Where Can I Get Some Tinfoil Wallpaper?

So there was a small change in plans. I mentioned a few hours ago that I was planning on seeing Bug tomorrow afternoon with my dad and sister, but that ended up getting changed to me and Dad seeing it tonight. Hey, stuff happens. Regardless, I did see Bug, so I figure I might as well do a little blogging about it.

I should start by saying that I think Bug is a victim of a misleading advertising campaign. The commercials paint the movie as being an intense horror film. While there are certainly a few elements of the horror genre in there, especially towards the finale, it's mostly a weird cross between dark comedy and a thriller. And if you want my honest opinion, I didn't think the movie was bad at all. It's well made and excellently acted, but I have to admit that I don't know how to truly classify the movie as an experience. I say that because the movie is so unlike pretty much any movie I've seen in my lifetime.

If I had to describe Bug in one word, it would be "weird." In two words, "extremely weird." In three, "it's messed up." We watch as two people descend into a world of insanity and paranoia, but the movie doesn't try convincing us that perhaps their paranoia is justified. We know they're absolutely crazy, and we're just along for the ride. And we know that this is all going to end very badly for the characters. There isn't a real catharsis, at least not a happy one. The whole movie is like a bizarre drug trip, like if the characters from Requiem for a Dream were using crystal meth instead of heroin. But the characters aren't hopped up on meth, they've just got a bit of delusional parasitosis, extreme paranoid psychosis, and maybe some schizophrenia too.

The two primary actors, Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon, are both great in their roles. Judd has made a career out of doing pretty much the same movie over and over again, so Bug is a surprising change of pace for her. The character is a lonely woman who quickly lets herself get convinced that things might be much more terrifying than they really are, and Judd seems like she's actually having fun getting the chance to act absolutely off her rocker. It's as if, as an actress, getting to craft absolutely preposterous conspiracy theories while standing half-naked in a seedy motel room covered in tinfoil wallpaper and lit by bug zappers is the equivalent of a kid getting free reign over a Toys-R-Us. Shannon, on the other hand, is super-intense. Reprising the role he performed in the off-Broadway play that inspired this movie, Shannon begins as somewhat amiable yet mysterious and quite off-putting, but by the end of the movie, he becomes more and more frightening as his character falls deeper and deeper into his psychosis.

I really cannot in good conscience recommend Bug to everyone. I'm sure the movie will end up developing some kind of small cult following once it's released on DVD, but I think it will be among those folks who are into... well, I'm not really sure if I can put a definitive label on it. Outside of the word "bizarre," I mean. It's a movie that has to be seen to be believed, one that is just as insane as its characters. And I don't even know if I can give it a star rating that reflects exactly how I feel about it. The movie does get four stars from a technical standpoint, I do know that much. The power of suggestion alone is enough to make me start scratching at invisible bugs.

Since I've had a little time to reflect on it, I really want to just curl up in the fetal position and quietly mumble to myself for a few hours. I really haven't felt this way after a movie since I saw The Exorcist for the first time back last October, the irony of which is that both The Exorcist and Bug were directed by William Friedkin. So yeah, I'm going with four stars on from the actual filmmaking standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint... I think I'm gonna be messed up for a few days.