You tell me." I mean, there's no room for the leader of the rebellion to give up. This turns out to be some sort of annual Italian tomato festival, but the image is disturbing. Terms Of Service | Swinton is excellent as Eva, the reluctant mother tormented by her psychopathic son, and director Lynne Ramsay handles the disjointed time structure well, but that's about all I can commend about it. Shriver welcomes the sharply divided interpretations, writing in the Harper Perennial P.S. For full Oscars coverage and commentary by its reviewer, Fr. This is the fear of parenthood. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Franklin and Kevin have no special connections like that, and Franklin appropriates Eva's so that he can have something manly to do with his son. While the film isn't as explicit as the book, both versions of Eva are grappling with Kevin's final answer as they wonder if it's even worth feeling weighed down by the question of responsibility. These people live there, but they've never moved in. That the film works so brilliantly is a tribute in large part to the actors. Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), a former travel writer, gives up her life of adventure when she becomes pregnant. Did your prior experience help prepare you for some of what to expect on Quantumania? For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we have officially entered the dead of winter that time after Christmas and New Years when, Earlier this year my home parish welcomed a new associate pastor. I felt like I kind of joked with Jeff Loveness on this, but I was like, Did you just watch 300 and write my character? Because it was a lot of like those single line, Get to the tower!, and just kind of like silly one liners and things that felt reminiscent of a lot of those just straight up warrior movies. He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. Menu. For full Oscars coverage and commentary by its reviewer, Fr. Author Lionel Shriver on her early writing, politics, essential reading list and persevering out of 'sheer spite'. She makes one feel her strung to the breaking point tension in scene after scene. March 1, 2023, 6:00 a.m. Eva goes into postpartum depression, and her menacing and antisocial kid Kevin only aggravates her ailment. The shelves and tabletops are as barren as those in a display home. So we must find our Grace in the minuscule, and it is in these brief moments of consolation, these shafts of light under the door, that Kevin provides the deft sucker punch to the, by now, standard narrative benchmarks of despair, emptiness and futility which permeate contemporary film. Also read:Author Lionel Shriver on her early writing, politics, essential reading list and persevering out of 'sheer spite'. But the two most significant and poignant moments are found at the end of the film, when the 18-year-old Kevin, two years into a prison sentence for a heinous incident at his high school (yes, its as bad as you think), responds to his mothers query as to why he did what he did. He hates Eva for a plethora of reasons her neglect, her coldness towards Kevin, and Franklins misguided overcompensation for the lack of Evas love. There was also a really short interaction that I had with Bill Murray, where we released him from holding, because it kind of looks like he died in the movie now, pretty early on. An early scene shows Eva apparently participating in an orgy in a lake of blood. She has a career as a writer put on hold, while her husband Franklin (O'Reilly, at his most oblivious) carries on. His final act of brutality a school massacre in addition to murdering his father and sister destroys any semblance of normalcy for Eva. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is fragments of time, jagged and confusing, lurching around inside her mind. Don't get in arguments with people here, or start long discussions. As he grows up, we see him in a blue t-shirt, and consecutively, in a bland white one. If she had her way, she would put her life on rewind and start all over again maybe even as somebody else, since she's not very fond of herself. As a teenager, Kevin (now played by Ezra Miller) has started to cruelly resemble his mother in profile and hairstyle. Not sure I get the fuss about this one. Go do something. However it wasn't in the film I watched today and I can't find the scene anywhere..did I just imagine this scene?! From the beginning, Eva is detached from motherhood. There are two really great examples of this: the first is the bow. It's very hard for me to take things seriously, I love to crack jokes and everything, and, I mean, they're so funny off-set, even the guy that played Xolum, James Cutler, he's so funny, and he's just screaming random stuff, when you're trying to be serious, and just all of a sudden, this yell comes out of nowhere, and you're trying to just keep a straight face. I could have sworn that during the first time I watched it there was a scene of Kevin, Franklin and Celia in the garden and it shows how Kevin actually murdered them. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. ROHAN: Since Jentorra and most of her freedom fighters make it out alive, have you heard anything about coming back for more Quantum Realm adventures down the line? So, his dressing sense is perhaps not an indictment of his bitterness. Psychology Today describes the "nature vs. nurture" debate as questioning how both elements impact a person's characteristics. The red paint of vandals stains her car and the front of her house. They never talk about Kevin. Sign up for weekly updates from Busted Halo! We also did a lot of blue screen work before, which really helps with the imagination. In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. His reply: "You don't want to kill your audience.". Indeed, one of. He is loving and affectionate with his father, Franklin (John C. Reilly), and has a way of making it clear that it's a deliberate charade designed only to hurt Eva. In this one, it is Kevin's triumph. Kevin is a story of hope for a new millennium, an It's a Wonderful Life in the age of school shootings and planes crashing into buildings -- a world-weary world that has been bombarded by nihilistic themes in their narratives for the better part of a century. Kevin keeps the secret of how this happens and a strange complicity develops between the mother and son. It is an epistolary novel, comprising the letters that Eva Khatchadourian writes to her husband Franklin in the aftermath of their son's crime. Copyright 2023. Together, with Hopes parents Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Scotts daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought possible. She is the wrong person in the wrong life with the wrong child. Eva can only play at being mommy, and so when Kevin refuses her attempts to breastfeed and is only appeased by the presence of his affable father, played by John C. Reilly, her whole world crashes down around her and her value as a person comes into question. In a sonic sleight-of-hand, the joyful cheers alchemise into the sorrowful cries of the families and friends of Kevin's victims. Instead, it's a personal story about a family or more specifically, a mother (an excellent Swinton) and her troubled son. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. Eva rushes to the school to see Kevin getting arrested. It is true that there is nothing unusual about giving birth to children in order . Kevin's bedroom is actually the biggest red flag in the film, and the fact that neither Eva nor Franklin noticed that Kevin's bedroom clearly displays the signs of mental illness until he was fifteen years old proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Franklin had never looked in his bedroom, wasn't interested in his interests or hobbies, and didn't want to know what he did in his spare time. Prosecutors downgrade charges in Alec Baldwin shooting case, Die Hard star Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, condition worsens, As We Need to Talk about Kevin turns 10, a look at what made it such a haunting meditation on motherhood. Something just happened. Stripping the screenplay off words, the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound. There are two really great examples of this: the first is the bow. There seems to be almost no form of abuse she is not willing to take as belonging to her for what has happened. Business, Economics, and Finance. We see it in the wall of canned tomatoes that play backdrop to Evas anxiety attack in a supermarket, and the Cabernets she drowns her sorrows with. This terrifying South Korean found footage horror movie directed by Jung Bum-shik follows an internet broadcaster who reunites a team of . You've got Braveheart, which it kind of has a similar feeling to. Read on for our full interview with Katy O'Brianand please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my channel for exclusive content! Kevin abused his mother because she developed a relationship with him where he could have honest interactions with her if he did. From ths beginning of the movie they lay out the whole story, but it isn't until you watch the full thing that you piece everything together and get this larger than life story. Only the daughter, Celia (Ashley Gerasimovich), seems halfway normal. Neither parent punishes him or seeks outside help, leaving him to his own devices. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a. Haunted by the past, Eva's memories are triggered by sounds, objects and everyday minutiae. Eva, in turn, becomes more protective of Celia. So, what did that exchange mean for the Khatchadourians? With Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell. For the first portion of the film, the leaps back and forth in time caused needless confusion. Kevins clothes are also an avenue to memories for Eva, and in the end, Eva irons and stacks up Kevins clothes in a drawer in the hope that her son will return from prison. In a film otherwise devoid of hope, these subtle suggestions give the audience a sense of comfort. As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a masterful film. And so is Eva. We cling to guidelines like the length of Tilda Swinton's hair to figure out where we are. We see it in her bond with the more amiable Celia. The story goes back to the past to recreate the events that led Eva to her present discontent. What is lupus, an autoimmune disease diagnosed in Selena Gomez causing her weight gain? Votes are used to help determine the most interesting content on RYM. The novel by Lionel Shriver relates the story through a series of letters Eva writes to her husband Franklin. We cling to guidelines like the length of Tilda Swinton 's hair to figure out where we are. The most cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic films ever made. He's positive, cheerful, disconnected; he always behaves as nicely as he can, and in doing so, suggests his profound cluelessness. But recent years have shown horror films can write mothers full of contradictions that challenge the status quo. Best Little Sites is not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or omissions found herein. For much of the film, she lives with her husband, son and daughter in an expensive suburban home, and when we realize they've lived there for several years, we begin to wonder, how can four people occupy a home for over a decade and not accumulate anything? Starting with Eva - she is intentionally painting herself in the worst possible light, which ironically covers up the actual extent of her emotional abuse, since she is flagellating herself only for the worst moments of her parenthood - the lowlights - and not looking at the whole picture. Thats the underlying message of We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lynne Ramseys remarkable allegory on the transcendent nature of relationships. Swinton said as much in an interview, Its about her fears and the horror of what she knows about herselfusing him as a kind of projection of her own self-loathing. Go. The point here is not to understand Kevin at all. I watched this film several years ago and decided today I'd watch it again as I really enjoyed it the first time round! While Eva is shown throughout the film to be indifferent toward her son, Kevin's actions are fueled by his desire to spite her. Kevin does not play ball, and he becomes increasingly manipulative. A young MAN and WOMAN are asleep in a tent. Swinton told me of a line in the script that wasn't used, wisely, I believe. She sits in a blank daze in the hospital room. While we are not sure whether Kevin consumed the eye itself, we know from the book that Kevin keeps Celias glass eye as a souvenir after assailing her. However, just the neglect of his mother would not amount to the cathartic finale. The condition causes