This terrifying South Korean found footage horror movie directed by Jung Bum-shik follows an internet broadcaster who reunites a team of . It doesn't gel with what has come before, where Eva seems to accept her son's innate cruelty, and is looking for a way to escape. 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. The film depicts him as a psychopath beyond redemption. ", Did Kevin internalize her hatred of him, or is she just feeding into his innate instability? He was exactly right. Ramsay establishes a sense of aloofness in Eva with Kevin still in utero. Kevin grows a liking for the fictional character of Robin Hood, and his father gifts him a bow and arrow. The wife and mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton), has been so overwhelmed by despair that her life exists in her mind all at the same time. Reilly is typically wonderful in a thankless role, while both juvenile actors evince a low-grade rage that never moves into complete disconnection or full-blown psychosis. Matters worsen when she becomes pregnant with a daughter. 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. 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. What if she knew while being pregnant that she is about to give birth to a monster? The second is Kevin's bedroom. Alec Baldwin has been charged in the southwest state of New Mexico for manslaughter and faces an 18-month prison sentence, as does the film's armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. His final act of brutality a school massacre in addition to murdering his father and sister destroys any semblance of normalcy for Eva. Maternal ambivalence turns into filial antagonism, colouring her perception of him as inherently evil. Eva often looks like she's in a state of shock. "At the end of the day, I have no idea, and that pure, serene, ignorance has become, itself, a funny kind of solace," she writes in a letter to her deceased husband. In a sonic sleight-of-hand, the joyful cheers alchemise into the sorrowful cries of the families and friends of Kevin's victims. Their tumultuous relationship goes from annoyance over his smashing jammy bread onto the coffee table to feelings of fear after he stuffs the family pet down the garbage disposal. As she leaves, a troupe of tiny ballerinas in tutus run past her. Where do you think Jentorra's story goes next? While Eva is shown throughout the film to be indifferent toward her son, Kevin's actions are fueled by his desire to spite her. Will she continue living in their hometown, where she's harassed by locals who blame her for the deaths? When Eva goes to meet Kevin in the detention center, she asks him the same question. This review of the film was originally published on December 22, 2011. Read on for our full interview with Katy O'Brianand please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my channel for exclusive content! 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. Home | Any spoilers should be placed in spoiler tags as such. February 24, 2023 at 12:05 PM ET. She mentions that she believes he'll be released in five years. We Need to Talk About Kevin. 112 minutes Be respectful! When he breaks his arm? All Rights Reserved. His attitude towards his son is warmer, but underneath there's no more depth than there is with Eva. The past and present intertwine as Eva recalls Kevins formative years from childhood to adolescence, hoping for clues on what went wrong. Neither parent punishes him or seeks outside help, leaving him to his own devices. None of this is done in a straightforward fashion. Swinton is collecting a bevy of early plaudits and nominations, as well she should. For the first portion of the film, the leaps back and forth in time caused needless confusion. About 5 uses of "fuck" (once used sexually by a 7-year-old child), one use of "cunt". Sometimes Zuzus petals are all you have to hold onto. ROHAN: Since Jentorra is the leader of the rebellion, was there anything specificyou tried to channel or watch to get into her headspace? Eva and Franklin are a happily married couple till Eva gives birth to Kevin. The bed, the gown, and the walls bleed into each other in their cold whiteness, externalising her inner state of mind. Still, the film should not be overshadowed by its leads performance, as is often the case with female Oscar nominees. Like Lady Macbeth, she tries to scrub the guilt off her hands. The comedy had to come elsewhere there. Menu. 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. But by the time he is a seven year-old, he starts to act in ways that seem in excess of whatever defects in mother love he may be getting. There have been a lot of discussions nature vs. nurture, but I've been thinking she was not ok during pregnancy, usually postpartum depression starts after birth. Kevin relentlessly cries in the custody of Eva, but Franklin seems to know how to stop him. It is an epistolary novel, comprising the letters that Eva Khatchadourian writes to her husband Franklin in the aftermath of their son's crime. 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. KATY: Yeah, I mean, a lot of it would be drawn from movies, essentially. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's response to Donald Trump's refusal to accept any responsibility for the impact his massive deregulations have had went viral on Thursday as video of him encouraging the ex-president to support the Biden administration's efforts went viral. I think that she and Jentorra had a huge past together. However it wasn't in the film I watched today and I can't find the scene anywhere..did I just imagine this scene?! Maybe everything else is intended to be a flashback, and the timeline begins when she finds out what Kevin did at his high school. 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. KATY: I kind of saw Jentorra as someone who was already part of a warrior society, so maybe she was used to fighting already, but in kind of a way different level. Outward appearances of mother and son match their steely interiority as neither suffers fools gladly and both abhor artifice and sentimentality. While Eva is growing increasingly distrustful of Kevin, Franklin sides with his son and their marriage takes a hit. Children seldom get that attention, though. It is true that there is nothing unusual about giving birth to children in order . She obviously feels complicit and takes on the role of communal scapegoat as a way to expiate her own guilt as well as to grieve the loss of her family. Putting herself through a painful process of introspection, she revisits moments from well before Kevin's birth to the eventual tragedy. Kevin grows up to be ever more distant. otakucode 11 yr. ago Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The most cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic films ever made. Overview. Go. It discloses its narrative fitfully, in snatches and gobbets that make sense only gradually, like the . Some interpreted scene at the gym as her being repulsed by pregnant bodies, but I am thinking she was like "why can't I be happy and bubbly with this child like they are?" Maybe he is subtly telling others that his mother does not take care of him. This in turn completely undermines the husband/wife dynamic. A bright light appears outside. The movie we see is her collecting every horrible interaction she ever had with her son and putting it under the umbrella of "things I did," because the only way she can cope with the insanity of what her son did is by fitting it to a narrative where she's responsible. Lionel Shriver's source novel is a quirky, disturbing take on the high school killer story. Franklin does not and cannot understand Kevin, and completely resists any opportunity to do so. