Monthly Archives: June 2018

Book Review: Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff by Sean Penn

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The debut novel of actor Sean Penn, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff basically reads as if it was written by someone who read the first thirty pages of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and then thought, “I could do this!  How difficult can it be!?”  When the book first came out, several critics declared it to be the worst novel ever written but I don’t know if I’d go that far.  It may very well be the worst novel of 2018 but it’s not really memorable enough to deserve the grand title of worst ever.

It’s very much a debut novel, which is to say that there’s no plot, all of the characters have cutesy names, and it’s absurdly overwritten.  Penn really goes out of his way to let you know that he owns a thesaurus.  Making it somehow even more annoying is his habit of using footnotes to explain any word or acronym that he suspects that we, being mere readers, will not be able to understand.

As far as I can tell, each chapter is about whatever Penn was upset about on the day that he wrote it.  The first half of the novel is all about Bob Honey making money selling plumbing equipment to Jehovah’s Witnesses and murdering old people because old people take up too much space.  Though the entire book takes place in Honey’s mind, we’re never quite sure who Bob Honey is because Sean Penn himself doesn’t seem to know.  Penn came up with a silly name and a stupid career and some random quirks and then I presume he forced his friends to read the first few chapters.

“Did you like it?” Penn asked.

“Uhmmm…” his friends replied, “It’s …. uhmmm … interesting….”

“I know!  It really is!”

The second half of the book was written after Trump was elected President because Bob Honey suddenly goes from being apolitical and ennui-stricken to suddenly being really pissed off that the country has been taken over by “The Landlord.”  Suddenly, Bob Honey is a woke assassin and you get the feeling that if Hillary Clinton had won, Penn never wouldn’t have had any idea how to finish the book.  However, since Trump won, the book ends with a lengthy poem in which Penn mentions every political cause that he cares about, along with letting us know that he’s skeptical about #MeToo.  Thanks for sharing, Sean.

It’s a strange book because, on the one hand, Penn seems desperate to let us all know how woke and anti-Trump he is but, at the same time, it’s hard to read Bob Honey and not come away with the impression that Sean Penn really doesn’t like, trust, or respect women.  Every woman who appears in the book is either ridiculed for being simple-minded or portrayed as being inherently evil.  Honey is obsessed with his ex-wife, who drives an ice cream truck, for some reason.  I kept expecting some sort of scene between Bob and his ex-wife but no.  Instead, Honey just sees her truck and then let’s us know that everything’s basically her fault.  It appears that the only reason she’s in the book is so Sean Penn can yell, “Ice cream truck!  YOU GET IT!?  ICE CREAM TRUCK!  SYMBOLISM, YOU RED  STATE PHILISTINES!”  There is only one vaguely positive female character in the book but she’s only present in flashbacks and Penn spends more time talking about her vagina than her personality.  Plus, she’s described as being hairless because … reasons, I guess.  The book comes across as if Penn wrote it in between jerking off to his whore/madonna complex.

As I said, there’s really no plot.  Bob Honey gets annoyed.  A reporter bothers Bob Honey.  Bob Honey thinks about how much he hates women.  Bob Honey goes to Baghdad during the Iraq War.  Bob Honey goes to New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.  Basically, it’s a tour of places and things that Sean Penn has never experienced but which he has probably considered making a movie about.

(And, to give credit where credit is due, the books reads like something Uwe Boll would have vomited onto the screen.)

Here’s the thing: if you wrote this book, you wouldn’t be able to get it published and people would probably take your obsession with finding a hairless lover as evidence that you should be on a sex offenders list.  Because Sean Penn is Sean Penn, he gets his book published and then gets to appears on talk shows to defend the stupid thing.  If you’re a real writer (as opposed to someone who just woke up one day and said, “I’m going to write a book!”) and that doesn’t leave you outraged, then you’re not paying attention.  Because as bad as Bob Honey is, Sean Penn’s second novel will probably be published as well.  While you’re working hard on a fourth rewrite, Sean Penn will be appearing on Colbert and promoting Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff Part 2.

