BEHAVING BADLY (2014)

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *irony*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological, sociological*                                                                                                                                                                                                        Phenomenality first: the only reason this strange sex-farce rates as "uncanny" is because there are scenes in which adolescent protagonist Rick (Nat Wolff) and his simp-buddy Billy (Lachlan Buchanan) witness hot lady "saints" appear before them, and only to them, to dispense vague advice. It's not clear if these bizarre characters have any real existence in the world of the movie, though "Saint Lola" does give Rick some information about an event that has not yet transpired. That some psychological projection is also involved is suggested by the way each of the lady saints-- the other one's name being "Saint Poppy"-- looks exactly like each of the adolescent's respective mothers and are of course played by the same actresses playing those "real life" characters, Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Shue.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Source material second: BADLY, the only prominent credit by director/co-writer Tim Garrick, is based upon a 2000 comedic novel, WHILE I'M DEAD FEED THE DOG, and it's so referenced in the credits, though author Ric Browde publicly disavowed the adaptation. Having read a summation of the novel, all I can say is the movie does use some of the novel's comic concepts.                                                                                                                                     Presumably because of the source material, BADLY has some unusual-- not to say superior-- deviations from the standard teen sex comedy. In teen comedies with one central protagonist, the hero is usually either a gormless innocent who gets in over his head but is essentially good-hearted, or a conniving "player" who seeks to manipulate older manipulators. Both are usually given serious-minded leading ladies who want the guys to clean up their acts so that they can be molded into decent boyfriend material. Not infrequently, there also exist "bad women" who serve to tempt the hero from the correct path. Sometimes the bad girls are skanks of the same age as the protagonist, but they can also be predacious older women. Antagonism to true love also takes the form of jealous boyfriends of the desired leading lady, or husbands of the predatory cougars.                                                                  

 One curious thing about BADLY is that it can't make up its mind as to which type the main character is. Sometimes he acts the part of the innocent caught up in designs beyond his ken. Then he often turns around and performs some manipulative action to gain the upper hand. Not a few online reviews found him "unlikable," and I concur, though the reason stems from the script wanting to have the character play off both of the main two stereotypes.                                                                                                                                          The same ambivalence appears with regard to Rick's romantic goals. Although as a male teen Rick's beset by hormonal urges, he desires a girl his own age, classmate Nina (Selena Gomez), and though he lusts after her he also pictures her in an angelic fantasy. This would be the "madonna" part of the "madonna-whore" dichotomy of male desire identified by Freud, while the "whore" part is loosely ascribable all other women, not least Rick's mother Lucy (Parker). Lucy's not any sort of "predacious older woman," and there's no indication (except for his "Saint Lola" maybe-fantasy) that Rick is attracted to the womb that bore him. But Lucy and Rick's father don't live together anymore, and Lucy constantly signals familial chaos by complaining that one of these days she'll divorce her cheating husband. Arguably, any "older woman" intrigue is deflected onto Pamela (Shue), the mother of Rick's best friend Billy, and unlike a fair number of teen-hero protagonists, Rick does sleep with this predacious older woman. Rick also does errands for a sleazy guy at a strip club (a father-substitute perhaps), so Rick's no innocent, though the script can't make up its mind how blameless he is for his own situation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Amid all the random nonsense-situations in Rick's life, I find myself reflecting on whether or not, in contrast to most teen comedies, this one's source material may have taken the whole "whore complex" and ascribed it not just to three or four characters, but the nature of the sin-wracked world itself. Though Rick's major problems don't emphasize those standard tropes of "jealous boyfriend" or "jealous husband"-- they are there in the story, but very muted-- most of the males-- Rick's father, the strip club manager, various gangsters and even fathers of the Church-- are all drawn into the web of sin. Rick is clearly Catholic going by a scene where he makes confession, and implicitly Billy is too (though he doesn't have his "Saint Poppy" vision until the movie's end, just for a closing joke). Though one can't make broad generalizations about the actual practice of Catholic believers, I think that in fiction the Catholic faith is shown as having fetishized the "lust of the flesh" (1 John 2:16) so that it becomes the embodiment of the world's delusions, against which faith struggles. And in BEHAVING BADLY, this means a fleshy world where women hold much of the real control. Two other mature women pursue Rick, though not as avidly as Pamela, and she for good measure also has something going on with one of the local priests, so it's no surprise that she's the biggest "whore" in the movie. To be sure, even the "angelic" Nina, raised by fundamentalist parents, is clearly intrigued by Rick's ability to walk on the wild side.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Is BADLY-- which I term an "irony" rather than a simple comedy-- a funny movie in any sense? Only fitfully, like an episode of FAMILY GUY. The producers managed to get a lot of recognizable names to contribute small parts-- Heather Graham, Dylan McDermot, Justin Beiber (in a cameo), Patrick Warburton, Cary Elwes, and Gary Busey. Of them all, Busey is slightly funny and of course Graham is unfailingly hot. But Elizabeth Shue has all the best scenes, some of which are very slapsticky in nature. In one scene, Pamela expects Rick to meet her in bed, and when a third party intrudes, she gets the unwelcome visitor in a crotch-grab that he clearly does not enjoy (though he pretends he does). Later, when a comely newslady comes on to Rick a little for an interview, Pamela tackles the competitor and gets summarily punched out. While drunk she even kisses on her own son a little, which goes a long while toward explaining why Billy, lacking an angel to "save" him, more or less turns gay.                                             
            

