review by Hunter Duesing
I Melt with You 2011
Watched Jun 24, 2012
Hunter Duesing’s review:
"I Melt with You" is a drug-fueled descent into a dangerously nihilistic delirium, a mid-life crisis that stumbles into a tunnel where the light at the end turns out to be an oncoming train. Mark Pellington sets the tone for this bleak movie with Sex Pistols music, a band that proclaimed that there is "no future." Appropriate.
Four middle-aged friends reunite for some birthday shenanigans over Spring Break in Big Sur, consuming a mountain of drugs and a sea of alcohol as they try to relive the glory days of their youth and forget their debilitating shortcomings. As the sex, booze, and drugs infect their collective blood, things take a dark turn when they find themselves stuck in a moment they are unwilling to escape from.
"I Melt With You" is alluringly dizzy in its presentation, yet its characters are despicable, and their outlook is poisonously nihilistic, the direct opposite of Pellington's optimistic "Henry Poole is Here." The hip nihilism of punk rock clashes with the terrifying reality of what it actually feels like to see nothing but blackness beyond today.
"I Melt With You" is a film that brings out paralyzing emotions, taking inadequacies and amplifying them to the point where you feel utterly helpless. In other words, it's the mindset that invites suicide. These are feelings that are truly dangerous to explore, no good can come of it. "I Melt With You" has nothing to offer but a razor to your wrist.
Gave this one an extra star "for effort". Loved the balls of the Pellington to go to such a dark place, even though it doesn't quite gel together in the end.
I actually admire this movie for being successful at what it tries to do. I just don't really think what it offers has any value.
HD, you are such a great writer my friend. Great review. You truly nailed it. This is my #1 WORST film of 2011, NOT because it's poorly made, but because it is ugly and, I think, dangerous. Considering how optimistic and hopeful "Henry Poole is Here" was, this really surprised me that, like you said, went polar opposite. It's like maybe someone ribbed him and called him a wuss for making it, and then his response was to shovel out this nightmare.
I guess I'm just not willing to judge a film that much by it's "message". Although they are very different, much the same can be said about Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, dangerous and valueless message, but still very successful at what it does. But, again, the two aren't very comparable on any other level.
Although with regards to "I Melt With You" there is a difference between portraying a set of characters and their view points, and portraying a "definitive" view point, if you know what I mean? I never came away with the sense that this was the correct way to view the world. It was their faulty and nihilistic way.
Good points JT. I don't think Pellington is trying to sell a "suicide is the answer" for everyone, but someone who is on the edge and sees this film might deem it is the "right" thing to do. Like I said as well, I'm not really judging the quality/technical merits of the film but rather it's content, which I find repellent. I guess the question is "Why"? Why make this film? It's certainly not entertainment. What does watching guys for 2 hours hammer their bodies with mass quantities of drugs and alcohol accomplish? To show us how they have failed? Once we get to the "pact" though this movie becomes a whole new thing. What if these guys got their lives straight? What if they tried to turn the boat. They weren't that old. Jeez, even thinking of it all sickens me. It's a sick, twisted movie with no redeeming value that could push certain people to act on something. It points to darkness and death rather that redemption and light. Again, WHY make this film? This is probably the darkest and saddest film I've ever seen.
It's difficult to understand, yes. And obviously only Pellington can answer it (Jeff Goldsmith did a Q&A with him, but it's been a while since I heard it).
I would equate this to something out of the art world. Disturbing and provocative, but I still champion its place in the world because it stirs such debate and such violent emotions. By being as you say "the darkest and saddest film" you've ever seen, has it not made you think about things you cherish, things worth living for? By being one thing, it makes you think of what it is not as well. But then again, I see your point that it could affect people who are in "dark" place.
But this is a very abstract, lofty and well-traversed debate that goes way back, before I, and even you, came of age ;-)