American Mary

American Mary was a movie that I avoided for a while. I can't put a finger on why, because on paper, it sounds interesting. A promising med student drops out of school and becomes a renowned surgeon in the field of body modification. There's definitely some mileage to be had out of that premise. And it stars Katherine Isabelle, a woefully under-appreciated actress in my book. And yet, I was never compelled to see it. My instincts just screamed out this wasn't going to be what I wanted. Until recently. I finally saw it recommended from enough sources I trust that I figured I should stop avoiding it based on nothing whatsoever and give it a try. Sadly, my instincts were right. It all comes down to the script, because I like just about everything else. Katherine Isabelle is great, but that's no surprise if you've seen Ginger Snaps or just about any other horror movie she's in (I'd say Freddy vs. Jason, but she isn't given much to do there, although she would've been better in the lead role than Monica Keena). I love the dedication the Soska sisters -- the writers and directors -- have to doing all the special effects in camera. There's no post-prod CGI touch-ups on the gore, and it shows. Always happy to see practical effects get a day in the sun. The direction of the movie is smart; not flashy, not workmanlike either, not lurid or shy. It's what it needs to be, when it needs to be it. Unfortunately, I found the script kept getting in the way of everything. Not the dialogue, mind you, or the characters, but the story and the character arcs and the theming. American Mary is clearly a passion project for the Soskas. They put a lot of themselves into this movie, and as I have read, wrote the lead specifically for Katherine Isabelle. I admire that they followed their passion and fulfilled their dream. But having the means to do something doesn't mean you have the skill to do it. American Mary needed someone with a red pen and no attachments to this project to come along and point out the issues with this script. For instance, there's the old saying in film, "show, don't tell". Now, I don't think that's true 100% of the time; like everything, there's room for both if done properly, but a film does need to do one or the other. American Mary seems unwilling to do either. There are three negative events that happen to Mary over the course of the movie, and they are supposed to contribute to a descent into madness and depravity for her. We know this because, at one point late in the movie, she literally asks a friend "do you think I'm crazy?". The problem is that the movie has neither shown or told the viewer anything to think she is going crazy or in some kind of downward spiral. She doesn't become an alcoholic or abuse drugs, she doesn't recklessly party and sleep with strangers, she doesn't get sloppy at her job or take on impossible cases. She doesn't do anything. In fact, she gets colder and more emotionally dead inside. Now, yes, growing detached from the world around you is a form of mental illness, but the way the movie plays out, it seems to be signaling for something bigger. Even the movie poster has her smiling and covered in arterial spray, and nothing like that ever happens in the movie. Nothing like that is even talked about. Mary is just quiet and stares off into space, and we're supposed to get "losing her grip on sanity" out of that. Nope, sorry, not enough. Do something. Say something. GIVE ME SOMETHING. Just as frustrating is that it is evident American Mary is a movie loaded with themes and messaging about being proud to express yourself in your own way, celebrating the body mod culture, and feminist ideals that seek to elevate women on their own without resorting to battle of the sexes cliches. The problem is that none of these actually coalesce into recognizable themes or messages or any damned thing. Yeah, sure, the movie is happy to say "there's different kinds of beauty, and all that matters is you find yours", but then the ending undercuts that message. One of Mary's clients wants to complete her transformation into a living doll by having her nipples removed, and genitalia cut off and sewn shut. Is this positive, because it's what she wants and she's embracing her idea of beauty, or is it negative because she's emulating the unrealistic beauty expectations set forth by Barbie dolls? How are Mary's contributions to the community positive when she's performing illegal and dangerous surgeries as an unlicensed former med student who didn't even complete her residency? The movie's morality, and therefore its message, is so tangled up in contradictions, it leaves the movie flailing for a direction it never finds, drifting from scene to scene and subplot to subplot, finally stumbling into an anticlimactic ending that not only undercuts everything the movie may have been trying to say, but feels like they wrote themselves into a narrative corner, and the only way out was to burn it all down. I gave American Mary three stars because I was never bored by it, and I'm a mark for Katherine Isabelle. I love the atmosphere of the movie, how it's dirty and dark without feeling grimy or gross. I love that a fair portion of the movie takes place in a strip club, but seeing the dancers get naked is so unimportant, it's relegated to in the background of shots and out of focus. I love that the movie has a feminist eye and mindset, but the strip club owner has good intentions towards Mary, and the bouncer turns out to be a good person in his own way. And I like how there is tangible, personal passion in this movie from its creators. I just wish that it had gone through someone else's hands to refine the movie into something that accomplishes what it's only hinting at wanting to do in its current form.