I Know Who Thrilled Me
This past weekend I rented a brilliant film. Perhaps the best of 2007??? Without giving away any of my top 10 picks, I'd like to tell you about a jewel of a film. The neo-classic psychological-horror film I Know Who Killed Me starring Hollywood's darling Lindsay Lohan.
Aubrey Fleming (Lohan) is a regular high school girl. She goes to football games, regularly puts off the advances of her horny boyfriend and plays piano. Her dad is that dude from Minority Report and Boomtown (remember that show?). Her mom was in that new Sabrina movie (1995). They live the quiet life in a small down. But in an idyllic small down, horrible things lie just beneath the surface...
Recently, a girl went missing and weeks later the cops found her mutilated body. Her fingers were cut off and also a leg. Who could have caused such carnage? The cops have no leads. Or do they?
After attending a high school football game, Aubrey left to meet her boyfriend... only to disappear.
A week later a driver hits a girl wandering by the side of the road. The girl looks like Aubrey and is missing one hand and one leg. Could this girl have escaped the mysterious killer??!?!
When she wakes in the hospital, the girl doesn't respond to the name Aubrey but instead calls herself Dakota Moss. Dakota is a stripper. Her mom was a crack-head. She doesn't remember how she lost her limbs but she likes to swear. Aubrey's parents are fraught with terror and let this "stranger" live with them at home in the hope that she'll remember who tortured her.
And then things get weird.
I don't want to give anything away but here are a few things to pique your interest.
1. Symbolic use of the color blue in more scenes than you could imagine. (Blue dresses, blue lights, blue gloves, blue roses (Tennessee Williams reference, anyone?).)
2. Mild torture porn sequences. A dude getting his hand chopped and a lot of close up shots of Lohan grimacing.
3. Twist after twist. Is there more to Aubrey's past? Why did the killer target her?
4. Sci-fi pseudoscience! (Even an online appearance by Art Bell)
5. Multiple un-erotic strip sequences featuring Lohan. There's even one where she's wearing a bra with painted nipple things. It isn't nearly as hot as you'd think.
Why this film is great??? (Despite an IMDB rating to the contrary)
(Besides this...)
The Aubrey/Dakota personalities are drastically different and are a reference to the dualistic-themed works of David Lynch. The story here is clearly Lynchian in nature. Are the two girls that look the same different people? Is it just one person with a mental break from reality? The significance of the color blue??? Oh man, it's like Mullholland Drive mixed with Lost Highway mixed with Blue Velvet.
Okay, the stripping scenes are weak, but the stripping that opens the film? Totally great. There's a girl dancing on a pole. The music is really dull and droning (think Twin Peaks movie bar), and suddenly the girls hand bleeds all over and she slides down the pole. WHAT???
Plus opening a movie with stripping is a total nod to Rodriguez and Planet Terror. Classy stuff.
The twist is one of those twists that you could notice if you're paying attention. It rewards you instead of just being some out of nowhere crap. I like this.
Lastly, the film is got this whole meta-level going to. Sure, it's about a high school girl that gets kidnapped, etc. But it's also about Lindsay Lohan's life! She was introduced to us as this sweet high school girl and then she turned out to be a skank (stripper, in the film). The film's ending even has an eerie reference to one of her earliest roles. I'll stop now to prevent giving anything away.
The point is. See this movie.
Aubrey Fleming (Lohan) is a regular high school girl. She goes to football games, regularly puts off the advances of her horny boyfriend and plays piano. Her dad is that dude from Minority Report and Boomtown (remember that show?). Her mom was in that new Sabrina movie (1995). They live the quiet life in a small down. But in an idyllic small down, horrible things lie just beneath the surface...
Recently, a girl went missing and weeks later the cops found her mutilated body. Her fingers were cut off and also a leg. Who could have caused such carnage? The cops have no leads. Or do they?
After attending a high school football game, Aubrey left to meet her boyfriend... only to disappear.
A week later a driver hits a girl wandering by the side of the road. The girl looks like Aubrey and is missing one hand and one leg. Could this girl have escaped the mysterious killer??!?!
When she wakes in the hospital, the girl doesn't respond to the name Aubrey but instead calls herself Dakota Moss. Dakota is a stripper. Her mom was a crack-head. She doesn't remember how she lost her limbs but she likes to swear. Aubrey's parents are fraught with terror and let this "stranger" live with them at home in the hope that she'll remember who tortured her.
And then things get weird.
I don't want to give anything away but here are a few things to pique your interest.
1. Symbolic use of the color blue in more scenes than you could imagine. (Blue dresses, blue lights, blue gloves, blue roses (Tennessee Williams reference, anyone?).)
2. Mild torture porn sequences. A dude getting his hand chopped and a lot of close up shots of Lohan grimacing.
3. Twist after twist. Is there more to Aubrey's past? Why did the killer target her?
4. Sci-fi pseudoscience! (Even an online appearance by Art Bell)
5. Multiple un-erotic strip sequences featuring Lohan. There's even one where she's wearing a bra with painted nipple things. It isn't nearly as hot as you'd think.
Why this film is great??? (Despite an IMDB rating to the contrary)
(Besides this...)The Aubrey/Dakota personalities are drastically different and are a reference to the dualistic-themed works of David Lynch. The story here is clearly Lynchian in nature. Are the two girls that look the same different people? Is it just one person with a mental break from reality? The significance of the color blue??? Oh man, it's like Mullholland Drive mixed with Lost Highway mixed with Blue Velvet.
Okay, the stripping scenes are weak, but the stripping that opens the film? Totally great. There's a girl dancing on a pole. The music is really dull and droning (think Twin Peaks movie bar), and suddenly the girls hand bleeds all over and she slides down the pole. WHAT???
Plus opening a movie with stripping is a total nod to Rodriguez and Planet Terror. Classy stuff.
The twist is one of those twists that you could notice if you're paying attention. It rewards you instead of just being some out of nowhere crap. I like this.
Lastly, the film is got this whole meta-level going to. Sure, it's about a high school girl that gets kidnapped, etc. But it's also about Lindsay Lohan's life! She was introduced to us as this sweet high school girl and then she turned out to be a skank (stripper, in the film). The film's ending even has an eerie reference to one of her earliest roles. I'll stop now to prevent giving anything away.
The point is. See this movie.
This entry was posted by Sean, on
Tuesday, December 18, 2007.
You can leave your response.
Wow, I didn't think anybody could convince me to see this movie on a level of anything less than ironic, but now I think I have to!
sweet!
you'll enjoy it. there's even a robot hand in the movie!
Wow, yeah there are a lot of threads on IMDB about whether this movie is totally awesome or totally terrible. Lots of people don't even know themselves. Fascinating! Can't wait!
Oh man, I LOOOOVED Boomtown! Neal McDonough was definitely the best one on that show. I can't believe that the mom from The OC was his wife.
did you see the one where he drank a lot cause of his dad or something? that was great. also, his features are alien at best. blue eyes and blond hair??!?!1 whao!
leave a response