When Sara (Stefanie Scott) disappears shortly before her 18th birthday, her mother (Joely Fisher) and her older sister (Emily Topper) are naturally concerned. Significantly less concerned is her creepy father, Don (Judd Nelson). Don says that Sara has always been irresponsible and has always placed her own wants and desires above what’s best for her family. Don goes on to say that Sara had long been threatening to go on a road trip and that her plan was to see all 50 states before returning home.
The years pass and Sara never returns home. Don says that it’s obvious that Sara has decided never to return and that it’s best not to even worry about her. When Sara’s mother suggests maybe hiring a private detective, Don angrily says that he doesn’t want to hear another word about it. Sara has made her decision and he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.
And the years continue to pass.
Of course, Don knows exactly where Sara is. He knows that, years ago, he tricked her into the going into the basement and that he then locked her in a secret room. Everyday, he takes her some food. He rewards her if he feels that she’s being good. He punishes her if he feels that she’s still being rebellious. As the years pass, Sara has several children, all fathered by Don. They live in the basement with Sara.
It’s a disturbing story, made all the more disturbing by the fact that it’s based on actual events. For 24 years, Elizabeth Fritzl was trapped, by her father, in a basement. Girl In The Basement is Lifetime’s take on the story. It was directed by Elisabeth Rohm, who has starred in several Lifetime films herself. Girl In The Basement is relentlessly grim, as it should be. It’s not particularly a fun film to watch but it’s impossible not to be inspired by the fact that the Sara, the film’s stand-in for Elizabeth Fritzl, managed to survive, no matter how terrible the situation became. She never gave up. Rohm does a good job of capturing the oppressive claustrophobia of Sara’s existence and Joely Fisher, Emily Tapper, and Stefanie Scott all did good job of showing how the victims of abuse often make excuses for their abusers. Even before he locks Sara in the basement, everyone in the family knows that Don is a monster but they’ve all come to accept it. They’ve all come to feel as if “That’s just Don.” Like most abusers, Don knows how to manipulate and how to gaslight his victims into accepting almost anything.
Judd Nelson does a good job in the role of Don. Unfortunately, we’re so used to seeing Judd Nelson play creeps that it was impossible to be surprised when he turned out to be one in this movie. The casting was a bit too on-the-nose and, whenever Nelson was onscreen, I found myself thinking about all over the other films that I’ve seen that featured Judd Nelson as a villain. That said, Nelson brought enough authenticity to Don’s sudden mood swings that he was convincingly menacing. It’s not just that Don locks his daughter in the basement and abuses her for 24 years while insisting that the family should just forget that she ever existed. It’s that he’s so damn proud of himself after he does it.
Girl in the Basement is well-done Lifetime true crime film, albeit not a particularly pleasant one to watch.
As chaotic as 2020 may have been, one thing remained unchanged! Lifetime provided me with a lot of entertainment! Below, you’ll find my picks for the best Lifetime films and performances of the past year!
(For my previous best of Lifetime picks, click on the links: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019!)
Coming up next (tomorrow at the latest — maybe sooner, depending on how much time I can devote to watching 6 movie today): My picks for the best films of 2020! Finally!
I have to admit that when I first saw that Lifetime was going to be airing a film called Sleeping With Danger, a lot of really stupid jokes came to mind.
I mean, it’s true that the title was also the title of the Ann Rule story that served as the basis of the film’s plot but still, Sleeping With Danger just has such a Lifetime-y ring to it. If you were making up a fake Lifetime movie, you’d probably give it a title like Sleeping With Danger. And then you’d spend a while coming up with silly tag lines.
I also found myself imagining the MyPillow guy shooting a commercial specifically for the movie. “If you’re sleeping with danger, you’ve got to have support for your neck and back. MyPillow is made right here in my home state of Minnesota, where we sleep with danger every winter….”
Then I watched the movie and, to be honest, I ended up feeling a little bit guilty. Yes, the title might sound a bit campy but the film itself is actually very serious. It’s probably one of the most serious films that I’ve ever seen on Lifetime. Of course, it probably helps that it’s based on a true story and not a particularly happy one at that.
Elisabeth Rohm plays Grace Tanner, a directionless, 38 year-old flight attendant who thinks that she’s found love when she meets Dr. Paul Carter (Antonio Cupo), a charming and handsome nutritionist. Grace and Paul have a whirlwind courtship, which soon leads to them living in a cabin out in the wilderness. Needless to say, it is never a good thing, in a Lifetime movie (or in real life), when you end up isolated in a wilderness cabin.
