1922: Killing is Bad, m'kay?

1922 is the latest Stephen King adaptation to come out this year and the second to be released and distributed by Netflix. Directed by Zak Hilditch, the film follows the James family as they endure internal fighting in 1922, leading to father Wilfred and his son Henry (Thomas Jane and Dylan Schmid, respectfully) murdering Arlette, the family's unloving wife and neglectful mother. Without getting into spoiler territory, the rest of the film details the effects the murder has on the family, leading to complete misery.
In a year in which It was very good, Gerald's Game was very good, and The Dark Tower..... was a movie, I think 1922 takes the cake and is also one of the better King adaptations of the past 30 years, maybe all time. While I don't think the film holds a candle to King's best adaptations, I do think it is easily on of his ten best.
All of the performances here are terrific, especially Thomas Jane. Jane was previously in another King adaptation The Mist and now returns to give the performance of his career. Even though his character is a cold blooded murderer, Jane is able to give his character s strong level of likability and sympathy. Dylan Schmid's performance as the son Henry was also great, especially considering his role had to have the most range associated with it. Schmid has to go from innocent quiet farm boy to selfish mean spirited in the blink of an eye, something a young actor like himself pulls of quite convincingly. To round out the cast is Molly Parker as the cold Arlette. Parker is also fantastic here as she is terrific at playing such a soulless, selfish, unlikable character. She's so unlikable that it doesn't surprise me that the two guys wanted her dead.
The atmosphere of the film is also terrific as the film feels very eerie and tense throughout. This is a combination of the directing, the solid musical score, and the setting. A horror film set on a mid American farm is nothing new, but the reason for that is because it can be so effective. With the score, it sounds eerily similar to The Shawshank Redemption (ironically another King adaptation), except there is something much darker and sinister going on with it. You can just tell listening to the music that something bad is going to happen. I think the score played a big part in making the film as good as it was. Finally is the directing by Hilditch, who clearly had a good vision for the story and what he wanted to bring to the table. Instead of directing it as a straight horror film, Hilditch decides to film it more as a drama-psychological thriller that definitely helps to distinguish itself from other King works as well as the other horror films to come out this year.
The final thing I strongly want to focus on here is the fantastic themes of the film. Even though what Wilfred and Henry do is completely wrong, they still do have actually decent reasons. Not only is Arlette the definition of a woman you don't want to be a mother or wife, but she was going to uproot the family to the city, destroying Wilfred's livelihood and ruining Henry's relationship with a farm girl which clearly is more than just a fling. On top of all of that, neither character is inherently a bad person. That all said, the murder destroys their lives as Wilfred begins to slip into madness and Henry life is ruined as he falls down a path of crime. What makes this all the much better is that they both get away with it in the end. It really is great to see a movie that deals with murder and is bold enough to say that maybe going to jail isn't the worst consequence of murder. This is all summed up by Wilfred at the end of the film with his final lines being, "In the end, we all get caught." He might not have been caught by the police, but he was caught in a much darker, moral way. So many films romanticize murder making it look like nothing. This is a film that decides instead to show what murder might actually do to someone psychologically.
It is a horrible thing to take another human being's life, something that is against every human law this Earth has ever had. It is never okay, even if you have the "best intentions." Murder is something you'll have to live with for the rest of your life, behind bars or not. To my future child, it is never okay to kill someone, no matter what. To finish with a quote from Clint Eastwood's Best Picture Winner Unforgiven: "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have."
Anyways, if you get a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it, especially with Halloween just around the corner.

Gypsy------->This show messes with your mind

Gypsy is a show that makes the viewers reintegrate their way of thinking. Every line that is spoken can be interpreted through a billion different ways. 

The director captures the viewers in the introduction scene by the epic and intense music choice. The first image that actually appears on screen is a blurred background that then fades into a crowd of people walking about a train station. Not only is this shot interesting for the eye, but the monologue said by Jean Holloway (main character, who is also known as Dianne) is one to make you think deeply of your existence here on this planet, and your relationships with those who surround you. Secondly, the camera crew and the set managers set up each scene in such a surreal light that some viewers may even question is this real life or not. The angles and lighting set a theme for each scene and those two things work wonders when trying to persuade the viewers on who everyone is and what characteristics are important. Foreshadowing plays an enormous role in setting a “feel” for the show Gypsy; but in order for the viewers to notice the foreshadowing that occurs they would have to rewatch the episode again, and after I rewatched the first episode, I noticed so many new ques that I had missed the first time around. Jean/ Dianne oddly speaks of, “us all having secrets” and then goes into saying “you never really know a person truly bc people hide things.” Even right there I feel as if that is foreshadowing for her life, because I know she is hiding something. To support that statement, Jean goes to the coffee shop and orders a drink by the name of Dianne, later one of her psychiatric patients point out, “who’s Dianne” and she then quickly replies, “ohhh i must have picked up someone else's coffee.” There are a ton of miniscule details that Gypsy is built on, and it’s the viewer's responsibility to connect all the dots. Another interesting choice that the set director made, was the fact that every single one of Dr. Holloways patients outfits happens to be color coordinated to the backdrop of where they are sitting in the office. Also, when talking to the patients, the angles they are shot in are obscure. The backdrop is weird and unevenly faded behind them, it’s almost like half of the backdrop is in focus and the other half is not. Something that intrigues the viewers to want more from each is that all of the patients eyes have something special and mysterious about them. All the eyes seem to be hurt but yet they still have this bright and glossy feel to them. I can only think to describe these eyes as “lost eyes” or having “lost souls”. If you hate a show that has no consistency, Gypsy is not for you. Although one thing that does have consistency throughout the scenes is color. For example the colors of the set, clothes, and accessories are all centered around shades of blue and white. I have not yet uncovered what significance these colors have, but perhaps the white could be a representation of the pure and innocent life Jean claims she’s living. 

If you need something in your life to make you think about your conscience mind, and what’s real in this world or not, Gypsy is the show for you.