Ricky

David and I thought the movie Ricky was an allegory, but neither of us were sure what about.

In the movie, a woman’s seemingly normal baby sprouts wings. Yes, wings. She meets a guy at work, they have a baby, and the baby grows wings. Most new parents aren’t likely to face such a predicament but we can all relate to trying to create a normal life for a child who’s not normal.

Ricky’s mom loves her kids but she’s an outrageously irresponsible parent—the kind of mom that real-life moms would love to judge. She oversleeps in the morning and has to be woken up by her seven-year-old daughter. In another scene, she’s hooking up in the unisex bathroom at work with a coworker whom she just met. Flash forward a couple of months and she’s leaving her winged baby unattached and unattended in a shopping cart in a crowded hypermarket. And I won’t even discuss that press conference scene with the baby attached to a string.

Throughout the film, I got the impression that no good could come from such parental irresponsibility. Perhaps this was one of those reap-what-you-sew messages aimed at bad parents: hook up in the bathroom at a chemical factory and your baby will sprout wings.

The Proposition

I can’t remember the last time I wanted to watch an ultraviolent, bloody film. In The Proposition, a western set in the late 19^th century Australian Outback, an outlaw captured following a shootout with local law enforcement receives an offer: kill his older brother – the gang ringleader guilty of rape, murder and other heinous transgressions – and spare the life of his younger brother.

The music and the scenes of the harsh, desert landscape are striking. The violence is bloody, chilling and interminable. The desert offers lots of interesting contrasts and parallels. It’s feral and abrasive, while the home the “police” captain shares with his wife is orderly, nicely decorated and steeped in European tradition (roast beast and ornaments for Christmas, heirloom furniture and other vestiges of their lives back in England). The desert is harsh and unforgiving, yet it hides the answer to the outlaw’s clemency.  It’s barren; on their bloody rampage, the gang of outlaws murder a pregnant woman. Okay, maybe I’m getting carried away.