While Stuck on the face of it is a dark comedy, there’s so much more to it than that. Something we can figure out from the opening scene where our nurse starts cleaning a man who shat himself. Right away you get a sense of who she is and just how fucked up of a job that is. It’s difficult to grasp just how complex we humans are, especially when it comes to morality. And I think this is the crux of the story here. However, if you want to just have some fun and watch an entertaining movie, you don’t have to think about all that.
I just love Stephen Rea. Since I saw him in one of the best movies about serial killers Citizen X, he kept popping up, oftentimes at the strangest places. Yes, he was in the V for Vendetta and Interview with the Vampire, but he was also in Feardotcom, a pretty commercial and shallow flick. Another guy who keeps popping up is the director Stuart Gordon, a man obsessed with H. P. Lovecraft (he did three movies based upon his stories) and lately film noir. Now we can finally begin the review.
First of all, I have to tell you that this movie is based on true events and the story is pretty gruesome and horrifying (I will leave the link after the review if you want to know more). Secondly, this is a dark comedy and a movie about a series of fucked up events. The best comparison is one of my all-time favorites Very Bad Things. This perfect blend of horror and humor works extremely well and it just makes you question human nature. How the fuck did we get here?
Life got pretty bad for Thomas Bardo, he lost his job and dignity among other things, and when things are bad they have a tendency just to be worse. And while some are going through hell, others are doing just fine. Let us take, for example, Brandi Boski, a nurse working in a retirement home. She’s doing drugs and drinking heavily while partying and waiting for that promotion that she desperately needs. The lives of these two people will be changed forever one faithful night…
Of course, I urge you to first check out Stuck and then read up on the true story, because I don’t want to spoil anything for you. You need to immerse yourself in Stuck and come out the other end, alive. Gordon, a man behind several cult classics like Re-Animator, Space Truckers, and King of The Ants, created a very strange and intense atmosphere, proving that you don’t need some big budget to make an engaging movie. Camera angles, cinematography, and especially sound were all phenomenal. Mena and Stephen were great and they helped us to get to know their characters so well that you could think about all kinds of things while watching this movie. So, you basically have no choice, you simply have to check out this movie.
Director: Stuart Gordon
Writers: John Strysik, Stuart Gordon
Cast: Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Rukiya Bernard, Sharlene Royer
Link to the actual incident: Gregory Glen Biggs
Fun Stuff: Director Cameo: [Stuart Gordon] The resident who gets yelled at by Rashid’s girlfriend in the apartment hallway.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758786/
