- Brainwashing
- Imprisonment
- Isolation, both physical and social
- Gaslighting
- Extortion
- Kidnapping
- And more!
Friday, April 3, 2015
Film Club: Going Clear
On Monday night, the day after the film premiered on HBO, my college roommate and I watched Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
This might not seem like a movie you'd watch for fun while catching up with your friend, but she loves documentaries, I'd heard great things about this film and both of us kind of have a weird interest in learning about cults, so our selection for movie night was this documentary about Scientology. It was a nice change of pace, considering we usually watch things like American Horror Story or bad movies together.
Going in, neither of us knew much about Scientology. I'd heard some things - terrible things - about the...I hesitate to say "religion," but it's officially classified as one in the United States. I'd heard some terrible things about this religion, such as their naval division, Sea Org, being one step above torture and that it more or less requires its members to donate absurd amounts of money. Also that a ton of Hollywood celebrities are apparently into this, its founder was named L. Ron Hubbard and that its members believe they are aliens (descended from aliens? reincarnated aliens?). That was the collective knowledge of Scientology my friend and I had going into this.
The film was eye-opening to say the least.
I do have a brief disclaimer before the rest of the review: I was watching this at the same time as the rest of my family was watching Dance Moms, so I couldn't hear or understand a lot of what was said in the beginning. I'd also been up since before 5 a.m. that day, so I dozed off in the last fifteen minutes or so. I fully plan on buying this movie when it comes out on DVD or BluRay and watching it again, but I think what I got was substantial enough to write about.
Going Clear begins with a brief history of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. We're introduced to five former members who each have their own stories and testimonials about what it's like inside. For all five, the church promised them their wildest dreams, lifelong happiness, anything they wanted, and in all of their cases, the exact opposite proved to be true.
Basically, Scientology was founded by Hubbard in the 1950s. Hubbard was a science fiction writer, and not only that, but a bad science fiction writer. According to his ex-wife, he founded Scientology as a money making scheme and, apparently, eventually came to believe it himself.
The former Scientologists keep speaking throughout the rest of the film, telling about their experiences, the abuses they suffered and, finally, how they escaped. This footage is intercut with footage from Scientology rallies, which bear an uncanny resemblance to Nazi rallies, footage of stars like John Travolta and Tom Cruise talking about the church, archival footage of Hubbard talking about his religion and more.
Altogether, it paints an incredibly unflattering portrait of Scientology, which I can't say was unexpected. As I mentioned before, I'd heard about how the church, and especially Sea Org, was known for its manipulation and harsh practices, but I didn't know just how bad it was. As the movie was wrapping up, my friend said "I just thought they were kooky and believed in aliens. I had no idea it was this insane." Just a few of these ethically questionable practices include:
There's a scene in the second half of the film that stuck permanently in my memory. It's a story about some of the higher-ups in the church being held in a dirty, ant-infested doublewide trailer for days and being forced to play Musical Chairs to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in order to stay in the church. It sounds completely absurd and it's one of the most chilling parts of the movie. In fact, that's how my friend and I felt about a lot of the information in documentary. On the surface, it looks silly, but once you dig down deep and find out what's actually going on and how these people are actually being treated, it's terrifying.
The movie's director, Alex Gibney, set out to uncover what makes people join Scientology in the first place. There are smart, capable, well-loved people involved in this - so how did they get there and why are some of them still there? He found out that what gets them in is what's called auditing, essentially Scientology's version of talk therapy but, of course, with their own spin on it involving e-meters and other similar things (this is a part I missed due to the volume on Dance Moms being too high). Auditing makes people who participate feel good, so they stick around and see what else Scientology can do for them and how it can help them. Why some are still there after finding out about how other members are treated, such as John Travolta finding out his friend was held in more or less a prison camp while her baby was neglected in a nursery, is still a mystery.
This is an interesting clip from The Hollywood Reporter of an interview with Gibney and the author of the book that inspired the documentary. It shows part of the scene I mentioned earlier.
Technically, Going Clear is a very well put together documentary. Its editing is tight, it has a nice balance of archival footage and current footage, its staged scenes such as the "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene I mentioned earlier are very well shot and its sound mixing and lighting are very pleasant to the ear and eye. Some documentaries can be difficult to watch not because of subject matter, but just because of how they look. Going Clear is not one of those.