loss of the ability to understand or express speech. Sometimes Zuzus petals are all you have to hold onto. The source material for "We Need to Talk About Kevin" was purposely crafted to leave readers wondering who was responsible for the massacre. to revoke its approval of the two main drugs used for medication abortion in the United States. Eve disobeyed, she ate the apple and she was punished by becoming not only human but also a mother. Footsteps approach the tent and a figure walks past. Kevin grows up to be ever more distant. KATY: Yeah, I mean, a lot of it would be drawn from movies, essentially. When he breaks his arm? The novel explores themes of nihilism, motherhood, the relationship between violence and depravity, and much more. It is so ingrained in our culture even a fellow grieving mother slaps her in the parking lot. So I am thinking, was he born evil from the very beginning and she knew it and treated him alike evil from the very beginning? Kevin was not necessarily abused or tortured as a child, many kids endure much worse and did not end up as mass killers. KatyO'Brian (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But Eva is incapable of showing him the love that he deserves, even after trying her best. Although the act is enhanced through visual obscurity and concealment, we get the idea that Kevin kills a few of his classmates in the locked auditorium. Eva and Franklin are a happily married couple till Eva gives birth to Kevin. Where do you think Jentorra's story goes next? There is no pattern. The white curtains create an ambiance of premonition, and as the camera tracks forward, we see Franklin and Celia lying dead in the middle of the back garden, blood-drenched arrows stuck to their bodies like leeches. Moving back and forth in time, the narrative revolves around a picture-perfect American family, but as the story progresses, we see cracks in the familial structure. Between the ages of 6 and 8 years old, played by Jasper Newell, he is a clever little monster who glares at Eva hurtfully, soils his pants deliberately and drives her into such a fury that she breaks his arm. It seems that Kevin wears old and small clothes to bring her mothers neglect to the worlds attention. The film explores and identifies the hope to be found in the ashes of Ground Zero and in the wake of Columbine while never once attempting to sugarcoat the real darkness and danger that exist in our world. When asked about the film adaptation in an interview with The Guardian, Shriver said her biggest concern was if they'd be able to "capture the quality of the slightly unreliable narrator and the ambiguity over who is to blame. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The impressionistic nature of the film does not blurt out the whole truth, and the audience has to make their own journey to construct the meaning. Now I'm not so sure." This review of the film was originally published on December 22, 2011. Kevin is seen to be wearing short clothes most of the time, like when Eva takes him out for mini-golfing. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Like Lady Macbeth, she tries to scrub the guilt off her hands. February 24, 2023 at 12:05 PM ET. this is the best pro-antinatalism PSA out there . She could move away for a fresh start, but she's shown setting up a room for him, complete with his navy blue bedding and Robin Hood book. Indeed, Kevin is a relentless film that gives its audience few opportunities to come up for air from the depths of anguish to which it plummets. Selena Gomez recently opened up on how the autoimmune condition is affecting her weight due to water retention from all the medication in her recent Tik-Tok live stream. Does their parental neglect make them culpable for the lives he took? The comedy had to come elsewhere there. ROHAN: You have a few scenes with Kathryn Newton, who is playing Cassie, in the film. 1 'Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum' (2018) Image via Showbox. Index | His attitude towards his son is warmer, but underneath there's no more depth than there is with Eva. Like a fluke, nothing to do with her personality or her hubby's personality? Rated the #74 best film of 2011, and #5264 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). Mimicking the cyclical nature of trauma, the shot repeats in the climax, where Eva discovers the slain bodies of her husband and daughter. There's the Good Mother, like Diane Freeling who travels to another dimension to save her daughter in Poltergeist. Kevin has numerous reasons to hate his mother, Eva. But it's also pretty surface level. Ramsay builds on Shriver's idea of internalised blame with how Eva sees herself following the tragedy. Kevin is a defiant baby who screams incessantly but never around Franklin. Her body can't absorb more punishment. While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniadidn't bring back several mainstays of the wider Ant-Man family, the film did introduce a number of new allies, namely Jentorra and her Freedom Fighters. Therefore, when Kevin shows Eva the scar from the childhood accident, he tells her that it is the most honest thing that Eva ever did to him. Then she goes home. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly According to medical practitioners, psychopaths are born so, while sociopathy is a result of conditioning in childhood. Ambivalent toward motherhood, Eva struggles to care about her increasingly cruel son, Kevin (Ezra Miller). Home | Written by Julia Wolf. Besides their physical likeness, Eva and Kevin also share a certain coldness, which plays into Eva's self-hatred. The film ends with the emotionally blank mother visiting her son on the second anniversary of his crimes, just before he's transferred to an adult prison. A demon seed. The film loops in time, proceeding mostly chronologically, with some dips forward and backward. ROHAN: Since Jentorra is the leader of the rebellion, was there anything specificyou tried to channel or watch to get into her headspace? describes the "nature vs. nurture" debate. Watch Indie Spirit Stars Suggest Indie Gems You Must Watch Right Now. Kevin's killings, meanwhile, are the absent, invisible center of Ramsay's film. Apparently even before he began to talk, Kevin made a vow to punish Eva for her feelings. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour-de-force performance,. 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