Yes, No, Maybe So: "Sucker Punch"

This goes out to anyone who caught the Sucker Punch trailer and anyone who cares about women as action heroes. Which, as you know, The Film Experience does. Unfortunately caring about something and enjoying it in practice are two different things. In practice there are so many things that can go wrong...

The trailer begins with an abused girl fights back set-up (a blouse ripped off and a  button flying in slo-mo. Suggested rape as your opening gambit? Distasteful). Emily Browning is playing the lead role of "Baby Doll" and reading the summaries, I see something about a lobotomy? Is that why the performance looks so sleepy/blank? Not promising. But soon enough Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone appear and seem to be channeling the kind of badass bitch energy that films like this need as life blood. They're both good actresses and I'm especially curious to see Abbie let loose given that I've mostly seen her in heavy dramas, corseted or otherwise.

There's some sort of Matrix like plot where reality is not reality... but we're in Baby Doll's imagination instead which, as it turns out, is like a parodic version of the imagination of a teenage boy: in her alternate reality, she's a master swordswoman / hooker who fights giant samurais, robots, zombies, aircraft, and dragons. She's backed up by a whole army of interchangeable blonde sex workers with machine guns.

Who knew that hookers were criminally insane, that their imaginations were so similar to teen boys, or that their favorite movies were Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Beowulf and 300?

On the other hand...

You wants us to watch the über watchable CARLA GUGINO doing a funky accent while ruling over a posse of criminally insane burlesque backup dancers? I mean... hells yeah. Count me in... as long as the movie is so bad it's good and knows how absolutely stoopid it is. (Past history suggests, unfortunately, that Zach Snyder is way too earnest a filmmaker to do justice to the ridiculous content of his movies. And Dawn of the Dead showed such promise, damnit.)

Summaries of Sucker Punch's confusing "girl retreats into imaginary universe to escape her wicked father" storyline, suggest that Carla is one of the villains. But in the trailer, she seems to be playing Laurence Fishburne's "Morpheus"" to Browning's idiot cousin version of "Neo." I have a loftier film icon in mind for Carla's gifts: Can't someone give her her own Cristal (Showgirls) level "Goddess" role soon. Time is running out.  'She's gettin a little old for that whorey look.'

Are you a yes, no or maybe so? 

I'm leaning hell no unless I hear that the lively cast of supporting actresses are fun enough to redeem the non-entity central role -- if this trailer is indication (let's hope it's not) Browning has only three expressions in her arsenal: scared, constipated, braindead. Can the fun cast make any kind of impression amongst the visual chaos/violent excess of Zach Snyder's sexual fantasies Baby Doll's imagination?

Related articles: Watchmen review
Action Heroine blog-a-thon
*

Royal Shooting.

Jose here.

I've always wondered if Madonna shouts "Vogue!" instead of "action" when she's directing.

And you can't blame me!
<--This picture of hers, as she began shooting W.E last week in London, totally screams "strike a pose" huh?
We have discussed this movie before but in case you need a quick pick up, the film centers on the affair between American socialite Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII.
Yet instead of going for a straightforward biopic thing, the Queen went for a Julie and Julia twist in which a modern woman (played by Abbie Cornish) looks for inspiration in the royal scandal to help her decide between two men in her life (one of them being the constantly interesting Oscar Isaac).

The biggest change in the movie was the news that Vera Farmiga, who was set to play Wallis, dropped out due to her pregnancy.
But never one to wait for anyone (time goes by so slowly for those who wait...) Madge went ahead and cast a practically unknown actress by the name of Andrea Riseborough.

After thinking how weird this casting was, I actually took a moment to look Andrea up and lo and behold,


Andrea and Wallis

At least we have the looks alright!
Andrea has won a BAFTA TV award, two Ian Charleson awards and has appeared in small parts in movies like Happy-Go-Lucky and Venus (where she played a character merely listed as "actress") this could be her big movie break. She will also appear in the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go later this year.

Whether you like her or not, it can't be said that Madonna doesn't have drive. The film will feature costumes by John Galliano, a screenplay by Alek Keshishian who directed Truth or Dare (Madge's best film) and who obviously has a keen eye for exploring the most intimate moments in a celebrity's life.
If anything in W.E. slightly recalls the magic between Madge and Warren Beatty for example, we're going to be onto something here...

Dear UK readers, should we be excited about Andrea in this movie? Is she a worthy replacement for Farmiga?
Is anyone else actually excited about this movie? Or am I alone in this?

"puff, smoke, dissolve"

Charles Brown: What have I done to you?
Fanny Brawne: You do nothing to me...or for me. And that's how I'd prefer to keep it.
Charles: What?
Fanny: Your offense is to my fashion, Mr. Brown. To which I'm so helplessly slavish.
Charles: I have been ill quoted.

Fanny: "Her obsession with flounce and cross stitch"...?
Charles: Cross stitch. Miss Brawne, I don't even know what that means.
Fanny: I feel the same way about your poems Mr. Brown. I know nothing of what they mean. They puff, smoke, dissolve... leaving nothing but irritation.

[Great moments in screen bitchery #931]

Abbie Cornish (seamstress) and Paul Schneider (poet) butt heads in Bright Star (2009). And this is their first exchange! They'll be at each other's throats for the next 2 hours. [Bright Star, so horrifically snubbed in Oscar World, won 3 gold and 4 bronze medals at this site's 10th annual awards ceremony.]