A lot of people have held up Bob Honey as evidence of Sean Penn’s stupidity.  I don’t think he’s so much stupid as he’s just insecure.  A common theme when it comes to anything that Sean Penn does appears to be a desire to be known as more than just a good actor.  As a result, Penn directs overwrought movies that take themselves too seriously.  (I mean, I liked Into the Wild but, even while watching that film, it seemed like a minor miracle that Penn restrained his instinct toward pretension just enough not to blow it.)  He goes on talk shows and insists that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Hugo Chavez was a great guy and people in Venezuela are really, really happy.  He takes it upon himself to let Oscar viewers know that “Jude Law is one of our finest actors” and he sends angry, profane notes to the creators of South Park.  And, of course, he ends up writing books like Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff.  “Look, world,” Penn seems to be shouting with all of this, “I’m complicated!  There’s more to me than you think!”

And you have to wonder: why not just take joy in being really, really good at what you actually can do?  Sean Penn’s performance in Milk probably did more for the cause of human rights than any book he could ever write or speech he could ever give.  And yet, apparently, that’s not enough.

We need good actors who are willing to give performances in films that might otherwise not get made without a “name” in the cast.

We don’t need a sequel to Bob Honey.

Hopefully, Sean Penn will rediscover his love of acting before writing one.

Film Review: Tracks (1977, dir by Henry Jaglom)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1977 film, Tracks, opens somewhere in America.

Jack Falen (Dennis Hopper) sits on a bench, waiting for a train.  He’s wearing a military uniform.  He claims that he’s a 1st sergeant.  He claims that he’s just returned from Vietnam.  He’s traveling with a flag-draped coffin.  He says that the coffin contains the remains of his best friend from Nam.  Jack is accompanying the coffin back to his friend’s hometown.  Jack says that he’s going to make sure that his friend gets a proper burial.

From the minute we meet Jack, we get the feeling that there’s something off about him.  He’s a little bit too quick to smile and, when he laughs, it’s the guttural sound of someone who has learned how to show joy by watching other people but who has perhaps never felt it himself.  Sometimes, he’s quiet.  Sometimes, he is loquacious and verbose.  When he does speak, he rarely looks anyone in the eyes.  Jack is jumpy, as if he’s constantly afraid that he’s about to be exposed as a liar.

Soon, Jack is riding a train across the country.  While the rest of the passengers look out the windows and takes in the American landscape, Jack nervously wanders around the train.  He gets involved in a regular chess game.  He befriends a mysterious man named Mark (Dean Stockwell).  He starts a tentative relationship with a student named Stephanie (Taryn Power).  He tells anyone who will listen that he’s traveling with the body of his best friend.  When a black Korean war vet complains that Jack is acting like he’s the only person who lost a friend in a war, an offended Jack replies that his friend was black.

Jack sees things.  When he sees that the other passengers are assaulting Stepanie, he pulls out a small gun and aims it at the back of the train, just to suddenly realize that Stephanie is sitting unbothered at the back of the train.  While we know that Jack was hallucinating the attack on Stephanie, we still wonder if he really pulled out that gun.  If he did, no one else seems to have noticed.

Sometimes, the passengers say things to Jack that don’t seem to make any sense, leaving Jack staring at them in confusion.  Other times, Jack sees dark figures walking through the train.  At night, he wanders around naked.  Jack spends the trip watching the other passengers with a slightly dazed look on his face.  He plays chess with a man who later insists that he’s never played chess with Jack.  Sometimes, he thinks that he and Stephanie are outside of the train.  When Mark approaches Jack and asks for help, Jack explains that he can’t help anyone.  While a soundtrack of old World War II propaganda songs thunders in the background, Jack struggles to keep track of what’s real and what isn’t.

