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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burrows deep into your skin and unleashes real human fear..., November 11, 2007
I have a feeling that I may break down in tears during this years Oscar nominations ceremony, for as much as I'd love to have faith in the Academy to `do the right thing' I strongly feel that Ashley Judd's brilliant performance is going to ultimately get the snub. To say that she doesn't deserve the win let alone the nomination is to not have really seen this film for all that it truly is. Ashley Judd's performance is her career best, a desperate and broken spirit that permeates the entire film and haunts the viewer more than anything else pertaining to this film. In fact, the most disturbing thing about `Bug' is the fact that it will most likely receive little to no awards attention. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
I think the first thing anyone needs to know about `Bug' is that it is not, and I mean `NOT' a horror film in the essence that it is jumpy and intense and consistently frightening but it is in it's own way jumpy and intense and consistently frightening. `Bug' is a film about the darkest corners of the human mind and the fact that we will allow ourselves to believe anything if it completes a part of our soul. I feel that this film suffered from misleading advertisement that painted it as this horrifically scary film when it is in most regards a slow moving physiological drama. There are lots of scenes of pure communication as we watch these peoples minds gradually deteriorate into the hopeless paranoia they find themselves engulfed in. In fact the bulk of the gore in the film is self inflicted, the majority taking place off screen.
Based on the play by Tracy Letts, `Bug' follows the lonely Agnes White who is in hiding from her abusive ex-husband Jerry. Jerry has just been released from prison and is planning on taking back up where he left off with Agnes, but she isn't having that. Instead she's moved on to another man, the mysterious and reclusive Peter. Agnes and Peter lock themselves away in a small motel room and it's there that they slowly go insane. Peter, a war veteran, has already lost most of it. He is convinced that the government is after him, that they conducted experiments on him and that they planted bugs under his skin. Before long Agnes's own loneliness and desperation lead her to believe him and she soon begins to see the bugs that are not really there.
The film rarely leaves the confines of the motel room and this aids in the feeling of claustrophobia. I remember feeling this way when I watched last years `The Descent', that feeling of breathless anxiety. Although the viewer never sees a single insect there are moments when you can swear they are everywhere. This is thanks in large part to the commanding direction by William Friedkin who completely understands the objective of his subject and exploits it beautifully.
To me the bugs are clearly a metaphor for the `bugs' or `kinks' in the human mind. These two people are sick. Their minds do not function properly. They haven't had the `bugs' worked out so-to-speak and thus suffer from delusions and serious deficiencies that those around them cannot understand. The scary thing about `Bug' is that this is not really an exaggeration of these issues. These types of things happen more frequently then one would think. The human mind is no where near as full proof as one might like to think and truly anyone is susceptible to the downward spiral of insanity. The worst part about it all is that one never knows they are insane.
Ashley Judd gives, for me at least, the finest performance of anyone in any category so far this year. Her grasp of Agnes is brutally convincing and extremely sympathetic. Like a child she defends the man she feels connected to, the only man who's given her the kind of attention's she's longed for. Her slip into paranoia is painfully heart breaking to watch to the point that I was moved to tears especially in the final scenes. Her facial expression as her whole world incinerates before her is enough to make my heart break into a thousand pieces. If there is a god then Ashley Judd's name will be called proceeded by "and the Oscar goes to" come March (or whenever the Oscar's are held this coming year).
The other performances in the film are decently entertaining, with the exception of Harry Connick Jr. who is surprisingly outstanding. I am not a fan of Harry and I was not looking forward to him being in this film but I was floored to find myself loving his performance. He was comical, aggressive, charismatic and believable. I would also consider his name in the supporting actor category AMPA's, seriously. I was less impressed with Michael Shannon who reprised his stage role as Peter Evans. His performance was not bad but it failed to deliver any real spark. Judd was just so impressive and Connick Jr. was just so commanding that Shannon seemed to fall to the background for me even though he was in just about every frame. Lynn Collins was wonderful as R.C. and would have been even better had she possessed a little more screen time. What she does with what she's given is very impressive.
If you're looking for a film that will scare the pants off you in a general gore filled heart racing kind of way then this is not the film you want to pick up, but if you want to be slowly driven to the brink of insanity by watching the lives of two people slowly unravel then this is the movie for you. In fact, I think it's even more horrifying to watch something this tragically real then to embrace something that is completely fictitious and ultimately unbelievable.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crawling with Paranoia, May 29, 2007
William Friedkin's "Bug" is the kind of psychological thriller that doesn't rely on plausibility so much as it relies on solid character studies. This isn't to say that the film is implausible; truth be told, I don't think there's any way of knowing how realistic such situations are. But considering the disturbing intensity of the story and the strong dynamic between actors Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon, it's difficult to embrace these technicalities. This is easily one of the most unsettling films in recent memory, forcing the audience down an unpleasant path of paranoia that spirals out of control in a relatively short period of time. The film refuses to be a clear-cut study of insanity; there's a subtle brilliance to the way Friedkin explores uncertainty and panic, as if to say that we're not meant to have all the answers.
Nor should we. What is obvious is that, from the average person's point of view, every behavior in this film is overwhelmingly irrational. We get a small taste of this with the introduction of Agnes White (Judd), a divorcee living in a motel somewhere in the middle of Oklahoma. The first scene is of her receiving mysterious phone calls, in which the person at the other end says absolutely nothing. Already, she assumes that it's her violent, controlling ex-husband, Jerry Goss (Harry Connick, Jr.), recently released from prison on parole. Indeed, it does seem likely that he's making the calls. But does she know for sure? How can she know? How can the audience know? Even when he reenters her life later on in the film, it's impossible to come to any conclusions. It could be that Agnes is allowing her fear to take hold. The fact that she's incredibly lonely only adds to her erratic emotional state.
