Stoker

On the flight over, I watched the 2012 film Stoker, starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman.

It's a psychological thriller about a mysterious teenage girl named India whose father dies, which prompts a long-lost uncle to visit her and her mother. Mayhem ensues! 

Matthew Goode plays the creep-tastic Uncle Charlie. He feels a special connection towards his niece India and soon takes her under his wing ... but not in a good sense.

I think I liked this movie most in the stylistic sense. The mise-en-scene is so carefully orchestrated (look at me using fancy film terms!). I lightly read some analyses of the film and about what certain colors represent, and you can see how prominent a few colors are in the screencaps I included... 

Since I watched the film on a flight, I think some of the more gruesome and explicit parts were left out, which is fine by me. The flight version was creepy (in the best sense of the word) nonetheless. 

I love Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode as actors. He is beautiful, she is beautiful. Look at these two! And I'll never forget this video of Matthew Goode. In love.

I think it got a lot of mixed reviews, but just so you know, Richard Roeper gave it 3.5 our of 4 stars, calling it "disturbingly good." I agree wholeheartedly.

And looking at it with a feminist lens, I appreciate it as a story about a young woman who refuses to be exploited by a man and instead becomes a fuller version of her self by the end of the movie (even if that self is maybeeee a murderer).

My favorite shot (no pun intended) from the film. 

One critic called it a "sinisterly sensual Shadow of a Doubt." MIND BLOWN. It totally is. And oh wait, there's an Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt. Ok, so maybe that was the filmmaker's intention. Whatever, I like.