Change Your Image
batmanbatka
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Leaving Neverland (2019)
Some Key Facts terribly missing!
In this documentary we hear extremely detailed claims of child abuse but in order to understand the whole depth of the drama it is absolutely necessary to mention three terrible facts. I was totally surprised those facts were never mentioned in the movie:
1. Michael Jackson was chemically castrated by his father Joe Jackson. Joe was very greedy and decided to inject Michael with high dose testosterone before puberty in order to keep his high pitch voice. The castration had a terrible effect on Michael"s psyche. When he realized that he would never have children of his own, he got really depressed. He paid a terrible price. He could never forgive his father. That's was the source of his ill feelings for his father. MJ developed Peter Pan syndrome - he wanted to be a boy forever. The castration is the main cause of his extremely weird behavior. (For those of you that will protest that castrates can not have an erection, you must know that's not always the case. Sometimes they can)
2. Because Michael Jackson could not have children of his own, he arranged to have some kids from some kind of surrogate mother and some of his friends. The fact that his adopted children are not black was never mentioned in the movie. In my opinion that is a very important detail because it shows that MJ hated to be black - may be it was some form of psychological rebellion against his father's deeds. He wanted to become white. Changing his face was not some skin disease, it was not vitiligo, it was a deliberate cosmetic procedure. Everybody knows that. The magnitude of self mutilation just shows the deep problems of his psyche. He had several nose jobs, he wore a wig....
3. This movie was about child abuse crime and I expected to see the real scope of the problem. It was a must to mention the drug abuse element of the story. And the drug overuse have had a role in the whole story. From what we hear in this movie it seems that Michael Jackson was very manipulative narcissistic type of person. He actually paid several witnesses to speak in his defense.
I believe those 3 details are essential to make the case more comprehensible. Especially the first one.
Michael Jackson was the last castrato of the century and that caused many of the anomalies in his behavior.
The House That Jack Built (2018)
If you could consider the word-salad an "Art-movie"
Obviously Lars von Trier is NOT my type of director. I didn't like "Melancholia" either. LvT's prefered "story-telling" tool is the pseudo-intellectual use of symbolism.
In "The house that Jack Built" he over-used the so called word-salad: throwing out notions as OCD, Narcissism, trauma etc, plus some random art references hoping that it will impress the viewer's perceptions and it will lead them to their own conclusions and interpretation. lying to them that somewhere there in this mess of a movie there would be some "deep meaning". LOL. IMHO it's an insult to the viewer's intellect. The prevailing IMDB's rating 10/10 makes me believe such an insult might be well deserved.
Considering the cinematography, I agree with some of the comments that the "shaking camera makes the viewer dizzy". Awful approach!
Definitely unnecessary level of animal&human cruelty. Even for a psychopath movie... Do they still buy this stuff??? Is this STILL trendy?
I give the whole 1 star (1/10) only for the clever finish with the song "Hit the road, Jack"
The Escape (2017)
"The only way out is in" - that is "the Escape"
The silent tragedy of a married woman who has lost the connection with Her Self. At first glance Tara seems to have achieved everything a woman could dream of - 2 healthy children, a house, a loving husband. But (like everyone of us) intuitively she knows that there is something else to aim for. I would like to quote Jim Carrey who said: "I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer."
So, what is THE answer? The puzzling answer that can give authentic meaning of our life? Obviously finding a French lover in Paris is not the right decision. The ultimate escape is not a romantic escapade!
Here is where the tapestries' symbolism comes at play.
There is an old Chinese proverb saying: The body is a city with five gates - eyes, ears, nose, mouth, touch. These five doors lead the Spiritual energy outside, there is only one door, a small opening - the door of consciousness that lead us inside. Only when we enter inside ourselves we can reach freedom. Thus the only way out is in. That's the true escape/liberation.
The sixth tapestry is called "À mon seul désir" meaning that if we want to meet our true Self, we must apply true intent. This is the symbol of consciousness knowing itSelf (God).
IMHO "Knowing the Self" was not the intended meaning of the movie, it's only my personal interpretation based on the tapestries' symbolism.
Elizabeth Harvest (2018)
The core theme of "Elizabeth Harvest" is Narcissistic abuse
The movie is a symbolical representation of Narcissist-Empath relationship.
Sebastian Gutierrez describes a typical abuse dynamics between a Narcissist (the husband) and an Empath (the wife). The Narcissist is brilliant and cruel; the Empath is naive and sensitive. The names of the main characters are not randomly chosen - Henry 8th Tudor executed many of his wives, and Elizabeth is the name of his daughter, who survived his abuse and even thrived as a Queen.
The abuse cycle has two phases - an idealization phase, represented as a honeymoon; and a devaluation phase - symbolized by the killing of Elizabeth.
The typical Narcissistic abuse cycle repeats six or seven times, thus there are six copies (clones) of Elizabeth, all of them created by Henry. In the sick mind of the Narcissist he virtually "creates" and "destroys" his partner.
By saying to Elizabeth not to enter the forbidden room, Henry set a trap for her. He knows that she will "disappoint" him at some point of the "relationship" by disobeying him. So he plans her devaluation and annihilation in advance.
The Narcissist even creates his new false ego - Oliver. He has a lover (a secondary source of supply) - Claire and a friend - a tertiary source of narcissistic fuel.
The Narcissist harvests energy (positive or negative) from the emotional reactions of other people. The drained emotional energy boosts his ego. He needs constant validation and attention. "You can either torture or be tortured." The most important thing for the Narcissist is to be in control because he feels superior this way.
In order to break free from the abuse the Empath has to acquire new knowledge about herself - she has to face her childhood traumas which brought her to this kind of "relationship". Elizabeth educates herself - symbolically represented by the picture of the owl. This is the only thing that she takes when she finally escapes her prison.
In the movie there are several references to Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece - "The Shining" - 1980: the road, the tunnel, the villa/Overlook hotel, the secret harvesting room/room 237, naked woman in a bathtub...etc.
Brilliant movie! 10/10
Enjoy and educate yourselves!