by OL » Mon Jun 20, 2016 3:39 am
I think I randomly flipped past one of the Ginger Snaps sequels on tv the other day, and I took notice of Katharine Isabelle. I remembered seeing her in something from before, but for the life of me I can't remember what. She was in a couple of my favorite episodes of Psych a while back, and I know she's done plenty of tv here and there, but I could have sworn I'd seen her in something else...
Anyway, taking notice of her made me look her up on Netflix, so I watched a couple of her movies last night and tonight: 88 and American Mary.
Neither movie is what I would call genuinely solid cinema. There are some great ideas and cool style choices in each, but to call them great movies might be stretching things; rather, they're precisely the kinds of things I think of when the term "guilty pleasures" comes to mind. The stuff I might enjoy (and yeah, I really did), but really wouldn't recommend to the average audience member.
88 plays out in a really interesting format, almost Memento-esque in a way, but doesn't quite seem to know what it wants to be. Some great stylistic elements here and there, and the timeline-jumping format gives it a nigh-artistic vibe at the end. But in general it feels like a few really good ideas mixed with some weak ones for padding, and all filmed on an extremely limited budget. I actually liked it a lot for some reason, but like I said, I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone.
American Mary, meanwhile, is an interesting, albeit flawed, take on the horror genre. It doesn't feel as much like a "genre" film as most other horror flicks do; it doesn't seem to adopt any particular formula, nor does it rely on "scares" of any kind. It's more the kind of horror flick that tries to stick with you and disturb you with grotesque imagery and mean ideas. And yet, at the same time, I wouldn't qualify it as torture porn or anything like that. It's more like a legitimate drama that just happens to feature it's main character going insane and engaging in gory activities. Interesting execution, but unfortunately the story doesn't go anywhere it really should. Despite a respectable runtime, the ending kind of creeps up and comes out of almost nowhere, leaving much of the story feeling like it's been left dangling.
Like I said, neither movie is "great" by any stretch of the imagination, but there is one thing I can't get over about them: how goddamn fantastic an actress Katharine Isabelle is in both. Seriously, this is one of those cases where I really feel like she ought to be a bigger actress, a bigger name, and ought to be getting more notable roles left and right. And yet, she most often seems to be stuck with small indie and B-movies.
The girl's got some serious screen presence though. And in both of the movies mentioned, her characters arc in ways that essentially feel like each movie has her playing multiple roles, and she's actually convincing and appealing no matter what the role entails. Whether she's acting scared and meek, stoic and cold, or tough and cool, nothing about her acting ever feels forced or unfitting; she always feels completely natural.
I feel like the Hollywood A-list for actresses is pretty fucking boring in general nowadays; I really can't name anyone who might be on it that has ever blown my socks off with their acting or presence.
Katharine Isabelle, though?
She's the type that can hold up bad movies with good acting. A genuine talent.
She ought to be on the A-list.
I'll try to see a bit more of her work, but I might actually call her one of my favorite actresses now, despite the wildly-varying quality of the stuff she tends to be in. I think I might watch just about anything with her in it now.