Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a film from 2010 starring Leonardo Dicaprio as the main character, Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal. The year is 1954, and he is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Ashecliffe Hospital located on a mysterious island called Shutter Island. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders if he has been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose strange treatments are unethical and sinister. Teddy's clever investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would give him more information about the case. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals try to escape in the confusion, and the puzzling clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

In the end, a major plot twist is revealed. It turns out that "Teddy" is actually a delusional mental patient in the hospital, not a U.S. marshal. He murdered his depressed wife Dolores Chanal after she drowned their three children. Because he was a mental patient at the hospital, the doctors decided to try a role-play experiment to allow him to live out his delusional fantasy in order to come to terms with reality. The treatment plan works, and he is retold what has happened to him and he accepts what he did to his wife. However, in the final scene he relapses to a delusional state. It is implied that he is faking his relapse so he will not have to deal with the mental suffering of his act, because he feels personally responsible for his wife murdering their children.

 

Rotten Tomatoes

The other day my friends and I were sitting around wondering what movie to see. I was amazed the first question that was asked when I proposed a movie was "what did it get on rotten tomatoes?." Its amazing how much this movie review website impacts our decision on going to see a film. Rotten Tomatoes was created in 1998 by a man named Senh Duong. Its name comes from the cliche of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes or vegetables disapproving a poor performance on stage. Senh Duong created the site because he was inspired by Jackie Chan films and wanted to make a website for reviews for his films. The website became a complete success and in 2010 the website was sold to Flixster. Whats so great about the site is that it won't give me the typical film critique, it will cut the crap and tell me if a movie is either good or bad. But because we have become dependent upon this websites review it will hurt the film industry in general. For me, a film has to be a certain percentage for me to actually go and spend money to see it. For me, and other fans of this website it gives films a certain standard to be able to take my money.

Marwencol

     Last week, I attended a showing of the film Marwencol (2010), directed by Jeff Malmberg, at the Ithaca College Handwerker Gallery. The documentary follows Mark Hoganhamp, a victim of a brutal assault that left him with severe brain trauma. Mark had to start from scratch. He lost all of his memory when a group of teenagers viciously attacked him outside of a bar. Hogancamp recovered after a limited period of rehabilitation and returned home. He was having trouble going back to his life because he barely knew who he was. He created a fictional town called Marwencol, in his backyard, and used military dolls to represent the characters that he created. The town was like therapy to him. One doll represents himself, one his dream wife, and many other dolls represent his friends in real life. Hogancamp started to capture stills of Marwencol town life with his cameras and keep the hundreds of developed pictures in boxes. A photographer asks what he was doing one day when he was dragging a toy jeep along the side of the road. Hogancamp told him that he takes pictures and the people are real to him. The photographer was interested in the idea and kept in touch with Hogancamp. Many aspects of Mark's life are highlighted but the photographer he meets convinces him to have a showing of his work at a NYC art gallery. Hogancamp summons the courage to make the trip to his own show but he isn't sure how to be social with many people when he arrives at the exhibition.

http://www.marwencol.com/   
(^^^CHECK OUT THE TRAILER AND LEARN ABOUT THE MOVIE ABOVE.)

I thought that the documentary was missing a few parts that the audience would've liked to see. I would've liked to hear about his ex-wife that he cannot remember and only sees in past wedding videos. I would also like to know what happened to the teenagers and if he has any family and their reactions to his fictional world. I don't think the documentary was trying to milk Hogancamp's story by any means but the photographer in the film seemed to take advantage of Mark. The photographer thought that his pictures were interesting so he blew them up onto large canvas and organized re-prints on the gallery's walls with Hogancamp's knowledge of how his work was composed. No one can understand Mark's world and the photographer seems to make it seem like Mark isn't normal and his world is just a spectacle to others, not his life. I recommend you watch this unlikely story because it is truly amazing and unique in so many ways.