Year: 2014

Director: Josephine Decker
Writer(s): Josephine Decker & David Barker
Cinematographer: Ashley Connor
Cast: Sophie Traub, Joe Swanberg, Robert Longstreet
Country of Origin: U.S.
Rating: N/A
Time: 94 mins

If Terrence Malick had a twisted little sister, it would be Josephine Decker; the resemblance is clearly discernible in her sophomore feature, Thou Wast Mild & Lovely, utilizing Malick's uninhibited and experimental handheld style but with her own dash of psychosexual drama. Decker's story is framed against the backdrop of a quiet country farm, and shells out the kind of chills that not even Malick could muster. 

In the vein of John Steinbeck's East of Eden, the film follows Akin (Joe Swanberg), a man who's taken a summer job on a farm only to develop an attraction to its owner's daughter, Sarah (Sophie Traub). In what's seemingly an inevitable romance, the pair's physical attraction is amplified by their isolated setting, leading this quaint farm story to pack a ferocious intensity. If Terrence Malick had a twisted little sister, it would be Josephine Decker; the resemblance is clearly discernible in her sophomore feature, Thou Wast Mild & Lovely, utilizing Malick's uninhibited and experimental handheld style but with her own dash of psychosexual drama. Decker's story is framed against the backdrop of a quiet country farm, and shells out the kind of chills that not even Malick could muster. 

(Continue reading on Sound on Sight)

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Year: 2014
Director: Jason Banker

Writer(s): Jason Banker & Amy Everson
Cinematographer: Jason Banker
Cast: Amy Everson, Kentucker Audley, Elisabeth Ferrara, Roxanne Lauren Knouse

Country of Origin: U.S.

Rating: N/A
Time: 80 min

It's a rare discovery when a film can materialize the internal terror that women experience on a daily basis so disturbingly close to reality. Blurring the lines of documentary and narrative storytelling, Felt truly is a film that demands to be felt. It accomplishes its goal by penetrating the deepest, most harrowing aspects of trauma to tell one of the most powerful and jarring stories about the female experience and rape culture ever put on screen.

Director and cinematographer Jason Banker follows his 2012 debut film, Toad Road with Felt, co-written by Amy Everson who stars in the film as Amy, a San Franciscan artist recently plagued by a trauma (not explained but certainly sexual) inflicted by the men in her life. As her ordeal unravels emotionally and psychologically, she plunges herself in the world of art as a coping mechanism. 

“My life is a fucking nightmare” are the first words out of Amy’s mouth, a vocal confirmation of her trauma, usually reserved for her performance art. From there, we see her as she caves in on herself, crawling so deep and beyond, it’s unknown where the real Amy starts and ends. She re-appropriates the male form by frolicking in the woods, wearing an anatomically correct muscle suit and trying to re-enact the dominance demonstrated by the men she’s encountered. But it doesn’t stop there, as she continues to embrace their stereotypical brash, lewd attitude outside of costume form. This outlet to reclaim the power taken from her by an unknown attacker is only the beginning of how her mental disintegration manifests. Witnessing her inner battle materialize in outer form further conveys the delusion and terror that Amy struggles with every day, heightening the grim realities and the harsh effects of our gender warped society.

(Continuing reading on Sound on Sight)

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I started writing for Sound on Sight recently and I want to introduce the first article I wrote for them titled 5 Horror Films Too Disturbing to Watch Again! It's a good one!

** Spoilers ahead **

I am not a horror film fan. I appreciate the genre but considering that my over-amped imagination will turn a sight of a little girl with long hair in ghostly white attire into a full epileptic seizure within me, I try to stay as far away from scary films as much as possible. But trying to be a well-verse film critic requires me to explore uncharted territories especially that of the horror realm and thoroughly challenge my threshold. Granted I haven’t seen films like the Japanese Ringu, A Serbian Film, IT or even Cannibal Holocaust, but I know scary when I see it. Ahem, The Chainsaw Massacre and The Orphanage. But I can confidently say that these five films that I am about to list is still a terrifying film experience for the majority of viewers and one that cornered me to confront my fear resulting in many nights of dripping sweat concluding in momentary faintness. Read more...

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