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film-masochisme · 4 years

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Trust (1990)

Directed by Hal Hartley

Doomsy’s Rating: 100/100 (My favorite film!)

Is Trust the best film ever made from a technical point of view? No. Is it my favorite film of all time? Hell yes it is. At this point, I think I’ve seen this classic going on fifty times and every time it’s just perfect and everything I could ever want in a film.

Before you read any further, I implore you if you’ve never heard of this film (understandable if you haven’t, it’s somewhat obscure), stop what you’re doing and make the effort to find it.

Trust, for lack of a better word, invented emo culture.

It didn’t popularize it—the film was little seen at the time of its release outside arthouse crowds and fans of the director—but it created the first modern emo protagonist way back in 1989 with the wonderfully unpredictable icon and quote machine Matthew Slaughter, seen below in all his jet-black, chain-smoking laconism:

Matthew Slaughter may be, in my humble opinion, one of the top five greatest cinema characters ever. Martin Donovan, who has to date, appeared in nine of director Hal Hartley’s films, brings this troubled, intellectual, confrontation-prone yet empathetic soul to life in a layered performance of gruff scowl and poetic wisdom. If Holden Caulfield’s internal musings of apathy were the skeleton, Matthew Slaughter is the muscular exterior, throwing glances of possession and clouds of smoke to whoever dares to question his integrity. His permanently clenched fists and avoidance of eye contact belie the traumatic home life that in another film would be presented as more serious. Here, instead of regarding parental abuse with the utmost sincerity, Matthew’s obsessive-compulsive, violent father (played with disturbing teeth-gnashing verve by John MacKay) is shown as a near caricature, literally exploding into his son’s room with nefarious intentions, the door being cartoonishly thrown off its hinges like some Looney Tunes gag. But Matthew’s father is no joke. His gaslighting and nasty streak are instantly relatable, evoking no laughs just as Hartley surely intended. Matthew’s half of the film is sad and lonely, but insightful and warm in a way that only a humanist at heart could affect. His deadpan aphorisms are endlessly quotable and influenced many romantic depressives for decades to come, including Jim Carrey’s Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko’s title character, the protagonist of Submarine, and so forth. But alas, Trust is a film of two protagonists and their aimless lives on Long Island and their hope in each other. So, more on Matthew a little later on.

Trust’s other half is dominated by the luminous, adorable Adrienne Shelly in her greatest role, as Maria, a quick-witted and carefree 17-year-old girl grappling with an unplanned pregnancy at the hands of her pathetic quarterback boyfriend Anthony, and suddenly being cast adrift in a cruel and unforgiving town of sexual predators, toxic masculinity, and unstable homes. She begins the film an archetypal nubile, but through her interactions and ultimate romantic relationship with the older and likely asexual Matthew, she learns to believe in someone other than herself and to find her place and confidence. Adrienne Shelly, the beautiful, effervescent soul that was sadly murdered a mere fifteen years later, is a beaming ray of light no matter what room she enters.

Maria, as a pregnant teen struggling to find a path and possessing an acerbic tongue and a penchant for leaving accidental disaster in her wake, precedes Juno by nearly two decades and again, has clearly influenced emo culture with her hilariously dorky glasses (seen below) and sunken, eyeliner heavy aesthetic. She begins the film by unintentionally slapping her father into a heart attack-induced untimely demise, then spends the rest of her narrative attempting to make amends with her psychopathic mother (a fantastic Merritt Nelson) and make up her mind over whether to keep her child, played out in a highly-stylized manner that some would compare to the works of David Lynch (namely the domestic areas of Twin Peaks) but more closely aligns with the literary approach of Salinger or the Bronte sisters.

One thing that Trust managed to do, before perhaps any other piece of media at that time, was show how the alienation of youth from the commercialism of the 1980s was already blooming, and it captured, before grunge took it mainstream, the depressing lack of direction experienced by outsiders who couldn’t fit into Reagan’s model. Matthew and Maria do not fit in to the respective lives: Matthew is a thirty-year-old genius still living with a father who hates him, and despite his gifts, has sustained a failure to launch; Maria is a pregnant high school dropout with nothing on her mind besides what’s ten feet in front of her. These two, forced to rely on lethal safety nets, meet by pure happenstance on a cold night in a ramshackle building, and share four or five honest lines and a connection is forged.Their attempts to bring the other into their respective abusive homes are met with consternation and further verbal and physical altercations, almost all of which are darkly humorous in some way, but never successful. And yet, their initial desires to become responsible members of society only decay their psyches more. It is here that we realize while they may not get a happy ending, they have retained their independent identities and succeeded at what they set out to do.