Then along comes Peter Evans (Shannon), an initially soft-spoken man with an underlying uneasiness that effectively makes us uncomfortable. He's a drifter with a hidden past who occasionally lets loose his expanded vocabulary (Agnes is initially confused by the word "matriarchal"). He makes it clear that he's not really interested in a sexual relationship (not at first, anyway); he merely wants to be friends. From the audience's perspective, everything about this situation is off; here are two fragile individuals looking for companionship under less than ideal circumstances. Is it any wonder that Agnes' willingness to take him in is unnerving? It doesn't help that she listens to him carefully, even when he begins spewing information about tiny bugs he thinks are infesting his bloodstream. In some sick way, it's as if he's telling her what she wants to hear.
The rest of the film veers into territory ruled purely by paranoia, the tension building itself until it becomes unbearably thick. Peter eventually reveals that he's an AWOL military officer; he believes that a faction of the government has injected him with thousands of microscopic aphids that have the ability to transmit information. He's now on the run from Dr. Sweet (Brian F. O'Byrne), the man responsible for conducting the experiments. Not only is he able to convince Agnes of this, he also makes her believe that she has now become infested. While we don't see any bugs, they believe that they're seeing them everywhere, especially on their skin. Supposedly, they can burrow through the skin back into the bloodstream; this forces Peter and Agnes to incessantly swat, scratch, and pick at themselves. Eventually, their bodies are covered with open sores.
As the film progresses, Agnes' room transforms into a bizarre kind of shelter; bug zappers and flypaper hang from the ceiling, while every other surface is coated in aluminum foil (it helps to block the bugs' transmissions). How they went about this doesn't matter. The plot was never interested in focusing on logistics, and rightfully so. We're now fully immersed in the delusional world of two people who were made for each other, a world in which nonsensical ramblings make perfect sense. The last ten minutes of the film have both Judd and Shannon delivering high-intensity speeches that almost come off as poetic in a twisted sort of way; their words point to an explanation only they can understand, and in turn offer a solution that only they see as appropriate. How the audience feels is of no concern, and that's exactly the way it should be. When both Peter and Agnes look into a microscope holding a drop of Peter's blood, the sense that they're seeing what they want to see allows us to emotionally detach from the characters and let them continue to unravel.
During the end credits, I learned that "Bug" originated as a play written by Tracy Letts (who also penned the screenplay). I then left the theater wondering how this ever could have been performed on a stage, not because of the sets or the story, but because of the sheer intensity; it's difficult to imagine a live audience sitting through something so disturbing. However, if this film adaptation is any indication, then the play must have something truly unique, a fascinating work that delves into insanity with amazing precision and style. But until I actually see it, then my praise can apply only to the film. But what a film it is.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Know The Difference Between Horror and Psychological Thriller? No? Watch This Film and Learn..., February 29, 2008
***CONTAINS SPOILERS***
Based directly on the stage play by the same name, BUG will most certainly get under your skin. Although thriller in nature, horror fans should be warned that there are no supernatural or superhuman elements in the story. Looking at the DVD cover, one gets the impression that it might be a spin-off of something along the lines of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but Bug couldn't be further from it. No mutant grasshoppers. No aligning of planets that results in bloodthirsty arachnids.
Stage play actor Michael Shannon reprises his role on the silver screen as drifter Peter who falls for lonely waitress Agnes played by Ashley Judd. Agnes is damaged goods to begin with; a woman who's lost her only child to a kidnapping and drowns herself in liquor and cocaine. And when she meets Peter, she believes she may have found someone to connect with other than her abusive ex-husband Jerry (Harry Connick Jr., The Iron Giant). But Peter brings with him his own unique brand of psychological luggage. A battered U.S. veteran who possibly was exposed to torture, Peter begins showing cracks in his psyche soon after their first romantic encounter. He claims that bugs are in the room with them. Then the bugs are in him. Then in her. Then everywhere and involving everyone. The paranoia reaches a crescendo that culminates in the death of someone trying to help Peter and Agnes, and the eventual destruction of everything around them.
First let's be clear what we're talking about here. There are no bugs. We, the audience, don't see a single flea. The bugs are internalized as demonic aphids implanted in Peter (Shannon) by military higher-ups. As Peter's paranoia builds, he brings Agnes right along with him, and it's a painful and frightening thing to watch. Initially having hopes that the two might be able to help one another, the story rapidly gives way to the psychological horrors of what happens when mentally damaged people feed off one another like ...well ...like bugs.
Second is that the story, too, is completely internalized, both character-wise and on the set. The entire production basically takes place in one room: Agnes' rundown hotel room in the middle of nowheresville. Don't expect panoramic shots of beautiful locales.
Third is that this story is exceptionally dark. There are no good and bad people, per se. Agnes' abusive ex is initially seen as a no good A-hole but later becomes a beacon of hope for survival. Even a psychologist who comes in to try and help Peter is damaged in that he's hooked on cocaine himself and seems only passively interested in telling the truth.
For horror fans, this one's going to disappoint. But if you're a psych major or interested in paranoid delusions and how far down those people can sink, Bug will crawl right up your alley.
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