Posts Tagged ‘Emily Browning’

Short Take: It assumes its shock value will hide how pretentious and hollow it truly is

Director: Julia Leigh

Screenwriter: Julia Leigh

Cast: Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie

Length: 1h 44m

Synopsis: Lucy (Browning) is a 20-something college student trying to scrape by with what little money she’s able to work for. She waitresses, prints copy at a local office, and offers herself to the school labs for the occasional lab-rat-like testing. When she’s not working, we find her courting middle-aged men in swanky bars, showing off an appetite for the erotic. When she answers an ad for an unorthodox waitressing job, posted by a mysterious but obviously wealthy woman named Clara (Blake), she’s told that the job involves being scantily clad but absolutely no sex. Lucy tests out this well-paying, if not unusual gig only to find herself with an even higher paying and more unusual offer. This time she’s propositioned by Clara to come to a secluded mansion to simply take a sleeping potion, where she’ll wake up after a few hours and be driven straight home. What Lucy doesn’t know is that when she’s fast asleep Clara sells time with her unconscious body to elderly gentlemen callers, who proceed to have their way with her. By the end, Lucy is forced to question her willingness to do almost anything for money.

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With the recent DVD release of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch we thought it would be worth our while to revisit our thoughts on the movie and give it a second look. While we stand by our review of the film by Cliff Bugle we nevertheless thought that a female perspective would be particularly interesting to have in this case. Naturally then, we referred to our own Marisa Carpico. The film has been heralded by some as a great “girl power” flick despite what was a largely negative critical reception, and we would like to appease those of you who are part of this growing cult following by offering you another examination of it. Enjoy!

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Short Take: Points for solid action and great imagery, points off for lousy writing

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenwriters: Zack Snyder, Steve Shibuya

Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, Jon Hamm, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung

Length: 1h 50m

Synopsis: A newly orphaned girl, nicknamed Baby Doll (Browning), gets forcibly admitted into a psychiatric hospital after she accidentally kills her sister in defending her against their newly appointed legal guardian’s sexual assaults. Her admittance is mainly so her guardian can attain her inheritance, but we see that the grief she has been dealing with is actually beginning to affect her mind. While in the hospital Baby Doll befriends some fellow girl internees nicknamed Rocket (Malone), Blondie (Hudgens), Sweet Pea (Cornish), and Amber (Chung). The girls are forced to work by doing chores around the hospital as well as dance for rich men who come in to see their provocatively choreographed performances. The warden-like boss of the facility, Blue (Isaac), is stunned to see that Baby Doll turns out to be a phenomenal dancer, and plans to make a lot of money off of her shows. However, Baby Doll and the girls have no intention of sticking around any longer and form a plan to break out. It won’t be easy, and with the prospect of freedom comes the risk of death, but the girls push on in hopes of a better life.

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