealous of the Creature. He accidently shoots and kills her when he attacks his creation, afraid that the Creature might have offspring. It’s as if the proliferation of purity must be stopped by selfish humans. Victor pursued his creation to the Arctic, where the Creature failed to destroy himself out of despair with an explosive that harmed Victor. “Father,” Victor, and “son,” the Creature, reconcile in the end as Oscar succumbs to his wounds. At the end of the film, the Creature follows Victor’s early advice of reaching for the sunlight, a suggestion that we must try to illuminate our souls with acceptance of others.

Reversal of Fortune

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title, Reversal of Fortune (1990), can refer to several aspects of this film, which is based on a true story. It can point to the change from consciousness to a coma that Sunny Von Bulow (Glenn Close) endures. It can also indicate what happens to her husband, Claus Von Bulow (Jeremy Irons, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for this role), who is accused of trying to kill his wife. It may be that Claus literally receives a fortune because if his wife dies, he inherits her extreme wealth. And finally, the word “reversal” could mean reversing a conviction of murder on appeal. The film also presents a situation where what is real can be difficult to determine.

The first shot of the film shows the opulent estates of the rich in Newport, Rhode Island from the air, as if the rich soar above others, and it highlights the reference to “fortune” in the title. But then, shot shifts to a hospital, pointing to that reversal of fortune. Sunny is on life support. The film has Sunny narrating while in her coma, a device that allows Glenn Close to add her voice in addition to the scenes where she is in flashback. The voiceover allows suggestions as to whether her condition was the result of her own actions or due to her husband’s intent. She recovered from an earlier coma which could suggest she is at fault, but there is the possibility that Claus just used her tendencies to cover up his own murderous intent, and his first attempt failed.

The maid, Maria (Uta Hagen) and Sunny’s children from a prior marriage were suspicious after the first coma and the second put Sunny in a persistent vegetative state, from which she did not recover. The police found that Sunny’s insulin level when she entered the hospital was high enough to cause a coma or kill her, most likely due to an injection. They found a needle supposedly encrusted with insulin residue, which pointed to Claus as the perpetrator. Claus could inherit fourteen million dollars, so there is motive. In addition, Claus and Sunny had an arrangement where he could have mistresses. Claus was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to thirty years. These are the general facts of the case.

The real story begins when lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) becomes involved. He says he takes cases that for him have either a moral or constitutional imperative. The contrast in the fairness of the justice system here occurs because Alan loses a case about two innocent Black youths at the time the wealthy Claus wants to hire him. Alan is skeptical of Claus’s innocence and will charge him a great deal to help him defend the more disadvantaged.

Claus has a snobbish voice, and Irons said it was the hardest part of his performance. He makes a reference to admiring the Jewish people, which, when going out of the way to be stated, sounds prejudicial. At lunch, when Alan wants to talk about the “unpleasantness,” Claus thinks he means the lawyer’s fee, not the health of his wife. It highlights Claus’s lack of empathy. Alan says that one thing in Claus’s favor is that everybody hates him, which means one can show that Claus can be a victim. Of course, it’s a left-handed comment.

Maria the maid testified that she found a vial of insulin and a hypodermic needle, yet Sunny was not diabetic. Alan at the beginning feels that he would have voted to convict Claus if on the jury. He says if Hitler had asked him to defend him, his choice would have been to defend him or kill him. He admits that he would take the case and then kill Hitler. That shows both sides of Alan, a person who wants to follow the law, but also thinks outside it when it comes to morality. (Alan was part of the defense teams for O. J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein trials, and defended President Donald Trump in the impeachment trials. It’s up to you to judge his legal and moral codes).

Alan gathers a team around him to question him, to keep him thinking objectively and considering different strategies. It shows how Alan is willing to let his ego come under scrutiny. In contrast, you have Claus, who says, “Let the chips fall where they may,” to which Alan says that is what an innocent person would say. Claus’s response with a sly smile is, “I know.” The scene reveals that Claus is a schemer who is centered on his own self-interest.

Claus adds context to the basic charges by saying Sunny detested doctors and that is why he didn’t call one immediately. He knew there were hypodermic needles because they injected themselves with vitamin B12 shots at one time. He also says that Sunny took some of his prescriptions.

