The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

We watch a lot of films, mostly not blockbusters. They tend to go onto our Netflix queue and often stay there until we have forgotten which of us added them or why. About 24 minutes into the 2004 film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, we each asked the other where this had come from.

Our phone rang at about this time, and we had a nice chat with Pam's mother. We mentioned we were watching a strange film (which is not really unusual for us) and that we were not sure we were going to finish it.

But after the call, we decided to give it a bit more of a chance -- a dark and tedious film does sometimes take a turn, after all -- and we resumed watching this tale of a young boy whose birth mother wins custody from the foster-care system, only to bring him into a life of neglect and abuse.

Almost immediately upon resuming our viewing, Our Noni was on the screen, though it took both of us a little while to recognize her. She was speaking with an unconvincing Southern accent, playing some sort of social worker "interviewing" the abused child who is at the center of this story. So there was our answer -- as Noni completists, we needed to watch the rest of this film.

Winona's character never returned, and although the interview could have been an important part of the story, no further reference was made to it. It seems that she was just one more in  a long line of characters who let down this child.

Probing the IMDb entry for what we might be missing about this film, we see this claim:

Behind the greatest hoax of our time is the heartbreaking story that started it all.

The poster captured above cites a "true story," but it is only true that this film illustrates the hoax; the story of the hoax is told in the 2016 film Author: The JT Leroy Story. The release of a film about the hoax perpetrated by the author behind The Heart is Deceitful may explain why the 2004 film finally reached video -- it had been on our Netflix "saved" list for years. Dennis Harvey's review in Variety calls the new film a "first-rate documentary about a remarkable literary hoax," but I doubt we will be watching it any time soon.

From the IMDb listing for The Heart is Deceitful, we also learned that Asia Argento has quite a loyal following. She wrote, directed, and starred in this film, and her defenders insist that it is an important and realistic portrayal of the uncomfortable subject of child abuse. The depravity is vivid and convincing, but the story is not well told. We gain little insight into mother or son or even into what connects them, beyond a few poignant indicators of their dependency on each other. There is no interior life, and there is no self-awareness.

Earlier in the evening, we had read an article in Fortune about a recent study of diversity -- or lack thereof -- in Hollywood. Among other things, it found -- not surprisingly -- that lack of diversity behind the camera contributes to lack of diversity in front of the screen. In particular, the inclusion of female writers and directors leads to better inclusion of women in films, as indicated by the Bechdel test. The Heart is Deceitful is a counter-example. Writer/director/star Asia Argento does not offer any dialog between female characters that might give the story more nuance.

Final Verdict: One croquet ball. This film employs Ryder only briefly, and does not employ her well.

A Scanner Darkly

Well, this one was just weird. We'd seen it once before and the only thing we really remembered about it was that it had some funky animation. A Scanner Darkly was filmed as live action, and then the animators drew around everything. It was an interesting effect, but the novelty wore off after about the first 15 minutes. The visual technique resulted in images that were just enough removed from photographic clarity that Our Noni felt comfortable making this her topless cinematic debut.

Our Winona plays Donna Hawthorne, the love interest of Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves). Arctor is an undercover police officer who succumbs to the effects of a new drug called Substance D. He is in some sort of weird meta-investigation wherein he is investigating himself, while his superiors pretend that they don't know that that's what's happening. Our Winona's part is not a big one, so she is not given opportunity to shine here, but no one else really does a great job either. The movie is worth watching just because its not the same old same old, and does have a few unexpected twists.

We first heard about this film from an extensive Terry Gross interview with director Richard Linklater around the time of its release.

Final Verdict: Three Croquet Balls

Girl, Interrupted

Based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her time spent as a patient in a mental institution, this film stars Our Winona in the title role. She plays well with co-stars Angelina Jolie (as fellow patient Lisa Rowe); Whoopi Goldberg (as-to-good-to-be-true nurse Valerie Owens); and a very young Elizabeth Moss - of Mad Men Fame - as Polly "Torch" Clark.

After combining a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka Kasen reluctantly commits herself to Claymoore Hospital. Questions about her medications go unanswered, and the patients begin their own black market for trading drugs they want for those they don't. Each of the patients on the women's ward battles her own demons, and they can sometimes be cruel to each other. However, their fierce protection of each other is also evident. In one sadly funny scene the patients all go in to town for ice cream as a good-bye send off to one of their own. There they encounter Barbara Gilcrest (Mary Kay Place) the wife of a professor Susanna slept with. When Gilcrest confronts Kasen her cohorts go all out in playing up their mental illnesses in order to scare Gilcrest off.

The tumult inside of Claymoore Hospital parallels what is going on historically during the late 1960s as Susanna's boyfriend, Toby, flees to Canada after getting his draft notice and news of Civil Rights  struggles continue. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll are all part of the backdrop.

Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls