Together they define 2011 better than any other picture for me. I have struggled quite a lot in the past and particularly this year with depression. Fused together, I think of these two films as the most insightful movie ever made about the condition. Bridesmaid’s “Annie” is lost in her own self pitying rut and to the movies immense credit the jokes are spun organically from this pain rather than shoving it to the side for easier less-character specific laughs. “Help me. I’m pooooor” and that great sequence when Melissa McCarthy literalizes Annie’s self-abuse for her as just two examples. Meanwhile that comic imp Lars von Trier literalizes the size of depression (it always feels gargantuan, unstoppable) until its planet-sized and then calls it for what it is. Depression can be rough on those in the orbit of the suffering. Self destruction isn’t enough for Justine; she’s taking the whole world down with her. Von Trier may be a true genius but he’s never been a subtle one.
The Film Experience on Bridesmaids and Melancholia
(Source: thefilmexperience.net)
