MONOS [LFF 2019]

Monos

DIRECTOR: ALEJANDRO LANDES | SCREENPLAY: ALEJANDRO LANDES, ALEXIS DOS SANTOS | STARRING: JULIANNE NICHOLSON, MOISÉS ARIAS, SOFIA BUENAVENTURA, LAURA CASTRILLÓN, DEIBY RUEDA | RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 25TH

Somewhere in Latin America, on a mountaintop high above the clouds, a feral group of teenage guerrillas train under the stern eye of their commanding officer (played by real-life ex-rebel fighter Wilson Salazar).

They are the Monos, named after a giant mythical monkey, a branch of the nebulous ‘Organisation’. Their location, the year, their cause, their motivations, what led them to that mountaintop, we do not know. Monos rejects any specific context or exposition, and denies the viewer any point of reference; dropped in an unknowable land with complete strangers, you have no choice but to let the film sweep you along.

These kids, with noms de guerre like Bigfoot, Wolf, Boom Boom, Lady, and Rambo, are soon left to their own devices with only three tasks: to await by the radio for their next orders, to care for a conscripted dairy cow named Shakira (what else) and to watch the American hostage ‘Doctora’, played by a fully committed Julianne Nicholson.

They dance like demons around wild bonfires, participate in strange and violent rituals, are encouraged to engage in sexual relations among themselves, and oscillate between tormenting and embracing their prisoner. With hormones, guns and drugs in play however, it doesn’t take long for things to go sideways. When their precious cow is accidentally shot and killed during Wolf and Lady’s ‘wedding’ celebrations, a chain of increasingly horrific and disastrous events is set off.

From Lord of the Flies, the story now fully devolves fully into last-act-of-Apocalypse Now territory. From a disorientating, dreamlike drama, into the worst fever dream. Visually and psychologically disturbing, Monos continues to deny the audience any grounding, shifting point of view from character to character. Here lies one issue with Monos, however. Without any exposition and without spending much time with any one character, it’s difficult to emotionally connect to performances that are physical above all else.

Many of the pivotal events – a suicide, an attempted escape, a murder, a slaughter – fail to elicit a reaction beyond visceral horror. While that’s not necessarily a notch against the film, you may not feel as invested in these teens as you wish you did. Aside from that, it’s undeniable that Monos is a viewing experience verging on the epic, and that is in no small part thanks to the work of cinematographer Jasper Wolf and of composer Mica Levi.

Complimenting the raw beauty of the mountainous landscape, dense jungle, crushing thunderstorms, raging rivers and ever-shifting lighting, the electronic score creates an unnerving, claustrophobic sense of impending danger despite the endless vastness of the setting. It’s one that demands the big-screen treatment whenever possible.

Monos is stunning and terrifying, a dream collapsing into a nightmare. It is so unstable and so alive that by the end, the audience is shaken and exhausted, but secure in the fact they have experienced something truly unique and cinematic.

A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND

good woman

A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ABNER PASTOLL / SCREENPLAY: RONAN BLANEY / STARRING: SARAH BOLGER, EDWARD HOGG, ANDREW SIMPSON / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 25TH

Having made a solid first impression with his debut feature Road Games, director Abner Pastoll makes an even bigger impact with A Good Woman is Hard to Find, a haunting, unnerving drama that sees a recently widowed mother of two trying to survive a world of crime and depression after an unfortunate event with a drug dealer brings all hell down on her.

This is a bold, unflinching experience from beginning to end, providing us with a different experience from what we got in Pastoll’s previous film. The pacing feels slower yet builds the tension, and shifting from rural France to urban Ireland makes the world feel more tangible and real. Pastoll and writer Ronan Blaney portray a world that looks and feels brutal to survive in, thanks to uncaring police officers, slimy paedophilic shop workers, and violent drug dealers.

This is dark and gritty in every possible sense and takes full advantage of its naturalistic surroundings to tell a grounded and mature story about the stark, harsh realities of life within a mundane urban setting. Focusing on an emotionally tortured woman who goes through an emotional transformation as the film progresses. At the beginning, her mother tells her that ‘in order to get anywhere in this world you have to be a bit of a bitch’, and throughout the film, we see someone going from this timid and fragile person to being a strong, confident, and who’s finally in control of her own life by the end. It’s a tough journey to endure since we see her being forced into taking morally-questionable actions for survival, not just for her, but for her own children as well.

What makes this turbulent metamorphosis believable and convincing is the central performance by the ever phenomenal Sarah Bolger who dominates every frame she’s in. Bolger’s performance is brave, raw and nuanced, masterfully conveying her emotions through the most subtle of ways, either through her quiet body language or her ever-expressive eyes. This entire film rests entirely on her performance, but Bolger emerges triumphant, and hopefully, we’ll see great things from this rising star soon. Visually, this film is beautifully executed with the colour palette going from muted and sombre to becoming more vibrant and intense by the end, reflecting the transformation of our central protagonist, all helped enormously by Richard C. Bell’s expert cinematography and Matthew Pusti’s eerie score.

A Good Woman is Hard to Find is a damn solid piece of drama that is brutal yet effective. Everything about it is handled expertly well, while Sarah Bolger’s central performance is so incredible it’s reason enough to see this movie altogether. It may not be completely original, but it’s a stylistic, thematically-driven film that is highly recommended for any genre fan.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

CHAINED FOR LIFE

chained life

CHAINED FOR LIFE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: AARON SCHIMBERG / STARRING: JESS WEIXLER, ADAM PEARSON, STEPHEN PLUNKETT / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 25TH

Opening with a lengthy quote from Pauline Kael about our fascination with the beauty of actors, Chained for Life takes a twisting, twisted, multi-layered meta approach to deconstructing cinema’s relationship with perceptions of beauty and the treatment of those not defined as such to achieve something remarkable in this day and age – originality. And if that sentence is leaving you a bit confused, fear not, because Chained for Life is not an easy film to describe, define, or explain.

Plot-wise, a pretentious film director is making a horror movie he seems to think has something important to say about disfigurement. Jess Weixler plays a beautiful actor playing the lead role in the said film, Mabel – a blind woman promised the gift of sight via a doctor who is experimenting on deformed or disfigured people. Into the world of this film within the film, a bus-load of people with real disfigurements or deformities arrives to play those being experimented on. OK so far? Well, it gets more complex as relationships between people shift, various realities are revealed, the ‘extras’ borrow the film equipment and make their own film, fantasy moments are played out and the layers of what’s actually going on become increasingly blurred.

And yet, somehow, writer director Aaron Schimberg holds it all together and makes it work, allowing each layer to have something to say or reflect upon a previous one. Indeed, there are so many layers in Chained for Life it’s hard to know where to start unpicking them. Borrowing its title from a 1950s exploitation film about conjoined twins, it riffs on Freaks, on all manner of schlocky horror, on Cronenberg, on Truffaut even, but it never falls into the trap of sentimentalising the experience of the differently-abled performers we’re watching.

The film is filled with references to appearance – the able-bodied actors are obsessed with some miracle anti-aging cream and there are references on the news to a killer on the loose with a nasty scar, but things are never too simplistic. Is it commenting on the way ‘beautiful people’ see and treat disabled people? Yes. Is it commenting on how cinema has treated people not seen as traditionally beautiful, as both characters and performers? Yes. Is it funny and creepy at the same time? Yes.

As the male and female leads, Adam Pearson, so good in Under the Skin, and Weixler are fearless, particularly in an intimate love scene between them, their previous conversation about it saying much about what we as viewers are feeling.

It’s one to watch with people as diverse as those represented on screen. The post-film conversations might reveal a lot about how lived experience brings different perspectives to bare on some of the things most of us take for granted and, if for nothing else, that alone makes Chained for Life well worth seeing.

