Last year, I compiled a non-definitive ranking of Black Mirror episodes. Once a month, I revisit an episode, starting from the bottom. Herein lies #12.
The Talent:
The Road's John Hillcoat directs Charlie Brooker's script, with Possessor's incredibly layered Andrew Riseborough in the lead (the beauty of the Icelandic landscape plays an important supporting role).
Back in her roaring 20s, Mia was a bit of a party girl, drinking and dancing the night away with her boyfriend Rob. That stopped early one morning when still drunk, they hit and killed a passing cyclist. Rather than do the honorable, self-incriminating thing, they tossed the body in a lake and called it a day.
Meanwhile, insurance investigator Shazia is using some fancy The Entire History of You-ish technology called Recaller to close the case on a pedestrian struck by a self-driving delivery van. Turns out, Mia happened to glance out the window just in time to witness the accident. Of course, that was just after she murdered her ex, and since Recaller brings up a visual of your memory, Mia's crime is now in the hands of a sweet, doomed Shazia.
Having never read an O'Henry tale, Mia races through a careful but incredibly swift murder spree, driving out to Shazia's home to get rid of her husband (the only other person who knew Shazia's whereabouts), and, because a baby can still be used for Recaller, her adorable infant son. Mia cooly stumbles into her son's elementary school production of Bugsy Malone as the police discover the crime scene and the most surprising star witness: Shazia's newly acquired guinea pig, whose cage was posed in front of the murders, making him a far more effective recaller than, we discover, Shazia's blind son.
The Theme:
No matter how careful you cover your tracks, no matter how little guilt you have over your actions, in the surprisingly moralistic universe of Charlie Brooker, murder will always be punished (the price might just be very, very high).
I admired, but didn't necessarily enjoy Crocodile the first time around, but on second watch, it's grown in my estimation. John Hillcoat nails the icy tone, which works so well with Andrea Riseborough's chilly, terrifyingly compartmentalized demeanor.
There were lots of conversations about that in the beginning. Would people sympathize with a woman who does what Mia does? To which my response was, “Well, if we don’t see a woman do that often, then that’s why we should do it.” Because women kill all the time. And are life-givers, and preservers, and takers. So wouldn’t that be fascinating to explore the psychology of that?
I want to say, "I can't imagine Crocodile with the lead being male" but that's because I've seen that story told thousands of times, and nothing would stand out in the slightest if we had to watch yet another man mess up and try to cover his tracks. But when you flip that script, it simply opens up new questions and layers.
Plus, who can really be mad with any piece of pop culture that references the great Paul Williams' work on Bugsy Malone?
Technology Tip:
The more I think through what could have prevented the tragic end of Crocodile, the more I come back to the inconsistencies of Shazia's job safety. How does a company with the budget to create and utilize MIND READING TECHNOLOGY not have more security structures or tracking involved in their agents' investigations? If Shazia could have just logged her work, Mia would have likely realized she had no way of getting out of the mess she put herself in. So I guess the lesson here is document, document, document?
The Black Mirror Grade
Cruelty Scale:
9/10; THAT BABY IS VERY CUTE. The only reason we don't go for a full perfect score is that if nothing else, Brooker did spare the guinea pig.
8/10; The cruel twist ending, the beautiful cinematography, and the true commitment to making Mia so uncompromising earns a whole lot of points
Enjoyment Scale:
7/10; Once you approach Crocodile knowing that the episode's most pleasant character and her sweet baby boy are doomed, it's far easier to sit back and enjoy the black humor inherent in Mia's path.
Up Next (Month): Have yourself a Hammy little White Christmas!
Up Next (Month): Have yourself a Hammy little White Christmas!
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I loved this episode, despite agreeing wholeheartedly re: the inconsistencies/oversights surrounding Shazia's job safety. I remember being happily shocked as to where this one went, and had to laugh at the guinea pig ending.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Possessor, have you seen it? I loved it. I also really enjoyed Cronenberg Jr's first film, Antiviral, so I hope he ups his output and starts creating more than one movie every 8 years.
I LOVED Possessor and Antiviral, and am super stoked for li'l Cronenberg's future. It's amusing to me just how perfectly Cronenberg's son he seems to be as a filmmaker (in the best possible way). That can be grating for some 2nd generation artists, but I think it's such a neat progression. Both of his films have genuinely surprised me and given me ideas and visuals I'd never seen before, which is just incredibly exciting. I'm okay with him taking his time if these are the end products!
DeleteI know, the apple sure didn't fall far the tree here, but despite that I do feel like Jr somehow manages to stand on his own feet. This may be blasphemy but I dare say I might even like both Antiviral and Possessor more than any of Sr's works -- and I'm a huge fan of a lot of Sr's stuff!
ReplyDeleteI've watched some interviews with Brandon and was pleased by how low-key annoyed he seems to get whenever asked about his dad, comparisons to him, etc. I think that is the correct, normal human/legit artist response. It would be so easy for him to swoon and wax on about his legendary father and following in his footsteps in some smarmy Hollywood sycophant BS way, and I'm so pleased he doesn't do that and attempt to springboard his career off his dad's fame.
