Rating: 4/5
You have a center, right? I mean, a place inside you that's just you, that hasn't been spoiled. And I think it's really important to try and keep that space sacred. In some sense, on some level. But sex and relationships cloud that space. Or they cloud me, I guess, and make it difficult to be just me and not have to worry about being somebody else
Agnes (Ashley Judd) is a loner, living in a hotel room, making a living bartending at a lesbian bar. Her abusive ex-boyfriend Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.) went to prison for robbery two years ago, and sometime before, lost her son in a grocery store and gave up looking for him
One night, before heading out to a party, Agnes’ coworker R.C. (Lynn Collins) comes over to Agnes’ place, along with a man she met named Peter (Michael Shannon). Agnes and Peter begin spending time together, Peter talking about seeing what’s hidden, what no one else sees
One night, after having sex, Peter complains of being bitten by a bug. At first, Agnes doesn’t see the bug, but when Peter lets down his guard and lets Agnes see who he is, she sees a bug too, and the world shakes
Michael Shannon played the role of Peter on stage. He brings a stage-level intensity to his performance here, and it’s one of my favorites of his
Ashley Judd goes full Isabelle Adjani, on edge as her world changes. Her ability to discern what is real and what isn’t comes apart in her and Shannon’s shared paranoia. Agnes cannot understand how her son just disappeared. Like Peter, the gap in knowing is too much to bear and needs a story to fill its place Overall, the movie makes some bizarre choices, but I think they work. I feel itchy all over — this was a fucking nightmare, and I loved it , Stray Thoughts
- weirdly, this could thematically fit in a double feature with Smoking Causes Coughing, which I watched just before this
- ah yes, the mid-00s, when handheld shaky cam took over every genre for no good reason
- Magic 8 Ball says, “Better not tell you now.”
- Friedkin’s fixation on Southern decay