THE LIGHTHOUSE [LFF 2019]

Lighthouse

DIRECTOR: ROBERT EGGERS | SCREENPLAY: ROBERT EGGERS, MAX EGGERS | STARRING: WILLEM DAFOE, ROBERT PATTINSON | UK RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 31ST

A close-up of a mermaid’s vagina, Robert Pattinson furiously masturbating to a statuette, Willem Dafoe dancing drunk and naked, a scene-stealing performance from a seagull… The Lighthouse is guaranteed to be unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Directed by The Witch’s Robert Eggers from a script he co-wrote with his brother Max, this stunning sophomore feature takes place in the 1890s, on a rocky and barren island in New England over which the titular lighthouse keeps a watchful eye. It’s here that, isolated from the rest of the world, two men will struggle to keep their sanity and their secrets.

Dafoe and Pattinson give deeply primal performances as Thomas Wake, a flatulent old salt jealously keeping the light from his new apprentice, Ephraim Winslow, a young man seeking an escape from his past. Despite their instantly recognisable faces, both stars seamlessly disappear into their roles (and their facial hair) as they devolve into madness – and gleefully drag the audience down with them. To say any more of the events that unfold would be cruel. In the case of this film in particular, the less you know, the better.

The Lighthouse is a masterclass in claustrophobic filmmaking and sensory overload. Shot in inky black and white on 35mm film, and with an almost perfectly square aspect ratio reminiscent of the silent era, the cinematography and editing work to trap the viewer in. Every detail is oppressive, from the ominous foghorn that resonates throughout, to the seamen’s almost impenetrable accents and dense speech. Dafoe’s wild eyes alone would be enough to swallow you whole.

Eggers has flawlessly constructed a visual experience where the line between reality and hallucination has all but dissolved. The brothers create an incredibly rich tapestry, drawing from German Expressionism, the Gothic genre, Greek mythology, mariner legends, and the writings of Herman Melville and Sarah Orne Jewett, and weaving in suggestions of the supernatural, paranoia, and psychological horror.

The resulting work feels both ancient and timeless, historical and mythical. It will also introduce you to some of the best insults ever immortalised on film – “You smell like curdled foreskin!” might be a good one to whip out next time you catch yourself losing an argument.

Beyond being an assault on the senses, The Lighthouse also provides a reflective examination of masculinity, homoeroticism, sexual desire, death, isolation and violence, and human nature. It’s primal and sophisticated, horrifying and hilarious, surreal and grounded. It defies definition or explanation.

Just go see it. Go see it at the cinema if you can. Go to a late showing, sneak in a flask of rum (or maybe, if you want to make Dafoe proud, a bottle), sit back and allow yourself to be entirely submerged in this batshit crazy work of art. And be ready for the fact that once it’s over, seagull cries will really stress you out.

TOMMY

TOMMY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: KEN RUSSELL / STARRING: ROGER DLATREY, ANN-MARGRET, OLIVER REED / RELEASE DATE: 22ND NOVEMBER

It’s been 45 years since director Ken Russell splashed his vivacious and polarising film adaptation of The Who’s disorderly rock opera onto cinema screens, and it’s just as bonkers as ever. Like most of Russell’s work, Tommy astounds with vibrant visuals, but is bombastic to the point where it often discombobulates. Whether viewed as a masterpiece or maniacal mess, Russell’s furious musical assault on the senses features characters and scenes that are as deliriously colourful as the director’s warped imagination, making most of Tommy massively unforgettable.

Starting in second world war-torn Britain, the setup introduces us to Captain Walker and Nora (Robert Powell and Ann-Margaret); mother and father of young Tommy. The plot then follows Tom through a traumatic childhood to the catalytic moment that turned him into a deaf, dumb and blind kid with supernatural pinball-playing abilities, from which point he is played by curly haired Who frontman Roger Daltrey.

Tommy boots viewers through hallucinogenic drug whirls, rock n’ roll churches, dank holiday camps and the home of predatory relatives, with the juddering drift of a defective brainwash video. Russell utilises the story’s dark themes to craft distorted imagery, while the surrealist visuals, costumes and sets are gaudily designed to feel like clips from a drugged clown’s nightmare. Supporting characters and cameos colour the backdrop and (attempt to) sing The Who tunes. The better of these are Tina Turner’s drug pushing “Acid Queen,” complete with syringe-ridden iron maiden, and Elton John’s big-booted “Pinball Wizard.”

