What happens when life doesn't go as planned? When the simple expectations that we set for ourselves and others fall way below acceptable standards? Many of us end up lost, wandering in a haze of confusion and misdirection that, if left unchecked, can put us on a destructive course that we may never recover from. The real world is cold, harsh, and unforgiving, though we are brought up to believe otherwise. This simple and unwavering fact lies at the core of Jen and Sylvia Soska's new film "American Mary".
Mary Mason is a medical student, a starving medical student more to the point. She is alone in the big city, trying her best to survive her schooling which brings the promise of a well-paying career. She is dedicated and enthusiastic, but also a little bit desperate. The world seems to be closing in on her from all sides, Proctors on one end and bill collectors on the other. With no other alternatives, Mary seeks a job as an exotic dancer, after all, the money's good and more importantly, immediate. Arriving at the low rent and downright seedy strip joint (say "seedy strip Joint" with a New York accent for proper effect), she meets owner Billy Barker, who might as well be wearing a shirt that says scum bucket on it, or so we assume.
Mary is an innocent, in its purest form. She brings a resume to her strip club interview, just in case he might request it. This is the first of many complexities in the film. Usually, its takes a smart and seasoned individual to bother bringing a well-maintained resume with them to a job interview (trust me, that statement is surprisingly and alarmingly true), but it takes an innocent to bring a resume to an interview at a strip club. Not to mention the fact that we have an innocent girl applying to work at a strip club in the first place. Some people may find the entire scenario unlikely, but I've known many young women in a similar situation who end up doing the same thing, because dancing for money and showing some flash sounds much better than sitting alone in a dark and empty apartment with nothing but your thoughts.
It's not only the innocence but also her sense of professionalism that sets Mary's life on a collision course with madness. In the middle of the interview, one of Billy's guys burst in and informs him that they've got a serious problem. Annoyed and angry Billy runs out, telling Mary to stay put. This is the first of many turns in the film. Billy returns, desperate, demanding to know how far along Mary is as a surgeon. Being satisfied with her answer he offers her $5000 cash, no questions asked, for a patch job. Mary handles it and walks out $5000 richer but leaving her resume behind. This almost immediately leads to a second job, a larger job that calls upon all of her skills as a surgeon, and requires her to learn a few new ones.
Once the money has a grip on her, it begins to dictate the course of her actions, and of course this happens quickly. With cash in hand, Mary handles her business as well as treating herself to some new threads. This doesn't go unnoticed by the surgeons at her school, and soon Mary finds herself invited to very swank party. So desperate for approval and overwhelmed at the thought of socializing with the medical professionals that she so desires to be, she doesn't question it and the Mary that walks through the hotel door is never truly seen again.
American Mary is a downwards spiral of a film and I mean that in the best way. It's first and foremost a horror film, but it's also equal parts a cautionary tale, and maybe even a little bit romantic comedy. It's a tale not only of innocence lost but also innocence found. As Mary's life seems to spiral out of control many of the characters whose lives are jaded and chaotic reclaim their innocence and find focus through her. And for a moment they all seem to be on the same page, but the reality is that they're ships in the night, heading in opposite directions.
Mary has a pet bird; it's interesting to note that once Mary accepts her position as a back alley surgeon and moves into a new place that can also serve as her office, we never really see the bird again. Its cage remains covered. In the East, birds symbolize the departed soul, and in the West, the bird symbolizes the saved soul. Mary seems to be Hungarian, and Hungry is considered the transitional country between the East and the West. Which does the Bird represent? Since it remains covered, it can be thought of as both departed and saved, dead and alive. Perhaps it's a reference to Schrödinger's cat. Either way, the principal remains the same. No, I'm not over-thinking the film, it really is that deep.
American Mary is a deeply effective film. You can't help but fall in love with Mary and want to save her, and she wants to be saved, but won't let you. Like the best films, it will haunt you for days afterward, forcing you to play out scenarios in your head where the sun would rise and better decisions would be made.
Katharine Isabelle is Mary Mason and is absolutely captivating. In the many great performances she has had over the years this is her finest. She owns the character and the film every second that she is on screen, causing us to feel emotions that are constantly at odds with each other, and that takes subtlety and talent.
Antonio Cupo, who plays Billy, the strip club owner is truly endearing. As we get to know him through his actions we find that he is not the two-dimensional thug we perceive him as at the beginning of the film, but Mary's counterpart, a little boy who got lost along the way and is just doing what he needs to do to survive.
