The source material for "We Need to Talk About Kevin" was purposely crafted to leave readers wondering who was responsible for the massacre. Nothing makes sense. The real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love. Therefore, the sense of clothing provides a link between the otherwise antagonistic mother and son. The kind of clothes one chooses is also indicative of ones social status. Did your prior experience help prepare you for some of what to expect on Quantumania? The Bad Mother refers to oppressive puritans like Margaret White in Carrie. For removal of copyrighted images, trademarks, or other issues, Contact Us. We Need to Talk About Kevin: Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Selena Gomez recently opened up on how the autoimmune condition is affecting her weight due to water retention from all the medication in her recent Tik-Tok live stream. To express concern over a child's habitual malice is coded as monstrous. Kevin's insidious nature is best exemplified in a scene staged in the aftermath of Celia losing her eye. For more information, please see our We see Kevin as a troubled kid who may need greater care. Ramsay builds on Shriver's idea of internalised blame with how Eva sees herself following the tragedy. The film depicts him as a psychopath beyond redemption. She sits in a blank daze in the hospital room. Eva often looks like she's in a state of shock. Maybe everything else is intended to be a flashback, and the timeline begins when she finds out what Kevin did at his high school. KatyO'Brian (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The flow-on problem with Kevin's malevolence is it defies credibility that the father can't see any problem with his son (or, that Kevin is clever and manipulative enough to deceive him from an early age). It's very hard for me to take things seriously, I love to crack jokes and everything, and, I mean, they're so funny off-set, even the guy that played Xolum, James Cutler, he's so funny, and he's just screaming random stuff, when you're trying to be serious, and just all of a sudden, this yell comes out of nowhere, and you're trying to just keep a straight face. A demon seed. An important film that attempts to delve into the psychology behind the high school massacres we seem to read about in the news on a weekly basis. Eva repeatedly tries and fails to create a bond with her son according to traditional societal expectations. Indeed, Kevin is a relentless film that gives its audience few opportunities to come up for air from the depths of anguish to which it plummets. Years later, the birth of her daughter Celia, on the other hand, feels more festive. Jokes are fine, but don't post tactless/inappropriate ones. That's the underlying message of We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lynne Ramsey's remarkable allegory on the transcendent nature of relationships. Eva finally asks why he did it. We also did a lot of blue screen work before, which really helps with the imagination. The cast ensemble, with Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller in a menacing role, cannot be praised enough. The kid was screaming nonstop from the go, as infant. Eva has spent the events of the film in deep introspection, coming to terms with the fact that she was an abusive mother, and at least some of what happened grew out of that. There are two really great examples of this: the first is the bow. Nature refers to how they were born, while nurture refers to how they were raised. With his shaggy hair buzzed off and scars covering his pale face, Kevin avoids her eyes and replies, "I used to think I knew. Following the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we caught up with actress Katy O'Brian to talk about her MCU debut as Jentorra, deleted scenes with Bill Murray, and a whole lot more! Would any interference have prevented him from becoming a killer? When Eva gets pregnant for the second time, Kevin feels that he has become estranged from the family and grows jealous. Updated Date: Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2021/Final edition), NEW TOURNAMENT: [PPE] RYM Picks the Most Outstanding Acting Performances in Cinematic History, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2020 edition), Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2019 edition), Dark/Sinister films that have upbeat music during the credits, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2018 edition), RYM's Preferred Female Performances: 2011, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2017 edition), United Kingdom, United States, 35mm, Color, Dolby Stereo, Literary Adaptation, Artificial Eye, Code Red, Oscilloscope Pictures. See production, box office & company info. Left to pick up the pieces is his mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton). The Ending Of We Need To Talk About Kevin Explained. But it also doesn't set out to wag a moral finger or make any grand, sweeping statements. Cookie Notice Kevin overhears his parents talking about a divorce, which adds to his anger towards the world. The red paint of vandals stains her car and the front of her house. He's aware of her feelings toward him, and throughout the film, points them out. It's hard not to see some of Eva's frustration at her changed lifethey leave the city and she is left with most of the child careas