Bug

I'm not sure why Ashley Judd continues to make suspense/horror/psychological thrillers? What compels her to these rolls of battered women on the verge of something terrible in the face of something awful at the threshold of something demonic/evil? Bug pretends to be a horror movie wrapped up in a meditation about abused women, drug abuse, love and the military-industrial complex as it pertains to conspiracy laden delusions spouted by a odd mumbling Heath Ledger in Brokeback type drifter played by Michael Shannon. Adapted from a stage play by Tracy Letts this film starts well with interesting and sometimes surprisingly original dialog as would be expected from a semi-successful play. But alas, we are destined being the audience, to follow this inconsistent movie into the depths of paranoid dementia. There's something about aphids running amok on and under the skin of Ashley and Michael. There's a muscle bound Harry Conick Jr. as Ms. Judd's ex-con ex-boyfriend, there are mysterious phones a ringing, and even references to the Tuskeegee experiments, and I'm sure something about UFO's even though I may or may not have heard that. Basically, this is a movie that starts kind of well and descends quickly into an implausible conclusion that leaves the audience, well at least the audience I was with, to moan derision and to ho-hum all the way home. Not so good. Don't do it.

source: Bug

I've never been a Friedkin fan and I can live without an "Exorcist" DVD. "Bug" depicts another kind of possession ,and it shows paranoia as few other movies did (Polanski did it in "the tenant " in 1976).The performances are great ;Ashley Judd plays a part few of her peers would dare: she is matched every step of the way by Michael Shannon .Both,towards the end,reach the extreme limit and their shouting voices are hardly intelligible.From the very start,Judd seems jaded,tired of the world,with no reason to live . Even when you feel safe,you know there's an impending menace ;today we live in a world where nobody can say "it won't happen to me" .The Army experiments (a subject which was already broached in the brilliant "Jacob's ladder" ) are only an alibi ,and anyway,are they real?We see danger where there isn't any and we swallow a pill to soothe our fears .One blip (here a tiny bug) is enough to bring everything grinding to the halt... or to trigger madness ,a madness which will know no bounds .

(WARNING: Major spoilers abound in this review.) If you want to be in on bad-cinema history, drop whatever you are doing and go see "Bug." It is the greatest movie Ed Wood never made. And after "Eye of the Beholder" and "Ya-Ya Sisterhood," "Bug" conclusively proves that Ashley Judd seeks out these humiliations in a movie script: gratuitous nudity; heavy emission of bodily liquids from the eyes and nose; and dialogue that turns her character into a total ditz. Our first clue that this movie is off the beam is that it's set in Oklahoma, yet the phone that we see in constant close-up displays a 904 area code. This is an ominous sight to a Florida moviegoer, but I let it pass at first. Anyway, Judd plays a lonely bar waitress named Agnes. One night, a friend introduces Agnes to a drifter named Peter (Michael Shannon). At first, Peter strikes Agnes as monosyllabic, but soon the two tentatively open up to each other. Later, Agnes' nasty ex-husband Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.) shows up and gives the movie some palpable tension -- fooling you into thinking that this might be a rational movie. But soon, Peter tells Agnes he hasn't made love to a woman in a long while, and Agnes commands, "Come 'ere, boy," like a road-company Blanche DuBois. Later that night, Peter gets a bug bite and has a long conversation with Agnes about bedbugs -- because the surest way to score points with a naked Ashley Judd is to discuss insects. At one point, Peter deserts Agnes, and we're thinking, "Good for her." Then he returns to tell Agnes how the government has been running bug experiments on him, and Agnes gets the worst case of Stockholm Syndrome ever. Before long, Peter is using a junior-high microscope (where'd a drifter get that?) to examine stuff that isn't even there, and Agnes is so afraid of losing this wack-job that she starts seeing the stuff too. From there, the movie derails to a completely bonkers climax, with Shannon making like Christopher Walken, Connick doing Jack Nicholson, and Judd doing...well, bad Ashley Judd. And every bit of it is fascinating. Because who cares about Peter -- when did Ashley Judd start to unravel so dramatically? By movie's end, you half-expect an usher to come around and solicit contributions for Ashley Judd's fading movie career.

The loser and lonely waitress Agnes (Ashley Judd) lives in a cheap motel in Okalahoma grieving the disappearance of her beloved son Lloyd ten years ago. Her abusive ex-husband Jerry Goss (Harry Connick Jr.) has just left prison on probation and is insistently calling her. When her colleague and only friend, the lesbian RC (Lynn Collins), brings her drifter acquaintance Peter Evans (Michael Shannon) to visit her, they have an affair and Peter stays with Agnes in her room. Peter finds bugs in their bed, and discloses to Agnes that he was a soldier in the Gulf War submitted to experiments by the army and presently he is infested with bugs. Agnes feels the same symptoms and the couple believes in Peter's conspiracy theory of the American government. "Bug" is a weird low-budget movie, set practically in one location, about paranoia and schizophrenia. The unpleasant story is very well acted, and Ashley Judd surprised me with a great interpretation of a lonely woman with a tragedy behind that feels attracted by a gentle man with delusional paranoia and schizophrenia tendency brilliantly performed by Michael Shannon. This movie is not bad, but it is absolutely predictable; I was disappointed since I expected a surprising twist in the end that never happens. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Possuídos" ("Possessed")

"Bug" is the best film to come out so far this year. Unfortunately, it is going to have a hard time finding an audience. "Bug" is a filmed play and has more in common with Tennesse Williams and Edward Albee than it does with a typical horror movie. People expecting a horror movie will be disappointed that most of the film is people talking. On the other hand, people looking for literature will probably be shocked at the violence and the overall grotesque and lurid nature of the film. There are tears, snot, and blood; lots of blood. This is not a film for the squeamish. Ashley Judd gives the best performance of her career. I always thought of her as a glamorous model but not much of an actress. She gives a performance of a lifetime. Her character is pretty repulsive. She spends most of the time crying or yelling in this film. She is hardly recognizable compared to how we are used to seeing her. This is not a flattering portrayal but it is a great performance. "Bug" is definitely not a movie for everybody. Imagine if "Who's afraid of Virgina Woofe" were a horror film or if Tennessee Williams went way over the top. If you like literate, unusual, eclectic films; you should check out "Bug."

