Bug (2006)

Bug (2006)

Written by Tracy Letts based on his play of the same name.

Directed by William Friedkin

           

            Wow, this flick was a freakin powerhouse! I would have loved to have seen this Off-Broadway play when it was out in 2004/2005.  As sensational as it was on screen, it was probably 100 times more intense onstage.  Needless to say, I liked it a lot, but it did lead to a lot of questions.

            This flick was very simple plot-wise.  It’s about a woman, named Agnes (played here by Ashley Judd, looking whitetrashified), whose husband (boyfriend? Baby daddy? I couldn’t really figure it out) Jerry (Harry Connick, Jr….Yea, I know, but more on that in a second) has just got out of prison.  On her last night before he gets home, Agnes chooses to hang out at the bar that she works at with her lesbian friend R.C. (played by the super hot Lynn Collins, who you may have seen this past summer as the romantic sex interest of Wolverine, and she’s in True Blood and the upcoming flick Uncertainty with one of my favorite young actors- Joseph Gordon Levitt).  They soon go back to the motel room where Agnes lives with their new friend Peter (Academy Award-nominated Michael Shannon) in tow.  Peter is just a little weird, and it shows.  After a few minutes, R.C. leaves and the rest of the flick never leaves the motel room.  Peter stays the night and the next morning Jerry comes home.  There’s some spousal abuse, and Peter comes home to save the day, except he really just stands around looking like the doof that he is.  He doesn’t really stop Jerry, but Jerry stops because Peter’s there.  This is one thing I couldn’t really jive with.  It was obvious that Jerry was aggressive and probably a little crazy, but he never attacked Peter, even though it really seemed like he would (or should) have.  ANYWAY, Jerry comes and goes, so does R.C., and there’s a doctor, but the main point is, when they’re alone Peter convinces Agnes that there are bugs.  It starts out small.  Not just literally, it seemed like a passing comment.  But then they become obsessed.  Peter soon becomes convinced that the government has sent out little nano-bot bugs to surveil him and then he convinces Agnes of the same thing and the movie just gets crazier and crazier from there.

            What I liked about this movie was the tension.  I saw the trailers, so I knew some weird shit was gonna happen.  And though it was advertised as another Saw, that’s not what it was.  It took a long time to build, but when it did shit really hit the fan in a bad way.  The main theme is Paranoia.  Are they crazy? Or is the government really spying on them?  And I think it’s a valid question, especially in the current cultural climate we live in.  The problem my girlfriend and I had was, Judd and Shannon often just came across as crazy for most of the flick.  Now, as a cinephile, I understood what they were trying to convey, but she was right – they often went a little far.  Personally, I loved it.  But she was iffy.   It’s important to think about when the government is putting too much pressure on its citizens, and this flick really put a lot of thought into it.  The dialogue was fantastic, the performances were even better.  I especially loved the washed out color themes that were present and the dark dark dark tone present throughout the flick.  This motherfucker was pitch-black and I loved it!  Director Williem Friedkin did a great job, and he’s come a long way cinematography-wise since The Exorcist.  Overall, if you like really really tense thrillers, then this one is the way to go.