As the central character of the Lifetime film, Homekilling Queen, Whitney (played by Kaitlyn Bernard) only wants one thing. She wants to be homecoming queen! And really, why shouldn’t she be? She believes that she’s the most popular girl in the entire school, despite the fact that no one actually seems to like her. Add to that, she’s rich and serving as homecoming queen is practically a family tradition! Her mother, Connie (Ashley Jones), was homecoming queen. So was her grandmother, Evelyn (Jennifer Dale). Both Connie and Evelyn are determined that Whitney will be the next homecoming queen. Connie’s even taught her how to do a proper pageant wave.
How determined is Whitney? She’s so determined that, over the summer, she even murdered one of her rivals! That’s determination!
Still, things are never quite as easy as they should be. For instance, Whitney may think that she has the election all sewn up but Natasha Hart (Kayleigh Shikanai) feels differently. Natasha is sick of the school being run by mean girls like Whitney. Natasha decides that she’s going to run against Whitney!
At first, Whitney is dismissive of Natasha and her campaign. Everyone knows that Natasha had a drug problem in the past. Apparently, she drove her car into the bleachers while high on oxy. (This automatically makes Natasha cooler than anyone I went to high school with.) However, Natasha is now clean and sober and looking to make the world a better place. To Whitney’s shock, Natasha starts to pick up support for her campaign. Even after Whitney sends everyone in school a nude picture that’s been photoshopped to look like Natasha, Natasha’s campaign continues to build momentum.
Well, if photoshopped nudes won’t knock Natasha out of the race, how about planting drugs on her? And if Whitney has to murder someone to get those drugs …. well, that’s politics.
It’s an interesting film. On the one hand, you’re supposed to dislike Whitney, Connie, and Evelyn. And it is true that Whitney does commit a murder or two. On the other hand, they’re all so determined to win that homecoming election that you can’t help but admire the level of their dedication. If it means giving students gifts to win their vote, Whitney’s willing to do it. If it means seducing the school’s creepy principal to keep her daughter from being disqualified, Connie’s going to do just that. Kaitlyn Bernard, Ashley Jones, and Jennifer Dale all really dig into their roles and do a great job at capturing the unhinged obsessiveness of their characters. Jennifer Dale is especially a marvel as the coldy pragmatic Evelyn. When she glares at anyone who would stand in her granddaughter’s way, you’re left with no doubt that Evelyn is not someone who you would want to mess with. She’s scary but you would definitely want her to have your back in a confrontation.
Also doing a good job were Kayleigh Shikanai and Krista Bridges, who were perfectly cast as mother and daughter. Every scene between them rang true and, watching them, I was reminded of the way that my mom and I would relate to each other. They brought an unexpected sense of reality to a film that could have otherwise just been an enjoyably over-the-top melodrama.
Homekilling Queen was a lot of fun and, given the number of times that Lifetime rebroadcasts all of their films over the year, it’s one to keep an eye out for.
What would you do if, one day, you were suddenly told that everything that you believed was a delusion?
That’s question that rests at the heart of A Mother On The Edge, a film that aired on Lifetime earlier this month.
The mother of the title is Blair Ayken (Kelly Thiebaud). When we first meet Blair, her life is definitely in flux. She’s wrapped up in a lawsuit with a former business partner. Her sleazy ex-husband, Simon (Matt Hamilton), is …. well, he’s acting like a sleazy ex-husband. She still occasionally has nightmares about a serious auto accident that occurred a year earlier. Perhaps the only bright spot in her life is her daughter, Lori (Lina Renna).
Or is she?
One day, Blair goes to her daughter’s school and can’t find Lori. When she goes to the office, she’s informed that the school has never had a student named Lori Ayken. When she talks to the students who she believed to be Lori’s classmates, they all tell her that they’ve never seen or heard of Lori. When Blair goes to her friend and lawyer, Cynthia (Alison Wandzura), Cynthia reveals that, though she’s heard a lot about Lori from Blair, she’s never actually met her. Finally, when Blair confronts Simon and demands to know where Lori is, Simon tells her that she’s gone crazy. Lori, he explains, has been dead for a year. She died in the very same car accident about which Blair has been having nightmares.
Blair swears that her daughter is alive and has been kidnapped. Everyone around her swears that Lori has been dead for a year and that Blair has lost her mind. Even Cynthia gets a little bit upset when Blair speaks up at a court hearing and starts to explain her theory that everyone but her is either incorrect or lying. So, who is correct? The best thing about A Mother On The Edge is that it keeps you guessing. Since Blair is the main character and Simon is such a sleaze, our natural instinct is to believe her. But, it’s hard not to have doubts. As sure as Blair is that Lori is alive, everyone else seems to be equally sure that Blair is delusional. As I watched the film, I found myself going back and forth. At first, I was like, “Well, this is obviously a setup” but then I was like, “Maybe Blair really is crazy.”
