Culture Blues

Every week (starting now), your friends at Culture Blues get together to watch a movie from their Netflix Instant queue. Then, they sit down over peanut butter cookies and green tea to discuss what they’ve just been through. This is The Instant Movie Club.

This week, we’ll be discussing Erick Zonca’s thriller Julia, starring Tilda Swinton. If you haven’t seen it yet, you probably want to turn back now. The below discussion contains heavy spoilers.

Next Week: Good Dick – written, directed, and starring Marianna Palka. Co-starring Jason Ritter.

Spoilers below!

Jeremiah White: Julia packs a punch as both a thriller and a character study. The two disparate categorizations work well together, counteracting the generally contrived, "gotcha" plotting of thrillers as well as the snooze factor inherent in things that people call "character studies."

Julia would be at home next to slippery slope thrillers such as A Simple Plan, (where an everyman protagonist makes one understandable but ill advised decision and is then forced by the ensuing circumstances to make increasingly amoral decisions) with one important distinction; Julia is that in reverse. It stars with a pathetic and unlikable woman who makes a reprehensible, unequivocally wrong decision, only to have the terrible circumstances that follow cause her to become better. She doesn’t necessarily become a better person (that’s up for discussion), but she becomes more together, less drunk and much less slutty.

This change is perhaps best exemplified by her increased ability to lie effectively. Early in the film, she is full on delusional. Those around her seem immune to her amusing and pathetic lies ("I work like a dog!"). Shortly, however, lies become her primary survival mechanism. Mind you, no one believes her. Ever. That’s not how her lies work. She simply plants a seed of doubt with enough promise that people are willing to give her just a little bit of room to breathe, just a little more time; resources she consistently uses to her advantage.

This all makes for a very satisfying viewing experience but it goes hand in hand with one of the movie's most significant flaws - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There’s really no good reason for Julia to become more capable as circumstances get more dire. And at the end it’s hard to imagine her going back to her own life, but there’s also nothing to indicate this change will be longlasting. Julia is a great ride, but it’s best to just accept the film’s flimsy psychology and root for Julia simply because she has become the lesser evil… and because she has flowered into something of a badass.

About to do some kidnapping. Then, some drinking.

Bill Magee: Alcoholism and kidnapping have never been this fun.

Big fans of children and morals might find Julia a bit disturbing.  I, however, think it's a romp of a good time.  Julia is the perfect antihero.  I find myself wanting her to get the money.  I want people to believe all her crazy lies. I do NOT want her to go to the AA meetings.

Make no mistake: Tilda Swinton's performance is what makes Julia a great movie.  Her performance is nuanced, fearless and completely lacks vanity.  Few Academy Award winning actresses would consent to being shown waking up next to a strange man with a nipple hanging out of her bra.  Watching her lie is so entertaining that the 144 minutes fly by.  Julia's answer of, "oh, I don't know...this n' that... cha cha cha cha cha!" when asked what she does for a living belongs in pretentious Oscar montages 50 years from now.

Sadly, that will never happen.  In its US theatrical run, Julia grossed $64,000.  Julia the character almost ended up with more money than Julia the movie did.  Though there is some grassroots Oscar buzz out there, mostly from Roger Ebert and Netflix Watch Instantly, we can pretty much assume that Tilda has purchased a one-way ticket to snubsville, and Sandra Bullock is going to win an Academy Award.  Oh well.  Movies like this are almost better when no one has seen them, anyway.

Don't hurt that baby, Julia!

Zach Falk: All I can say is that I think that kid Tom might have a tough time getting a date when he gets older.

Oh, and I don't think this flick went a long way for the advancement of women and Mexicans in our society.

That being said, I hate Tilda Swinton. That is probably just a testament to her acting ability and her capability of displacing the hatred I actually have for her characters onto her. Although this role, from the first scene on, provided a shocking departure from the typical white-pearls-wearing, stick-up-the-ass characters she normally plays (Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton) it became comfortable to know I was having the usual lack of sympathy for her. That of course changed as Julia underwent the transformation so eloquently described by Jeremiah (Except I take issue with the "becoming less slutty analysis", all that d-bag Diego had to do was say she's pretty a few times and next thing ya know she's turned a wholesome Tijuana home into a quasi brothel). While I agree Julia's transition didn't seem to make a lick of sense, it did redeem a movie which I was really struggling to get through early on. But guess what? I still hate Tilda Swinton, even without her super bothersome British accent.