Tristan risk as Beatrice Johnson, the living Bettie Boop stripper, kind of represents choice in the film. She is a saint and sinner, Mary's salvation and she could end up being her undoing. Beatrice is a woman who has the best intentions, but whose world is violent, unpredictable, and most of all, unforgiving.
Lance Delgreggo, Billy's strong arm and Mary's protector, is played by Twan Holliday. A leather clad enforcer whose performance may be the film's most poignant, in the sense that he's the only one that brings out the light and Mary's eyes, if only for instant.
And finally, Paula Lindberg as Ruby Realgirl, the ultimate in duality represented on screen. Ruby is the innocent sex symbol, the beginning and the end, the cause and effect and in some ways, the moral center of the film.
Every one of these performances is crucial to the film and I do not hesitate to say that each of these characters is important to the story no matter how large or small the part.
This brings us to the Soska sisters. The girls are wise beyond their years and talented beyond reason. That may sound heavy-handed, but I've seen many many films by many many writer-directors and it takes a very special person, or persons, to make a film this perfect on their sophomore try. The last person to do it was David Fincher with his film "Seven" and that was almost 20 years ago.
With Dead Hooker in the Trunk, Jen and Sylvia Soska showed the horror community that they can make complete and entertaining film with almost no money. With American Mary, they're about to show the world what they can do when you write them a check. Beautifully composed shots, lighting that conveys warmth while sustaining the feeling of cold isolation, and layers of imagery and emotional substance, this is a film to be absorbed, and you will do so with minimal effort. A film about hope and love as much as it's about violence and violent intent.
I urge everyone to see this film and support it. An original horror idea by arguably the next great film-making team and brought to life by true artists. American Mary is the type of film you can discover again and again, seeing something new each time you watch it. There are so few of those films out there and even fewer filmmakers capable of telling a story in such a way. I've met the future of horror; its last name is Soska.
Read all my American Mary coverage at sinfulcelluloid.com
American Mary was by far the best Horror film of 2012 in my opinion.Directed brilliantly by Jen and Sylvia Soska It was Raw,Gritty and Fearless.
(Katharine Isabelle)in the Title role as Mary Mason was amazing and never faltered in her performance who's dialogue went from dead serious to humorous at a moments notice.
Mary is a Medical Student studying to be a surgeon, she gets down on her luck and needs some quick cash in which along the way she meets some real amazingly freaky characters and gets mixed up in Body modification and eventually revenge that involves unwanted Body modification.
You do not want to mess with Mary that is for sure.She has some help in the form of an underground sex club owner who may or may not be in love with her. The gore and effects are amazing and the film is beautifully shot.In this respect and other respects it reminds me of Asian extreme cinema such as (Audition) (I saw The Devil) etc but the English version.
I paid 40 dollars for this import because it is the uncut version and it is worth every cent, the one being released in June in rated R and has about 6 minutes cut from it.
Buy American Mary (2012) Now
I am totally disappointed in this so-called horror flick. I pre-ordered it based on published reviews...2 months before it was released. What a mistake. The parts I remember most are the agonizing sounds of Mary's cell phone chimes. If I counted correctly, 37 times this phone rang in the movie...and each time it took away from the moment/mood. I think the 1-star topper is at the end of the film when the police are more concerned about carrying Mary's birdcage out of her apartment than focusing on the crime. What a lame script. In fact, there really wasn't a script and nothing creepy...just some blood-filled slicing (way overdone). I urge others to save their money. This is not what it was built up to be. I am a horror film fanatic and this one does not make it into my Top 200. This takes horror films to a new all-time low.
Read Best Reviews of American Mary (2012) Here
"American Mary" is about a young female medical student (Katherine Isabel) who turns to a world of body modification surgery in order to pay her way through medical school. The movie turns too bizarre right around the middle, and as a result, it fails because of a lack of character development.
In some ways this film is similar to "Excision" because is has a strong female lead and focuses the majority of its running time on a bizarre fixation with surgery. "Excision" was a success because the audience was able to connect with its lead characters. This film, however, takes a look at the underground world of plastic and cosmetic surgery, and it would all have been spectacular if the viewer was able to maintain any type of emotional connection to any of the film's stars. The cast does a good job, but the script is lacking, and at times, random characters who have nothing to do with the plot are introduced and their actions are often unexplained. As a horror film goes, this is better than most of what's out there, especially in the acting and production department. But this film could have been something special with a bit better script and better development of its characters.
Want American Mary (2012) Discount?
