May

[jere7my]

I just watched May. Chances are, you haven't heard of it. It's excellent and simple, just a portrait of a girl: painfully awkward, her every emotion naked on her face, desperate for a friend. She sews her own clothes; she works at an animal hospital; she cuts herself to relax. She falls so hard and so easily it wrenches your heart out; the entire film takes place (figuratively) in the slow-motion seconds leading up to the car wreck.

If I could recommend it without telling you the genre, I would, but people would be mad at me: it's a horror film. Try not to learn any more about it than that, though; don't read the back of the box or the blurb in TV Guide. It's less gory than Pulp Fiction, but very much more chilling; still, if you can't watch horror movies, you won't be able to watch this.

creed_of_hubris asked, in a comment, if I thought there was something wrong with people who didn't like horror movies. No, of course not; people who are disturbed by graphic violence really won't be able to enjoy them, which is fine. But I think May is a good example of what they're missing: it's a strong, original, independent film with unpredictable dialogue and a standout performance from Angela Bettis, who is, all at once, awkward and haunted and sexy and needy. But it's also a horror movie, so people who can't watch horror movies will miss out on something cool. I don't mean to judge anyone: I'm sure I miss cool things all the time, by being unable to appreciate rap and wish-fulfillment pagan fantasy novels and mushrooms. But I see anything that limits our capacity for experience and art as...unfortunate.

Horror is just another genre, and I believe the quality of art is independent of genre; any given genre can produce both art and crap. If you're unable to stomach horror, that's fine and dandy; if you dismiss it, like silly people dismiss comic books and science fiction, I take issue.

Don't dismiss May; if you can stand it, watch it.

Comments

Horror

[ultranurd.livejournal.com]

I don't like horror because of the stuff-jumping-out element. I don't have a need to activate my fight-or-flight response with a movie. I can handle the gratuitous violence (hence a lot of heavier action or war films that I enjoy), but I don't like the horror context. Also, I have a good memory, which means I have a hard time shaking the imagery, which in turn means that I tend to have bad dreams about these sorts of movies. I can get freaked out even from a vaguely horrific scene in a movie, or at least I did when I was little. See, for example, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or even X-files: Fight the Future. Inverting faces and assimilating black goo... not good for my mental state.

Re: Horror

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

I don't like horror because of the stuff-jumping-out element.

Hmm...that's not a defining feature of the genre. May really doesn't have any fast movement at all in it, though there are some disturbing quick cuts; all of the horror is contextual, rather than adrenal. Same goes for Ringu, and various other artsy horror films I like.

Alien, sure—plenty of things jumping out.

I have a hard time shaking the imagery, which in turn means that I tend to have bad dreams about these sorts of movies.

That's more of a concern with May.