When You're Strange
Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) is not your every day High School student and not just because at home her little sister Grace (Ariel Winter) has Cystic Fibrosis. Pauline is special because she has some extremely disturbing dreams which turn her on whilst she aspires to be a surgeon. Having put up with her wilderness her family pretty much ignore her whilst the other students just think she is a bit of a freak show who is annoying with her weirdness. But is Pauline's weirdness just a cover for some other sick plan.
Everyone's definition of entertainment is different, what amuses me certain won't amuse others and what unsettles someone else might make me think WTF. As such it has to be said that "Excision" not only failed to entertain but left me thinking WTF. Not only does this feature one strange storyline but it fees like writer and director Richard Bates Jr. went above and beyond to try and deliver sick ideas which elicited some sort of response from the audience. None of which was for me and whilst I can appreciate the visual creativity the weird ideas were not for me.
So what do I mean? Well the first half of "Excision" is all about the sick fantasies of Pauline from bathing blood to well a variety of strange and bloody ideas about her body. At the same time we encounter her strangeness as well from pulling out a blood soaked feminine product to her shocking comments to others from asking about STD's and corpses to saying a guy is not pretty enough to be gay. In fairness some of Pauline's bluntness is amusing but mostly it is intentionally shocking and to shocking for me. Quickly it does feel like for a while all we are getting is a the writers out pouring of sick ideas but it does eventually lead somewhere, where? Well if you do watch you will found out.
Despite not finding "Excision" to be my sort of thing there is no denying that AnnaLynne McCord certainly delivers an incredibly committed performance from having that unkempt dirty look to her enjoyment of the macabre. And surrounding her are a surprising number of familiar faces in bit parts which when you see this movie features John Waters you can expect something weird.
What this all boils down to is that "Excision" was too freaky and to sick for my tastes. But whilst I didn't find it entertaining I can strangely appreciate what Richard Bates Jr. has created.
