Customer Reviews

Stuck

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

STUCK is one of those films that creeps up on you, teases you into thinking a comedy is in the making, then slowly reveals itself as what seems to be an exposé of our current manner of getting through life, of competing in the workplace, and of self absorption to the point of endangering those around us. The fact that the film is based on a true story as adapted by director Stuart Gordon and transformed into a bitingly satirical screenplay by John Strysik increases the impact of this well-crafted little low budget film. Watch it once for the gritty content of the story, then watch it again to appreciate all of the very dark (and very pointed!) humor in what at first appears to be a grisly tale.

Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari) works as a Nurse's Aid in a nursing home of senile elderly patients, giving some of the finest care for those entrusted to her talents. Brandi's compassionate work is noted by the supervisor Peterson (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) who manages to trick Brandi into an even heavier work schedule by suggesting a raise in position. Excited about her possible promotion Brandi and her working partner Tanya (Rukiya Bernard) celebrate that evening with Brandi's boyfriend/drug supplier Rashid (Russell Hornsby) who gives Brandi a pill of Ecstasy and the mixture of the drug with the alcohol creates a mess of Brandi's mind.

The parallel story involves one jobless Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) who lives in a tenement, is evicted because of past due rent, and becomes a street person, treated with cold (but satirical) mechanical responses at the Department of Unemployment. Left to sleep in the park he is befriended by another homeless person, given a shopping cart, and makes his way toward a midnight mission.

Brandi cum altered thought processes drives home, hits Thomas who comes sailing through her windshield badly injured, and out of fear and distress Brandi merely takes the 'stuck' Thomas home to park him in her garage, knowing that her boyfriend Rashid will help her. Thomas is conscious, unable to climb out of the glass of the crushed windshield and begs for help. How the stranded and injured Thomas is treated by the desperate but self-centered Brandi, by the frightened but macho Rashid, and by neighbors who fear intervention because of reporting an incident that would encourage police intervention and threaten their deportation as illegal immigrants results in an ending that shows how 'justice' can prevail!

The cast is first rate - especially Rea, Suvari, Hornsby and Bernard. The direction is tight and maintains credible characters in incredible situations and holds the audience attention every moment. This is a fine example of how a low budget film, in the hands of pros, can be more successful that the big budget, less thoughtful movies that crowd our marquis. Grady Harp, November 08

The setup for Stuck seems pretty ridiculous, but it's actually based on a true story. After a night of partying, the young Brandi (Mena Suvari) commits a hit and run on a homeless man (Stephen Rea). Such a tragic mistake, and here's the horrible kicker--the guy is wedged tightly in the windshield of her car! Quite a crazy predicament, and Brandi is of course stricken with panic.

So what does she do? Drives home, drops some more ecstasy and has sex with her boyfriend. Just leaves the poor guy bleeding to death in her garage? Well, I suppose we all deal with stress in different ways.

I can appreciate the dark comedy of this story and realize it might be a statement about the current mindset that seems to be prevalent in our culture. People having a reckless pursuit of personal happiness along with a selfish disregard for responsibility. It also plays other stereotypes out to comical effect.

But the humor eventually goes from being subtle (a cop unaware of the car passing behind him with a bloody passenger on the hood?) to extremely silly (death by a ball point pen?) (ah geez). Oh well.

Overall, this was somewhat entertaining and original. This movie includes profanity, violence, drug use, and nudity. Written and directed by Stuart Gordon.

So, this is what is life in America? Joking aside, this is a terrific look at the consequences of the "culture of success" permeating the United States. Which is in fact no success at all, but mostly submission to bosses, bureaucracy and money. It is the law of the jungle in "Stuck", but when Stephen Rea, a victim of downsizing, gets stuck in Mena Suvari's windshield he seems still incapable to understand that his society no longer functions, and waits for her to get help. That never comes. I don't see this film as a black comedy but as an indictment, a suspenseful look at the effects of a socially inept landscape in some individuals fighting to maintain their status in the ranks of the low class (they are... stuck!). More insight and this could have been masterful. As it is, it constitutes a very enjoyable action film.

If you'd like to be disgusted, search for the name Chante Mallard. What you'll find is the story of a drug/alcohol intoxicated woman, who hit a man named Gregory Biggs with her car while she was driving home. After the collision she completed her trip, parked in the garage, and proceeded to callously let Biggs bleed-out (officials believe he would have lived if given medical help) while she had sex with her boyfriend and no doubt did whatever else her morally decayed black heart desired.

Since no audience would appreciate simply seeing a man slowly bleed to death while stuck in a car windshield, the makers of this movie took some liberties with the truth. I'm ecstatic they did.

Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) is down on his luck. Evicted, jobless, possession-less, he doesn't even have a place to sleep. When police wake him from slumber on a park bench, he's forced to make his way toward a mission.