While the ride got increasingly intense, it enhanced the viewing experience in turn. But I found the early portion of the movie laughable, and no intriguing character study or pitbull-wielding Mexicans could recuperate my interest.

Sorry Bill, I think the first 60-90 minutes did not fly by. While the opening portion of the movie made more sense once the complete product was over, I still felt I wasted too much time thinking that I immediately wanted to watch another movie afterward that I know I like. Eventually, I spun this into a positive, thinking that no movie in a long time had made me feel so good about my own life. Those early minutes were dragging, and the specific minutes when a gun was being pointed at a child's face could not have flown by quickly enough for me. Call me one of those CRAZIES who value children and morals. Ya know, I often have a pretty cynical view of the world, but I don't get a ton of enjoyment from watching 27 consecutive scenes that are simply establishing the concept of alcoholism. The occasional nipple shot on the other hand....

Way, way ickier than it looks.

Jeff Hart:  On a site as jaded and cynical as ours, it takes real courage to come out against child abuse. I applaud you for that, Zach. That said, I'm pretty sure that was a prop gun, you big baby, and the topless tickle scene in the movie's final act posed more danger to young Tom than any of his horrible treatment up to that point.

Having a visceral reaction to Julia's immoral behavior just proves what a success Julia is. Watching this horrible, awful bitch do one terrible thing after the next is a trying, uncomfortable experience. For the first act she is just a relentlessly annoying drunk.  I’d compare Swinton’s performance to Nic Cage’s in Leaving Las Vegas, except she's not a delightful curmudgeon; she does not have a heart of gold. She is just pure, gin-soaked white trash. A total piece of shit.

And then, when you couldn't possibly hate Julia more, she runs over that nice Australian guy with her car. It's an act of shocking violence that, despite her bluster, we barely thought her capable of. Later, after all that gun waving, she'll do all sorts of nasty things to her kidnapped charge; drug him, tie him to a radiator, leave him to die in the desert.

Yet, after all this, by the movie's final act we somehow end up rooting for her. That's a testament to Swinton's brave performance. As for not "advancing women," Zach, I'd beg to differ. The part of Julia is one of the best I've seen written for a woman in recent memory. It's bold, dark, and essentially strips away the usual bullshit we expect from our actresses. We need more parts like Julia, not less, and like Bill said, Swinton should be on the shortlist for an Academy Award. He's right. Julia is the antithesis of cookie-cutter tripe like Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side character and should be rewarded for that, not ignored.

By the end, just like Tom, we've got a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. Sure, Julia has suddenly become the lesser of two evils, but she's still the same old Julia. Irresponsible, vapid, conniving (Jeremiah - someone does finally believer her lies, and it gets Diego killed). For me, the real tension in the final act wasn't whether or not Tom would survive, it was whether or not Julia would take the money and run. I almost wanted her to. The redemptive quality of the movie’s ending almost cheapens the proceedings. But, if I had to guess, I’d say Julia will regret throwing away her million for that bratty runt. Once she sobers up.

"Cha cha cha cha cha!"

Jason Arican:  Note to the group:

The last guy to finish the movie will often not have much to add. Neither will anyone trying to follow up: "oh, I don't know...this n' that... cha cha cha cha cha!"... a truly great moment.

I liked Julia, which is not saying very much because it seems like everyone did. In this role, Tilda Swinton grew on me. I get what she was going for- drunk, confused, slutty. I just felt like there were scenes, particularly in the beginning, where that didn't connect. Not to say she wasn't slutty enough, because she certainly was that.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tension from an alcoholic learning how to kidnap on the job. 98% of kidnappers would not leave a black mask and gun out on the hotel table. But Julia does, and that's great.

I thought Tom was the man, when he called Julia out for getting them both captured was a pretty fun moment. Did anyone also notice the little guy gently tickle Julia's back when they lay together at Diego's? Am I totally off base with that?

Next Week: Good Dick