And so does the audience.  As we watch, it occurs to us that Jack’s stories about Vietnam don’t really seem to add up.  Add to that, we never actually saw Jack board the train.  Instead, we saw him sitting on a bench and waiting for the train.  We’re left to wonder if the train’s real or if the whole movie is just a figment of Jack’s damaged imagination.  And what about the coffin?  Tracks is full of unanswered questions but, in the film’s incendiary final moments, we do learn the truth about that coffin … maybe.

Henry Jaglom has been making independent films for several decades now.  Tracks is one of his better films, if just because Jaglom’s loose, seemingly improvised style actually works well at communicating Jack’s own struggle to keep up with what’s really happening and what he’s imagining.  As deceptively random as the film’s collections of scenes may appear, it’s all anchored by Dennis Hopper’s wonderfully unhinged performance.  Hopper brings a method actor’s intensity to Jack’s struggle to not only keep straight what’s real and what isn’t but also to keep his fellow passengers from understanding that he’s deeply unbalanced.  This film was made during Hopper’s drug-fueled lost years and he plays Jack like a man who is desperately trying to keep the world from seeing that he’s in the throes of withdrawal.  Unlike Hopper, Jack’s addiction isn’t to drugs.  Instead, Jack’s addicted to war, or at the very least his obsession with war.  (By the end of the movie, you have your doubts about whether Jack’s ever been to Vietnam or not.)  The use of World War II propaganda songs on the soundtrack may occasionally get annoying but they actually play up the contrast between our often simplistic view of war and the far more complex reality.

If nothing else, I would recommend Tracks for Hopper’s performance.  As well, since he co-stars with Dean Stockwell, it’s easy to imagine Tracks as being a bit of a prequel to Blue Velvet.  Who’s to say that Jack Falen didn’t change his name to Frank Booth?

AMV Of The Day: Serve and Protect (Space Battleship Yamato 2199)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s been a while since we did an AMV of the Day post here at the Shattered Lens.  With today being World UFO Day, this seems like a good time to rectify that situation.  And what better way to do it than with an AMV that features a lot of spaceships blowing up?

I have to admit that I kinda missed the whole news cycle where the President proposed a Space Force and it would appear that most people have now moved on from it.  (That’s what happens when each news cycle only lasts for 5 hours.)  Personally, I think it would be kinda neat to have a Space Force, just in case the Space Bugs turn out to be real or whatever.  Plus, it would probably be fun to conquer other planets.  As the old saying goes, “Earth first!  Makes Mars our bitch!”  Though if an American Space Force conquered Mars, wouldn’t that makes Mars the 51st state or something?  Or the 54th, assuming that California splits up before we get around to invading the red planet?  I don’t know.  I’m not really into politics so I can’t say for sure.

Anyway, if we do get a Space Force, I imagine it’ll look something like this video.

Anime: Space Battleship Yamato 2199

Song: Pitch Hammer Music — Serve and Protect

Creator: Craterkhan

Past AMVs of the Day

Cleaning Out The DVR: Night Watch (dir by Brian G. Hutton)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recorded 1973’s Night Watch off of TCM on March 17th!

There’s a tendency, among critics, to dismiss almost every film that Elizabeth Taylor made after Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  Sure, Reflections In A Golden Eye has its defenders but, otherwise, Taylor’s later films are often viewed as being overproduced and self-indulgent with Taylor giving uncertain, occasionally histrionic performances.

Those criticisms aren’t entirely unjustified.  Some of it may have been due to her own notoriously poor health and her troubled marriage to Richard Burton.  Even more of it was probably due to Taylor’s struggle to remain relevant as a middle-aged actress working in the 1970s.  I have to admit that I’m strangely fascinated by the latter half of Taylor’s film career, just because it does feature so many bizarre films and strange performances.  Taylor was always a good actress but, in her later films, it was hard not to get feeling that her stardom was her own worst enemy.  Taylor was often cast specifically because of her notoriety and she often seemed to work with directors who weren’t willing to reign her in whenever she started to go overboard.

That, however, doesn’t mean that every film that she made in the 70s was a bad one.