Meanwhile, Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari - miscast because Mallard is an obese black woman) is a soulless, selfish drug-abuser who is getting trashed and partying the night way. (Suvari really manages to pick out character roles that make me despise her) Many other reviewers may view her as "balanced", but since she's a drug-using drunk driver, and is a white girl with corn-rows - which never looks good - I'm going to go ahead and say that she's incredibly unbalanced and vile.

As if it were a surprise, she's blitzed out of her mind (thanks to X and alcohol), effing with her cell phone, swerving all over, and she blasts Bardo, mangling his legs and lodging him in the windshield. Drunk or not, people with a shred of humanity stop there and help the man. But not this intellectually, morally, and spiritually defective sociopath. Instead, she goes home and has the least appealing non-rape full-frontal nudity, sex scene in cinema history.

Ahh...the resolution. In real life, as I said before, it's boring. This movie, however, provides the resolution that Ted Kennedy sees in his nightmares. Brilliant. I won't ruin it, but the tight directing and believable acting accentuates Bardo's rage against the dying of the light.

Overall, I recommend this for people with mild tempers and no heart conditions.

COMMENTARY
Knowing the case beforehand, I watched the majority with a snarled lip. Such social apathy really brings out my misanthropy. This single instance serves as a harsh critical analysis representative of the insidious cultural decay that has wreaked havoc on the community, family, and morals of our society. It's an overtly sexual, me-first MTV-generation where every child is a precious little snowflake, nobody has respect for family, elders, or authorities, and selfishness all but negates personal accountability. People like Mallard are deserving of a special place in hell, and the fact that there is no doubt at least one person with sympathy for her only reflects society's decay. It's sad that the movie ending isn't the real ending, and that vile scum like Mallard are allowed to live, let alone be given the possibility of parole. With any luck (crossing my fingers), karma will make the rest of her life a horror movie.

As I watched "Stuck," I tried to figure out which category it belongs to. But, of course, it ultimately doesn't make any difference. One way or the other, "Stuck" is a swift, entertaining melodrama. From the beginning, even before the movie began, I had my doubts. It claims to be "inspired by a true story." What on earth does that mean? I've tentatively decided on the following categories:
A. The truth itself (not possible in a movie)
B. documentary-style truth (everything "real," but obviously edited)
C. "based on a true story" (characters, main events as they actually happened, but changes in dialogue, conflation of characters, etc.)
D. "inspired [like "Stuck"] by a true story" (some event is the starting point for what is basically fiction)
E. fiction.
I'm sure, though, there are several subcategories. It's a pointless exercize, but fun. The question in my title comes down.I suppose, to intention. Is all the absurdity in the film intentional? Are the film makers laughing with us? When I was watching the film, I thought it had either turned into or degenerated into a dark comedy. In retrospect, though, I see the absurdity of it all from the beginning, from the meaningless "inspired by a true story," in fact. After all, what fictional event isn't "inspired" by life itself? So we watch a man steal his own clothes because his landlord (and presumably he himself) believes the landlord has a right to keep a tenant's property when the tenant leaves his apartment owing rent. And what does he "steal"? A couple of suits, which he carries with him crumpled in a ball (that'll help him!) to a job interview that doesn't exist. The "interview" itself features a wonderful visual cliche, showing Bardot in a crowded waiting room which in a series of cuts gets increasingly less crowded until he's alone. You can see it coming a mile away, so the very cliche becomes absurd. He meets an almost mystically kindly homeless man in the park, who gives him liquor and mysteriously hints that they will meet again (which, in a sense they do). All of this prepares the way for the great wave of absurdities that follow. So I guess I have answered my own pointless question. Whatever the answer, the film is well worth your time.

"Stuck" will stick with you for quite awhile after you see it.
Great acting by Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea and a very clever story"read synopsis"..Brandi played by Suvari is unapologetically Sociopathic in her attempt to cover up the fact that she has hit a man "Rea" while intoxicated and he is stuck in her windshield like a love bug .
What ensues after that is terrifying and darkly humorous at the same time,but all the while I felt much sympathy for Rea's character,He was already down on his luck ,couldn't find a job and this was his first night living on the streets..and her car was the last thing he needed to come across and likewise as he was the last thing she and her car needed to come across..It turns into a cat and mouse game between Suvari's character Rea's and Suvari's thug boyfriend.
it plays out quite cleverly and was fun to watch.
There's a line in the movie that stuck with me, after Suvari's character left Rea stuck in the windshield and told him she was calling help but decided against it and went to bed.The next morning when she found he was still alive she looks at the bloody beat up Rea stuck in her windshield and say's"why are you doing this to me?
Chilling..

Stuck (2007) is a tale of suspense that may not be very believable, but it is still quite entertaining. The movie has an appeal similar to that of a train wreck, or other disaster, as it is something quite terrible, yet is fascinating to watch. Supposedly inspired by real life events, so much of what happens is quite outrageous, and the extent to which reality is stretched becomes increasingly extreme as the story progresses.

Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari) is a caregiver in a retirement home. She and her friend and co-worker Tanya (Rukiya Bernard), are out parting at a club, where they hook up with Brandi's drug dealer boyfriend Rashid (Russell Hornsby), who lays some pills on the ladies.

Already down on his luck, Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) is a man who's life is about to get a lot worse. Having just been kicked out of his apartment, he is sleeping on a park bench when he is rousted by a cop, and told to move on. Bardo is crossing the street with a shopping cart, when a distracted Brandi plows into him with her car. Bardo crashes through the windshield on the passenger side, and gets lodged there. With the injured man on her hood, a panicked Brandi first drives to a hospital, and is about to drag the body off her car, but is scared off, and heads home and hides the body in an enclosed garage.

With a warped view of reality, Brandi selfishly rationalizes what she has done, blaming Bardo for the accident. She does tell Rashid that she hit a homeless person, but not that her hit and run victim is still attached to her car. The next morning, Bardo begins to sound the car horn, so Brandi knocks him out with a board, and then heads off to work.

Although many of the events do not seem very believable, this unique situation soon escalates to extreme levels. With Brandi's complete self-centeredness, and Rashid's willingness to commit murder, things snowball and lead to disaster. What Bardo does also defies belief, as he manages to get free, patch himself up, and then fight back with a ferocity and determination that would make Harrison Ford proud.

Compared to some of his previous projects, Stuck may be a little tame for director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond), who handles things very competently, particularly when matters get violent. The over the top finale is quite shocking, and smoothly executed. The plot is outlandish, but the strong performances by the cast, particularly Mena Suvari (American Beauty) and Stephen Rea (The Crying Game), do make for a compelling watch.

Accidentally hitting someone with a vehicle is a situation could occur, and as the decision to go from stopping and helping, to committing a hit and run, might take place in a split second, it's understandable that Brandi might panic. What is a much harder to accept however, is that the possibility of escaping responsibility exists, when an injured man is attached to your vehicle.

"Society this, and society that." Are you kidding? This was the type of movie that reminds us that these type of people are out there. The female is thought highly of at work. Caring, responsible, attentive, a nurses aide???? But the second she clocks out she is completely the opposite. Drinking, drugs, and driving... Hits some guy who is already down on his luck and leaves him stuck to her car. I guess she is off the clock. This movie was frustrating, but good. Think about yourself. Do you act one way on the clock, and another way off the clock? Then you are not being true to yourself because one of your lives is a lie.

Well this was a surprise to me on all levels. I like this movie but must say that it is not everybody's cup of tea. It's a mean spirited story of a hit and run and the way some folks just look the other way. The story has some basis in fact and I remember hearing such a tale from FORT WORTH, Texas. This makes the movie that much freakier to me. The other odd thing in my mind is Stephen Rea is the man actor in this movie and for him to be in this just seem a bit of over kill, he is just to good of an actor for this role but may in fact save the whole film.
Mena Suvari is Brandi the main star of the story and she is pretty good here (well I did hate the corn rows but that is what was needed for the part).
Sex, Drugs and gore may be part of our society but not something every one wants to see.

A relatively low budget but searching and fascinating film. Our 'heroine' is Brandi who is presented as an attractive and caring young woman who works in a nursing home, sensitively taking care of elderly and senile people many of whom can no longer control their bodily functions. Not surprisingly, her somewhat smarmy supervisor tells Brandi that she is 'under consideration' to become the supervisor of other nursing assistants.

Next scene, however, shows her in a rather seedy cub where she meets and passinately kisses a guy who looks like he's a pimp and drug pusher. High on alcohol and drugs, Brandi leaves the club only to cell phone her pimp-looking 'friend', inviting him to come over. Brandi is clearly not attentive to her driving and hits a newly-homeless man who becomes stuck halfway in her shattered windshield.

Rather than stop and call 911, the cops or both--she incredibly drives into her garage with the moaning man still stuck in her windshied. 'You should have watched where you were walking.' She complains to her helpless victim, and goes into her house to call her pimp-looking friend for help.

The rest of the movie you've just got to see. It turns out that cute little Brandi is just about as selfish and self-centered as a human being could possibly be. She allows herself to be seduced by her pimp-drug pusher with the suffering, probably dying, victim only a few feet away. Later she yells at the bloodied man impaled in her windshield, 'Why did you do this to me?' and hits him in the head with a 2 X 4.

This movie is a scathing indictment of the 'ME' generation. Obviously Brandi is an extreme example of a generational model, but sometimes extremes make the point better than averages. Brandi is a good nursing assistant because such an occupation meets her talents and advances her cause. Brandi, at the very same time, is ruthless and completely uncaring about anyone or anything that disrupts the flow of her life.