A lot of that was due to the performance of Kelly Thiebaud. She did a great job capturing both Blair’s initial panic and also her determination to not only prove that Lori was alive but to also rescue her. Thiebaud brought just enough of a nervous edginess to her performance that you easily could understand why people might view her as being unbalanced and, as a result, you were never quite sure just how much you should trust her beliefs. She kept you wondering. It was a performance that left me wondering how I was would react and what I would do if I ever found myself in Blair’s situation.
I also liked the performance of Phillip Mitchell, who played a character known as The Fixer and who brought just the right combination of menace and annoyance to his role. I can’t reveal too much about his role without spoiling the film but Mitchell definitely made an impression.
A Mother On The Edge originally aired on Lifetime on May 3rd. Fortunately, Lifetime tends to rebroadcast their films several times during the year so keep an eye out for A Mother On The Edge.
New York City has inspired many great songs and movies. Maybe not as many as Paris, or even London for that matter, but still, out of the cities that can be visited on the North American continent, New York City is definitely one of the cultural leaders. After all, it’s got more of a history than Los Angeles and it’s less corrupt than Chicago. ALL HAIL NEW YORK!
Of course, I live in Texas and we tend to make a lot of jokes about New York down here. But we do it out of love. Or, at the very least, I do. Of course, the main thing that I love about New York is that everyone’s in a hurry and you don’t have to waste a lot of time being polite. I like that. The whole avoiding eye contact thing is a part of what makes New York great, in my honest opinion.
Anyway, this video from Kyle Minogue has a 1970s New York-on-cocaine feel to it. At least, that’s what I assume New York was like in the disco era. I’ve only got the movies to go on and Saturday Night Fever always seems like it’s just a few seconds away from showing someone doing a line of coke while John Travolta’s on the dance floor.
What I’m saying here is that there’s a lot that I don’t know for sure. But I do like New York and I do like dancing and I probably would have had fun in the 70s.
I love this song. It’s simple but it’s profound and I think the video works for the exact same reason. Sometimes, you don’t need to be flashy. You don’t need to show off. Sometimes, you just have to let the music do its thing.
Today’s music video of the day comes to us from Bajofondo, a band made up of musicians from Argentina and Uruguay. Bajofondo’s goal is to create and popularize a more contemporary version of tango and the other musical styles of the Rio de la Plata region.
This is an enjoyable video. Watching it causes me to flash back to the summer I spent in Europe and especially riding the train into Venice. Of course, nobody was actually dancing in the aisles on that train but it always seemed like they should have been.
Like yesterday’s music video of the day, I was introduced to this band, song, and video by twitter user @WarrenPeas64.
Today’s music video of the day comes to us from Hrdza, a band from Slovakia. It’s an adaptation of an old folk song and it’s a nicely energetic and fun little video, I think. I have to admit that as I was watching it, I saw a lot that reminded me of my own family. I think it’s kind of nice that I can relate a song and a music video from Slovakia to my own big Irish-Italian-Spanish family. Some things are universal!
The story that began in the video for In This World continues in the video for Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday). The aliens are back! This time, they have a little bit more success getting noticed. In fact, you could almost say that they have too much success. Can you blame them for deciding to go back to their home?
As for the song, I’ve always thought it was one of Moby’s best. It’s also one of his saddest songs, full of regret and melancholy. The fact that Moby was born on September 11th, 1965 undoubtedly has something to do with that. It’s interesting that such a sad song could inspire such an enjoyable video.
Just keep in mind that this video, featuring aliens getting their own television series, was released long before Keeping Up With The Kardashians. So, you can consider this to be a prophetic video, if you are so inclined.
In case you’ve ever wondered what it will be like when the aliens finally arrive on Earth, it’ll probably be a lot like this video. You do have to give the aliens credit for trying though. They made signs and everything. Maybe they’re mistake was landing in New York. New York is a very busy city and most people don’t really have time to look for tiny aliens. That said, you have to love their refusal to give in. They’re not going to surrender to despair. They’re just going to make a bigger sign.
One thing I always enjoy about the videos that Moby made in the early aughts is that the songs were often somber and tinged with sadness but the videos frequently weren’t.
Early on in the new Netflix film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, there’s a scene in which Liz Kendall (Lily Collins) and her sister, Joanna (Angela Sarafyan) go to a bar. Through some rather heavy-handed dialogue, we learn that Liz has just broken up with her boyfriend, that she has next to zero self-confidence, and that she’s a single mother. She doesn’t think that there’s a man anywhere who would be interested in her. Joanna responds by pointing out that there’s one man who appears to be very interested. In fact, he hasn’t taken his eyes off of Liz since they entered the bar.
That man’s name is Ted (Zac Efron) and, at first, he seems like he’s too good to be true. He’s charming. He’s a law student. He appears to love spending time with Liz’s daughter. He looks like Zac Efron. Perfect, right?
Of course, we know something that Liz doesn’t. We know that Ted is Ted Bundy and that, eventually, he’s going to become one of America’s notorious serial killers, a symbol of evil so potent that, more than 30 years after he was executed by the state of Florida, he continues to get movies made about him.