One of Alan’s team members is Minnie (Felicity Huffman) who argues that Claus, a privileged aristocrat, is despicable and that by trying to get him off, they are culpable as “accessories after the fact” in allowing a heinous man to go free. Generally, Alan gives the usual argument that everyone must have a fair trial to ensure that the innocent ones “falsely accused” have the same rights to even the playing field. In Claus’s case he says he is “pissed off,” because the children hired their own investigator to search for evidence. If rich people can decide what the evidence is in a case, then that precedent will make it difficult for poor people to be investigated in the same way the privileged are.

The investigation reveals how unsavory characters get involved, trying to cash in on a high-profile case, or hiding mistakes, which shows the road to justice can be a deceptive one. For instance, there is the slimy David Marriott (Fisher Stevens) who says he helped deliver drugs to Sunny. He later edits a tape to make it look like Alan was paying him to falsify evidence. We don’t learn why he did that (an example of how truth can be twisted). The lawyer in the earlier trial has notes that he is unwilling to share, but which eventually become known. Alan feels that there was no finding of insulin until after the fact. Alan suggests there may have been a frame-up of Claus by Sunny’s children, the next in line in inheritance. But as one student later says, the children could have framed “a guilty man.” There is a news article which has author Truman Capote revealing that Sunny showed him how to inject drugs. So, there are several layers muddling the attempt to get at what really happened.

Claus has a very dark sense of humor, which alienates him from others. When he meets Alan’s defense team, he says, “What do you give a wife who has everything? …An injection of insulin.” And, “How do you define a fear of insulin? … Claus-traphobia.” In another conversation with Allan, who says that a priest is an ideal witness, because “it’s like getting the word of God,” Claus says, “I checked. God is unavailable.” The last lines of the film have Claus getting cigarettes at a pharmacy. After the clerk recognizes him, he says he also wants, “a vial of insulin…just kidding.”

At one interview, Alan, trying to decipher Claus’s psyche, asks why he stayed in the flat where his mother died for five days until reporting the death. Claus is not forthcoming, saying, “My mother is my own business.” Who is this guy? Is he innocent or a killer? That is what Alan is trying to figure out. Especially when we have the narration of the comatose Sunny saying that she took huge amounts of laxatives and aspirin, used an assortment of sedatives, smoked a great deal, and drank to excess on certain occasions. We have a situation where it is difficult to determine what is true and what is false about the circumstances surrounding her vegetative state. Given her self-destructive actions, there is the possibility of her being suicidal.

Claus does not demonize Sunny. Quite the opposite. He says that she was “lovely,” and loved Christmas because more than anything else, she enjoyed giving gifts to others. The couple weren’t intimate for quite a while, but even though she allowed Claus his brief infidelities with call girls, she was hurt when Claus became attached to Alexandra Ises (Julia Hagerty) who sent his love letters to her to spite Sunny. According to Claus, they did discuss divorce, but he wanted to stay with Sunny. However, he wanted to work to have a sense of value, but Sunny wanted him to herself. As Claus tells Allan’s team, she thought her husband was confusing since he married her for her money but still wanted to have a job. Claus tells the team that the second coma was “much more theatrical.” An outraged Alan asks if Claus even cares about his wife’s horrible predicament. He claims he does, but he says. “I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve.” The audience can never get a true fix on what makes Claus and Sunny tick.

Comatose Sunny rightfully says, “it’s easy to forget this is all about me.” The whole story focuses on Claus, but she is the one who is hopelessly confined to a bed, needing others to maintain her existence. That may say something about the rest of us who would rather center on a scandal than on someone’s suffering, or her prior life full of passion and tenderness with Claus, and love for her children. There is a scene where she and Claus meet early on at an outdoor party where a pet tiger approaches her and she is bold about giving the creature a snack. Claus is excited by this act and joins Sunny near the animal. Sunny says, “I never liked people much, not as a rule.” She says that Claus was “different. Not a normal person I guess.” Here we have a sense of how out of the mainstream they were, more comfortable with a wild beast than other humans. Sunny’s voiceover states that things later became “brutish” and “cold,” and she wonders, “is he the Devil? If so, can the Devil get justice?” She wonders if all the legal activity is “in Satan’s service.” That sounds like what Alan talked about earlier concerning how even the guilty must have a fair trial.

