Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile

I’ve watched this film so you don’t have to. Truly, don’t bother. Despite the starstrucken cast (who the hell convinced John Malkovich to do this??)I don’t see how this film should be anything other than pure clickbait, hence the title. You only come up with something like that if you don’t have anything profoundly to add to it.
I get how Zac Efron was cast as Ted Bundy, to show how he was, apparently ‘so charming’. I see how Lily Collins (‘To The Bone’) gets to show her fragile appearance and strong character again, I see the irony in a way why Haley Joel Osment ‘I see dead people’ was cast here, but how Jim Parson (Big Bang Theory) could have been concinced to do a film that is so incredibly shallow and has no base to show anything else than the apparent twofaced killed that was Ted Bundy, I do wonder. Is it because it is so different from the Sheldon Cooper character? Yes, I know he has played more roles since then, it’s just struck me how different this particular role is in comparison to that one, I’m sorry.

Given that Ted Bundy has become most famous before by the film The Silence Of The Lambs, a truly gruesome, but profound film, with showed horrific details as to why exactly this Ted Bnudy was such an utter devastating creep, it has struck me how little of these details are even described in this one. I honestly have trouble thinking why this film was made exactly? I can’t think of any reason. I’ve read on the internet that I MUST SEE the Ted Bundy tapes if I watched this film. I refuse to, as I don’t wish to watch stuff that seems to be solely made to glorify serial murderers. We have enough idiots walking around without documentaries like that being made. If they had warnings inside them, like ‘parents around the globe: please show your children the unbound love they deserve, provide them with the love, care and therapy that they need to become the most loving persons they can become, so that they don’t grow up as bloody psychopaths who just go on killingsprees because they feel like it’I don’t see the point.
At least The Silence Of The Lambs and even the wikipedia are nuanced. They don’t solely base their info on the relationships he had. WHich this film does. That film and wikipedia tell you that not only did Ted Bundy abduct these women, often bash their heads in, he also skinned them, cut off nipples (I’ve only seen this mentioned 1 time in this entire film, not being on show in court at all -no I don’t NEED this, but it would be more accurate).

If Hollywood is so dried out of stories, I have a whole twitter community of Indie authors that I’m sure would be thrilled to have THEIR stories being filmed?! Me included.

Happy Sunday by the way….

 

To The Bone

With Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Lili Taylor, Brooke Smith and many others.

This film, which is said to be the first one about anorexia nervosa, doesn’t bore one bit. We follow Ellen -beautifully portraited by Lily Collins- who has just walked away from the last clinic she was admitted to for gaining purposes. Ellen actually only finds joy in making others feel uneasy so she doesn’t have to.

You don’t get to see much of the inside struggles she faces though. It’s Dr William Beckham -played by Keanu Reeves, a bit of a weird pick that, to be fair. He doesn’t depict the doctor badly, it’s just not a part I was expecting him to play- who voices most of the struggles she goes through. Dr William Becker and Alex Sharp, one of the first residents in the house/clinic Ellen meets.

Though this film sort of gives an insight into the lives of people with an eating disorder, it seems to show less of their minute to minute struggles. It’s still rather shallow. You see how Ellen’s family is in many ways highly disfunctional, but not how this works for the others. And somehow, that context, especially with such a heavy depiction of the shown illnesses (eating disorders) seems quite important.

To The Bone did remind me -at times- of Girl, Interrupted. Probably because it’s mostly girls in the prime of their life, facing problems they don’t know how to deal with. The atmosphere in To The Bone seems incredibly loose. No very strict rules, just some restrictions, really, and a system that contains earning points with ‘good behaviour’.

Ellen first appears as an incredibly moody teenager, only trusting her sister enough to act normal (pleasant) around, but in the end turns out a very sensitive and adjusting person, who just needed to be shown some basic love. The scene of her mother feeding her is so powerful, you’re honestly not sure if it will break or bond the two.