Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Hilarious Manhunt

Twelve-year-old Ricky is an alleged juvenile delinquent in the making: His crimes, as enumerated by the social worker who has escorted him to one foster home after another, include “stealing, spitting, throwing rocks, kicking stuff and defacing stuff” as well as the classic “loitering.” These transgressions, shown in a fleet, skittering montage, are hardly grave. But no one seems to want Ricky, a heavy-set kid who puts up a glum gangsta front but who actually has a fondness for reading and a knack for putting his feelings into haiku on the fly. 

He finds his place, at last, in a ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere with Bella and her gruff, laconic husband Hec. Bella is a lover of cat figurines. She can also kill a wild hog, with barely a tussle, using just a knife. Ricky comes to adore her—you understand why when you hear the ridiculous song she composes and performs for his thirteenth birthday—but her sudden death leaves him and Hec stranded emotionally. Hec doesn’t seem to care much for Ricky. And so, knowing that he’s going to be sent off to another home, Ricky runs off into the bush with his dog, Tupac. Hec finds him, but a series of mini-disasters keep the duo trekking through the wilderness for months. They come to understand each other, but it takes longer than you’d think for them to actually like each other.

Much of the film focuses on the relationship between Hec and Ricky but I want to take a moment to sing the praises of Bella, one of the most lovable characters I’ve encountered in a film in a long while. She’s impossibly cheery, to a nearly obnoxious degree, but her loving nature, warmth, and affection for cast-offs are completely genuine. She’s also tough—we watch her matter-of-factly skin vermin that she’s hunted and, later, stab a wild pig with a knife (“Dinner!” she shouts triumphantly, her face splattered with blood.) At first, Ricky keeps trying to run away—although not being a particularly outdoorsy type, he doesn’t get very far. But little by little, Bella breaks down his resistances. She listens to his profane, but funny haiku poems and, movingly, puts a hot water bottle in his bed every night. It’s a tiny gesture, but one that Ricky, who has never had a family of his own, clearly relishes. (He continues to run away, but it’s out of habit at this point; he has no actual intention of leaving.) On Ricky’s 13th birthday, Bella sings a corny song in his honor on her xylophone and Ricky joins in, loudly, proudly. Later, she gives him a dog, which he names Tupac, after his hero, Tupac Shakur.

Once Bella is out of the picture, Hec wants to give Ricky back to social services, so Ricky ineptly stages a suicide (he burns the barn down, but neglects to realize that the Ricky effigy he leaves behind is flame retardant) and runs to the bush. Hec finds him, easily, and the old man is about to take him back home when he falls and breaks his ankle. Suddenly the boy and his “Uncle Hec” (although Hec hates being called that) are forced to survive alone together, with child protective services on their heels.

I know. It sounds cutesy, but somehow, it’s not.That’s partly because, as played beautifully by Dennison, the funny, pop-culture-savvy, gangsta-wannabe Ricky is unlike any child we’ve ever seen in a film. As for the prickly Hec, he warms up to Ricky but it takes a long time—and even then, there are no overt displays of affection.

The absurdist humor emerges in the form of Paula, who is a kind of child protective services version of Inspector Javert, and the strange characters Hec and Ricky encounter in the bush—including a trio of dim-witted hunters; a lunatic who literally dresses like a bush; and a father and daughter who are thrilled to have the famous fugitive Ricky Baker in their midst (they take selfies with him). (Another ongoing gag: Ricky Baker is always referenced by his full name, without explanation.)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is an absolute blast—original and memorable and irresistible, from start to finish. It promises to warm the heart of even the most curmudgeonly Hec in your life.

Grace is Gone - Accepting Loss

Starring and written by John Cusack, the film Grace is Gone focuses on a father of two who learns that his beloved soldier-wife has died during action in Iraq, and how he attempts to deal with his own grief as well as relate the loss to his daughters who are trying to cope while their mother is away and fighting for their freedom. The film also features the musical score of the infamous Clint Eastwood, performed by the Dave Matthews Band. 

It is not commonplace for the media to relate the experience of a female member of a family going to war, and a male member staying home to take care of the children. But it is very much a reality of many families who's members are called to serve for their nation, and having to leave your home to fight and kill others is almost as scary as having to continue daily living as though your significant other was not off serving in a foreign land, never truly knowing if they were alive or dead in that moment.

This was the reality of Stanley Phillips whose wife, Grace was currently enlisted in the army and was at that moment serving in Iraq. Stanley and Grace had had two daughters, the first being Heidi and the second being Dawn. Both daughters have very stark differences in their personality and deal with not having their mother around them differently. Heidi is an individual that is portrayed as someone well beyond her 12 years, of life she is smart, responsible, and yet sombre. Afraid to be happy or to let herself be the child that she is. And then there is Dawn, this 8 year old bouncing ball of curly hair is still young enough to feign naïvety and cling onto the hope that her mother will soon return and that her family will be normal once again. 

