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Contracted (2013)
Good potential but disappointing
Zombie moves often seem to be hit or miss, and I felt this one was a miss. I felt like there was a lot of potential - a young woman who is turning into a zombie, and as her body falls apart, the process mirrors her life as it spirals into destruction. Unfortunately, by the end of the film, I felt that I put more thought into the meaning of the movie than the script writers did, and it left me disappointed.
Part of the problem I had with the film has to do with the main character, Samantha, and how her journey is presented through the film. At the beginning of the film, Samantha is drugged and raped by a mysterious man named "BJ" - all we learn of him in the film is the introduction which outlines his necrophilia, and the fact that the police are looking for him. Samantha's rape is never addressed. Throughout the movie, everyone in the know maintains that she "slept" with a man at the party, even though they all know she was roofied. This could have potentially been a vehicle to reflect how broken the moral compass was of all of the characters; however, I am pretty sure the writer might actually not understand that they wrote a rape scene. Considering the current atmosphere surrounding this hot topic, it really did not serve or enhance the story in any way.
Samantha, as it seems, is pretty popular among her friends; so popular that pretty much every main character is in love with her. Her girlfriend Nikki is inattentive and shallow, her best friend Alice is secretly in love with her, and she has a stalker named Riley who seems to have no social skills. This would be fine, except for the fact that I have absolutely no idea why anyone would be in love with Samantha. She is dull (both figuratively and visually - there is nothing interesting about her at all), whiny, stupid, and completely defined by her practically non-existent relationship with Nikki. Her physical and mental downfall into a zombie existence would have been much more interesting if she had anywhere TO fall. But from what we can see, especially watching her get drunk and raped within the first ten minutes of the film (all while she whines about Nikki not returning her phone calls), Samantha's life is already a disaster. We learn later on she used to be a drug addict, and we know she cares for orchids, but outside of that, she has no background that enhances her character.
As the story progresses and Samantha becomes sicker, the story just devolves into chaos. She is obviously sick. Her doctor, instead of sending her to the ER, decides to wait for her blood tests and sends her home, urging her to not come in contact with anyone. So, of course, the first thing she does is come in contact with every damn person she possibly can. After a while, it becomes clear that Samantha's chaotic mindset is a direct result of her disintegrating body, but the other characters do not have that excuse. Her mother plans an intervention, Alice threatens to call the police, Riley can only think about sleeping with her, and her boss is having her prepare food for patrons, and all the while parts of Samantha's body are falling off and she's bleeding out of places no one should bleed from. At no point does it occur to a single person to call 911. Before Samantha's symptoms became clearly apparent, I was able to buy into everyone's confusion regarding her erratic behavior. But once she started looking the way she did, the rest of the characters just became so ragingly stupid that I found it hard to get any enjoyment out of the movie.
There are other issues I could address, such as the problematic representation of lesbians and sexually active women, but these are problems that a number of movies have and run far deeper than just a poorly written script.
Najarra Townsend was the only saving grace of this movie. Regardless of her dull and somewhat infuriating character, her performance was strong and she carried a great number of scenes where she was the only performer on screen very well. I think with a better written script, she would be a joy to watch.
In the end, I turned off this movie feeling disappointed and let down. I had much higher hopes based on the kind of movie Contracted set itself up to be, but like Samantha's body, it began to crumble somewhere towards the middle and was never able to reach its full potential.
Tricked: The Documentary (2013)
A Horrifying and Stark Look into Life in the Sex Trade...
This is a well done documentary addressing all of the aspects of the complicated and dark world of sex trafficking. With the use of interviews and first hand accounts from pimps, johns, the sex workers themselves and even the police officers and psychologists working to end the sex trade, this documentary is able to give a balanced view of slavery in modern America.
If nothing else, it's an important movie to watch based on just some of the comments made by reviewers on this site. Even with the trade of minors into sex slavery and the sexual and psychological abuse that pimps use to keep a hold on their workers, some people still decide to blame the victims of these tragedies. These stories are not suspect nor are they the fault of the women involved - they are stark, and real, and paint a sickening picture of the worth of a woman in a society that has veiled blatant sexism, sexual abuse and victimization by turning a blind eye and blaming the women involved. We laud over ourselves for being advanced in our ideologies, and in the same breath fund a multi-million dollar underground industry where the worth of a woman is, literally, anywhere from $40 to $100.
All I can say is, watch this movie. Definitely if you are interested in the background of illicit sex work and especially if you are blind to its existence. The only major thing lacking for me was any discussion of the role of men as victims in sex trade, as I think for us to continue to battle this monster, those voices must not be silenced either. That aside, I found this documentary to be honest, unforgiving and enlightening.