Oh. My. Goddess.
So, the anticipation is finally over! I saw Straightheads with fellow Gillian Anderson fans earlier today.
You know you are in for a rough ride when the first line in a film is “Fuck.”. We were slightly worried as we went into the screen that there were only 3 other people there, but by the time the film started I counted 28. Doesn’t sound like a lot but this was 3pm in a small screen, so that’s not so bad.
The film was, as to be expected, brutally shocking. This is very much not entertainment. Let’s get the bad stuff out the way first - the script was sometimes lacking in logical steps forward, it took great leaps of coincidence. This led to it feeling very choppy in places. It cut out huge chunks of time without much explanation, leaving me feeling a little lost. The cinematography was very basic - not bad, just simplistic. I know the area that they filmed in personally, it and I don’t think they used it to its full potential. Having said that, I’m sure they were trying to create a dark and closed atmosphere, I just felt it could have been a little better. All in all, I think you could tell it was a debut at writing and directing.
However, despite all that - I fucking LOVED it. I thought it made its point amazingly well. I can see to a certain extent why the reviews have been so bad, at its basic level it was sex followed by violence followed by sex followed by violence. I’ve been thinking about the film and trying to decide if my analysis is because of my bias; I’ve been following what Dan has been saying, I know what it means to him and I know what he is trying to say.
I honestly don’t think it is. I feel what this film was trying to say was said effectively. With a film like this, get the cinematography, the script etc perfect, but fail to say anything worthwhile about rape and violence, and you still have a crap film. Personally I would much rather see something that wasn’t put together amazingly well, but made me come out and think about it, and that’s what Straightheads was for me. I was worried about Alice as a character at first, but as the film progressed I began to really like her. In film, women who are raped are in one of two categories - the innocent virgin or the slut who was ‘asking for it’. Alice was very firmly neither. She was a bit of bitch in many ways, but I still liked her, was amused by her (peeing by the car LOL) and felt empathy with her. It didn’t rattle any feminist anger in me; she was done very well and was a very real character.
My favourite moment of the whole film was the morning after the rape. Alice stands and wobbles in her high heels (was it David Duchovny who said women’s fashion is a subtle form of bondage?) on fawn legs. She’s so blatantly sore and in pain that it made me cringe more so than the actual rape scenes - it somehow made it all the more real. The shot of her naked legs shaking as she stood by the car in her heels moved more than anything else. Gillian was, of course, perfect. And I do quite firmly add in the ‘of course’, because I’ve seen most of her work and I’ve never yet known her not to be.
I liked Adam too. I’ve not seen Danny Dyer in much but I thought he did great acting in this. I felt the whole storyline of Adam not being able to get off, and eventually turning to violence to help himself deal with his own attack worked. Violence leads to violence - it was very clear what it was saying, I’m struggling to understand why most of the reviewers missed that. I’m not a big fan of sex scenes (yes, really), I very rarely feel they have a point. But I saw how they were necessary here (the gratuitous and lingering shots of GA’s breasts were probably less necessary, but I’m sure it was a favourite point in the film for most!). The whole film plays on the close links between sex and violence/life and death, especially for Adam.
In all honesty, I went into this film just hoping that I would find it passable. I didn’t expect to come out feeling anything but relief. Instead I came out feeling, well, proud. I’m proud that someone can make this kind of film, that shows rape to be as life destroying as it is. 1 in 3 women in this country are sexually assaulted at some point in their lives - if we can't watch it in a fictional setting than how the hell can we ever start to deal with it as a society? I’m proud that Straightheads stood up and made an attempt to show the world how very wrong human life can be, how easy it is to be led down that road, how we all have to work together to fight against it. I’m really sorry to everyone internationally - I don’t think that it will manage world wide release. But if Dan’s aim is to create a cult film that hits a few people and means something to them, I think he may just have done it.
You know you are in for a rough ride when the first line in a film is “Fuck.”. We were slightly worried as we went into the screen that there were only 3 other people there, but by the time the film started I counted 28. Doesn’t sound like a lot but this was 3pm in a small screen, so that’s not so bad.
The film was, as to be expected, brutally shocking. This is very much not entertainment. Let’s get the bad stuff out the way first - the script was sometimes lacking in logical steps forward, it took great leaps of coincidence. This led to it feeling very choppy in places. It cut out huge chunks of time without much explanation, leaving me feeling a little lost. The cinematography was very basic - not bad, just simplistic. I know the area that they filmed in personally, it and I don’t think they used it to its full potential. Having said that, I’m sure they were trying to create a dark and closed atmosphere, I just felt it could have been a little better. All in all, I think you could tell it was a debut at writing and directing.
However, despite all that - I fucking LOVED it. I thought it made its point amazingly well. I can see to a certain extent why the reviews have been so bad, at its basic level it was sex followed by violence followed by sex followed by violence. I’ve been thinking about the film and trying to decide if my analysis is because of my bias; I’ve been following what Dan has been saying, I know what it means to him and I know what he is trying to say.
I honestly don’t think it is. I feel what this film was trying to say was said effectively. With a film like this, get the cinematography, the script etc perfect, but fail to say anything worthwhile about rape and violence, and you still have a crap film. Personally I would much rather see something that wasn’t put together amazingly well, but made me come out and think about it, and that’s what Straightheads was for me. I was worried about Alice as a character at first, but as the film progressed I began to really like her. In film, women who are raped are in one of two categories - the innocent virgin or the slut who was ‘asking for it’. Alice was very firmly neither. She was a bit of bitch in many ways, but I still liked her, was amused by her (peeing by the car LOL) and felt empathy with her. It didn’t rattle any feminist anger in me; she was done very well and was a very real character.
My favourite moment of the whole film was the morning after the rape. Alice stands and wobbles in her high heels (was it David Duchovny who said women’s fashion is a subtle form of bondage?) on fawn legs. She’s so blatantly sore and in pain that it made me cringe more so than the actual rape scenes - it somehow made it all the more real. The shot of her naked legs shaking as she stood by the car in her heels moved more than anything else. Gillian was, of course, perfect. And I do quite firmly add in the ‘of course’, because I’ve seen most of her work and I’ve never yet known her not to be.
I liked Adam too. I’ve not seen Danny Dyer in much but I thought he did great acting in this. I felt the whole storyline of Adam not being able to get off, and eventually turning to violence to help himself deal with his own attack worked. Violence leads to violence - it was very clear what it was saying, I’m struggling to understand why most of the reviewers missed that. I’m not a big fan of sex scenes (yes, really), I very rarely feel they have a point. But I saw how they were necessary here (the gratuitous and lingering shots of GA’s breasts were probably less necessary, but I’m sure it was a favourite point in the film for most!). The whole film plays on the close links between sex and violence/life and death, especially for Adam.
In all honesty, I went into this film just hoping that I would find it passable. I didn’t expect to come out feeling anything but relief. Instead I came out feeling, well, proud. I’m proud that someone can make this kind of film, that shows rape to be as life destroying as it is. 1 in 3 women in this country are sexually assaulted at some point in their lives - if we can't watch it in a fictional setting than how the hell can we ever start to deal with it as a society? I’m proud that Straightheads stood up and made an attempt to show the world how very wrong human life can be, how easy it is to be led down that road, how we all have to work together to fight against it. I’m really sorry to everyone internationally - I don’t think that it will manage world wide release. But if Dan’s aim is to create a cult film that hits a few people and means something to them, I think he may just have done it.