Paul, it turns out, has a possessive streak and a rather shady history. (One should note that this story takes place in the 90s, a.k.a. the time before Google.) Grace comes across a restraining order. She comes across evidence that Paul has been in trouble with the police before. When she tries to question Paul about it, he hits her. Even after Grace leaves him and goes to a shelter, she continues to deny that she’s in an abusive relationship. No, she says, she and Paul are just having troubles.
Inevitably, Grace goes back to Paul. Paul, for his part, always has an excuse to explain away his abusive behavior. They settle into cycle, one that finds Grace a virtual prisoner. Eventually, it all leads to murder….
It’s a pretty grim movie but it’s well-made and, even more importantly, it’s a realistic portrait of an abusive relationship. Like so many victims, Grace is fooled into thinking that Paul is going to change or that it’s even her fault. Sleeping With Danger shows all of the ways that someone like Paul will manipulate and hurt those around him. Antonio Cupo and Elisabeth Rohm both give believable performances in the lead roles. The film may be grim and a bit of a downer but it’s message makes it worth seeing.
(Lisa is currently in the process of trying to clean out her DVR by watching and reviewing all 40 of the movies that she recorded from the start of March to the end of June. She’s trying to get it all done by the end of July 11th! Will she make it!? Keep visiting the site to find out!)
The 34th film on the DVR was Revenge Porn, which I recorded off of Lifetime on June 18th.
Here’s two important things to know about Revenge Porn:
First of all, when it originally aired, I live tweeted it on twitter, along with several other friends. Needless to say, we used the hashtag #RevengePorn. Also needless to say, using #RevengePorn as a hashtag ended up getting me a lot of attention from people who weren’t necessarily watching the film. I picked up a lot of new followers that night.
Secondly, when it came time to write this review, I wanted to make sure that I had at least one image to go along with it. So, innocently, I did a google image search on “Revenge Porn.” That turned out to be a big mistake. If you want to find pictures from this film, I suggest that you do a search for “Elisabeth Rohm Lifetime movie.” It’ll be a lot less traumatic.
As for the film itself, it starts out like a more respectable version of Break-Up Nightmare. The innocent and college-bound Peyton Harris (Tiera Skovbye) is up in her bedroom, taking topless pictures, while her overprotective parents (Elisabeth Rohm and David Lewis) are downstairs. In fact, the only real difference between the opening of Break-Up Nightmare and Revenge Porn is that Peyton isn’t taking the pictures for a boyfriend. Instead, she’s considering whether or not to get a boob job.
Otherwise, the first hour of the film plays out pretty much the same as Break-Up Nightmare. Peyton’s best friend (Jodelle Ferland) is jealous over Peyton’s great future and, in a moment of spite, sends naked pictures of Peyton to everyone at school. However, things get even worse when Carl Cook (a thoroughly creepy performance fro Levi Meaden) comes across Peyton’s pictures and posts them on his revenge porn website, ExMyEx. Cook claims that what he’s doing is perfectly legal and that it’s the fault of his victims for taking naked pictures in the first place. Peyton’s mom decides to try to bring the website down and Carl seeks revenge…
However, after about an hour of this, the film goes totally crazy. Angered over their attempts to shut him down, Carl starts to harass the Harrises in every over-the-top way imaginable. Since Carl Cook is a hacker (which, in the world of Lifetime films, is the equivalent of being an MCU-style super villain), there is literally nothing that he can’t do.
Send threatening texts to every member of the family? Carl can do it!
Send and re-send naked pictures of Peyton to everyone on the planet? Carl can do it!
Cancel everyone’s credit cards and destroy the family’s finances? Carl can do it!
Cancel Peyton’s college scholarships? Carl can do it!
Issue a warrant for Peyton’s father arrest? Carl can do it!
Eventually, the Harrises even find themselves being chased by a drone, which Carl is apparently controlling from his super villain lair!
When it comes to movies about creepy hackers and naked pictures, Break-Up Nightmare is definitely the one to go with. But Revenge Porn has its own strengths. Both Rohm and Skovbye give good performances and, seriously, as played by Levin Meaden, Carl Cook is one of the most loathsome villains to ever appear in a Lifetime movie.
