AMERICAN MARY is the tale of a poor medical student Mary Mason who descends into a world of madness after she gets involved with the world of underground surgery and body modification.  It is a fascinating vision from Jen and Sylvia Soska who wrote and directed this movie (in addition to playing a cameo as two twins from Berlin who go to Mary for some surgery).  You have some good characters like the stripper who wants to look like Betty Boop and the fashion designer who wants to be a living Real Doll.  Then you have to laugh at the detective without a clue who doesn’t solve any of the crimes he is investigating and he feels like a throwaway character.  Katharine Isabelle gives a strong performance as Mary as you sells the transformation from nice broke college girl to a woman who is thrown into a couple of bad situations that will change her forever.   If you had an actress of lesser talent playing Mary, I could easily see the character of Mary coming off as clichéd.  Mary has many chances to redeem herself and find a way out, but you wonder if she will ever take them.   I don’t feel bad for the bad people who meet their fates, but a couple of people I do feel shouldn’t have met their fates at the end of the movie.   Even though some viewers may see Mary has descended into the world of madness, I see Mary’s descent as something fueled by the things done to her and her need to control her future.  I think in time that Mary could have redeemed herself or transformed herself into a myth beyond the legend she is known of in the world of underground body modification surgery.

Too bad there won’t be a sequel because I would love to see where the Soska sisters could take the character of Mary and further explore the world of body modification.  Mary helped many people change themselves into the people they want to be (despite what society may think of those changes).   This movie makes me want to track down DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (the first film the Soska sisters directed with absolutely no money) and I can’t wait to see what they create for their segment for THE ABCs OF DEATH 2 because I believe they have some fascinating films to create in the future.

SPECIAL FEATURES-

Audio commentary with Jen & Sylvia Soska, Katharine Isabelle, and Tristan Risk-  It is a very entertaining and informative commentary track as it is revealed the budget was financed by the mortgage the parents (of the Soska sisters) took out on their home and this movie was only filmed in 15 days to how clueless the police detective really is.

Behind The Scenes making-of featurette that focuses partly on the filming of the scenes where the directors play twins and the prep work for those few scenes.

Also included on the DVD is the trailer for the movie.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  AMERICAN MARY is an engrossing movie from the Soska sisters with a great performance from Katharine Isabelle.

This DVD review is (c)7-4-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

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