I'm kind of left on the fence after this one. This is not a film that one 'enjoys,' as it is a portrait of insanity and insanity's effects on the vulnerable. Here are some pretty cool things about it: 1. The setting is entirely done in a motel room, and it is interesting to see how it changes throughout the film. 2. The main character, Agnes, changes from a vulnerable, lonely woman into a psychotic self-destructive woman who severs ties with everything but her boyfriends delusions. Once again, another interesting change to see take place. 3. It forces the audience to make decisions as to who to empathize with and why. And to be honest, the basis for reality is not established until the end. Like I said, it's a beautiful film to watch, especially since it is shot in a small space with a lot of fixed angels, very little panning. The lighting is something pretty spectacular, as well. The acting is dead on, and the characters are believable and consistent throughout the movie. The only significant criticism that I can bring against this film is that empathy with the characters is challenged by the radical nature of their circumstances. This movie is worth a watch, but don't expect jumpy-type horror or unnecessary gore. This one is meant to make your question, to puzzle. So if you don't like that, you won't like this one.

Just to remind you all before I go any further with the review, I absolutely adore Ashley Judd! She's an amazing actress! However, this is easily one of her worst films to date! Technically, I can't blame Ashley for this movie sucking so bad, those hands lay solely on the director William Friedkin. This movie should be panned for false advertisement, they practically had to trick movie goers into believing that this movie was about real bugs, when in fact it's nothing more than two nut cases in a shack! Everyone of my friends who attended the movie with me, all came to the same conclusion that this movie is "complete garbage!". Quite frankly, this movie should have went straight to DVD, at least then it would have been forgotten about in the bowels of the bargain bin. (Where it should lie dormant forever!) The movie never really gets anywhere, it just spirals out of control and just gets more boring as time goes on (not to mention crazier). I kept praying that the movie would get better, but nope it just got increasingly worse! I strongly feel that Friendkin wanted the audience to feel as crazy as the two main characters! For those who cherish their sanity and their money, please do not waste your ample time with this mess!

I'm not sure why Ashley Judd continues to make suspense/horror/psychological thrillers? What compels her to these rolls of battered women on the verge of something terrible in the face of something awful at the threshold of something demonic/evil? Bug pretends to be a horror movie wrapped up in a meditation about abused women, drug abuse, love and the military-industrial complex as it pertains to conspiracy laden delusions spouted by a odd mumbling Heath Ledger in Brokeback type drifter played by Michael Shannon. Adapted from a stage play by Tracy Letts this film starts well with interesting and sometimes surprisingly original dialog as would be expected from a semi-successful play. But alas, we are destined being the audience, to follow this inconsistent movie into the depths of paranoid dementia. There's something about aphids running amok on and under the skin of Ashley and Michael. There's a muscle bound Harry Conick Jr. as Ms. Judd's ex-con ex-boyfriend, there are mysterious phones a ringing, and even references to the Tuskeegee experiments, and I'm sure something about UFO's even though I may or may not have heard that. Basically, this is a movie that starts kind of well and descends quickly into an implausible conclusion that leaves the audience, well at least the audience I was with, to moan derision and to ho-hum all the way home. Not so good. Don't do it.

I saw this film today at the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles. I had seen some previews of it once and thought it looked interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect -- a horror flick, a spy/government secret thriller, science fiction. My basic contention is the movie was a study of folie a deux, a disorder in which two (or sometimes more, but generally just two) people with a close relationship share a psychotic delusion. While only one person in the pairing is psychotic, the other develops psychosis -- including delusions, paranoia, even hallucinations -- by virtue of their closeness to the psychotic person. Often, such couple will be isolated and avoid contact with others. I came across this phenomena years ago while researching some other subject, and thought about it tonight while viewing the film. Aggie's final speech about how incidents in her life have tied together with Peter's arrival was an over-the-top example of how she now shared his paranoia. Generally, folie a deux develops between an extremely close couple (such as a married couple), but Aggie's loneliness, misery and fear (due to the recent release of her con ex-husband), along with her drinking, smoking crack, and doing blow, accelerated their feelings of and dependence on each other. That said, the movie started out spookily (you're paranoid from the word go) and it held my interest for about two-thirds of the time. The acting was good all around. Unfortunately, it really lagged towards the end. I kept waiting for someone from the motel to come in (probably curious about all the noise) and have them both hauled off to an institution. Or for RC to call someone. (Surely she must have realized that her friend Aggie was now certifiably nuts.) And when I saw how far gone the situation had gotten, I predicted the ending of the movie about twenty minutes before it happened. Frankly, I had lost interest in the characters at the end, but I'd still rate it a 7 for an interesting concept, energetic directing, good performances.