If you’re a fan of the Lifetime way of telling cinematic morality tales, Revenge Porn is one to keep an eye out for. Hopefully, Lifetime will be do a Revenge Porn/Break-Up Nightmare double feature at some point in the future.
Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime film premiere, Seduced!
Why Was I Watching It?
Because it was on Lifetime, of course! Every Saturday night, I either watch or DVR the new movie on Lifetime. I absolutely and unconditionally love these movies and I don’t care who knows it. Plus, the title of the movie was Seduced and, as we all know, the best Lifetime movies often feature the word “seduce” in the title (i.e., Lethal Seduction, The Babysitter’s Seduction, etc).
What Was It About?
Someone is murdering redheads in California! (Speaking as a redhead, allow me to just say, “Agck!” in regards to that.)
Meanwhile, via a missed connections app, Caroline (Elisabeth Rohm), a redhead who lives in California, meets the mysterious and charming Gavin (Jon Prescott). Caroline is still haunted by the loss of her husband and spends most of her time trying to take care of her teenage daughter (Jessica Amlee) while keeping the company she works for — a place called Funderstorm — from going out of business. However, Gavin takes her away from all that, introducing her to a world of sensual and erotic delight.
(You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for the chance to use “a world of sensual and erotic delight” in a review.)
Gavin seems to be perfect. He’s handsome, he has a sexy accent, he lives in a nice house, he cooks, and he reads books! However, since there is Lifetime, there are a few warning signs that Gavin may not be as great as he seems. For one thing, despite living in an absolutely fabulous house, he always seems to need money. For another, Caroline becomes so enraptured by him that she starts to neglect both work and her daughter. And then there’s the mysterious Margo (Julie Mond), who appears to be involved with Gavin in some way as well.
And, of course, there’s those news reports about the murdered redheads….
What Worked?
I really enjoyed this one. This movie featured everything that we love about Lifetime movies — melodrama, sex, several nice houses, clothes to die for, and even a little bit of empowerment at the end. The entire film was well-cast with Elisabeth Rohm doing a great job as Caroline and Jon Prescott epitomizing dangerous charm as Gavin. And, of course, I also have to praise Julie Mond, who didn’t appear in many scenes but definitely made an impression.
I also really liked the relationship between Caroline and her daughter. Rohm and Jessica Amlee were totally believable as mother and daughter and every detail of their relationship rang true.
What Did Not Work?
It all worked. If you’re into Lifetime movies, this film is for you. If you’re not into Lifetime movies — well, then you probably stopped reading this review a few paragraphs back. And that’s okay, I still love you! Lifetime films are not for everyone but if you enjoy them, you should enjoy Seduced.
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
Oh my God, so many of the characters had red hair just like me! It’s just too bad that so many of them ended up getting killed.
Today was the first day of a new year so, of course, I had to go down to the Alamo Drafthouse and see a movie. What was the title of the first movie that I saw in a theater in 2016?
Joy.
Despite the fact that Joy has gotten some seriously mixed reviews, I had high hopes when I sat down in the Alamo. After all, Joy represents the third collaboration between director David O. Russell and one of my favorite actresses, Jennifer Lawrence. (Their previous collaborations — Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle — happen to be two of my favorite films of the past 5 years.) Add to that, Joy has been advertised as being a tribute to a real-life, strong-willed woman and I figured that, at the very least, it would provide a nice alternative to the testosterone-crazed movies that I’ve recently sat through. And finally, Joy had a great trailer!
Sure, there were a few less than positive signs about Joy. As I mentioned before, the majority of the reviews had been mixed and the word of mouth was even worse. (My friend, the sportswriter Jason Tarwater, used one word to describe the film to me: “Meh.”) But what truly worried me was that Sasha Stone of AwardsDaily absolutely raved about the film on her site and that’s usually a bad sign. Let’s not forget that this is the same Sasha Stone who claimed that Maps To The Stars was one of the best films ever made about Hollywood.
And, to be honest, I had much the same reaction to Joy that I had to Map To The Stars. I really wanted to love Joy and, occasionally, there would be a clever bit of dialogue or an unexpected directorial choice and I would briefly perk up in my seat and think to myself, “Okay, this is the film that I wanted to see!” But, for the most part, Joy is a disappointment. It’s not so much that it’s bad as it’s just not particularly great. For the most part, it’s just meh.