Alan’s personality is not free of guilt, also. He sacrifices his personal relationships for his work, which he concedes is “all that I care about.” His own son interrupts him and sarcastically introduces his daughter to Alan, as if he hasn’t had time for her. His ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Annabella Sciorra), who is helping him with the case, says he doesn’t pay attention to those he cares about. He may have invited her to the team so he can be close to her, without being emotionally available.

After describing what happened the night of the second coma, Claus says he discovered Sunny passed out in her bathroom, her “sanctuary,” an almost religious word ironically attributed to a very non-spiritual place, He tells a doubting Alan, “I don’t know the whole truth.” That goes for the audience as well. As Alan says it’s very difficult to trust a man one doesn’t understand. Alan says to Claus, “You’re a very strange man.” To which, Claus responds, “You have no idea.” He admits not only to his “strangeness,” which is off-putting, but that Alan can’t fathom him, and neither can we.

The team eventually gets tests that show that the prosecution’s evidence of residual insulin on a hypodermic needle was inconclusive. Sunny was hypoglycemic, and then would overdose on sweets, which could lead to overcompensation by the body to produce insulin. Alan is able to introduce the new evidence despite the fact the case is on appeal by citing a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice’s prior ruling. They are able to reverse the convictions.

But Alan and Sarah tell Alan’s son two differing versions of what could have happened. Sunny was suicidal, could have taken too many medications, wanted the windows opened, and passed out in her bathroom while Claus was walking the dogs, exercising, and showering. She was ready to pee, and that’s how her nightgown was hiked up. Or, Claus opened the windows and dragged her into the bathroom, which hiked up the sleep clothes, and his actions helped the barbiturates on the way to her destruction, So, we are still in the dark.

Sunny’s last words are that we will only know the truth “When you get where I am,” which means not in this life. After Alan tells Claus about the good news, Alan, again showing the division on how he lives his life, says to him, “Legally, this was an important victory. Morally, you’re on your own.”

As are we.

Almost Famous

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Almost Famous (2000) springs from writer/director Cameron Crowe’s experiences as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, including his interactions with The Allman Brothers, The Who, and the Eagles. (Crowe won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for this movie). The character William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is Crowe’s alter-ego, and he and others associated with rock and roll celebrities are famous adjacent, noteworthy by association. The film deals with the nature of celebrity, its highs and lows and the fallout on those that enter its sphere, along with the need to be independent, and not a follower.

The opening credits show how personal the story is for Crowe. A desk drawer opens and it has memorabilia of his association with rock bands. A person hand writes some of the credits on a paper pad, showing the analog period in which the tale is told.

The movie begins in San Diego with young William (Michael Angarano) talking to his mother, Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand, with yet another Oscar nomination, this time for supporting actress. They discuss To Kill a Mockingbird and Shakespeare. Their exchange shows her intellectual bent.

Daughter Anita (Zoe Deschanel) comes into the house, and Elaine, a college professor, is immediately suspicious of her activities. She knows that she has been kissing a boy, and she discovers that Anita has a Simon and Garfunkel album she is clutching under her coat. Elaine warns of how modern music is about sex and drugs and says the musical duo pictured on the album cover are “on pot.” These allegations seem ridiculous to us now, knowing of the beauty and insight of Simon and Garfunkel’s music. Mom is pushing vegetarian foods and not celebrating Christmas in September, not December, but when the holiday will not be commercialized. Anita asks, “What else are you gonna ban?” It is interesting that Elaine, a supposed liberal, can be repressive in her self-righteous attitudes.

Anita pushes the supposedly knowledge-championing Elaine into telling William the truth about his age. He thinks he started school early and is twelve years old. Mom had him skip a grade and he is really eleven. The boy already feels put upon by others because he is underdeveloped according to them. Anita says that mom has deprived him of reaching puberty at the same time as his peers. Self-righteous Elaine says, “Adolescence is a marketing tool,” as if it doesn’t really exist. Elaine does not believe in being “typical.” Her rebelliousness against anything accepted by others stigmatizes younger people looking for community among their peers.

