Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999): United States – directed by Errol Morris

Rated PG-13 by the MPAA – contains some disturbing subject matter and mature content

Errol Morris is one of the most revered documentarians of all time, and he proves why in Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. In the past Morris has taken a mundane story (Vernon, Florida [review here] for instance) and made it fascinating.  Or covered injustices or odd characters in films like The Thin Blue Line and Gates of Heaven.  Mr. Death is slightly different, as he takes a polarizing character and presents him from a number of viewpoints.

The way Morris can sway audiences’ sympathy through the simple revelation of information is incredible.  If one is familiar with the story of Fred Leuchter, perhaps he or she might not be as affected by the film, but in Morris’ hands a newcomer will be twisted apart, torn to the core as the good guys and bad guys become fuzzier and more convoluted.

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Martyrs (2008): France/Canada – directed by Pascal Laugier

Not rated by the MPAA – contains extremely disturbing material, violence, gore, and grotesque nudity

Martyrs opens with a young girl running, covered in blood.  She’s trying to get away from something, it becomes apparent.  Cut to a little while later, and she’s in a home for sick children.  She can’t talk about anything that has happened, or at least not to the doctors.  But she has a friend and the two of them have become quite close, even though she has not revealed all of the details, such as who or what continues to torment her daily.

Martyrs is the continuation of a line of new French horror films.  They tend to be very dark, very bleak, and quite bloody.  High Tension was the first high-profile film to burst on the scene.  Inside [review here] is more recent and more prone to drawing comparisons to Martyrs.  But Inside is tight and simple, while Martyrs meanders for a while before becoming overwhelmed with a complex plot and then devolving into a Guinea Pig [review here] clone.  There may be a few minor spoilers ahead, in case you are interested in seeing Martyrs fresh-faced and fancy free.

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MPD – Psycho (Multiple Personality Detective) (2000): Japan – directed by Takeshi Miike

Not rated by the MPAA – contains plenty of bizarre content, gore, sexual content, etc.

Note: some of the content is rather disturbing, as the review will reveal.  Proceed with caution, as some of the pictures might be too gruesome for some readers.  Seriously, some of the photos are rather strange and gross

Takeshi Miike’s miniseries MPD – Psycho (Multiple Personality Detective), based on the manga, has a little less blood, gore, violence, and perverted sex than the majority of his films.  This could be because it aired on television as a miniseries, but even though the content has been toned down his sensational sense of absurdity and complexity remains.  It makes no sense.  It contains a wonderful, perfect, lack of sense.  It’s like the “The X Files” met “Twin Peaks,” had a ménage à trois with Eraserhead [review here] and gave birth to Riget (The Kingdom), a Danish miniseries by Lars Von Trier (who brought the world Antichrist [review here]).

MPD looks to be filmed on digital and doesn’t look all that great most of the time.  But it was cheaper and easier to incorporate digital special effects such as fake rain that doesn’t get anyone wet.  It’s rather amusing, actually, watching “drops” fall while nothing happens though the pitter-patter continues.

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The Music Man (1962): United States – directed by Morton DaCosta

Not rated by the MPAA – contains flirting and singing and shysterizing

I realize that The Music Man is often considered a classic musical, and perhaps it should be, on the stage.  On the screen, however, when the story and songs become part of a movie, the equation changes slightly.  Other factors become involved with its success and The Music Man manages to fail at many of these elements.

The story is familiar to anyone who has seen “Marge vs. the Monorail”.  An opening sequence, bizarrely shot on a set shaken to resemble a moving train, introduces a group of traveling salesman.  They spend much of their time complaining about one Harold Hill (Robert Preston), a shuckster so profound that he could sell a drowning man a brick and join him in a melody as he sinks.  Their problem with Hill is that he ruins towns for the rest of the honest, honorable salesmen.  He casts doubt and shame upon their entire profession.

Hill, himself on the trainful of salesman (is there a more depressing or disturbing place to be?), is forced to exit at the next stop, a small town by the name of River City, Iowa.  Discovering an old acquaintance, Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett), he commences his mission of selling the town a boys’ brass band, uniforms and all.  The only catch is that he doesn’t know how to play a note of music.

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