Take Night Watch, for instance.  Yesterday, as I watched Night Watch, I asked myself, “How is it that I’ve never seen or even heard of this film before!?”

Because seriously, Night Watch was really good.

Liz plays Ellen Wheeler, an apparently unstable woman living in the UK.  She’s haunted by the night that her first husband was killed in a car crash, along with his mistress.  Ellen has remarried but she worries that her new husband, John (Laurence Harvey), might be cheating on her with her best friend, Sarah (Billie Whitelaw).  It turns out that she has good reason to be worried because that’s exactly what John is doing!  It’s not that John doesn’t love Ellen.  It’s just that he doesn’t know how to deal with her constant nightmares and delusions.

For instance, Ellen is convinced that she’s witnessed a murder!  She says that, in the abandoned house next door, she saw a man with a slit throat.  Later, she claims that she saw a woman murdered over there as well.  When the police investigate, they find no one in the house.  But Ellen swears she saw something.  She even suspects that her neighbor, Mr. Appleby (Robert Lang), may have buried the bodies in his garden.

(Mr. Appleby is not amused by the suggestion.)

Is Ellen going crazy or did she really see something?  I bet you think you already know the answer.  I know that I did.  But then Night Watch ends with a twist that is shockingly effective and unexpected.  For once, I didn’t know how the movie was going to end and now, a day later, I’m still thinking about those final scenes.

Night Watch has its flaws.  With the exception of when he played Col. Travis in The Alamo, Laurence Harvey was never a particularly sympathetic actor and he comes across as his usual cold self in Night Watch.  And, as good as Taylor is, there are still a few moments where she does go a bit overboard.  During the first half of the film, you have to make your way through a lot of yelling to get to the good part.

But that good part is so good that it’s worth it!  Night Watch is a genuinely atmospheric and surprising film, one that catches you off guard and one in which the tension does not relent until the final credit has rolled across the screen.  Ellen’s nightmares are especially well-realized and the film’s final moments are both frightening and surprisingly graphic.  This is a film that sticks with you.

If you haven’t seen it yet, keep a watch for it!

Cleaning Out The DVR: The Day This Fish Came Out (dir by Michael Cocoyannis)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recorded the 1967 film, The Day The Fish Came Out, off of FXM on May 11th, 2017!  It took me a while to get around to watching this one.

Ugh, what a mess.

The Day The Fish Came Out is kind of a comedy and kinda of a drama and it really doesn’t succeed as either.  It takes place on a Greek island that is populated by four goat herders and one village full of disgruntled people.  The biggest news of their lives comes when it’s announced that Greeks will now be allowed to immigrate to Greenland.  All of the people of the village stand up and run through the streets but — and this is typical of the film — we never actually see anyone go to Greenland.  A potentially funny joke is set up and then promptly abandoned.

Because the island is so remote, it seems like the perfect place for a damaged NATO plane to dump its nuclear payload.  Two nuclear missiles end up in the ocean.  Meanwhile, a radioactive crate known as Container Q ends up landing near a goatherd (Nicolas Alexios), who promptly takes it home and starts trying to pry it open.  Meanwhile, the plane’s pilot (Colin Wakely) and its navigator (Tom Courtenay) end up wandering around the island in their underwear, trying to retrieve the crate without letting anyone know that they’re there.  And while it may not sound like a bad thing that, for once, it’s the guys who spend the entire movie in their underwear, let’s just say that Wakely and Courtenay spend a lot of time rolling around in the dirt and it doesn’t take long for those tighty whities to get disgustingly grimy.  Bleh!

Meanwhile, a group of American secret agents have been sent to the island to look for the crate and the missiles and hopefully retrieve them without causing an international crisis.  The problem is that the Americans are pretending to be real estate developers and they think the pilot and the navigator are dead.  And the pilot and the navigator don’t know that the brash Americans are actually secret agents so they keep hiding from them.  In other news, everyone in this movie is really stupid.

