4. God Bless America
Blistering commentary doesn’t come more blistering than in Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America, a violent social satire that lampoons the worst and most soulless staples of modern society (and then proceeds gag them, beat them up and shoot them in the head). Even when we’ve seen some of the pop culture assaults before, the unadulterated rage behind them here makes each and every jab ring (sometimes painfully) true. It’s all enough to make you look square in the mirror, cry a little bit and then delete your Facebook account, cancel any reality TV stations and smack your friends every time one says “YOLO.”
God Bless America is a wildly uneven movie, but unknowns Joel Murray and Tara Lynn Barr as the Bonnie and Clyde-esque duo are extremely well matched, droll, funny and their relationship never turns creepy even though we’re dealing with a off-kilter bond between a middle aged man and a teenager. When the rampage finally begins you can’t help but recall instances where you’ve wanted to do the same exact thing (albeit in a less extreme manner I’d hope).
Someone talks during a movie – shoot them…a dirty look. In spite of (and at times because of) the violence, God Bless America is very poignant and at its base a lot of fun (if the dark and twisted kind). Goldthwait never actual implies one should go on a killing spree just because you’ve become disheartened but uses each bullet fired to poke you in the forehead and remind you that everything does not revolve around greed, gossip and the green.
3. The Awakening
At its core, a horror movie must succeed in three key areas, even if it’s at a mostly baser level. It must construct a creepy and unique setting, allow us to organically care about the characters and finally maintain tension and scares to the closing scene. So many films masquerading as a scary movie toss us a bland haunted house and add idiot stock characters too moronic to waltz out the front door when the scares begin and an implosion of idiocy and exposition at the climax.
In British import The Awakening, not only does it avoid the first two pitfalls admirably, but this period chiller actually escalates towards the finale before closing with a fittingly melancholy and open-ended sequence.
Reminiscent of 2007’s The Orphanage in all the right ways The Awakening finds Rebecca Hall as an author who specializes in debunking supposed hauntings and other supernatural hoaxes. Called to a creepy boarding school, she finds herself torn between physical evidence, her muted faith and is all-but consumed by the death of her husband in WWII.
Dominic West and Imelda Staunton also join and round out a trio of fantastic British actors all with demons of their own. When things come to a head, each of these individuals has a role to play; none are wasted with cheap shock deaths or for some morose payoff. For aficionados of the genre and admirers of period haunted house thrillers particularly, it’s hard to imagine not finding a lot to love in this lovingly constructed horror fable.
For casual fans, some immensely effective (but never cheap) jump scares, a dense and brooding atmosphere and a satisfying conclusion show that The Awakening is by far one of the best offerings of its kind this decade and one that was criminally dumped by its studio Stateside.
