'The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes' This movie is mostly just another brisk recounting of a much-scrutinized actor’s tragic life, coupled with some unconvincing and often confusing coverage of the conspiracy theories surrounding Monroe’s death. Director Emma Cooper’s cinematic style and her blend of fiction and nonfiction techniques are reminiscent of the documentarian Chris Smith (an executive producer on this movie) and those gimmicks do keep “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe” lively. The film is based on Anthony Summers’ acclaimed 1985 biography “Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe” - or, more accurately, it’s based on Summers’ research for the book, which the Irish journalist describes at length in interviews that are then backed up by audio from his files, lip-synched by actors. The shameless sensationalism hinted at by the title of the documentary “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes” exemplifies what’s wrong with the picture. What happens next isn’t especially surprising from a plot perspective, though Brunner does a fine job of conveying how the harsh, forbidding landscape where Johannes and Maria live distorts the way they engage with the secular world.
When real estate developers try to drive the family off their land, Johannes interprets their intrusion as more of a spiritual trial than as routine economic pressure. Franz Rogowski gives a riveting performance as Johannes, a man-child who has spent nearly his whole life in the mountains with his deeply religious mother, Maria (Susanne Jensen). Writer-director Peter Brunner is aiming for something more like an unflinching, Werner Herzog-style portrait of people living on society’s fringes. Though it’s described as “inspired by the true story of an exorcism,” the German psychodrama “Luzifer” doesn’t have much in common with any pulpy supernatural thrillers about demons and possession. Even hating their abuser is a form of caring about him - and thus another kind of control. This fascinating and at times, frightening film’s starkest moment of insight comes when Jillian and Blair realize the liberation they feel in trashing Seth is itself a trap.
Culler and Raite and their leads capture the ways the heavy fog of psychological manipulation can linger even for people taking active steps to dispel it. At times, it’s like they’re reciting tidbits from the NXIVM Wikipedia page.īut an excellent cast and some skillful direction goes a long way toward making “The Aviary” feel genuinely revealing. If anything, the movie’s biggest weakness is that much of the running time consists of Jillian and Blair’s exhausted conversations out in the wilderness, in which they recall what they went through in the cult: being forced to lose weight, to share secrets and to brand each other’s skin. The writer-director team of Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite (making a strong feature filmmaking debut) don’t disguise the connections between Skylight and NXIVM. As they flee the group’s charismatic leader, Seth (Chris Messina), the starving fugitives begin to hallucinate - and then to doubt each other’s motives. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.If you’ve watched any of the documentaries about the NXIVM cult, you’ll recognize a lot of the details in the intense escape drama “The Aviary.” Malin Akerman plays Jillian, who as the movie begins is trudging through the desert with Blair (Lorena Izzo), a woman she recruited into Skylight: a wellness organization that manipulates its members through deprivation and abuse, NXIVM-style.
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