The townspeople — or at least the ones who didn’t go to Greenland — assume that their island is now a hot tourist location because of all the interest from the “developers.”  Through an annoyingly complicated series of events, this leads to the discovery of an ancient statue.  Electra Brown (Candice Bergen) comes to the island to investigate the statue and pose in the latest 60s fashions.  She then gets on a boat and leaves the movie.

Meanwhile, the ocean starts to glow and fish start to show up dead on the beach, proof that the radiation is spreading.  However, the townspeople and the tourists who have recently arrived assume that it’s just a part of the island’s newfound charm…

The poster for The Day The Fish Came Out announces, “Dr. Strangelove, move over!” and that pretty much defines the approach this movie takes to its material.  It wants to be even more outrageous and satirical than Stanley Kubrick’s anti-bomb classic.  However, The Day The Fish Came Out lacks both Dr. Strangelove‘s focus and it’s chillingly detached world view.  (One reason why Dr. Strangelove works is because Kubrick isn’t scared to suggest that maybe the world would be better off if humanity did just blow itself up.)  The Day The Fish Came Out also lacks the right type of cast for this material.  There’s no equivalent to be found to the performances that Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, Sterling Hayden, and even Peter Bull gave in Kubrick’s film.  Among the members of The Day The Fish Came Out‘s ensemble, Sam Wanamaker, as the delusionally positive leader of the American agents, comes the closest to capturing the satirical feel that the film was obviously going for but the rest of the cast flails about in apparent confusion.

When the townspeople and the tourists blithely dance in the radioactive water and ignore the NATO man frantically yelling, “Attention!,” the film briefly achieves the satirical grandeur that it was going for.  But otherwise, The Day The Fish Came Out is almost as messy as the doctrine of mutually assured destruction.

 

Let’s Watch Zydereen of Neptune!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, the Late Night Movie Gang and I watched Zydereen of Neptune!

Never heard of Zydereen of Neptune?  Well, don’t feel bad.  It’s not really a movie.  Instead, it’s three episodes of an old 1950s TV series that someone edited together.  According to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Flash Gordon aired in 1954 on a now defunct network called DuMont.  The eponymous space hero was played by Steve Holland, a clean-cut model with an impressive head of hair.  On the show, Flash was a member of the GBI, which is like a galactic version of the FBI.  Working with him was scientist and love interest Dale Arden (Irene Champlin) and scientist and non-love interest Dr. Zarkov (Joseph Nash).  Flash was not a scientist but he had really nice hair.  Did I mention that?

(Seriously, the Late Night Movie Gang estimated that Flash was 90% hair spray.)

Anyway, in three episodes, Flash and the GBI had to defeat the machinations of Zydereen (Marie Powers), an evil witch who lived on Neptune and who yearned to escape and take over the universe.  She caused quite a bit of panic on Neptune, the majority of which, according to Wikipedia, was portrayed via stock footage of a 1953 anti-communist demonstration by citizens of East Berlin.  Having been made in 1954, it’s not surprising that Flash’s struggle to keep the universe safe feels a lot like America’s effort to keep the world safe from communism.

I was fulling expecting to be dismissive of this low-budget television show-turned-movie but actually, I enjoyed it.  From the threadbare production values to the grainy stock footage to the model rocket that crossed the screen whenever Flash was on a mission, there was an undeniable charm to the film’s low budget aesthetic.  Steve Holland grew on me as well.  At first, he seemed like a stiff but by the 30 minute mark of the film (or the second episode, if you will), Holland seemed a lot more comfortable with the role.  If nothing else, he had really impressive hair.  (Did I already mention that?)

Plus, Marie Powers was a good villain.  Again, it helps to remember that she was playing a space witch on a low-budget TV series that was mainly aimed at children.  As a result, neither she nor her schemes are particularly subtle but who cares?  It was right for the show.

As I’ve said many times in the past, I’m a history nerd.  And, if nothing else, Zydereen of Neptune was definitely a piece of history!