But let’s talk about what worked. Overall, this may be one of Jennifer Lawrence’s lesser films but she gives a great performance, one that reminds us that she truly is one of the best actresses working today. I’ve read some complaints that Lawrence was too young for the title role and, to be absolutely honest, she probably is. She looks like she could easily go undercover at a high school and help Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum bust drug dealers. But, at the same time, she projects the inner weariness of a survivor. For lack of a better term, she has an old soul and it comes across in her films.
In Joy, she plays Joy Mangano, a divorced mother of two who lives in upstate New York. Her mother (Virginia Madsen) lives with Joy and spends all of her time watching soap operas. Joy ex-husband, a lounge singer named Tony (Edgar Ramirez), lives in the basement. Meanwhile, her grandmother (Diane Ladd, who narrates the film) is always hovering in the background, offering Joy encouragement and optimism. At the start of the film, Joy’s cantankerous father (Robert De Niro) has also moved into the house. Joy, who was the valedictorian of her high school, has got a demeaning job working as a flight booker at the airport.
(“What’s your name?” one rude customer asks, “Joy? You don’t seem very joyful to me…”)
How stressful is Joy’s life? It’s so stressful that she has a reoccurring nightmare in which she’s trapped in her mother’s favorite soap opera and Susan Lucci (cleverly playing herself) tells her that she should just give up.
However, as difficult as life may get, Joy refuses to take Susan Lucci’s advise. She invents a miraculous mop known as the miracle mop and eventually becomes a highly successful businesswoman. Along the way, she makes her television debut on QVC and becomes a minor celebrity herself…
The film’s best scenes are the ones that deal with Joy and QVC. These scenes, in which the inexperienced Joy proves herself to be a natural saleswoman, are the best in the film. These scenes are filled with the spark that I was hoping would be present throughout the entire film. Of course, it helps that these scenes also feature Bradley Cooper as a sympathetic television executive. This is the third time that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence have acted opposite each other and there’s an immediate chemistry between them. In this case, it’s not a romantic chemistry (and one of the things that I did appreciate about Joy was that it didn’t try to force a predictable romance on the title character). Instead, it’s the type of mutual respect that you rarely see between male and female characters in the movies. It’s a lot of fun to watch, precisely because it is so real and unexpected.
But sadly, the QVC scenes only make up a relatively small part of Joy. The rest of the film is something of a mess, with David O. Russell never settling on a consistent tone. At times, Joy feels like a disorganized collection of themes from his previous films. Just as in The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, we get the quirky and dysfunctional family. Just as in American Hustle, we get the period detail, the Scorsese-lite soundtrack, and the moments of cynical humor. There’s a lot going on in Joy and, at time, it doesn’t seem that Russell really knows what to do with all the theme and characters that he’s mixed into the movie. I found myself wondering if he truly understood the story that he was trying to tell.
Finally, at the end of the film, Joy visits a business rival in Dallas, Texas. Let’s just say that the film’s version of Dallas looks nothing like the city that I know. (The minute that the scene cut from her ex-husband discovering that Joy had left to a close-up of a Bar-B-Q sign, I let out an exasperated, “Oh, come on!”) I suppose I should be happy that Russell didn’t have huge mountains in the background of the Dallas scenes but seriously, would it have killed anyone to do a little research or maybe hop on a plane and spend a day or two filming on location?
(After all, if Richard Linklater or Wes Anderson decided to set a movie in David O. Russell’s home state of Massachusetts, I doubt that they would film the Boston scenes in El Paso….)
Joy features great work from Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper and it tells a story that has the potential to be very empowering. But, when it comes to the overall film … meh.
I have always been surprised by how much some people hate the 2013 best picture nominee, American Hustle. Even two years after the film was first released, you’ll still find people whining that the film felt like David O. Russell’s attempt to remake Goodfellas (yes, I have actually seen more than a few people online making this idiotic claim) or claiming that the movie was overrated or that there wasn’t anyone in the film that they could root for. While every film has its detractors, I’m always a little bit taken aback by just how passionately some people dislike this film.
Some of it, of course, is because the film that beat American Hustle for best picture was the universally acclaimed 12 Years A Slave. As hard as it may seem to believe now, there were a lot of people who thought that American Hustle might actually beat 12 Years A Slave. Strangely enough, a lot of online film bloggers tend to take a Manichaen approach to the Oscars, viewing each year’s race in terms of good and evil. The film that they want to win represents good and, therefore, every competing film must represent evil. It’s a pretty stupid and immature way of looking at things but, then again, the stupid and immature approach has worked pretty well for Sasha Stone and Ryan Adams over at AwardsDaily.com so who am I to criticize?
