Watch Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

That was an excellent one.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The first short "Cutting Moments"(1997)simply blew me away.It's an incredibly depressing and cold journey into into family alienation,murder and masochistic self-mutilation.A young wife Sarah played convincingly by Nica Ray desperately wants to be loved,but her husband Gary Bettsworth has no remaining feelings for the woman,so he turns his jaded sexuality onto his son,whom he abuses.She dresses up in red to become more appealing to her husband(unsuccessfully)and after that Sarah horribly mutilates herself.She scrubs her lips bloody before cutting them off,the final act of utter desperation that encourages her husband to indulge into obscene act of feeling.A truly masterful short filled with despair and horrific gore.The second film "Home"(1998)plays almost like a remake of "Cutting Moments" and has similarly disturbing tone without relaying on excessive gore.We see another dysfunctional family living in their own private hell and that makes the climax more bleak and depressing."Home" is not as good as "Cutting Moments",but it surely left me emotionally drained.The last film "Prologue"(2003)tells the story of a young teenage girl,who was brutally attacked and raped one year earlier.She emerges from the hospital in a wheelchair and arrives back home with her parents.Soon the emotional horror begins as a young woman decides to confront her attacker,a local artist called Benjamin Miller,who draws obscene sexual pictures of a young girls.Still "Prologue" seems to be the most optimistic film of the trilogy and I really recommend it.Douglas Buck is certainly one of the bravest directors around and I can easily say that I liked "Family Portraits".9 out of 10.

If David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino had a child and that child was locked in a dark, airless, suffocating basement and abused regularly, both physically and sexually, and then released at the age of 20 and given a film crew and some actors, "Cutting Moments", the first of this trilogy, is the movie that child would produce. It should also be noted that the child should be provided with absolutely no film training at all and have the mistaken belief that silence and drama are synonymous. Serouisly, In a 20 minute short film, there are no more than 10 lines of dialog spoken. There are, however, numerous shots of people CUTTING OFF PARTS OF THEIR BODIES! OR cutting off parts of other people's bodies. In the space of 20 minutes, I saw a woman scrub her mouth with a Brillo pad until she bled, cut her lips off with a pair of scissors and then have her husband cut off her breasts with a pair of pruning sheers and then he proceeds to CUT OFF HIS OWN PENIS! Wow, what amazing insight into the American family! I mean, really, who hasn't done that at least once? I cannot overstress how this film is simultaneously horrifying and terribly made. It was bad in absolutely every way that a film can be bad. It didn't even have the redeeming camp quality of a gratuitous horror flick because it's perfectly obvious that Mr. Buck thinks he's making a hard-edged art piece. I am damn near 35 years old and have not shielded my eyes from a movie in over 25 years but I turned away from this short no less than half a dozen times. I am fairly certain I am in need of counseling and will never be able to handle gardening equipment again. The other two are not nearly as disturbing but they don't exactly warm the heart. Of the three, only the last, "Prologue" is in any way directed in a competent manner. It's the most redemptive of the three, about a girl who is crippled and has her hands cut off after being kidnapped and raped. And that's the REDEMPTIVE one. Now, the thing that has me the most baffled is that Mr. Buck obviously thinks he's found some amazing truth by revealing things that HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND! There has never, EVER been one single family as screwed up as the three depicted here. Seriously, these stories have all the subtlety of a brick to the face. And yet they still try to market this as an art film about the 'American Family'. I defy you to search the headlines and show me ONE story about a husband and wife who mutilated themselves in their bedroom to the obvious point of death while their son played Power Rangers in the front yard. And yet one of the promotional quotes on the back reads, "The atmosphere, the performances, the brutal torn bodies...are thought-provoking metaphors for life in suburban America." It should be noted that this was written in German Nationwide Quarterly which is known for it's amazing understanding of American suburban life. Another blurb simply reads, "...a truly disturbing cinematic experience..." THAT I can agree with.

I rate a movie according to what it is trying to be, not what genre or theme I personally enjoy. This trilogy is not for mainstream audiences. It is extreme drama that borders on horror, but without feeling exploitative. Extreme, but true to itself. This film takes you on an "anything but subtle!" no holds barred emotional journey through some tragic families. I was amazed that looking through the credits here on IMDb the actor/actresses had so little previous credits. An incredible level of polish, in an indie film. The last piece "prologue" nicely rounds out the other two with a feeling not of redemption, but of hope for positive human traits, love and caring, to exist even after violent life changing tragedy. I am extremely impressed.

An excellent trio of short movies, which can be viewed individually or together as one complete piece -- on the DVD, the choice is yours. The first, "Cutting Moments", is the most graphically brutal of the three. It explores a relationship where a woman no longer feels that her husband has any interest in her. To feel some sort of a connection with him again, she horribly mutilates herself. This is a hard one to watch. It may repulse some viewers, but it's shocking for a valid reason, but just for the sake of it.The second short, "Home", is similar to the first, only with less visual horrors on display. It's about a man who wants desperately to be normal, but whose upbringing leaves him with little hope of achieving the quiet middle ground he so craves.The third, "Prologue", is the longest, subtlest and most assured of the three pieces. It follows the recovery of a young woman who has lost her hands in a recent accident, and slowly, artfully fills in the gaps, explaining what has actually happened.These films deserve a much wider audience than they've currently enjoyed. Buck is one of the most interesting directors to emerge in recent years, and hopefully he'll get the chance to work on a larger canvas soon. In the meantime, do whatever it takes to track these works down -- I'd class them as essential modern viewing.