The best scene in the film comes about halfway through, where Matthew comes into a bar, casually punches two people, then sits down with a massive “keep out” sign practically stapled to his forehead when he’s approached by Peg, Maria’s older, divorced sister. The dialogue of this scene, some of the best I’ve ever seen, somehow pales in comparison to the perfectly-tuned chemistry between the sexy, sassy Peg and the nihilistic Matthew, both of them playing off the other’s perceived weaknesses like the screwball comedies of old. The scene climaxes in a poisonous barb that leaves Peg speechless, and is the only time in entire film when Matthew utilizes a lowbrow dialectic.

It’s also one of the few instances in the entire film when Matthew looks at a character other than Maria while addressing them, leading me to believe (among other reasons) that he’s somewhere on the autism spectrum. His extreme difficulty in opening up to others is shown in painstaking detail, as is his extreme intelligence and lack of upward momentum. Whenever someone or something threatens his world and paradigms, he will often react violently or impulsively. This is a man who carries around a handgrenade “just in case.” He is terrified of change, but he is also aware of the fact that life is always changing. Sometimes quickly, perhaps even painfully, but it does.

The strange thing is that, even by the film’s end, despite his best efforts, Matthew’s changes as a character are minute. His growth, while not stunted per se, is reliant on whether he is understood, and even Maria, his soul mate, doesn’t get him sometimes. Relationships with a partner on the autism spectrum can be tricky (speaking from experience) but are so worthwhile because they are not unsure of who they are or what they want. Matthew spends much of his dialogue speaking his mind, at times perhaps even too direct (as above) but he is a singular and thoughtful person who wants to do right by the world, even when he doesn’t agree with it.

As the film progresses and Maria’s arc of the film takes precedence, the film shifts direction slightly into a powerfully feminist and deeply open-minded look at a woman’s right to choice, both in her life direction, and more bluntly, about abortion issues. A wonderful subplot involving a no-nonsense nurse (Karen Sillas) that nonchalantly offers her teenage abortion patients shots of scotch in celebration is both hysterical and sad, running the gamut of emotions with a tone of ambivalence. It is the flat prosody of the film that makes all these individual elements come to life, from top down.

Overall, Trust is a film without Hollywood glitz, but just as achingly romantic and heartfelt and emotionally fulfilling as the silver screen can provide, and most postmodern romantics and emo culture wouldn’t exist without its influence. It’s as honest, sincere and a real as movies get.

Please, everyone just watch this. It would be Tumblr’s favorite movie, just like it is mine.

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kinsbin · 5 years

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Movie Night

Title: Movie Night Ship: Johnny Cage/Alexys [Self Insert/Canon] Word Count: 2058 Summary: Johnny and Alexys plan for their annual movie night, with a selection of good monster movies and a plan to kiss during all of them. Pure fluff.

A/N: A commission for @bad-blue-moon-rising! She’s slowly getting me into mortal kombat and it is a TIME

Movie nights were, more or less, a tradition now.

Alexys would call it a testament to their relationship, in a peculiar sort of way. The endless entertainment both herself and her boyfriend seemed to garner from the animated or live-action features always drew them closer together. It was important to how they first met and, hell, it would be important for the rest of their time together certainly. There was something about being able to forget about the outside world that warmed her heart. Of cuddling into a pile of blankets with her boyfriend and being able to exist only in that pure bubble of momentum and delight. The mere idea brought a smile to her lips as she imagined a life where they could be together comfortably. To always have movie nights. To be...she dared say normal...but what life was normal with Johnny Cage?

Her thoughts were interrupted when a hand fell against her wrist, pulling her back against a strong chest as a chin rested on the top of her head. She could feel the taught muscles of the body against her go lax the moment they made contact, the warmth of their shared heat nothing short of delightful as she exhaled outwards and smiled. Reaching up, she felt the arm around her and squeezed it, half hugging the being behind her in the best way that she could as she also tried to focus on the hot popcorn bag she had been pouring into a bowl before hand.

