>>REVIEW
BUG
STARRING Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon
DIRECTED BY William Friedkin
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William Friedkin, the man behind such seminal ’70s films as The French Connection and The Exorcist, but whose career has since appeared locked in a downward trajectory towards obscurity (i.e. Jade and The Hunted), rebounds here, some 35 years after that first drop of vomit hit the theatre floor.
Although today’s violence-savvy audiences are far less likely to be seen fainting or vomiting in their seats, Friedkin’s latest film, Bug, should, at the very least, have you scratching and squirming.
Adapted from the successful, off-Broadway play of the same name, this claustrophobic psychological horror has leads Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon (from the original stage play) putting it all on the line in the name of the "method." The results are palpable.
Judd plays Agnes White, an emotionally fragile, alcoholic barmaid living in a nearly abandoned motel on the outskirts of town. Still suffering from the tragic disappearance of her son some 10 years prior, White’s vulnerability is only aggravated by the sudden appearance of her recently paroled and abusive ex-husband, Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.). Fearing for her safety, she impetuously invites Peter (Shannon), a melancholy drifter and ex-marine with paranoid tendencies, to live with her – a bad move on her part.
As it is, Peter happens to have a rather disturbing fixation with bugs and soon declares White’s apartment infested with genetically engineered critters. And, before you can say "rock, hard place," White has herself a one-way pass to dementia.
Friedkin frames the film tightly and keeps the action almost exclusively contained within the walls of the apartment. Combined with the steady swelling of the film’s pacing by cutter Darrin Navvaro and a suffocating desert climate, Bug unquestionably succeeds in its quest to deliver its viewers into the mouth of madness. |
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