Posts Tagged ‘Oedipus complex’

Short Take: A fresh take on a tested concept

Directors: Mark and Jay Duplass (Baghead)

Screenwriters: Mark and Jay Duplass (Baghead)

Cast: John C. Reilly (Step Brothers), Jonah Hill (Get Him to the Greek), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Catherine Keener (Where the Wild Things Are)

Length: 1h 32m

Synopsis: John (Reilly) is a divorced middle-aged man living by himself, currently hitting what he believes to be rock bottom. Through encouragement and arm twisting by his ex-wife Jamie (Keener) and her new husband John attends a party where he’ll supposedly have a golden opportunity to get back into the dating game after a 7 year hiatus. As it turns out, that’s exactly what happens. He clicks with a warm, fun-loving single mother named Molly (Tomei), whose 21 year old son Cyrus (Hill) still lives with her. Shortly after the dating begins John meets Cyrus face to face, and at first the two seem to get along swell. What John begins to realize, though, is that Cyrus is actually trying everything he can to sabotage his mother’s new relationship, and so John must try to foil Cyrus’ plans under the nose of the woman caught between them. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Intriguing, with unsettling cautionary messages

Director: Vincenzo Natali (Cube)

Screenwriter: Vincenzo Natali (Cube), Antionette Terry Bryant, Doug Taylor (They Wait)

Cast: Adrien Brody (King King), Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead), Delphine Chaneac

Length: 1h 44m

Synopsis: Elsa (Polley) and Clive (Brody) are a couple who are top-notch geneticists trying to splice the correct combination of DNA strands that will create an organism that produces certain kinds of proteins that can be used to help fight any number of diseases. After enjoying much success with their latest experiments (unique male and female organisms that have the capacity to mate) they are brought down to earth with the news that their company will go bankrupt unless there is a more significant breakthrough sometime soon. Elsa convinces Clive to break the law and try experimenting with human/animal splicing in order to have the resulting organism’s proteins be more readily usable, but from the get-go things don’t go quite as planned. The new organism begins growing like a child, but the older it gets the more dangerous it becomes until eventually the two scientists are forced to fight for their lives.

Warning: This review contains information that might be considered spoiling Read the rest of this entry »