“Johnny,” She managed out through a small fit of laughter that only seemed to grow as his lips descended on her neck, “I’m trying to make us popcorn!”

“And I’m trying to kiss you,” He purred back with a smirk that she could feel on her neck, “Looks like we’re both doing pretty good at what we decided to try, eh?”

“Easy for you to say! You don’t have hot butter near your fingers, now either help or sit on the couch.” She giggled and smacked his arm playfully. Johnny laughed back at her before relenting, raising himself upwards and off of her body so that he was at her side rather than behind her. Alexys looked up and admired the face of the man before her, muscled with a curved and perfectly kissable jaw that she loved and adored so much. Without his signature sunglasses covering his eyes, she was able to note the soft laughter lines that trailed from underneath his pupils to down on his lips, admiring their movements as he stretched his face between words and expressions. They were always so fascinating and, somehow, so melancholy to see on him all at once...it was interesting.

“Hey, Ripley, you’re spacing out on me.” He joked as he snapped his fingers in front of her, drawing her out from her momentary enamorment of his face. HIs grin was wider now than it was before, “I know I’m good looking but, dang darling, you’re gonna make me blush if you keep those doll-eyes up on me.”

Alexys felt her face heat up with intense redness, her gaze pulling itself away so that he wouldn’t catch the effects it had on her as a whole. He did, however, because he was just that good. Because he was Johnny Fucking Cage. And he bit back a laugh as he instead returned to hugging her, his lips this time finding her cheeks and nuzzling into her temple with a purr, “Don’t be so embarrassed, doll, I think it’s incredibly adorable. Goes with the rest of you~.”

“Stop being a sap and tell me what movies you brought over,” She laughed it off with a grin, turning to kiss his nose in retaliation. After a moment of sputtering and laughter over the sudden kiss attack he had been the victim of, he recovered by removing his hands from her in a gesture of surrender before reaching around to the messanger bag he had set unceremoniously on the ground before wrapping himself around his lover. When he rummaged through it, he eventually pulled out two DVD cases with a wide, delighted smile.

“Aliens and Big Ass Spider. Classics.”

“One of these things is certainly not like the other,” Alexys managed out with a bubbling laugh over the ridiculous title of the second one, admiring the way its cover displayed its concept almost too perfectly. A large, comically photoshopped tarantula whose eight legs were busy crushing cars as people ran in mock terror was organized on the front, along with the name of the movie in comic sans font and the head actors who, surprisingly, were no one Johnny actually knew. Well, not so surprisingly perhaps. It was a very niche movie.

“One is a cinematic masterpiece filled with beautiful acting, a strong female lead, and a fearsome inhuman foe ready to kick the ass of everyone in its way,” Johnny declared, “And the other is Alien.”

Alexys cackled at the comparison, her hand flying over her mouth to stop the laughter as she shook her head. Johnny’s own laughter echoed heartily against the kitchen as they shared the moment of giggles together. It was moments like this, she admitted with ease and delight, that she loved these movie nights most of all. The feeling of laughing with the man she loved, the strong earthen defender who had somehow fallen for her...It was almost normal. A sweet sense of normalcy that she had craved time and time again amongst fights and bloody fists and watching him come home with blood that wasn’t his across his torso...It was something else, certainly.

It was almost homey.

“Go put it on the TV,” Alexys sighed, “I’ll finish getting the popcorn.”

“And the soda!” Johnny called out before exiting the kitchen to the living room with a grin, sending a sharp wink her way before complying to set up their featured films. Alexys smiled as he went, watching him as he began to juggle the two DVDs in his hands, knowing she was staring behind him. Knowing that she knew he was showing off. She laughed again before gathering the popcorn up into its bowl and melting some butter to go with it.

The snacks organized and balancing precariously in her hand with some sodas, Alexys meandered her way towards the couch, where Johnny had already set himself up comfortably, DVD in and remote in hand prepared to hit play on the feature whenever his girlfriend gave the okay. He reached over to nab the sodas from her, smiling as she sighed with relief and was able to put the popcorn down with no spillage to its contents. “Gotta say, doll,” He joked while putting one of the buttered popcorn pieces into his mouth, “You know how to butter me up.”