Want to watch it?  Well, here it is:

 

A Blast From The Past: The Marfa Lights

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Marfa Lights

Did you know that we are regularly visited by UFOs down here in Texas?

Well, maybe.  To be honest, I tend to be a skeptic about most of these things, just because I can’t imagine any aliens wanting to visit this planet.  However, it is true that — for centuries — mysterious lights have been spotted hovering over the desert that surrounds Marfa, Texas.

Some people down here prefer not to talk about the Marfa Lights, because they kind of play into the whole “Everyone in Texas is crazy” stereotype that certain folks have.  If nothing else, we’re a state that loves to do business and sometimes aliens aren’t good for business.

The Gribbles in Marfa

But, honestly, most of us love the idea of aliens regularly visiting Marfa!  If nothing else, those aliens have earned themselves a right to one of those “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got down here as fast as I could” bumper stickers!

Of course, it’s totally possible that the Marfa Lights are not UFO-related.  There’s plenty of explanations that have been offered up but none of them are as much fun as aliens.  So, let’s go with aliens.

The video below tells you all about The Marfa Lights and it’s pretty interesting.  It has an interview with a Marfa old timer who claims her ancestors spotted the lights back in the 19th century.  I’m not sure when the video is shot but judging from the cars and the fashion, I’m going to guess it’s from either the late 70s or the 80s.  That said, Marfa pretty much still looks the same.

Except, of course, Marfa is now a leading artist’s colony and the home of a famous (and fake) Prada store.  In fact, a few years ago, 60 Minutes did a whole story on Marfa and didn’t even mention the Marfa Lights.  I guess the reporters were shocked to discover art in Texas.  People up north are always so shocked to discover that there’s a world below Manhattan.

Prada Marfa

Anyway, enjoy The Marfa Lights!

What Lisa Watched Last Night #185: Did I Kill My Mother? (dir by David Bush)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, along with Prescription For Danger, I watched Did I Kill My Mother? on Lifetime!

Why Was I Watching It?

I actually watched Did I Kill My Mother when it originally premiered, was back on May 12th.  Unfortunately, at that time, I was suffering from some sinus and allergy problems that pretty much knocked me out for that entire month so I didn’t write a review.  Fortunately, Lifetime was kind enough to give me a second chance at that review by rebroadcasting the film last night!

Thanks, Lifetime!

What’s It About?

At one time, Natalie Romero (Megan Park) had a great future.  She was going to leave the small town where she grew up and she was going to go to law school!  But then, one night, her father mysteriously died.  Natalie’s mother, Laura (Alice Davis Johnson), became convinced that her husband was murdered by local mobsters and insisted on investigating the case even after the police announced that it was closed.  As for Natalie, she started drinking and hanging out with losers like Ethan (Jordan Salloum).

One night, when Natalie comes home drunk from the local bar, she has just enough time for a very loud argument with her mother before she goes upstairs and passes out.  When Natalie wakes up, she discovers that her mother has been murdered!  Despite the fact that the chief of police (Dane Rhodes) is a family friend, Natalie quickly senses that Detective Monroe (Austin Highsmith) considers her to be the number one suspect.

Natalie must now not only solve two murders but also clear her name.  The town is full of suspects.  Everyone knows that Ethan was obsessed with Natalie and disliked her mom.  There’s a true crime author (Stephen Colletti) with a shady past poking around.  Even Natalie’s best friend (Karina Willis) seems to be awfully eager to tell Natalie what to say and do.  And, of course, Natalie can’t remember what she did or didn’t do on the night of the murder.  Could Monroe be correct?  Could Natalie have murdered her own mother?

What Worked?

This was a really entertaining movie.  Along with giving you two mysteries for the price of one, it also featured a memorable collection of potential murderers.  While watching the film, it was easy to imagine that any one of them could have been the killer.

