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REVIEW
movie review // 'SHUTTER ISLAND'
Hollywood hits, indie flicks and everything in between.
Originally slated for an October 2009 release date, Shutter Island would have been the perfect Halloween movie. Instead, it's one of the best films ever to grace the cinematic doldrums of February. It's the rare thriller that refuses to insult its audience's intelligence, never substituting cheap scare tactics for ruthlessly efficient suspense and a shocking, satisfying payoff.
Shutter Island, based on a novel by Mystic River scribe Dennis Lehane, unfurls with surgical precision, with many sequences veiled in a fog of dreams and memory. The year is 1954 and notorious murderer Rachel Solondo (Patricia Clarkson) has escaped from her cell on Shutter island, a sprawling mental hospital built on the burnt-out shell of an old Civil War fortress in Boston Harbor. U.S. Marshalls Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are dispatched to recapture her.
After touring the treacherous grounds, Teddy questions the asylum's head doctors, the dapper Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and the sinister Dr. Naechring (Max Von Sydow). Both men seem to have something to hide, and the ensuing investigation embroils Teddy in a web of intrigue that includes allegations of murder, brainwashing and human experimentation ghastly enough to make
Joseph Mengele blush.
Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of the finest performances of his increasingly distinguished career as Teddy, whose straight-laced G-man persona hides a tortured past that includes the liberation of a Nazi death camp and the ever-present specter of his dead wife (a haunting Michelle Williams). Von Sydow and Kingsley both contribute their usual dramatic brilliance; particularly Kingsley with his oily, scenery-chewing gravitas.
Scorsese presides over the film with the power and elegance of a master at the top of his game. His style blends Hitchcock with Shining-era Kubrick, resulting in a psychological thriller that feels timeless in its terror. I haven’t been this disturbed or enthralled by an American horror movie since David Lynch’s Inland Empire. Let’s just hope Scorsese doesn't wait another 20 years to give us more of his beautiful nightmares.
LANDON MCDONALD
book review // 'WHISTLING IN THE DARK'
reading. it's not just for textbooks, you know.
In her debut novel, Whistling in the Dark, Lesley Kagen brings a moving tale of two very close sisters growing up in Milwaukee. It is the summer of 1959 and after their mother is suddenly ill, the O'Malley sisters, Sally and Troo, are off on an adventure that turns out to be a life changing summer.
The coming-of-age story is told from the innocent point of view of 10-year-old Sally. The preoccuous child is considered "too imaginative" by society. Sally is trying to deal with many issues, making her a character who is easy to fall in love with. She is instructed to work on her personality and focus on taking care of Troo.
With a murderer and a molesher on the loose in this normally quiet town, caring for her sister will be harder than Sally ever imagined. She is convinced that this killer will come after her and there is no way she can avoid it. The only thing she can do is try to protect her sister.
With their father's recent death, mother's illness, stepfather's drunken abandonment and older sister's preoccupation with her boyfriend, Sally and Troo must learn how to take care of themselves. On the diverse street of Ville, nothing is as innocent as it seems.
// SAVANNAH ABBOT
02 14
25
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