Of course, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the majority of American Hustle‘s most strident online critics have been male. I imagine that they watched the film and, in Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence, they saw every unresolved crush of their adolescence. When Amy Adams successfully fooled Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper, these critics saw themselves being fooled. When Jennifer Lawrence called Bale a “sick son of a bitch,” these critics felt that they were being called a sick son of a bitch. American Hustle is a film about men who don’t know how to talk to women and that probably struck a little too close to home for a lot of those online critics.
(I imagine that the majority of online American Hustle haters probably preferred Rooney Mara’s version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattooto Noomi Rapace’s.)
Of course, the truth of the matter is that American Hustle was one of the best films of a very good year. Of all the films nominated for best picture of 2013, American Hustle was my personal favorite.
Based, very loosely, on true story, American Hustle is a period piece. It takes place in the late 70s, which of course means that we get a lot of great music, a scene in a disco, and clothes that are both somehow ludicrous and to die for at the same time. It’s a glamorous film about glamorous people doing glamorous and not-so-glamorous things and how can you not love that?
Irving (Christian Bale, giving a brave performance) is a generally nice guy who also happens to be a con artist. His unlikely partner is Sydney (Amy Adams), a former stripper turned Cosmo intern. When Sydney is working with Irving, she takes on a totally different identity and tells people that she’s Lady Edith Greensly, a British aristocrat who has international banking connections. When Sydney plays Edith, she speaks in a posh British accent and what’s interesting is that her accent is often (deliberately) inconsistent. However, as Irving points out, it doesn’t matter whether her accent is a 100% convincing or not. What’s important is that people want her to be Lady Edith Greensly and people will make excuses for almost anything as long as it confirms what they want to believe.
Eventually, Irving and Sydney are arrested by ambitious and highly strung FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Richie, who spends a good deal of the film with curlers in his hair, lives with his mother and has a boring fiancée who he doesn’t seem to like very much. (Richie is also briefly seen sniffing coke, which might explain a lot of his more extreme behavior.) Richie wants to make a name for himself and he views Irving and Sydney as his way to do so. He blackmails them into helping him set up and arrest crooked politicians and businessmen. Richie also finds himself growing obsessed with Sydney, who he believes to be English even after she tells him that she isn’t.
All of this eventually leads to Irving and Richie setting up the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner). Polito, who may be corrupt but who also seems to sincerely care about helping the citizens of his town, wants to revitalize gambling in Atlantic City. Irving and Richie introduce him to FBI agent Paco Hernandez (Michael Pena), who is disguised as Sheik Abdullah and who they claim is interested in investing in Carmine’s plans. This, of course, leads to a meeting both with a local Mafia don (Robert De Niro) and with several politicians who agree to help out the Sheik out in exchange for money.
Complicating things is the fact that Irving himself comes to truly like the generous and big-hearted Carmine and how can you not? When the film was first released, Jeremy Renner was a bit overshadowed by Bale, Cooper, Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence. However, Renner gives the best performance in the film, playing Carmine with a disarming mix of innocence and shrewdness. He’s the type of guy who is smart enough to walk out on the first meeting with the fake sheik’s associates but who is still naive enough that he can be charmed by Irving. When the fake sheik gives Carmine an equally fake knife as a gift, the look of genuine honor on Carmine’s face is heart-breaking.
The other big complication is Irving’s wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). Rosalyn is jealous, unstable, unpredictable, and, in her own way, one of the smarter people in the film. She’s also a bit of pyromaniac and, when she accidentally blows up a new microwave, you’re really not surprised. (And, when Rosalyn starts to obsessively clean the house while singing Live and Let Die at the top of her lungs, I felt like I was watching a blonde version of myself.) When Rosalyn starts to have an affair of her own, it leads to American Hustle‘s satisfying and twisty conclusion.
(Again, a lot of the same online toadsuckers who irrationally hate American Hustle seem to hold a particular contempt to Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in this film, as if to acknowledge that Lawrence — as always — kicks ass would somehow be a betrayal of Lupita Nyong’o’s award-winning performance in 12 Years A Slave.)
Don’t listen to the haters. American Hustle is a great film, a stylish and frequently funny look at politics, corruption, and the ways that people con themselves into believing what they want and need to be true.
Through the Shattered Lens 