Horror films can be a tough sell. There are so many of them produced under conventional means i.e. follow the basic `scare' formula but every now and then one comes along with a flair all of its own, with a style all of its own, with a look all its own. That's a cause for celebration however modest because flair, freshness, and originality aren't exactly available with every feature. AMERICAN MARY has some wonderful touches, and on those points alone I think it's definitely worth seeing. Will it be entirely satisfying? I think that depends upon your personal tastes and expectations for character development.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and characters. If you're the kind of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, this ain't it! Still, I'd encourage you to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you're accepting of a few modest hints at `things to come,' then read on ...)
Mary Mason (played by the comely Katharine Isabelle) is your typical med school student struggling to make ends meet. She's about to be kicked out of her classes for failing to keep up on her tuition payments when she answers an advertisement at a strip club for performing erotic massage. Before the night is over, she's swept into a world of underground surgery fixing up a victim for the club's owner which only opens the door to an even stranger off-the-records business of body augmentation. Suddenly, she's up to her elbows in blood and stitches. What's an American Mary to do?
It's easy to give kudos to AMERICAN MARY for attempting something original because, largely, that's what writer/director/sisters/stars Jen and Sylvia Soska did. Unfortunately, that's all they did, as they amped up the `weird for the sake of being weird' factor but heavily scrimped on any (and I do mean ANY) emotional connection between these characters. That's what I found a shame to the picture I wanted to not so much `like' Mary Mason (I don't believe filmmakers ever really intend for us to like their villainous creations) but I wanted to fully `appreciate' the journey she was on. However, Mary as played by Katharine Isabelle approaches the role preand post-catharsis (her rape and the subsequent descent into medical madness) absolutely devoid of any emotion. In other words, before being awakened to this weird subculture, Mary behaves mostly passionless to all things; and, after being awakened to the same, she's still pretty much passionless. Before being raped by what must be the most downright evil portrayal of a college professor/surgeon, she's passionless about life; and, after the assault, she's still pretty much devoid of any feelings.
Now, maybe (and I do say MAYBE) that's what the sisters Soska wanted to show that Mary was always destined to be what she became, that she was never going to be a victim in her world but, if that was the case, how is it she could still casually dismiss the only person in this world her ever cared about her her `Nana' by simply deleting her telephone contact once she learned she died and THEN sit sulking in the dark? If she wasn't going to be a victim of her emotions, then why the one scene sulking? If it was to convey "see, she's only human after all," then they've changed their message. If it that wasn't the intent, then why include such a trivial plot development at all?
That's the thing about Mary I never know how she thinks about anything. As a character, she simply `does' what she does. At times, much of the film felt like what others call `torture porn,' but I never got the sense as a viewer that Mary took any delight in torturing those that she did. The only legitimate display of emotion I can recall in the entire piece was when she was almost discovered, was konked over the head by a security guard, and then got back up and beat the young man (presumably to death). While her face showed little emotion, her body betrayed her, thumping and thumping and thumping away on the body the way she did. That was the only real emotional development Mary suffered, so I'm still left wondering what it was all about.
AMERICAN MARY is produced by IndustryWorks Pictures, 430 Productions, American Mary Productions, and Twisted Twins Productions. DVD distribution is being handled through XLrator Media. As for the technical specifications, the film looks and sounds mostly very solid, though there's one really strangely miked club sequence wherein vocal levels clearly are out of whack (not a big deal, I just like mentioning these little things when I see `em). The disc offers a making of short as well as a director's commentary, if you're so inclined.
RECOMMENDED. AMERICAN MARY is slow. At 100-plus minutes and all the glowing praise I've read for the film, I was really expecting something more than just `weird for weird's sake.' I don't know that this world this bizarre body modification culture is real (I suspect it is), but I kept wondering what the Soska Sisters were trying to say about it since it didn't seem particularly `American,' particularly `Mary' (i.e. routine, predictable), or particularly anything other than the portrait of a really unconventional class of people bordering on torture porn. When I don't know what the message is, I don't know what to take away from the experience; when I don't know what to take away, then I'm left to my own devices ... this time out, my devices haven't a clue.
Superb (m/r)ockumentary of the semi-fictitious band "Spinal Tap", made up of Michael McKean ("Lenny", soul mate of Squigy, on the TV series "Laverne & Shirley"), Christopher Guest (actor/director of "Waiting for Guffman"), Harry Shearer (performs voices of 22 different characters on "The Simpsons"), and a random selection of ever-changing drummers. The movie is a tongue-in-cheek parody of washed-up hard rock bands that still think they are God's gift to the universe. The inspired idiocy borders on genius at times, lending weight to Michael's observation that there is a "fine line between stupid and clever".
