Grace

This movie was really freaky and disgusting. I have seen a lot of horror movies in my time, but it's really hard for them to get under my skin like this.

Madeline is a woman who really wants a baby. Like, yesterday. We see her having "sex" with her husband and she looks pained and she's doing everything but looking at her watch. then the awkward sex scene is over and she's doing that thing where women sit with their legs in the air trying to direct the sperm where to go. Those things SWIM, hon, you don't have to tell them which way to go, but I've seen other woman do that, too, in movies and on TV, so we get the picture here...Madeline really really really wants a baby. She's obsessed with it, it's her life.

So of course, as these things go, bad things happen to Madeline and she's in a car accident but instead of being concerned that her husband is now dead (she didn't really care much about him anyway, judging by her reactions toward him throughout the movie)( she's insisting on carrying the now dead baby inside her to term and delivering it, even though it is, as I said, dead. So that's what she does, but through sheer force of will and with weeping and begging, Madeline is able to bring the dead baby back to life while holding it in her arms. So her dreams have come true, right?

Wrong. She soon discovers that while adorable, her little baby Grace has some strange proclivities. She smells bad, her hair falls out, she attracts flies, and she wants to drink blood, not milk or formula. Of course, since Madeline's life revolves around taking care of this baby, she goes to whatever lengths she has to go in order to keep the baby alive.

I haven't even mentioned the mother in law here yet. This woman is so grating and evil that you want to kill her the first time you see her. she badgers an 8 month pregnant Madeline that she's doing everything wrong, she turns into even more of a shrew once her son is dead, and I have no sympathy for her because she was this way from the beginning. Then once she finds out that her grandchild is alive, she hatches a plan to take the baby away from Madeline, and she plans to breast feed the kid, so she gets on with producing breast milk by forcing her husband to suck on her breasts, and are you disturbed yet? I sure as hell was. these poor men are pawns in the hands of these unstable women, and it's horrible to watch.

It's even more horrible to watch little Grace feed. Guess how she gets her supply of blood? She suckles Madeline's breast until she's sucking blood, not milk. OMG THAT IS DISGUSTING. EW. Seriously, I kept cringing and looking away from the screen, and I can watch the most grisly death in a "Saw" movie without batting an eye, but this? This hits too close to home. Pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding and obsessed family members and the whole lot of what this movie serves up are what get to me; what digs under my skin and stays there, so "Grace" is a truly disturbing movie for me whereas other movies don't manage to come close. I respect it for that, but it's also an exceedingly unpleasant experience.

BABIES

If you're like me and you're having a serious case of the baby rabies (it comes and goes, but there's no shot for it yet) then you'll love watching this trailer. This movie looks so adorable that I have to see it! I used to have these times when I'd want a baby, but then I could spend time with a friend's baby and that would cure me. Not anymore. Now spending time around them just makes me want one more. Baby Rabies is contagious like that. :-p

Disclaimer: If you click on any of the links or pictures below, it will give me points as a BzzAgent (I'm helping to promote this film) but I would post about it even if I weren't getting points, because it really does look like it's going to be a great movie (hey, I rant about movies anyway, why not get some points for doing it, right?)



I like learning about other cultures and how they raise their children (plus how they give birth without massive amounts of epidural...that looks painful! SERIOUSLY!) so I like how this movie tracks four very diffe3rent babies from four different parts of the world and we get to see their births and their early development. Working in a daycare center taught me that babies are weird little creatures (amazing, but weird!) and I have lots of stories. This movie looks like it would give me even more insight into how babies are born ans raised around the world (even the baby from the USA is from San Francisco and I'm sure his parents will raise him differently than my working class mother from the Midwest did).

Look at this baby!



Ponijao lives in Namibia with her family, including her parents and eight older brothers and sisters. Ponijao’s family is part of the Himba tribe, and lives in a small village with other families, following traditions including speaking their own (Himba) language. The men in the Himba tribe are generally off looking after the cattle and searching for grass, so Ponijao is most often with her mother and other female relatives; she plays, eats, and is bathed through the traditional method of mixing concrete red ochre with oil. Ponijao’s favorite things to do are dance and play with other children in the tribe.



Isn't she cute? And I totally used to do that thing they're doing in that first photo (peeking at the world upside down through my legs like that) back when I was little enough that it didn't make me pull a hamstring or something to stretch like that. Even babies from very different cultures have similar experiences.

Look at this photo!



Hi Mommy!

*iz ded of cute*

Here are some pictures of the other babies featured in the film:



Bayar from Bayanchandmani, Mongolia



Hattie from San Francisco, California



Mari from Tokyo, Japan



And here's another picture of Ponijao from Opuwo, Namibia, because she's just that cute!

Here's a theatrical poster for the movie and some more information about it:



The adventure of a lifetime begins…
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Thomas Balmès, from an original idea by producer Alain Chabat, Babies simultaneously follows four babies around the world – from birth to first steps. The children are, respectively, in order of on-screen introduction: Ponijao, who lives with her family near Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, who resides with his family in Mongolia, near Bayanchandmani; Mari, who lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie, who resides with her family in the United States, in San Francisco.

Re-defining the nonfiction art form, Babies joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.

A Focus Features presentation of a Chez Wam/StudioCanal co-production with the participation of Canal +. Babies. Executive Producers, TBC Productions, Chez Wam. Original Idea, Alain Chabat. Adapted by Thomas Balmès. Edited by Craig McKay, A.C.E., Reynald Bertrand. Produced by Alain Chabat, Amandine Billot, Christine Rouxel. Music by Bruno Coulais. Directed by Thomas Balmès. A Focus Features Release.

In theatres Mother's Day Weekend, May 7th.

Everyone should check out these links and then come with me to see the movie when it opens! It's a surefire way to inflame your already severe case of baby rabies!