“That joke was as corny as these kernels.” Alexys chided with a laugh at the joke either way, making Johnny grin and lean forward to press a kiss to her cheek, which she accepted happily with a hum of approval.

“So which cinematic masterpiece are we watching first?”

“If we watch Alien first, it’ll only enhance the pure artistry of Big Ass Spider,” Johnny reasoned, the shit-eating grin on his lips stretching further when Alexys rolled her eyes and shrugged to indicate that she was fine with that order of business, perhaps even a bit happy to be putting off the lesser horror movie for a couple hours longer as she pushed herself closer to Johnny and snuggled up into is side. Johnny felt the tips of his ears glow a bright red at how close she was, at how he could feel her body press on him, and he could only cough between a subtle remark of how he was going to press play.

The movie started in the way it always did, for they had seen Alien together more times than Alexys could actually count on her fingers. She considered it a bonding movie in one way or another, the joy to which the both of them had in quoting the entirety of it line for line and laughing at the parts that did not hold up to modern day cinematic standards was a delightful way to offset the true tension and terror the Xenomorph could instill upon them to that day. Alexys felt Ripley’s lines falling from her lips, word for word, while Johnny seemed to read for everyone else. It had been their fifth time watching it together when she had acquired the teasing nickname of ‘Ripley’ by her star of a boyfriend, happy to hear her quote words in and out of the comfort of their home. Happy to hear her excited about whatever she was talking about.

Happy to be with her.

The thought still rustled in the back of her mind, making her blush at the mere idea of it. Someone like Johnny Cage somehow liked her...It’s how most people would view it, wouldn’t it? When she had met his friends, their first impressions had been something along that nature but now...now? Their shared banter of movie quotes and bad jokes had everyone nodding in understanding. An appreciation to how well they got along permeated the friendship circle endlessly as they continued to stay together.

Alexys leaned in further against Johnny’s chest, her breath hitching as the climax of the movie set itself into place and Ripley was facing off against the Xenomorph at long last. The music score crescendoed darkly, emphasizing the already dark parts of the room around them. Johnny watched her out of the corner of his eye, biting back his own smile at just how cute she looked pressed up against him. How her eyes grew wide with tension and excitement and her tongue darted out to lick at her lips while she waited for the part she knew was going to happen occur full force. Her excitement warmed his heart, in a strange way.

His arm found its way around her shoulders, bringing her close to his body and giving him a chance to haphazardly hug her. Alexys startled at the touch, blushing brightly but smiling as she snuggled into his body. He pressed his head to the top of hers, kissing and inhaling the scent of her soft hair as they watched the rest of the movie together. Against her, he whispered softly:

“You know it’s popular to kiss during the scary parts. Distracts you from the actual scare.”

“We’ve seen this movie like ten times, Johnny,” Alexys teased, “What are you, a teenager?”

“Maybe at heart,” He laughed back, “But maybe I just really want to kiss you right now. Did you think about that?”

She averted her gaze biting back a smile with a thoughtful hum for comedic effect. Johnny laughed, but used the moment to lean in and capture her lips in a kiss. Alexys squeaked, but accepted it. In the background, the final fight scene echoed against her eardrums as Ripley and the Xenomorph attacked one another. As they fought for survival. In the meantime, she put her hands on Johnny’ chest, feeling the solid muscle underneath the loose shirt he wore. Feeling how careful he was being with her, keeping his hands on her shoulder and hips, to bring her as close as possible to him while he kissed her.

When he pulled away, she was breathless. Alexys felt the warmth of her face as she looked up at him, the only saving grace of the embarrassment was the fact that she could see the red tips of his ears and nose as well, showing just how in love he was with her. Showing just what she made him feel.

“I love you,” He finally murmured out, pressing a new and more gentle kiss to her forehead. Alexys sighed with a content breath, snuggling into his chest and reaching for a piece of popcorn, popping it into her mouth and closing her eyes for a moment to relish in the shared care they had for one another.

“I love you, too.”

#self insert #self shipping #self ship writing #writing commission #kinley writes #other ships

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