The Skeleton Twins

THE SKELETON TWINS        C+            
USA  (93 mi)  2014  ‘Scope  d:  Craig Johnson            Official site

One of the more acclaimed films to come out of Sundance, winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, yet despite the darkness of the subject matter, suicide turned into a morbid comedy, the film is surprisingly conventional.  While this was an opportunity to create something uniquely original, instead it’s more than slightly contrived, filled with movie cliché’s and a truly terrible musical soundtrack that just screams of indie light with a peppy beat, feeling nearly identical to the musical track used in Jason Reitman’s UP IN THE AIR (2009), in both cases used to add a surge of folksy energy to an otherwise downbeat subject, but the music couldn’t feel more generic.  Certainly that’s part of the problem, but the story itself also has a condescending air about it in the derisive and mocking style of humor used, where everybody else is fair game to be made fun of, calling kids of today “little shits,” while in the same breath making a film about two bratty grown up children who both feel unloved and unlovable, where many of the viewers will sympathize, even as these shortsighted characters don’t really give a damn about anybody else.  Much like Bud Cort’s stream of comic suicide attempts in HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) or Lone Scherfig’s offbeat WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF (2002), there’s a fine line between tragedy and comedy, where the better films err on the side of tragedy, while the more mainstream films err on the side of comedy, which is the case here, as the comedic aspects are delightfully entertaining, though resembling the absurdist tone of comic sketches, while the more tragic, downbeat moments never really work, likely due to the fact that the lives of the two lead characters feel more like fragments and are never truly explored.  The viewer only sees what the writer wants them to see, where there isn’t an underlying reservoir of hidden, untapped emotions, which is the essential component on display throughout the nearly three-hour The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014). 

Bought up at Sundance and distributed by the Duplass brothers, the story concerns a twin brother and sister, Milo (Bill Hader) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig, though originally the part was conceived with Ana Faris in mind), both alums from the Saturday Night Live (1975 – present) television series and both the product of a dysfunctional family.  While a series of flashbacks briefly explores their childhood, it’s used more for symbolic connections than to provide any real insight, as the focus remains thoroughly targeted on the present, where both are miserably unhappy, and as twins seem to be on the same psychic wavelength, as both are seen at the outset on the verge of committing suicide at exactly the same moment, though they haven’t seen one another in ten years.  Maggie is stopped from taking a handful of pills by an interrupting phone call from an emergency room announcing her brother survived his failed attempt of cutting his wrists in the bathtub.  Flying out ot LA to offer her support, Milo grumbles a spew of sarcastic venom at her and tells her to go away, but she refuses to listen and instead invites him to her small New York hometown where she lives with her husband Lance (Luke Wilson), giving her an opportunity to look after him.  Having no better offers, of course he accepts, but immediately he’s the odd man out, as Lance is a testosterone positive alpha male who is hyper positive about everything, where he acts like he’s perpetually stoned on Zoloft.  Milo, on the other hand, is a sullen, deeply depressive gay man who hides his emotions in self-deprecating sarcasm that is too dark for most people to figure out, leaving him perpetually isolated and alone.  Maggie seems like she’s carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, but feigns happiness, matching the mood of her constantly upbeat husband, thankful that she’s not living with the pathetic losers that describe her earlier life.  Milo, of course, sees through this in a second, but remains totally out of place, as evidenced by his total frustration at going to a gay bar where he keeps waiting for the men to show up, only to learn it’s “dyke night.” 

While Milo is a head case, wearing his troubles on his sleeve, where an even darker side is hinted at, the audience accepts his psychic turmoil, aggravated further by a contentious relationship with a former English teacher, Rich (Ty Burrell), who is nearby that has trouble written all over it.  Meanwhile, Maggie remains cheerful enough, but that smile is quickly wiped off her face when she’s forced to admit some hard truths to her brother, both high on nitrous oxide at the time, so she couldn’t lie her way out of it as she was attempting to do with her husband, where her façade of happiness reveals as much interior dysfunction as Milo, but she’s better at covering it up.  His presence seems to bring out her most protected secrets, which becomes something of a combustible problem that could easily blow up in her face.  It turns out these secrets are doorways to miserable childhoods and unending emotional pain that have been with them their entire lives, which they’ve both on their own unsuccessfully tried to avoid dealing with.  Neither has any social life to speak of, where their lives are a wreck, so being together has a strange way of releasing pent up memories, allowing them to share experiences that only they know about, which is entirely believable, as it’s clear the two of them have a chemistry from working together.  Painful to watch at times, the film attempts to provide a comic perspective on such assorted themes of suicide, the aftereffects of parental suicide, adultery, serial lying, dysfunctional parenting, sexual abuse of a minor, depression, drug use, and even animal cruelty, where it’s kind of a combination plate of social ills.  When their mother (Joanna Gleason) arrives on the scene, what follows is a descent into ever more disturbing territory.  At one of the bleakest points of despair, Milo breaks out into what appears to be a song and dance routine they performed together as kids, lip-synching to Jefferson Starship’s synth-heavy song for the 80’s, Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - YouTube (4:32), which couldn’t be more corny, but it’s the moment that seals the deal, as if they have nothing else, they have each other.  While we’ve seen and heard all this before, there are some affecting moments, but overall the film never digs deep enough to actually matter, where the ideas and the performances are eventually lost to the mediocre execution. 