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Her body can't absorb more punishment. What is the streaming release date of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) in Canada? Don't use this space to complain about the average rating, chart position, genre voting, others' reviews or ratings, or errors on the page. Swinton gives an outstanding performance, somehow managing to repeatedly convey implacability and vulnerability in the same moment. 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. Eva's elation is reflected in the room's warm yellows and flowers on the bedside table. She lives with the guilt of what her son did, on top of the guilt of knowing she did nothing about the various warning signs. The film primarily shows you the pathos of evil by painting a portrait of a deeply and violently disturbed young man from his mother's point of view, and you watch how this relationship built and how that pathos developed. The most horrendous thing for her to stomach is not that his misanthropy and violence is really exotic and foreign; the thing that is really horrendous is that she recognises it only too well, because it comes from her. Cookie Notice A demon seed. He grows into a spiteful toddler, refusing to say "mommy" and egging on her frustrations. May 12, 2021 12:33:39 IST. Who's there when Kevin gets sick? It's hard not to see some of Eva's frustration at her changed lifethey leave the city and she is left with most of the child careas manifesting in a kind of resentment of Kevin. Annie Graham in Hereditary is conflicted by feelings of love and hate, resentment and remorse, towards her son. The ending of the film leaves Eva's fate up in the air. Kevin, it seems, has a method to his madness. It must be something like this to have a nervous breakdown. That's a deeply human tale, and it calls to us, and I think that's why I see takes on the movie saying that it even encourages the viewer to think evil is in our nature and is immutable. Before the film opens, the character referred to in the title of Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, at the age of 15, has massacred a number of his fellow schoolmates. He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. GameStop Moderna Pfizer Johnson & Johnson AstraZeneca Walgreens Best Buy Novavax SpaceX Tesla. Eva goes into postpartum depression, and her menacing and antisocial kid Kevin only aggravates her ailment. We Need to Talk About Kevin: Directed by Lynne Ramsay. So, that part I kind of liked because it shows, okay, this is what someone who's still fighting, interacting with someone who kind of essentially gave in. Art and Divine Beauty: An Antidote to the Winter Blues, The Prodigal Son: How to Overcome the 3 Lies We Tell Ourselves. We Need to Talk about Kevin in fact needs to be talked about, as what it is attempting to do by marrying the darkest, most nihilistic components of contemporary cinema with a redemptive message is groundbreaking. Is it possible for her to move on from something so traumatic? Advertise, Funny Superhero (DC & Marvel) Shirts & Stickers. This comes to a head when Kevin has learned that pooping his pants is the quickest way to his mother's heart, and the time she shows him the most attention - but that attention is always disgust. You couldnt have possibly thought that seeing someone eat lychee would be so distressing, but Ezra Miller makes it happen. What is lupus, an autoimmune disease diagnosed in Selena Gomez causing her weight gain? 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. Is her husband as zoned out as he seems or is that only her perception? Kevin gets taught about sex from his mother but he already knows what it is and calls it "fucking". Kevin and Eva look similar, and in many scenes, Kevin and Eva wear similar clothes. ROHAN: Considering that you had done Black Lightningand Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,and already gotten a small taste of superhero projects before stepping into this massive MCU project. However, she created a pattern whereby she only expresses herself to Kevin through disgust and fear. 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. He's aware of her feelings toward him, and throughout the film, points them out. Jake Martin, visit our special Oscars season blog, Movie Minister.. Franklin's story is simpler but in some ways I think it's worse. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour-de-force performance,. After this episode, Eva and Kevin seemingly become more affectionate towards each other. Now I'm not so sure." Some animals sometimes know that something is not right with fetus and can even abort it voluntary or when it is born, they abandon it. The name itself Eva is not chosen by chance, echoing the fatally disobedient woman of the Bible, whose act determined the loss of the Garden of Eden. Is she channeling the brief moment of affection between the two when he was young and sick, or is she working toward being a better mother upon his release? So is Amelia in The Babadook. For Kevin, maternal love and attention have become completely conflated with disgust and fear. Despite his crime, she sells the house to pay the legal fees, moves closer to the prison so she can visit him, and continues to support him. Sign up for weekly updates from Busted Halo! Copyright | Because children are normally associated with innocence, creepy children are a tried concept in horror films. Helmed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay based on the Orange Prize-winning eponymous 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a jarring, erratic, and sometimes profoundly disturbing 2011 psychological thriller that creates an uncanny place in the viewers mind. As Kevin develops, he refuses to be potty-trained, mocks Eva and rejects her attempts at physical affection. Rated R Instead, maternal ambivalence is coded as horror. She frames Eva's discomfort against overjoyed mothers showing off their baby bumps in a pre-natal yoga class. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. Is Kevin a sociopath or a psychopath, then? This is the fear of parenthood. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver plays with the deepest fears of the majority of people. In a film otherwise devoid of hope, these subtle suggestions give the audience a sense of comfort. This turns out to be some sort of annual Italian tomato festival, but the image is disturbing. An unshakeable experience and a daring experiment in film form, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin challenged conventional wisdom on what makes for a good adaptation. But Eva is incapable of showing him the love that he deserves, even after trying her best. It was definitely a challenge to play the straight character to these guys, but it was also kind of like, okay, this is my role. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . this is the best pro-antinatalism PSA out there . Ramsay builds on Shriver's idea of internalised blame with how Eva sees herself following the tragedy. The Ending Of We Need To Talk About Kevin Explained. Huge past together leaps back and forth in time caused needless confusion Kevin, love. 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