Out of the talented cast, Stephen Colletti really stood out.  He played the struggling writer with just the right combination of rakishness and dorkiness.  The enthusiasm that he brought to uncovering clues was a lot of fun to watch.  Colletti’s best moment?  When he commented that a recently deceased character was an “idiot.”  “Sorry,” he tells the dead body, with such sincerity that you believe his regret.

The script was full of witty dialogue.  This was one of those films where everyone — from the lead character to the most minor of rolls — had the gift of snark.

What Did Not Work?

It all worked!  This was an entertaining Lifetime murder mystery!

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

I related to the character of Natalie’s best friend, played by Karina Willis.  Like her, I enjoy solving mysteries.  When she started to excitedly explain what it meant when a person went to the funeral of someone who they were suspected of having killed, I was right there with her.

(She was right, too!  The guilty party always comes to the funeral.)

Lessons Learned

Murders are more fun to solve when you work with your friends!

What Lisa Watched Last Night #184: Prescription For Danger (dir by Caroline Labrèche)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I watched Prescription for Danger on Lifetime!

Why Was I Watching It?

Much like The Wrong Daughter, this was another Lifetime movie that I somehow missed when it originally aired.  Lifetime was nice enough to rebroadcast it last night, which gave me a chance to get caught up!

What Was It About?

Imagine two people who appear to have it all.

On the one hand, you have Ivy (Joanne Kelly).  Ivy is a smart and successful businesswoman.  She’s driven, often to the point of distraction.  She’s put her personal life on hold and it’s paid off with a lot of success at a young age.  Of course, as a result, she’s still single.  And she’s been suffering from terrible migraines ever since college.  When she finally pushes herself too far, she collapses and finally has to go to the hospital.

And then there’s Dr. Mark Ryan (Shaun Benson).  At first glance, he appears to be intelligent, kind, professional, and dedicated.  Of course, there is a woman who is suing him but Dr. Ryan swears that she’s crazy.  And Dr. Ryan has been fined in the past for ethical lapses but then again, who hasn’t?

When Dr. Ryan examines Ivy, he announces to her that she has brain cancer but that he has the perfect cure!  But what if Ivy doesn’t have cancer?  What if Dr. Ryan is lying to her and giving her placebos just because he’s a manipulative sociopath?

And, if that’s bad enough, what if Ivy finds herself falling in love with him?

What Worked?

Joanne Kelly and Shaun Benson both did a good job in the leading roles.  Benson, who previously played another Lifetime psycho in Kept Woman, was convincing both as a caring doctor and a totally unhinged madman.  You understood why Ivy was willing to trust the doctor and, at the same time, you couldn’t wait to see him get his final comeuppance.

Director Caroline Labrèche did a great job of visually putting us into Ivy’s mind, especially when she was on the verge of collapsing at the start of the film.  As melodramatic as the plot was, Labreche actually told her story in a relatively low-key fashion, one that was certainly different from what we typically expect from a Lifetime movie.

What Did Not Work?

At the same time, the film’s relatively low-key approach was something of a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, you had to appreciate the fact that the film was attempting to take its story seriously.  At the same time, as a regular Lifetime viewer, I couldn’t help but regret that the film didn’t take the opportunity to go totally over-the-top.  Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the Stalked By My Doctor films.

(Then again — and this is why you should probably ignore most critics — if the film had gone over-the-top, it’s likely that people online would have complained that it was just trying to be another Stalked By My Doctor.  Ultimately, the only critic that matters is you, the viewer.)

“OMG!  Just like me!” Moments

I related to Ivy, in both her drive to be successful and her hesitation about dealing with hospitals and doctors.  If, God forbid, I was every told that I needed chemotherapy, I would have had much the same reaction as Ivy.  Joanne Kelly did a good job of bringing her to life,

 Lessons Learned

Trust no one, which seems to be a pretty common lesson to be learned from Lifetime films.  If you didn’t already distrust doctors as a result of the Stalked By My Doctor films, you certainly will after Prescription for Danger.  (Except, of course, for the doctor who I see for my ADD, because he is seriously a prince!)