The Independent Newspaper,UK
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Report by :Shenai Raif and John-Paul Ford Rojas
A millionaire London business executive killed his daughter after suffering a mental breakdown within days of watching the film BUG directed by William Friedkin.Alberto Izaga, aged 36, smashed two-year-old Yanire on the floor of his apartment on 3 January. She died two days later in hospital from brain damage.He was found not guilty of murder due to insanity and sent to a mental hospital without limit of time.During a visit to New York, he and his wife Ligia had watched the film BUG .In his court testimony he claimed he violently killed his young daughter after becoming obsessed with the film, BUG.Izaga added that he shouted "Die, die, die" and "I have to kill her"moments after repeatedly smashing his daughter Yanire's head against a wooden floor in his £1 million flat overlooking the Houses of Parliament.
Plot Overview :
In a rented motel room in the desolate desert,a lonely and depressed woman named Agnes spends most of her time drinking, grieving the loss of her son and fearing her abusive ex-con husband.One night her friend shows up with a strange, quirky man named Peter Evans .Peter is a strange, withdrawn man, but Agnes finds compassion from the stranger and the two bond immediately.Soon, Agnes and Peter begin a romance .The lonely Agnes is really hopeful about a new life beginning.But when Peter finds a bug in the bed, a tiny aphid which Agnes can't see, things start to get strange.
Review :
Adapted by Tracy Letts from his own 1996 stage play, "Bug" is an effective piece of unease, using the compact space of a filthy hotel room to incubate delirium and nightmarish displays of loyalty and insanity.The movie starts off as more of a character drama than anything resembling a horror film. We learn about Agnes' past, her issues with her ex-husband, the details surrounding the mystery of their child and about her lifestyle in general. From there, we learn through Agnes' conversations with Peter about his background and about some of his more unusual character traits. Peter's engaging and respectful manner strikes a chord with Agnes and he stays on. Agnes, naturally, is happy to have Peter around and, when he moves up to being a new lover and helpmate, she's even more so.
That is, until he starts to feel and see bugs everywhere, in the bed, on the floor, in his hair, the food, the drink – so much so, that Peter begins to convince Aggy that she is also afflicted with the same problem. And, pretty soon, they've bought every kind of bug spray, they have sticky fly/bug catchers hanging everywhere, he buys a microscope to examine the bugs and even his blood, searching for traces of bugs planted in his body by secret government forces.They hole themselves up in their hotel room, convinced that the government has used them as hosts for an experiment involving mind-controlling bugs, and the more delusional they get, the more they feed off of one another's paranoia until they've constructed a conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories.
Eventhough Agnes and Peter are pathetic loonies who lose their grip on reality, they're not all that different from the rest of society. Many of us are cut off from a real sense of social belonging, and almost all of us rely on tainted sources of information to draw our judgments about the world around us. There are documented cases of the military engaging in horrendous experiments on soldiers during World War 2.We're also bombarded with conflicting messages about dangers in the food we eat and the air we breathe, so the idea that some unforeseen contagion could bring us down is not all that farfetched.This film makes us believe that finding the line between rational explanations and paranoid hysteria is not easy.
To say this movie is weird would be an understatement. Bug makes the audience members extremely uncomfortable as the situation progresses, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The setting is so closed in that sitting in the seat makes one feel as if the room is closing in around them. The experiences of the characters become the experiences of the viewer, and by the end you are left wondering where you are and what just happened. On a subconscious level I think this movie represents the conspiracy theory living inside all of us. We may tend to think there was more to 9/11, or or any other disaster, but very few of us would be willing to go on record saying so, or risk looking like a loon.
Legendary director William Friedkin (The Exorcist ) seems an apt choice for this material who is well versed in dramatizing unfathomable despair and damage.He directs the movie with great skill, focusing our attentions on the characters without heavy stylistic effects, and emphasizing the way that one person's mania reinforces another's.Aside from the pacing, the character development, the twists and the cinematography, the film also really benefits from two fantastic performances. Ashley Judd as Agnes has never been better than she is here ; vulnerable and frightened but maintaining a strong core of self-reliance
Stage play actor Michael Shannon reprises his role on the silver screen as Peter Evans.He steals the entire show. Not only is he convincing enough to be a paranoid schizophrenic, but also he scares you when he has these outbursts, his conspiracy theories and when he goes to extreme lengths to prove that there are bugs. What is even scarier is that he acts, in the beginning, like an average guy, a guy that you might walk by on the street and in the coarse of a few days he plummets downward.Solid supporting work from Harry Connick Jr. as Agnes' ex- husband. Lynn Collins likewise impresses as Agnes' sassy and concerned lesbian best friend R.C.And stage actor
Brian F. O'Byrne appears for one brief but memorable scene.
Parting Thoughts :
For those who enjoy a taste of the weird, paranoid delusions and are looking for something new and original ,Bug will crawl right up your alley.Its honest, gritty, and a wonderful example of gutsy filmaking.
Disclaimer : The blogger shall have no responsibility for any psychological breakdown or nightmares experienced by the viewer on watching the film following the review .
Title :Bug
Dir:William Friedkin
Cast : Michael Shannon,Ashley Judd,Lynn Collins,Harry Connick Jr.
Rated R for violence ,nudity, sex ,language
Language :English
Country :USA
DVD Features :Audio commentary with director Friedkin
Making of featurette
Interview with Director Friedkin
Trailer Link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EU1ac6B_5c
Torrent File Name :BUG [2006][ENG][AC3 5.1][DVDRip]-FLAWL3SS
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