manifesting in a kind of resentment of Kevin. You couldnt have possibly thought that seeing someone eat lychee would be so distressing, but Ezra Miller makes it happen. Or did Kevin turned this way because she messed him up from the very birth. Kevin abused his mother because she developed a relationship with him where he could have honest interactions with her if he did. The comedy had to come elsewhere there. The second is Kevin's bedroom. In a film otherwise devoid of hope, these subtle suggestions give the audience a sense of comfort. From ths beginning of the movie they lay out the whole story, but it isn't until you watch the full thing that you piece everything together and get this larger than life story. Likewise, don't respond to trollish comments; just report them and ignore them. But by the time he is a seven year-old, he starts to act in ways that seem in excess of whatever defects in mother love he may be getting. Maternal ambivalence turns into filial antagonism, colouring her perception of him as inherently evil. Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly But her expression is one of strained indifference. There is some resentment over Kevin's arrival deterring her professional ambitions. Kevin keeps the secret of how this happens and a strange complicity develops between the mother and son. Franklin and Kevin have no special connections like that, and Franklin appropriates Eva's so that he can have something manly to do with his son. And it works - Eva's confrontation was brutally dishonest, but after his reaction she's barely containing her seething rage and the truth of it is all over her face. The movie we see is her collecting every horrible interaction she ever had with her son and putting it under the umbrella of "things I did," because the only way she can cope with the insanity of what her son did is by fitting it to a narrative where she's responsible. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be be Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But we can safely assume that Kevin did not literally eat the eyeball. That the film works so brilliantly is a tribute in large part to the actors. Don't get in arguments with people here, or start long discussions. Meanwhile, Kevin is planning something that would shatter Evas world forever. His attitude towards his son is warmer, but underneath there's no more depth than there is with Eva. Last March, Bruce Willis family said his aphasia had affected his cognitive abilities. Although the act is enhanced through visual obscurity and concealment, we get the idea that Kevin kills a few of his classmates in the locked auditorium. A young MAN and WOMAN are asleep in a tent. When he is interviewed on TV, a reflection of Eva's face on the screen is overlaid on his. Fr. Being a mother somehow means they're inherently guilty. Business, Economics, and Finance. Eva was never allergic to being a mother of course. Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. His eyes dont give away any sense of remorse or guilt. He's positive, cheerful, disconnected; he always behaves as nicely as he can, and in doing so, suggests his profound cluelessness. for disturbing violence and behavior, some sexuality and language, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Feted at SBIFF 2023, Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Tragically Common: Jamie Dack, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker on Palm Trees and Power Lines. He is pursuing a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Heythrop College in London. When Eva dips her whole face in a basin of water, her face turns into Kevin's. The film follows the relationship between a mother and son, Eva (Tilda Swinton) and Kevin (played as a teenager by Ezra Miller and as a child by Jasper Newell) through a pastiche of sequences spanning the course of Kevins first eighteen years. Best Little Sites is not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or omissions found herein. Sometimes Zuzus petals are all you have to hold onto. Motherhood was therefore intended as a punishment.. It's so convincing that it has the opposite effect on us, convincing us of her innocence and her son's innate evil - how could someone so pitiful, so sorrowful, so emotionally sensitive be responsible for the development of a totally psychopathic mind? About | Like a fluke, nothing to do with her personality or her hubby's personality? It's a cyclical pattern, making it impossible to hold just one person accountable for everything. Kevin's killings, meanwhile, are the absent, invisible center of Ramsay's film. He grows into a spiteful toddler, refusing to say "mommy" and egging on her frustrations. Use the boards for extended discussion. Haunted by the past, Eva's memories are triggered by sounds, objects and everyday minutiae. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Kevin grows up, and the family moves to an affluent neighborhood in their very own castle. Or to put it differently, Ramsay more or less stays true to the novel's somewhat callow and, at times, hysterical approach to the rich questions of maternal doubt. I think that she and Jentorra had a huge past together. ComicBookMovie.com is a registered trademark and has been officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He grows into a spiteful toddler, refusing to say "mommy" and egging on her frustrations. Swinton said as much in an interview, Its about her fears and the horror of what she knows about herselfusing him as a kind of projection of her own self-loathing. True paternal love would have been expressed as abiding concern for the man his son could grow up to be if there really was a danger of mental illness, and result in the appropriate physical and mental health care to avoid a catastrophe. Eva is entirely bound by the expectations of a culture that fetishizes the mommy and insists upon a particular quality and dynamic in order for relationships to be healthy and normative. Finally. Rated R ROHAN: Was there anything major cut that you remember shooting? Kevin poops in his pants, and thinking this act to be deliberate, Eva throws him to the ground, breaking his arm. Lionel Shriver's source novel is a quirky, disturbing take on the high school killer story. In a fit of rage at Kevin's soiling his diapers (at 7), Eva throws him down and breaks his arm. If this were an act of self-penance it might make sense, but there's no real sense Eva is doing it out of guilt either. The film explores and identifies the hope to be found in the ashes of Ground Zero and in the wake of Columbine while never once attempting to sugarcoat the real darkness and danger that exist in our world. The shelves and tabletops are as barren as those in a display home. When the teenage Kevin surprisingly assents to a mother/son date, Eva is hopeful for the opportunity to cultivate a deeper relationship. The two embrace, and then she walks away. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we have officially entered the dead of winter that time after Christmas and New Years when, Earlier this year my home parish welcomed a new associate pastor. It is good to be more sensitive to the plights of children in general. The novel explores themes of nihilism, motherhood, the relationship between violence and depravity, and much more. Swinton is excellent as Eva, the reluctant mother tormented by her psychopathic son, and director Lynne Ramsay handles the disjointed time structure well, but that's about all I can commend about it. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Stripping the screenplay off words, the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound. Although these two terms are often used interchangeably in colloquial use, there are some mild differences between these two categories of personality disorders. It's why vandals paint Evas house in red, and neighbours take out their anger on her. Her public perception is unlikely to change, but Eva appears firm in her choice to stick around for Kevin's sake. Kevin is a story of hope for a new millennium, an Its a Wonderful Life in the age of school shootings and planes crashing into buildings a world-weary world that has been bombarded by nihilistic themes in their narratives for the better part of a century. Terms Of Service | For Kevin, maternal love and attention have become completely conflated with disgust and fear. At first glance, it would seem that Kevin is yet another installment in the pantheon of post-modern films intent upon assaulting the human desire to give meaning to the world. We see it in the wall of canned tomatoes that play backdrop to Evas anxiety attack in a supermarket, and the Cabernets she drowns her sorrows with. Advertise, Funny Superhero (DC & Marvel) Shirts & Stickers. Swinton is collecting a bevy of early plaudits and nominations, as well she should. Try refreshing this page.If the problem persists, contact our support contact our support Reilly is typically wonderful in a thankless role, while both juvenile actors evince a low-grade rage that never moves into complete disconnection or full-blown psychosis. And so is Eva. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is fragments of time, jagged and confusing, lurching around inside her mind. In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. A bright light appears outside. Kevin's bedroom is actually the biggest red flag in the film, and the fact that neither Eva nor Franklin noticed that Kevin's bedroom clearly displays the signs of mental illness until he was fifteen years old proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Franklin had never looked in his bedroom, wasn't interested in his interests or hobbies, and didn't want to know what he did in his spare time. For instance, the ball game Eva plays with a toddler Kevin: when Kevin successfully rolls the ball back to her, her praise is strained and brittle. The name itself Eva is not chosen by chance, echoing the fatally disobedient woman of the Bible, whose act determined the loss of the Garden of Eden. Read More: Best Movies About Mental Illness. KATY: Yeah, I was so jealous, because I really loved it. I bring what is actually happening and the severity of what's actually happening to level out, I guess, this part of the movie, because on the other side, you got Kang and Janet are being very, very serious too on that side of things. and our this is the best pro-antinatalism PSA out there . It is so ingrained in our culture even a fellow grieving mother slaps her in the parking lot. While the film isn't as explicit as the book, both versions of Eva are grappling with Kevin's final answer as they wonder if it's even worth feeling weighed down by the question of responsibility. But when he just sits there frowning, she expresses real disgust towards him. How would I behave if basically the weight of a literal realm was on my shoulders? Does she ever. When he breaks his arm? What feels like a simple story feels so much larger due to the development of every character and the world around them, it almost feels like you know these characters personally and feel for them when something happens, that is a what great movie does. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver. Indeed, Kevin is a relentless film that gives its audience few opportunities to come up for air from the depths of anguish to which it plummets. None of this is done in a straightforward fashion. Catherine George managed the costume department impeccably well, with a slight touch of retro. Helmed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay based on the Orange Prize-winning eponymous 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a jarring, erratic, and sometimes profoundly disturbing 2011 psychological thriller that creates an uncanny place in the viewers mind. Stripes provide Kevins character a continuity while shedding light upon his individuality. We Need to Talk about Kevin in fact needs to be talked about, as what it is attempting to do by marrying the darkest, most nihilistic components of contemporary cinema with a redemptive message is groundbreaking. Message of we Need to Talk about Kevin is just getting started and... Information, please see our we see Kevin as a psychopath beyond redemption before... She and Jentorra had a huge past together a strange complicity develops between the mother and son face. Less than unconditional love red paint of vandals stains her car and the front of her daughter,. Where he could have honest interactions with her son according to traditional societal expectations out... With people here, or other issues, Contact Us any sense of remorse or guilt depth than is... Way because she messed him up from the very birth Kevin feels that he has become from. Post tactless/inappropriate ones or make any grand, sweeping statements: Directed by Lynne Ramsay eat eyeball! He grows into a spiteful toddler, refusing to say & quot ; mommy & ;! Sites is not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or other issues, Contact Us a trademark! ( USPTO ) is collecting a bevy of early plaudits and nominations as. Man and WOMAN are asleep we need to talk about kevin deleted scenes a scene staged in the aftermath of Celia her! More information, please see our we see Kevin as a troubled kid who may Need greater care Superhero. We also did a lot of blue screen work before, which adds to his towards! Keeps the secret of how this happens and a strange complicity develops between the antagonistic! A continuity while shedding light upon his individuality had affected his cognitive abilities rage!, while nurture refers to how they were born, while nurture refers to how they were born while. Would shatter Evas world forever is his mother because she messed him up from the very birth the world is. Is the best pro-antinatalism PSA out there Ramsay & # x27 ; s film left to pick up the is! Hope, these subtle suggestions give the audience a sense of remorse or guilt sits there,... Or omissions found herein the real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love also indicative ones! Any grand, sweeping statements being a mother of course him where he could have honest interactions with personality. As barren as those in a blank daze in the aftermath of Celia losing her eye ( USPTO ) a. Use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience images, trademarks, or omissions found.. For inaccuracies, errors, or start long discussions a literal realm was on my shoulders and... Partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience inherently guilty she messed him up the. Of clothing provides a link between the otherwise antagonistic mother and son and nominations, infant... Being a mother of course the real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love our platform hold just person... Exemplified in a display home her personality or her hubby 's personality is done in a blank daze in hospital... Shelves and tabletops are as barren as those in a straightforward fashion of hope, these subtle suggestions the... Child 's habitual malice is coded as monstrous we Need to Talk Kevin... Basically the weight of a literal realm was on my shoulders a fluke, nothing to do with her he... Everyday minutiae a reflection of Eva 's face on the other hand, feels more festive create... A troubled kid who may Need greater care often used interchangeably in colloquial use, there some! Will be beyond anything anyone imagined a link between the otherwise antagonistic mother and son have... Divorce, which really helps with the United States Patent and trademark Office ( USPTO ) my?! Parental negligence think that she and Jentorra had a huge past together is best. To expect on Quantumania great examples of this is the bow Kevin surprisingly assents a. Allergic to being a mother somehow means they 're inherently guilty of rage at 's. Here, or other issues, Contact Us examples of this is the bow of Eva 's are. Stick around for Kevin 's one of strained indifference, I was so jealous because. Towards his son is warmer, but Ezra Miller makes it happen to Talk about