On a day like any other, Stanley gets the news that his beloved spouse was killed in action, but instead of falling into grief and mourning for his wife, he decides to take a road trip with himself and his daughters to Enchanted Gardens which is an amusement park a few days drive away from where they stay. And though their journey, Stanley is trying to deal with the new information of having lost the love of his life and breaking the news to his daughters who are still desperately trying to life a normal life.

Kubler-Ross's Stages of Grief

In the amended model for grief, Kubler-Ross (1972) and his associates had amended the theory of grief from having five stages to now including seven. These stages of grief help in understanding what emotions and thought processes are occurring within an individual who has just experienced the loss of a loved one. The new stages of grief include shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance. Although not every individual faces each stage chronologically or is at each stage for the same amount of time, the individual facing the loss is predicted to experience all seven stages before being able to move past the crippling pain of losing someone they loved.

Stanley was very much functioning in the emotion of denial for most of the film, he tried his utmost best to pretend that he didn't in fact lose his wife, and that if he just displaced the feelings that he was having into making sure that his daughters were happy and got everything they wanted, then maybe the pain of loss would simply go away. This was not the case however, as more than a few times we see Stanley break down his own illusion of normalcy and experience anger and sadness over his loss as the illusions that a person creates in grief seldom carry forward or have any sense of logic. (Kugler-Ross, Wessler and Avioli, 1972)

Filter Model

Broadbent's (1958) filter model on how an individual has selective attention and processes information at different rates, explains that all stimuli that is presented to a person goes though a sensory buffer which works in the same manner that a bottle neck does. It restricts the incoming information to be processed so that vital information is stored and that we do not go into cognitive overload though having excessive exposure to a stimuli. 

Grief in itself can be considered a major stressor to an individual, and despite the manner in which the person was lost to you, the very fact that you once had an attachment with the deceased means that not only is a person going to experience some form of grief, but also needs to employ certain measures in order to be able to process the very abstract notion of loss.

Stanley was very much unable to process the information that his wife had passed on, and he resorted to behaviours that would be considered very much outside the realm of normal behaviours exhibited by the loss of a loved one. He would be calling his own phone at home just so he could hear his wife's voice on the answering machine, try to enforce the same rules on his daughters that his wife had imposed; such as only being able to pierce their ears at the age of thirteen, and attempting to reclaim some of the happiness that he felt the last time he was in Enchanted Gardens with his whole family before his wife was shipped away. He did this so that he would be able to deal with the overwhelming stimuli of death of his wife, in a way displacing his feelings so that he would be able to deal with it a little at a time and not break apart entirely and fall into depression.

Truth be told, I would have rather not watched this film at all, or rather not in a public setting. The reason being that I had encountered the loss of someone that I loved not that long ago now, and watching this film had brought afresh memories that I would have rather kept buried. The film itself resonated very strongly with me in that I saw the character Heidi as myself in many portions of the movie. She tried to be strong and adopted a more matured outlook on life due to the circumstances she was placed in, keeping her own emotions at bay and trying her best to do what is expected of her despite being in unfavourable circumstances. She never once used her situation to justify her behaviour, believing herself to be more than the product of her circumstances, even at the cost of her own childhood wonder.

Finding acceptance in grief, although the ultimate goal, is not one that is easily achieved. And although it is said that time heals all wounds, how much time is still very much a question that I have yet to find an answer for. But as Heidi found comfort in the mutual grief of her family, so did I in the close family and friends that I had around me during my time of loss. While the losing of someone that you cared deeply for is a pain that I would never wish on another human being, having people that empathise and understand you when you can barely understand yourself is something that I believe is the key to finding acceptance and resilience after losing someone you loved.

 References:

Broadbent, D. (1958). Perception and Communication. London: Pergamon Press.

Kübler-Ross, E., Wessler, S., & Avioli, L. V. (1972). On death and dying. Jama, 221(2), 174-179.

Experimenter - Disobeying Ethics

"You could say we are puppets. But I believe that we are puppets with perception, with awareness. Sometimes we can see the strings. And perhaps our awareness is the first step in our liberation." 

- Stanley Milgram

This film offered an interesting peek into the world of research and the struggles faced by academicians who engineer breakthroughs. Centralised on the classic Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment,  it explored the ethical dilemma that has been controversial in his study as well as his personal struggle with his discoveries.