While some songs strike, most are ugly, middling and augment a latter half sluggishness, punctuated with angry, dynamic moments. Oliver Reed, as Tommy’s stepfather Frank, whines drunk and tone deaf while Keith Moon’s terrifying Uncle Ernie burps “fiddling about” lyrics interspersed by torture scenes, as Tommy is toyed with by evil cousin Kevin (Paul Nicholas). An Oscar-nominated Ann-Margret stuns as Tommy’s troubled mother, with her cracked champagne detonation into TV / baked beans / soap suds explosion being one of the film’s highlights.

Despite classic, controversial scenes being cemented in pop culture, Tommy, on the whole, is a brash whack of chaotic clutter – a vivacious mess that teeters on incoherence before slumping into a claggy, monotonous finale, during which Tommy becomes a “messiah” and (in denim) ascends a mountain like some kind of primal Michael Bolton. The relentless visuals and gaudy design go some way to compensating for the film’s nonsensical ramblings, yet Tommy remains an exhilarating brain rake that will leave some dazzled, others revolted and a select few, both, which is arguably better than feeling nothing at all.

EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE

el camino

EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VINCE GILLIGAN / STARRING: AARON PAUL, JONATHAN BANKS, MATT JONES, CHARLES BAKER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

After six years of wondering what happened to Jesse Pinkman (Paul), questions have been answered thanks to the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.

Revisiting a TV show or a film franchise after a number of years passing by can be a huge risk towards the reputation. But when there’s a huge fan demand of wanting to see just a little bit more of the Breaking Bad cast – it was always going to tempt writer Vince Gilligan to discover new paths of what was a thrilling show. A lot was on the line when Netflix announced the fan’s dream of a Breaking Bad film less than a couple of months before the release.

The movie starts moments after the events of the final episode as a scarred and a soul destroyed Jesse is driving away from the compound where he spent many months cooking meth as a slave for a neo Nazis gang. Jesse drives away in a Chevrolet El Camino completely unspotted by the police who are heading straight to the scene of the crime. A crime scene where ‘the great Heisenberg’ also known as Walter White was found dead as Jesse hears the confirmation from a radio news report in the El Camino. This signaled the sequel fully focusing on Jesse’s next move.

The film’s is two hours and two minutes but it feels longer. Some parts feel slowly paced with that urge of wanting the film to get to the point. There are many flashbacks with some of the past and present characters including Jesse’s old drug crew of Badger and Skinny Pete, but the majority of the flashbacks belonged to a chubbier Todd Alquist, portrayed by Jesse Plemons – the one character you wouldn’t have thought would have so much airtime.

Somehow Todd had put on weight during Jesse’s imprisonment, losing all that weight before he was strangled to death at the end of the series. Incredible body shaping Mr Plemons! Some of these flashbacks fill you in on even the smallest of details that you would have forgotten from the TV series.

The one feeling you do get back is the love for Aaron Paul’s character. Despite the crimes and people Jesse has affected throughout the five seasons, all you want is what’s best for Walter White’s lab assistant. You just hope that Jesse will be given a second chance at life. A synopsis Gilligan did well to take advantage of from the TV series.

This is not one of Gilligan’s finest projects, but it brings closure to all the die-hard Breaking Bad fans. It could be that the road has come to an end, but there are one or two possible storylines that could be looked into if there was any urge to keep the franchise alive.

DARLIN’

darlin

DARLIN’ / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: POLLYANNA MCINTOSH / STARRING: LAURYN CANNY, COOPER ANDREWS BRYAN BATT, NORA-JANE NOONE, POLLYANNA MCINTOSH / RELEASE DATE: TBC

A direct sequel to 2011’s The Woman, which was from the very twisted world created by the late Jack Ketchum via his novel The Offspring. You don’t need to have seen the previous movies to be able to watch Darlin’, although it does help. After the events of The Woman, the eponymous character drops the feral Darlin’ at the local hospital, where she is befriended by male nurse, Tony. After getting her cleaned up and ensuring that she isn’t injured, Darlin’ is taken into the care of a girl’s care home, run by a Bishop, on the proviso that he can use her transformation from a godless feral beast into a child of God in order to get more funding for the home.