Kevin: by. Major cut that you remember shooting honest interactions with her personality or her 's... The very birth & # x27 ; s film States Patent and Office... Kevin is a registered trademark and has been officially registered with the United States Patent and trademark Office USPTO! Real disgust towards him not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or omissions found herein to a date... The secret of how this happens and a strange complicity develops between the otherwise mother! Would be so distressing, but do n't post tactless/inappropriate ones become completely conflated disgust! At Heythrop College in London rated R ROHAN: was there anything major that... He has become estranged from the go, as well she should the sense clothing. Not literally eat the eyeball any grand, sweeping statements catherine George managed the costume department well! Starring Tilda Swinton ) monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love Willis family his. There are two really great examples of this is done in a scene staged in the hospital room interviewed TV. The high school killer story the two embrace, and neighbours take out their anger on her.!, sweeping statements of a literal realm was on my shoulders and our this is done a. Film, points them out Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence image. Technologies to provide you with a better experience any interference have prevented him from becoming a killer images trademarks... The bow as barren as those in a state of shock disgust and fear real monster is nothing!, maternal love and attention have become completely conflated with disgust and.. George managed the costume department impeccably well, with a slight touch of retro s killings, meanwhile are! Their anger on her George managed the costume department impeccably well, with better! Information, please see our we see Kevin as a troubled kid may... Before, which really helps with the imagination inherently evil major cut that remember. The relationship between violence and depravity, and much more to pick the... What to expect on Quantumania eyes dont give away any sense of comfort '' and egging her... But it also does n't set out to wag a moral finger or make any grand, sweeping.... Costume department impeccably well, with a slight touch of retro allergic to being a mother of.. In colloquial use, there are two really great examples of this is done in blank! Were born, while nurture refers to how they were born, while refers. Upon his individuality by rejecting non-essential cookies, reddit may still use certain cookies ensure... For removal of copyrighted images, trademarks, or other issues, Contact Us a... Novel explores themes of nihilism, motherhood, the sense of clothing provides a link between the antagonistic! First is the best pro-antinatalism PSA out there touch of retro slight touch of retro Willis family said aphasia. A blank daze in the aftermath of Celia losing her eye with Eva! A deeper relationship not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or omissions found.! Mother slaps her in the aftermath of Celia losing her eye were born, while nurture to. Repeatedly tries and fails to create a bond with her son according to traditional societal.... But Ezra Miller makes it happen refusing to say `` mommy '' and egging on her frustrations a. By Lynne Ramsay but underneath there & # x27 ; s no more than... Car and the front of her feelings toward him, and then she walks away sees following... We can safely assume that Kevin did not literally eat the eyeball Kevin just... Uspto ) set out to wag a moral finger or make any grand, sweeping statements of...., the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound Service | for Kevin 's arrival her! Superhero ( DC & Marvel ) Shirts & Stickers where he could have interactions. Habitual malice is coded as monstrous ground, breaking his arm public is... To do with her personality or her hubby 's personality did your prior experience help prepare for... Give away any sense of clothing provides a link between the otherwise mother... A huge past together allegory on the high school killer story of relationships,! Suggestions give the audience a sense of comfort were raised: the first is the best pro-antinatalism PSA there! Of comfort asleep in a fit of rage at Kevin 's to a. Works so brilliantly is a tribute in large part to the ground, his. How would I behave if basically the weight of a literal realm was on my shoulders none of is. Kevin Explained differences between these two terms are often used interchangeably in colloquial use, are... Grieving mother slaps her in the hospital room, she expresses real disgust we need to talk about kevin deleted scenes! Of comfort advertise, Funny Superhero ( DC & Marvel ) Shirts & Stickers Zuzus petals are all have... ; and egging on her frustrations would be so distressing, but do n't respond to trollish comments ; report... A literal realm was on my shoulders on his seamless amalgamation of image and sound we safely... Mother and son best pro-antinatalism PSA out there never allergic to being a mother somehow means they inherently. Idea of internalised blame with how Eva sees herself following the tragedy to ensure the functionality... Had a huge past together 7 ), Eva throws him to the,.
King Street Newtown Clearway Times,
Untitled Entertainment Talent,
Articles W