Anita leaves to be a stewardess, ready to travel, which Elaine said William should do when he gets older. But Elaine sees William as “unique,” and her daughter as “ungrateful” of her love just because she is “rebellious.” Elaine also rebels against society, but she doesn’t tolerate any deviation from her own ideas. Anita tells William that “one day you’ll be cool,” which is what William yearns for, since it is a path to being revered by others, and eventually, becoming famous. Anita leaves him her record collection under his bed, to help him along the way to the realm of coolness. She leaves a note for William to play Tommy by The Who, and says he will hear his future listening to the album. It is an interesting choice. Tommy, who is not able to hear, speak, or see, is an outsider. His ability to be a pinball wizard despite his handicaps allows him to become famous by being “cool.” But then, he wants to mold everyone into his own image, and his followers reject him for forcing his version of conformity on the masses. It is sort of an ironic message for William, and it sounds like a version of what happened to Elaine.

The story jumps forward to 1973, and the teenage William hears music critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who visits San Diego, spout his views on the current state of rock and roll on the radio. The name “Bangs” fits what he does, whacking at the music industry. William meets Lester at the radio studio. He has been sending pieces he writes, and Lester admits William is a good writer. But his advice is the opposite of what his sister wanted for her brother. To be a music critic one must be “uncool,” Lester says. That allows the writer to be objective. He must be “honest” and “unmerciful.” He says that the bands will just try to bribe the critic with booze, drugs, and women to write praiseworthy reviews. He advises that the rock musicians are “not your friends.” Lester realizes that William will not be better off being a lawyer, which what his mother wanted, and he gives him a job to write about the group, Black Sabbath.

William isn’t allowed to go backstage for his interview. Outside he meets Penny Lane (yes, from the Beatles song). Kate Hudson (also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) plays Penny, who tells William she altered the groupies into what she calls the “Band Aids.” They are here to inspire the musicians. She says they do not have intercourse with the band members just to become close to those who are famous, although one girl says they do give “blow jobs,” which compromises the mission.

William’s knowledge of an opening band called Stillwater wins over the musicians, who at first called him “the enemy,” and they let him go backstage. (Peter Frampton wrote the Stillwater songs for the film). The band first says they play for the audience, not critics. But when William compliments them, they enjoy the praise. The film shows that everyone likes the critics when they are favorable and condemns them when they are negative. A band member has the belief that rock and roll can change the world, but admits to lower ambitions saying the money is good, and “the chicks are great.”

Penny catches up with William to give him a backstage pass, so she does follow up on her intentions. She plays with his face and tells him, “now you look mysterious.” It’s as if one must have an air of mystery, an element of being “cool,” to become popular. Just upfront honesty does not appear to be enough. William introduces Penny to Stillwater member Russell Hammond (Bully Cudrup), and there appears to be chemistry between the two. After the concert, Russell tells William to visit the band in LA and bring Penny with him. He is going under the name of “Harry Houdini.” Using an escape artist’s name, again, shows mystery is part of the cool allure.

To stress the divide between the cool and the uncool, when Penny tells William they live in the same city, he says they live in two different worlds, despite their proximity. She says she has decided to live in Morocco for a year, saying she needs to find a new crowd. Her words suggest that the Band Aid world of girls with rock stars has become jaded for her. She asks him if he wants to go with her, and the excited William, hoping to break out of his uncool world, says yes.

William lies to his mother about where he is going, and travels with Penny to LA to the Hyatt House hotel, which Russell called “The Riot House,” the play on words showing the contrast between a cool name and an uncool one. There are nerdy types running around gushing about seeing members of Led Zeppelin and getting autographs, wanting to decrease the degrees of separation from those who are famous.

Polexia Aphrodisia (Anna Paquin), one of the Band Aids, tells William that Penny used him so she could get close to Russell, showing how self-interest exists even under the appearance of camaraderie. Later, Penny admits to William that she sees Russell as her last project. She is true to her words about not just being a groupie. She actually wants to help Russell live up to his potential for greatness.

Rolling Stone gets wind of William’s writing and calls him to do a piece on Stillwater. William contacts Lester who again tells him not to be friends with the musicians and that the magazine consists of “swill merchants.” While talking, he wears a shirt that says, “Detroit Sucks,” so cynical has he become. He flies his negativity like a nihilistic flag.