What wasn't surprising at all was the fact that Gibney never, not once, features a new interview with a current church member. He uses clips of old interviews from shows like Anderson Cooper 360° but never uses his own footage. This is because the church refused to speak to him. They offered to send "25 unnamed individuals," but Gibney was looking for specific people and he believed this panel would be sent to defame his sources, so he declined. The church had an opportunity to defend itself and refused it, but of course after the film's release they've been mudslinging left and right in the worst possible way. I've watched some of their retort videos. They're awful. Their arguments hold no water and make almost no sense. They don't even directly address the film's accusations. It'd be more ridiculous if you didn't know what the church was doing.
Considering that what I knew about Scientology before watching Going Clear consisted of "they have a navy that's tougher than should be legal" and "they believe in a galactic overlord named Xenu and my friend Erin's final project in our makeup design class was Xenu," this documentary was super informative and eye-opening. If you're curious at all about Scientology or cults in general, or if you just like documentaries, I highly recommend it.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Film Club: The Happening
I've got two movie reviews coming up, one for a great movie and one for The Happening. Stay tuned.
Let me start by saying I love watching bad movies. I really, really love watching bad movies. Just as great movies show what film can achieve, bad movies show what happens when everything goes horribly wrong. Movies like The Room, Birdemic and Foodfight!, to name three of the most well-known, all have this certain quality that, while there's no denying that they suck, makes them unforgettable.
The Happening is not one of these films.
My brother warned me not to watch it. The Internet warned me not to watch it. My friend Kyle warned me not to watch it when it came out in 2008. He actually paid money to see it and hated it. I ignored all of them.
The basic plot of the movie is that people are committing suicide for no apparent reason which is later revealed to be plants. Plants are emitting chemicals that, when inhaled, cause people to kill themselves. But only if you're outside. And only if the wind blows. And only in New England. This is played completely straight and taken deathly seriously.
Our protagonists Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel have to escape with Mark Wahlberg's best friend's daughter, so obviously they decide to head out into nature. Also, Zooey Deschanel had tiramisu with a coworker named Joey who I like to imagine is Joey Tribbiani from Friends because it makes the movie's obsession with her not-even-really-a-date marginally more bearable. The movie makes it look like it's going to be a major plot point, like maybe she is actually cheating on Mark Wahlberg and we're gonna have a big confrontation and some actual personality to these characters, but nope. Nothing ever comes of it. The most we get is a scene where Mark Wahlberg talks about how he almost bought cough syrup he didn't need because of a hot pharmacist. I'm not making this up.
There's unnecessary dramatic zooms, poorly-scored scenes, bodies freakin' everywhere and a complete lack of acting from Mark Wahlberg. It's actually kind of beautiful how obviously he doesn't care. He always talks like he's talking to a very small and somewhat unintelligent child and his behavior borders on nonsensical. See: the cough syrup scene, the scene where he sings the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" to prove he's human (???), a dinner scene where he along with everyone else in the movie has no idea of basic manners.
Obviously the script is just awful. Real people don't talk like the characters in this movie. Ever. None of the characters are developed or even have any semblance of a personality. They're blander than white bread dipped in skim milk. We're also treated to the worst CGI lions I've ever seen and some really surprisingly bloodless deaths. It actually really surprised me; a movie that sold itself on having so many gruesome deaths actually wasn't that graphic. That's another problem with The Happening: it has no guts, not in the literal "you see so many intestines in this movie" sense but in the sense that it doesn't even come close to touching any sort of line. I'm not promoting excessive gore just for the sake of gore, but at the same time...you're supposed to be making a horror movie. Horror can be effective without blood and guts (and those are often some of the best), but those are usually closer to thriller and psychological horror. The Happening is neither of those. In this case, I'd dial up the blood and guts a little more.
Now, these are all hallmarks of bad movies. The Room has nonsensical dialogue and plot threads that are mentioned and dropped almost immediately, like Claudette's breast cancer. Foodfight! has the worst animation I've ever seen and actors that care less than Mark Wahlberg. Birdemic has special effects that are anything but. There's a big difference between those movies and The Happening. With most other bad movies, you can tell that someone, somewhere, somehow cared about it, even if they only cared about it for the paycheck (looking at you, animated Titanic movies). The Happening is completely soulless.
The movie has its moments, like the cough syrup scene and the line "why you eyin' my lemon drink", but overall it's just...boring.
The worst, worst thing a movie can do is be forgettable. It can be poorly made (Birdemic) or disappointing (Green Lantern) or way too pretentious for its own good (Breathless) or just bad overall (The Room), but those movies, at least for me, are completely unforgettable in just how bad they are. The Happening has nothing. It's an hour and a half of unremarkable everything. I made it through; I never turned it off, but it was one of the most difficult movies to sit through.