Because we know who and what Ted is, we spend the first fourth of the movie cringing at everything that makes Liz happy. For instance, Liz is shocked to discover that Ted apparently loves her daughter but we’re just like, “Oh my God, that’s Ted Bundy! GET YOUR DAUGHTER AWAY FROM TED BUNDY!” Liz thinks it’s romantic when Ted makes breakfast for her but we’re just staring at the big kitchen knife in his hand. When Liz and Ted make love, only we notice the blank look on Ted’s face as he looks down at Liz and we find ourselves wondering what’s happening in his mind.
The film is told largely through Liz’s eyes and, with one exception, we never see Bundy actually committing any of his crimes. (That’s a good thing, by the way. We already know who Ted Bundy was and what he did. There’s no need to sensationalize the very real pain that he caused.) Like Liz, we find out about Bundy’s crimes through news reports and arrest records. For instance, when Bundy is arrested for attempted kidnapping in Utah, Liz doesn’t find out about it until a story appears in the local Seattle newspaper. When Liz demands to know why he didn’t tell her what was happening, Bundy gives her a bullshit story about how he’s being framed and how his lawyer is going to get the case thrown out. We know that Ted’s lying but Liz believes him because …. what else is she going to do? Is she going to believe that this perfect man who seems to love both her and her daughter is actually a sociopathic monster?
The film follows Bundy from one trial to another, as he’s charged with crimes across country. It shows how this superficially charming law student became something of a media celebrity. (When a reporter asks him if he’s guilty, Bundy grins and asks if the reporter is referring to a comic book that he stole when he was in the fifth grade.) Bundy escapes. Bundy is arrested. Bundy escapes again. Bundy eventually ends up being tried in Florida, where he revels in the attention. When Liz loses faith in him, Bundy replaces her with an unstable woman named Carole Ann (Kayla Scodelario). However, even while Carole Ann is dutifully delivering statements from Bundy to the press, Bundy is still calling Liz and begging her to believe that he’s innocent and he’ll soon be freed from prison.
Why is it so important to Bundy that Liz believe in him? Is he just entertaining himself by manipulating her or, in his relationship with her, does he see the type of normalcy that he desires but knows he’s incapable of ever achieving? Towards the end of the film, Liz comes close to asking Bundy if he was planning on killing her the first night that they met. She doesn’t and it’s doubtful that Bundy would have given an honest answer but it’s still a question that hangs over every minute of this film (as does Liz’s physical resemblance to the majority of Bundy’s victims).
Though the film may be told from Liz’s point of view, she’s often comes across as just being a meek bystander, watching as the darkness of Ted Bundy envelops her world. The film itself seems to be far more interested in Ted Bundy and his twisted celebrity. Zac Efron plays Bundy as someone who knows how to be charming and who is good enough at imitating human emotions that he’s managed to keep the world from noticing that he’s essentially hollow on the inside. Bundy has gotten so used to acting out a role that, even when he’s on trial for his life, he can’t resist the temptation to turn the courtroom into his own stage. He demands to defend himself and, though he initially proves himself to be a good lawyer, his demands and his questions become progressively more flamboyant and self-destructive. It’s as if he’s gotten so caught up in playing his role that he’s incapable of recognizing the reality of his situation. He performs for the jury, the judge, and the television audience, treating the whole thing as if he’s just a character in a movie. It’s only when he has no choice but to accept that he’s been caught and he’s never going to escape that Bundy finally shows some human emotion. He cries but his tears are only for himself. It’s a chilling performance and Zac Efron deserves every bit of praise that he’s received.
Unfortunately, the film itself doesn’t really tell us anything that we didn’t already know. Director Joe Berlinger is best-known as a documentarian and he talks a “just the facts” approach to the story. We don’t really get any insight into how a monster like Ted Bundy could come to exist. Outside of Efron’s revelatory performance, there’s not much here that couldn’t be found in any of the other films that have been made about Ted Bundy.
(Interestingly enough, as I watched the film, it occurred to me that Ted Bundy was a monster who could have only thrived in a pre-Internet age. For all the books and movies that portray him as being some sort of cunning genius, Bundy actually wasn’t that smart. He approached two of early his victims in a public place and introduce himself as being “Ted,” usually within earshot of a handful of witnesses. He was so brazen that the police even ended up with a sketch that pretty much looked exactly like him. In all probability, the only way that Ted Bundy avoided getting arrested in Seattle was that he moved to Utah, where his crimes were unknown and the sketch wasn’t readily available. Today, of course, that sketch and Ted’s name would be on Twitter and Facebook as soon as they were released by the police. My friend Holly would probably retweet the sketch and say, “Do your thing, twitter!” He would have been identified and arrested in just a matter of time. Instead, Bundy committed his crimes at a time when news traveled slower and law enforcement agencies were not in constant communication with each other.)
The good news is that Extremely Wicked is not, as some feared, a glorification of Ted Bundy. He’s a monster throughout the entire film. Zac Efron proves himself to be a far better actor than anyone’s ever really given him credit for being. It’s a flawed film but, at the very least, it’s also a disturbing reminder that sometimes, darkness hides behind the greatest charm.
Through the Shattered Lens 