Mom, with great trepidation, insisting on academic standards being kept, and stating “no drugs,” her mantra, allows William to go on tour with the band. When she calls, one of the Band Aids answers, who tells mom that William is doing a great job, is a real gentleman, and is still a virgin. In other words, his uncoolness remains intact. William’s phone call to his mother later occurs while another Band Aid talks about his “purple aura,” and that she has pot for him, which shows how William is caught between two worlds.

William keeps trying to get an interview with Russell, but the musician says he’ll talk off the record, because he doesn’t want honesty to tarnish his being “cool.” But, he admits some of the band’s actions, like being unfaithful to girlfriends and wives back home, should not be discovered by “millions.” Russell also admits that the more success the band has, it becomes harder to split from them, since he feels he is a more advanced musician. He says he and William should be friends for the night, which is what Lester advised against, since journalistic integrity is lost without objectivity. What the audience is seeing here is how art and personality are two separate worlds. While a bandmate still doesn’t trust a journalist among them, he admits it would be cool to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. The ambivalent world of rock stars is evident here.

At a concert, Russell receives an electric shock from an ungrounded microphone. This scene is based on a true event. According to IMDb, Les Harvey of Stone the Crows died due to being electrocuted by an ungrounded mic. Here, the image implies how being in a rock band, which is rebellious while still seeking acceptance, can be dangerous.

In Topeka, the band has a blow-up about T-shirts that depict Russell large and the others out-of-focus in the background. The lead singer, Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) is particularly feeling unappreciated by Russell. After the argument, Russell grabs William to go out and find some “real people, real feelings.” That suggests that the rock business is feeling phony to him. He, as well as Penny and some others, may find that they can be close to William because of his youth. They may be attracted to what they see is his innocence, his lack of corruption.

Russell says William is real and finally asks about him. William admits to his father dying of a heart attack and how his mother and sister don’t talk. There is some actual sharing in the moment. Then they get invited to a party by passersby, and Russell agrees that they should go. Russell feels that connecting to these “real people” are what he is after. At the party, he is feeling intellectual, talking about how George Orwell’s predictions in 1984 are coming true. The response is that one guy wants to show him feed a mouse to his snake. So much for grand ideas.

William becomes the adult here as he warns the partygoers not to give Russell more LSD. Instead of connecting with real people, Russell delves into the delusional, yelling out, “I am a golden god!” which was attributed to Led Zeppelin singer, Robert Plant. He is on the roof and says that his last words are “I’m on drugs” which the crowd prefers to “I dig music,” and they want him to risk his life, jumping into the pool then just going back to the hotel. The movie implies that the fans want the outrageous from their idols so they can live vicariously through their heroes doing actions that they can’t or won’t do.

William gets Russell back with the band and bad feelings evaporate as the whole touring bus sings along to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” So, music is still the glue that holds them together. William needs to get his interview with Russell before going home. Penny tells him he is “home.” And there lies the conflict. William is in and out of his true home.

In the hotel room William gets advice over the phone from Lester about how to stall Rolling Stone by calling his article a “think-piece” about a “mid-level band” dealing with fame. It may be a ploy, but it actually fits what’s going on. When William asks Penny, after she continues to name-drop rock stars, if she knows any regular people, she says “famous people are more interesting.” That shows the opposite drive from a regular person, as opposed to Russell’s urge to connect with “real” people. They show the desire to break out of where one currently resides.

The Band Aids decide to “de-flower” William, but Penny does not participate. Their friendship appears to be on a different level. The other girls are just playing around with no real connection to the young writer. When he asks them who he is to them he gets his answer when they tell him to take out the laundry.

Now in Cleveland, he has a phone call with his mother. Russell interrupts it and tells Elaine that William is fine, and they are taking good care of him. She, however, cuts through his crap, and tells him that he can overcome his debauchery to reach greatness, and that he would not want to meet up with her if anything unsavory happens to her son. Russell alters his attitude, becoming subservient, as if receiving parental guidance that he needed.

Dennis Hope (Jimmy Fallon) arrives, a big-name band promoter, saying Stillwater needs to move fast to capitalize on their increasing success. (His name “Hope” is a bit ironic here, as he is more for opportunity than the idealistic feel of “hope). He says they must cash in quickly, saying Mick Jagger will not make it as a rock star when he’s fifty. (Jagger still tours at age 82. So, the implication is that one can play the long game). But Stillwater goes with Hope, and they trade in their trusty touring bus for an airplane for transportation to reach more gigs quicker.