Although though we get to see how his experiments were conducted back in the 60's and the actual backlash from his participants themselves, this biopic did not feel like one particularly because there was not much emphasis or focus on Milgram as an individual. We get short glimpses of a man who has been denied tenure from the most prestigious university in the world and denounced on the sidewalk. However, it was difficult to empathise with this man as it felt literally like reading an experiment than experiencing a researcher's journey. That being said, I also realise that those moments were his driving force to design experiments in natural settings. This gives a sense of reality to research questions as it showed how much real life situations motivated Milgram in his studies.

Personally, I did not like the 'breaking of the fourth wall' technique used in this film. It took away the sense of connectedness that I initially had with the film. Since, this movie slightly swinged in between being a biopic and a documentary, foregoing the technique would have probably helped the story telling. 

Struggle in Academia

Readers who've heard of only one psychology experiment in their lives probably know Milgram's: In 1961's "obedience study," he found that the majority of subjects would give fellow volunteers horrible electric shocks if instructed to do so by an authority figure. The shocks weren't real, but the subjects didn't know that; the increasing discomfort of his obedient participants led many to call Milgram's ethics into question, and the experiment remains a psychology debate-starter today.

Milgram's real struggle was to convince people that his study was of value and there was nothing unethical about it as no one was harmed. However, people chose to harp on that one point and forgot to actually evaluate his study for what it was, a testimony of human behavior under the pressure of authority.

It was also somehow enlightening to watch how even the world of academia dissed Milgram's work. Despite, being a researcher in one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, his credibility was hugely at stake due to office politics. 

Amadeus - Envy & Awe

When Salieri sees Mozart for the first time, he does not know who he is. He just sees a young man telling dirty jokes and wrestling on the floor with a young woman; then he hears this young man is the creator of beautiful music. This confounds Salieri.

 When Salieri looks at the original works Mozart has done, the music leaps off the pages at him; literally hearing the music, you see the look of anguish on Salieri’s face at the beauty he has beheld. Then Mozart’s wife calmly asks if it is any good. He looks at her as though she must be insane to even ask. The emotion on his face—his heart wrenching with inner struggles. Watching him become consumed with envy and at the same time marvelling at the beauty in front of him is one of the most beautiful and insightful scenes into a person’s character I have ever seen, all communicated through his face and a few voice overs.

Salieri is then determined to bring Mozart down and find a way to make himself be as brilliant a composer. We see him at his manipulative best after this. He presents himself to others, always as this humble figure who can gain influence and friends among the court, and even with Mozart himself. Then we see his other face, the driven, bitter man who manipulates Mozart and others and uses his influence at court to keep Mozart down.

 However, being an honest narrator, he tells us everything so bluntly. This is what makes the story feel so real to me—the personal touches that are interspersed within this story of revenge, none more so than his sugar addiction, which is shown many times throughout. It is done with a light touch; he always offers guests some exotic piece of candy, and even as an old man the addiction has stayed with him, but this is no quirk—it shows that for one who forgoes all vices that there is still something a man desires, even a small thing like candy, and gives us a stronger feeling of his humanity, and one of the few things that gives him genuine joy.

It is when Mozart interacts with Salieri, however, that he becomes slightly better. While it is clear, he does not think much of Salieri’s music, he does go to Salieri for advice. When asked straight out what Salieri thinks of his work, Salieri cannot lie and says that it is the most beautiful work he has ever heard. He also attends all of Mozart’s shows—his only peer to do so. Mozart is truly touched by this action, never aware of what Salieri has done to him.

Through all of this, it becomes hard to label Salieri just the villain. He is a complex human being, and most surprisingly, we feel sorry for him. We are so involved in his story that we cannot help but empathize with him, even when he is at his darkest. Because we can see ourselves in him—the desire to be great, to leave an impact on the world, and, in finding Mozart’s music, finding that which he loves like no other—we can relate to him. We all look to find that thing in the world that gives us meaning. Here is a person who shows us ourselves.

These contrasts in him parallel the decline of Mozart as a person. He starts with such promise in his career; he has been making music since he was an infant and has been driven by his father to be great. He values his father greatly but he is also a bawdy man, who drinks and parties and has a laugh that was quoted historically as “like metal scraping glass.” He loves his music and, like Salieri, truly believes in his own brilliance. He is so egotistical that he cannot stand that so many other people do not understand his work. The inner drive and self-destructive behavior are what make him a brilliant man, but also a weak man, and his need to party and drink become stronger when his control starts to weaken over his circumstances. His contrast is engaging, but on the opposite end of Salieri; the brilliance is there, but his personality is what hurts him. Mozart does not know how to succeed, like many brilliant people. He doesn’t know how to play the game to make it in the real world and that is what does him in.

The lives of these characters are fascinating, because they feel real. For all their flaws, they are never easy to define, and therein lies the beauty of this film. We see them, we accept them, and we mourn for them.