I'm actually a little surprised you also dug Possessor, as you often have a bit of an aversion to cruelty. Possessor is far from the cruelest film I've seen but it certainly made me feel bad (which I love) for a week or more afterward. Are there types of cruelty you are down with, and others you are not? I definitely find 'cruel purely for shock value' (eg torture porn, like The Human Centipede series and low budget stuff Slow Torture Puke Chamber) to be not shocking or emotionally moving in any way because it just feels empty, childish, dumb. I find it takes great characters, acting, stories, etc to really make me feel ill, so I am definitely of the 'not all brutal films are created equal' opinion, and Possessor is both brutal AND great, IMO.
I've watched some interviews with Brandon and was pleased by how polite yet low-key annoyed he seems to get whenever asked about his dad, comparisons to him, etc. I think that is the correct, normal human/legit artist response. It would be so easy for him to swoon and wax on about his legendary father and following in his footsteps in some smarmy Hollywood sycophant BS way, and I'm so pleased he doesn't do that.
I'm actually a little surprised you also dug Possessor, as you often have a bit of an aversion to cruelty. Possessor is far from the cruelest film I've seen but it certainly made me feel bad (which I love) for a week or more afterward. Are there types of cruelty you are down with, and others you are not? I definitely find 'cruel purely for shock value' (eg torture porn, like The Human Centipede series and Slow Torture Puke Chamber) to be not shocking or emotionally moving in any way because it just feels empty, childish, dumb. I find it takes great characters, acting, stories, etc to really make me feel ill, so I am definitely of the 'not all brutal films are created equal' opinion, and Possessor is both brutal AND great, IMO.
Interesting! I have a very odd relationship with the idea of cruelty in horror that definitely keeps evolving (and devolving). Part of it is the consistency within a property. Nothing bugs me more than when a movie spends 90 minutes with an upbeat tone, then just shoots you in the face at the last moment for shock value. The Descent 2 springs to mind. Nothing about the style of that film suggests the fate of its lead, so you're left feeling incredibly crappy. If a movie enters on full Man Bites Dog "nobody is safe" energy, fine. But when, say Summer of '84 cruises on a certain tone then decides in its final moments to kill off the only genuinely kind character, I just feel gross. Or a non-horror film that I adore, but will never forgive: Showgirls! It's fun, it's campy, it's ridiculous, and then, for no real good reason, Verhoeven tosses in a brutal rape that makes you feel bad for enjoying the rest of it.
DeleteThen you have the films that seem to have a weird masochistic desire to inflict very particular pain on certain types of characters. The Hills Have Eyes 2 (not the dog flashback one), for example, is about mutated monsters trying to rape women to keep their race going. Sure, fine, that's the story, and in better hands, it could work. But the film chips its cast down to two women, one of whom is a single white female, the other, a single mother Latina. Guess which one gets raped on camera? That's where it just feels like there's an element of knife twisting that somehow feels worse than, say, The Seasoning House, which is ALL ABOUT women being sexually abused, but yet doesn't feel NEARLY as exploitive because of how it handles the subject.
If something is mean from the start and owns that, I can be fine with it so long as it's entertaining. Mikey, Child's Play 2, Martyrs, Eden Lake, all incredibly nasty stories that have no mercy. I love them! Train, Hatchet 2, 90% of Masters of Horror...miserable stories told miserably, which is painful all around.
Possessor feels more, how do I say it, empty than cruel? Antiviral and most of David Cronenberg's stuff is similar. There's a lack of empathy or normal morality, rather than a perversion of it. And I think for Possessor in particular, it's very much ABOUT a character coming to understand that she is essentially a sociopath, or that this thing she does (whether it's "work" or the thrill of embodying someone else's being) is more important/fulfilling to her than her family. For me, the film was ABOUT that, so the violence, which was certainly intense and aimed at some very innocent people, didn't feel cheap, cruel, or unnecessary.
Does that make sense?
aaarrrgghhhh great response. And I'm glad to have a better idea of your takes on various forms of cruel films. I think I have a higher tolerance for cruelty in general but definitely understand the problems you have with the examples you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI think empty is a great way to describe both David and Brandon C's stuff -- that's actually what really hit me in the guts with Possessor. The way Tasya struggled with doing what she felt she SHOULD do, versus what her conflicting impulsions were...urgh, even writing about it and remembering some of those final scenes makes my guts twist. Her scream during the climax haunts me. It was like distilled rage at both everything and nothing, the sound of a human that hates itself and the entire world around it for reasons it can't understand. So disconnected from humanity, so brutal. Amazing.
All this being said, now I need to look up Train and Hatchet 2 so I can see if they're as bad as you say they are. I mean, when you describe Train with "this movie hates the world," my ears can't help but perk up. I'm sure it's not on par with my fave nihilistic horrors but dare to dream, dare to dream.
Thanks for thoughtful, detailed responses btw! I love digging deep on topics like this.
Yes, both Cronenbergs tend to nail a sort of clinical tone, which makes them the perfect filmmakers to explore a character like Tasya.
ReplyDeleteI was having so much fun with Train for the first 30 minutes or so because it was such a ridiculous Hostel knockoff, but then it got super rapey super fast, and just clearly hated everyone and wanted to serve them the grossest fate possible. I know I'm in the minority on the Hatchet series, and I generally like Adam Green (by all accounts, he's a genuinely nice dude) but again, it sort of encapsulates all that was rotten in early 2000s horror. A lot of horror fans find it to be an absolute blast, but if memory serves (at this point it feels so long ago that I watched it) I just found it to fee VERY horror bro.
And thanks for joining in on the conversation!