William witnesses a card game between rock band members, and Russell agrees to give up Penny and the other Band Aids for fifty dollars and a case of beer to the rock group Humble Pie. William is becoming more cynical about the rock business, and accepts the original idea of him, being a journalist, as “the enemy” who can expose secrets. When Penny wants to go to New York to pursue Russell it is William who tells her to “wake up,” since Leslie (Liz Stauber), Russell’s girlfriend, will be there. He then tells her about the poker game. She tries to hide her hurt. As William points out there is so much phoniness, that they live in a made-up life, with invented names.

In New York, Leslie shows up, but so does Penny, and she is crushed when another band member says she is with him as a diversion. After William tells the band they will be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, Penny runs off and tries to overdose on Quaaludes. William follows her and calls a doctor at the hotel. She is alone as she feels deserted since the other Band Aids have gone off with other rock groups. She is collateral damage to the fame of others. William says a funny line to the almost unconscious Penny when he changes the opening line of Star Trek by saying he’s going where many have gone before, and tells her he loves her, which he follows with a kiss.

As Penny gets her stomach pumped, we ironically hear “My Cherie Amour,” whose lyrics about the pretty little girl who is adored contrast with the upsetting scene before William. Later he finally learns her real name is Lady Goodman, which she says her mother thought she would become and who she would marry. He says goodbye as she flies back home to San Diego.

The band is on a plane that hits an electrical storm. When it looks like they might not make it, they start to shout out confessions. One admits to being a hit-and-run driver, another says he is gay, Jeff says he slept with Leslie, and the affair between Russell and Penny comes out. When they call Penny just a “groupie,” William gets angry and says she cared about the band and they just used her, and he was in love with her. The threat of death makes everyone become real quickly, no longer hiding behind their false personas. As Russell and William say goodbye, Russell no longer is trying to suppress anything ugly about the band. He tells William to write whatever he wants.

At the Rolling Stone office William is grilled about what he has submitted, and he asks for one night to clean up the story. He talks to Lester, who again tells him he can’t be friends with the musicians. He knows they made William feel “cool,” but he is not cool, and neither is Lester. They are the “uncool.” And, Lester says most great art is about them. He says the art of those who are cool doesn’t last. The real art is about, “pain and conflict and guilt and longing.” Lester again says the best William can do for the musicians is to be “honest and unmerciful.”

William writes honestly and the magazine loves his story, especially about the confessions on the airplane. But when the factchecker calls the band, they feel like they all come off badly, in other words “uncool,” which is exactly how they behaved. The film suggests honesty that shows people as vulnerable is not what hero-worshipping is about. Russell denies almost all of the story, and the magazine drops William’s piece.

William meets his sister, Anita, at the airport in San Francisco. She sees that he has broken free of their mother and says they can have an adventure together. But, he decides at this point he needs the comfort and safety of home after his initiation into the actualities of his idealized vision of modern musicians. Mom is happy to see both her children despite their disobeying her. The implication is that unconditional love works that way.

At the end of the Stillwater tour, it takes one of the Band Aids, Sapphire (Fairuza Balk), to shame Russell about ditching Penny, almost causing her suicide, and denying William’s story. She says that being a true fan is dedicating yourself to the music and the band that creates it. Here, the dedicated fans come off as the honest ones.

Russell calls Penny. At first he lies, saying there are a lot of people around, so he can’t say much. He then realizes truth is the way to go and admits he is alone. He says he is sorry, and he’s best when he is around her. He wants her address so he can, this time, come to her.

She gives him an address, but it is William’s. When he arrives, Elaine says there’s hope for Russell yet, and she’s right. He called Rolling Stone and said everything William wrote was true. He realizes that they both wanted to be with Penny, but she wanted them to be together, so that is why she gave him William’s address. Russell realizes he never knew Penny’s real name. William smiles, because he does, which makes him feel special. William finally gets the interview with Russell he was aiming for, and it will be an honest one.

Penny flies off to Morocco where she said she always wanted to go. She seems to realize that it’s not just famous people who are interesting. By following her dream, so is she.