BLACK SUNDAY (1960)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*                                                                                                                                                BLACK SUNDAY proves a more evocative title for Mario Bava's first directorial effort and his first pure horror movie than the Italian original, translating to "Mask of the Demon." I doubt that the words "Black Sunday" even appear anywhere in either of two circulating English translations, much less in the original Italian. But because Sunday is the day consecrated to Christian worship in that religious tradition, speaking of a "black Sunday" is a parody of something sacrosanct, as with the Satanic "black mass."                                                                                                                                                    Further, the evocation of "blackness" connotes the darkness of a Manichean world, where even the redemption of Christ seems nearly powerless. The famous opening scene of SUNDAY, taking place in 17th-century Moldavia, shows a band of witch-slayers resorting to extreme violence to put down a pair of Satan-worshipping witches, Princess Asa (Barbara Steele) and her lover Prince Javutich (Arturo Domenici). Asa's own brother condemns the duo to damnation, rather poetically calling the already slain Javutich "the serf of the devil." The slayers intend to burn both Satanists, but only after killing them with metal masks that are hammered into their faces. However, after both are slain, a sudden storm interrupts the ceremony, and everyone flees. It's not clear why the storm keeps the Moldavians from burning the bodies later. The most one can imagine is that the locals are too spooked to do so, and so they merely inter the bodies as quickly as possible. Javutich, complete with mask, is simply dumped in a grave, presumably unconsecrated. For Asa the witch-hunters are more elaborate. Her body is interred within a sealed coffin inside a deserted chapel, but with a cross erected over the coffin and a glass panel that supposedly allows the dead witch to see the cross if she tries to come back to life again. This fear is later justified when a legend relates that a hundred years later, Asa's tomb split open and a female member of her family the Vadjas mysteriously died.                                                                                 

 A hundred years later, Asa tries to resuscitate once again. and this time, she gets some help from two medical men journeying through Moldavia: Doctor Kruvajan and his young colleague Andrei. Nature, apparently controlled either by Satan or his dead servitors, seems to conspire to delay the two men, to lure them to the crypt, and then to cause Kruvajan to accidentally destroy the cross that binds Asa in her coffin. In addition, Kruvajan cuts his hand and spills some blood onto Asa's corpse. This doesn't immediately revive her, as would happen in some later Dracula films. But it apparently strengthens her enough that she can call Javutich out of his grave and make him appear to be a living man.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Without playing down the impact of the opening scene, I found that the strongest horrific scenes were those taking place in the castle of the Vadjas, inhabited by the older Prince Vadja and his two grown children, Constantine and Katia. The latter is also played by Barbara Steele, and after Vadja relates the legend of the death of the young woman in the 1700s. Vadja fears that Katia will be Asa's next target. The dreary aspects of the castle are amplified by evil sendings-- a painting whose figures seem to change positions subtly, and the image of the Mask of Satan appearing in Vadja' wine-cup.                                                                                                                                                                                                Asa uses Javutich to trick Kruvajan into returning to the crypt. In a moment that seems like a homage to Poe's HOUSE OF USHER, Asa simply smashes her way out of her stone coffin and vampirizes Kruvajan to make him into her Renfield. However, Kruvajan's eminence as a doctor makes him even more helpful than simply a supplier of blood. Javutich, posing as a servant, seeks to attack Vadja at night, but the prince wears a cross and Javutich can't touch him. Under the guise of doctorly care, Kruvajan removes the cross, allowing Javutich to vampirize the older man. Later, Vadja himself is so overcome by the power of evil that he attempts to drink the blood of Katis. But since Asa has her own plans for Katia, Javutich kills Vadja and delivers Katia to Asa in her tomb. Apparently Asa still can't just leave until she changes places with the living girl, consigning Katia to death.                                                                                                                                                     The last third of Bava's film is the weakest, as the audience must follow young doctor Andrei around as he slowly puts the pieces together and calls upon the local priest for help. He encounters Asa, who has switched places with Katia to make her look like the corpse of the dead witch. However, Andrei sees through the deception and calls the locals to his aid. Soon Asa's body is getting burned as it should have been two hundred years ago, and Katia makes a full recovery Nevertheless, this "happy ending" still leaves quite a few people suffering grotesque demises, so in a broader sense, BLACK SUNDAY, while not a "win" for Satan, allows the fiend to score far more points than he did in a lot of other films prior to this one.