Do I regret it? Kind of. I mean, I could have been finishing The Neighbors or catching up on The Last Man On Earth with those 90 minutes. Would I recommend it? No. Not even as a bad movie. All you need to do is watch clips or read Cleolinda's "Movies in 15 Minutes" write-up of it. That's all you need.
NEXT UP: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Alex Gibney's HBO documentary. Hoo boy. This was an adventure.
Let me start by saying I love watching bad movies. I really, really love watching bad movies. Just as great movies show what film can achieve, bad movies show what happens when everything goes horribly wrong. Movies like The Room, Birdemic and Foodfight!, to name three of the most well-known, all have this certain quality that, while there's no denying that they suck, makes them unforgettable.
The Happening is not one of these films.
My brother warned me not to watch it. The Internet warned me not to watch it. My friend Kyle warned me not to watch it when it came out in 2008. He actually paid money to see it and hated it. I ignored all of them.
The basic plot of the movie is that people are committing suicide for no apparent reason which is later revealed to be plants. Plants are emitting chemicals that, when inhaled, cause people to kill themselves. But only if you're outside. And only if the wind blows. And only in New England. This is played completely straight and taken deathly seriously.
Our protagonists Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel have to escape with Mark Wahlberg's best friend's daughter, so obviously they decide to head out into nature. Also, Zooey Deschanel had tiramisu with a coworker named Joey who I like to imagine is Joey Tribbiani from Friends because it makes the movie's obsession with her not-even-really-a-date marginally more bearable. The movie makes it look like it's going to be a major plot point, like maybe she is actually cheating on Mark Wahlberg and we're gonna have a big confrontation and some actual personality to these characters, but nope. Nothing ever comes of it. The most we get is a scene where Mark Wahlberg talks about how he almost bought cough syrup he didn't need because of a hot pharmacist. I'm not making this up.
There's unnecessary dramatic zooms, poorly-scored scenes, bodies freakin' everywhere and a complete lack of acting from Mark Wahlberg. It's actually kind of beautiful how obviously he doesn't care. He always talks like he's talking to a very small and somewhat unintelligent child and his behavior borders on nonsensical. See: the cough syrup scene, the scene where he sings the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" to prove he's human (???), a dinner scene where he along with everyone else in the movie has no idea of basic manners.
Obviously the script is just awful. Real people don't talk like the characters in this movie. Ever. None of the characters are developed or even have any semblance of a personality. They're blander than white bread dipped in skim milk. We're also treated to the worst CGI lions I've ever seen and some really surprisingly bloodless deaths. It actually really surprised me; a movie that sold itself on having so many gruesome deaths actually wasn't that graphic. That's another problem with The Happening: it has no guts, not in the literal "you see so many intestines in this movie" sense but in the sense that it doesn't even come close to touching any sort of line. I'm not promoting excessive gore just for the sake of gore, but at the same time...you're supposed to be making a horror movie. Horror can be effective without blood and guts (and those are often some of the best), but those are usually closer to thriller and psychological horror. The Happening is neither of those. In this case, I'd dial up the blood and guts a little more.
Now, these are all hallmarks of bad movies. The Room has nonsensical dialogue and plot threads that are mentioned and dropped almost immediately, like Claudette's breast cancer. Foodfight! has the worst animation I've ever seen and actors that care less than Mark Wahlberg. Birdemic has special effects that are anything but. There's a big difference between those movies and The Happening. With most other bad movies, you can tell that someone, somewhere, somehow cared about it, even if they only cared about it for the paycheck (looking at you, animated Titanic movies). The Happening is completely soulless.
The movie has its moments, like the cough syrup scene and the line "why you eyin' my lemon drink", but overall it's just...boring.
The worst, worst thing a movie can do is be forgettable. It can be poorly made (Birdemic) or disappointing (Green Lantern) or way too pretentious for its own good (Breathless) or just bad overall (The Room), but those movies, at least for me, are completely unforgettable in just how bad they are. The Happening has nothing. It's an hour and a half of unremarkable everything. I made it through; I never turned it off, but it was one of the most difficult movies to sit through.
Do I regret it? Kind of. I mean, I could have been finishing The Neighbors or catching up on The Last Man On Earth with those 90 minutes. Would I recommend it? No. Not even as a bad movie. All you need to do is watch clips or read Cleolinda's "Movies in 15 Minutes" write-up of it. That's all you need.
NEXT UP: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Alex Gibney's HBO documentary. Hoo boy. This was an adventure.
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