Sightseers

SIGHTSEERS             B+  
Great Britain  (89 mi)  2012  ‘Scope  d:  Ben Wheatley              Official site

Perhaps taking a cue from memorably camp material like The Honeymoon Killers (1969), Wheatley turns the conventional travelogue vacation movie on its ear, though it’s perhaps undone by the sheer unlikeability of the main couple.  Sad sack Tina (Alice Lowe) lives with her manipulative and overcontrolling mother, Carol (Eileen Davies), a somewhat mean and grotesque figure still grieving over the loss of their pet dog Poppy who died a year ago.  Tina is a licensed but pathetically inept dog psychologist who seems to instead sympathize with her mother’s grief.  Given the opportunity to temporarily escape her sheltered environment with Mum, she jumps at the chance to go on a road adventure with her new boyfriend, aspiring writer Chris (Steve Oram), driving a live-in caravan behind them on a meticulously planned trip through Northern England’s Yorkshire territory.  Somehow the ultra-hilarious Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden’s impressionist extravaganza The Trip (2010) comes to mind, but this film builds its cleverness on the sheer conventionality of the two characters that haven’t a notable distinguishing characteristic between them.  Happy to be on their way, to the sound of Soft Cell :Tainted Love Music Video - YouTube  (2:39), though assaulted by a series of miserablist phone calls from Mum who feigns dire emergencies like Bud Cort feigned suicides in HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), Tina has to spread her wings and let go, finally free of the mad clutches of her mother.  All seems to be going well until Chris becomes overwrought at the callous actions of an unconcerned litterbug at a world heritage site, going on an extended rage until he accidentally runs over the poor guy with his caravan, where blood spurts out from his neck like a cheap B-movie special effect, accentuating the ridiculousness of the act, but also the worthlessness of the litterbug’s life.        

Not to be deterred, the couple won’t allow a regrettable man’s death to ruin their vacation, developing a common mindset where they can do whatever they please, like this brief clip where they pass a larger caravan, getting downright giddy over the idea, Sightseers "Dingly Dell" Clip - YouTube (1:11).  As they get deeper into the countryside where the undulating hills dominate the landscape, they park their caravan in close proximity to another couple who have an identical dog as Poppy, where the guy is something of a smug writer, bragging about having written three books, while the girl refuses to allow her dog to be fed junk food.  Chris immediately hones in on their detestable nature, arising at the crack of dawn for his neighbor’s scheduled walkabout, following them into an excluded area before bashing him over the head with a rock, then pulling his pants down to make it look like a sex crime to throw off the authorities.  Grabbing the dog as their own, Tina is overjoyed at the sight, instantly calling Banjo by his rightful name (in her eyes), Poppy.  Taking great pleasure at watching the TV news reports of the crime, Chris is thrilled when it’s reported that the police are on the lookout for a perverted sex criminal.  Tina has an inkling of what Chris has done and develops a theory, by eradicating detestable individuals from the earth’s population, you are in fact elevating the potential gene pool, an idea that suggests selective murder is a Green activity, perhaps enhanced by the trippy version of Season of the witch - Vanilla Fudge - YouTube (8:47), suggesting something mind-altering is in the midst.  So rather than be repulsed by the hideousness of the act, Tina finds herself sexually aroused like never before, where one might even say these are the happiest days of her life.  Off they go on their cross-country journey, where Tina discovers if she doesn’t really like someone, for whatever reason, she has a partner willing to do something about it, willing to go all the way to set things straight, which gives her a feeling of invincibility, like this clip where she grows delirious with her newly discovered power, literally toying with the idea of what her boyfriend will do, Sightseers - "National Trust" Clip YouTube (1:53)

The director’s third feature, this is the first he did not write himself, relying instead upon the two lead actors, a TV writing and acting team, along with longtime collaborator Amy Jump.  The film doesn’t seem to suffer from this lack of input, and while it’s basically a series of funny sight and sound gags, there’s not much else, lacking the depth and insight to be much more, yet it’s hands down one of the funniest films of the year.  The film takes a single idea and runs with it, where the musical selections throughout are outstanding, including the exquisite JULIE DRISCOLL ft BRIAN AUGER - season of the witch ... - YouTube  (7:57), offering a twist midway through, as Tina grows so newly empowered that she starts knocking people off with relish, everytime she gets irritated, something that draws the ire of Chris, who believes there’s a selective art to killing, especially murdering Green, so they can’t just pick off random anybodies.  If they’re going to commit themselves to killing thoroughly detestable people, then they must elevate their standards to only the truly despicable.  Other dark serial killer movies go to great lengths to establish character, like Tuesday Weld in Pretty Poison (1968), where her surprising amoral zealousness steals the picture, where even Bobcat Goldthwait’s disturbingly bizarre satire God Bless America (2011) uses a similar premise of blowing away only the most irritating people on the planet.  In comparison, this is more understated, with few cinematic tricks up its sleeve, but one with a unique premise that continually pays off.  While the two leads are forgettable, the kind of people you’d walk right by on the street without a second thought, we learn little about them except they’re tired of living under the thumb of rude, overbearing authority figures, where they fantasize about taking matters into their own hands.  Tina grows out of control, where female empowerment never looked so good, as Chris can’t hide the bodies fast enough, where he’s constantly chiding her lack of ethics when it comes to serial killing.  Something of an English holiday from Hell, visiting tourist sites few would ever think to actually visit, like the Crich Tramway Village, the Blue John Cavern, the Keswick Pencil Museum, or the picturesque Ribblehead Viaduct, before finally reaching a mountainous destination by the end, where there always seems to be a steep ledge making it ever so convenient to push an unsuspecting body into the waiting darkness.  Entertaining, to say the least, and darkly sarcastic, where Chris justifies one of his killings with “He's not a person, he's a Daily Mail reader,” finally drowned out by the sounds of GLORIA JONES- "TAINTED LOVE" (1964) - YouTube (2:14).