At the home, Darlin’ makes good progress, even making friends with the other girls and learning to talk, all under the watchful eye of Sister Jennifer, a previous inhabitant of the home. At the same time, the Woman is stalking the hospital and trying to track down where Darlin’ has gone, falling in with a small group of homeless women in between a few murders here and there. She is trying to get herself a baby, as we learn the reason she dropped Darlin’ at the hospital in the first place is that she knew Darlin’ was pregnant. Finally, she learns where she is and takes the other women on a march to get her.

As with the previous movies, the subject matter is grim and nasty, but it is noticeable that McIntosh has injected some true moments of necessary levity into the character of the Woman, which will bring a smile to your face before she goes on to murder the next hapless idiot that dares to cross her path. Canny makes an empathetic anti-heroine and does well in a role where she doesn’t speak for 50% of her screen time. Considering the materials involved here: pregnancy, abuse by the church etc., the film could have felt almost oppressive to watch, but the running time does canter through quite easily. The ending is not terribly conclusive, but then leaving the opportunity for another sequel is not a bad idea. It’s not flashy, but the whole point is that this is more of a character piece, albeit featuring a lot characters that you wouldn’t want to call your friends. This is McIntosh’s debut as a director and on this showing, she may have a bright future in that new role.

GREENLIGHT

greenlight

GREENLIGHT / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: GRAHAM DENMAN / SCREENPLAY: ERIC ENGLAND, PATRICK ROBERT YOUNG / STARRING: CHASE WILLIAMSON, CAROLINE WILLIAMS, CHRIS BROWNING, SHANE COFFEY / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Chosen to open the 2019 Shriekfest festival in Los Angeles, Greenlight is the debut feature from Graham Denman, an actor and TV director best known for the 2017 TV movie Blood Brothers. As a jobbing set-worker whose CV covers just about every job it’s possible to have in the movie business, Denman is well-qualified to present this thriller, set around the making of a movie by a very desperate director.

Chase Williamson plays Jack Archer, a wannabe filmmaker trying to catch his first break in Hollywood. Jack’s stuck; no-one will hire him to make a movie unless he’s made a movie, and he can’t afford to self-finance his way into the industry. A chance meeting with an actor leads to her low-budget film producer husband offering Jack a gig, directing his next movie. Jack’s delighted, but is the offer too good to be true?

Of course it is, but the story takes a few turns before we get to that particular twist, and it’s a real delight getting there. Williamson is good value as the director, but the film really shines when Caroline Williams and Chris Browning are on screen as the actress and producer double act. Williams, a veteran TV actor who also appeared in such treasures as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Sharknado 4, is far better than her resume suggests, and brings real depth to a conflicted role, while Browning – seen in genre fare like The 100 and the From Dusk Till Dawn TV show – delights as Moseby, who has his own reasons for wanting Archer’s movie made with a particular realistic ending…

Unusually for such a small-budget affair, everything about Greenlight shines, from the acting – including some very good ‘acting at acting’ – and especially the effects, which reflect well on Denman and the contacts he’s made in his years in the industry.

If there’s any justice in this world, Greenlight won’t be the last we hear from Graham Denman, and studios should be breaking down his door to offer him a bigger gig. Browning, too, who had a standout small part in Max Landis’ Bright, deserves a bigger stage for his talents. Regardless, Greenlight is a tight thriller with some thrilling twists and you should catch it before it blows up big.

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND

making waves

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: MIDGE COSTIN / SCREENPLAY: BOBETTE BUSTER / STARRING: ERIK AADAHL, IOAN ALLEN, RICHARD L. ANDERSON / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 1ST

 

In order to create a film that explores the technical side of things, while also tying it to the individual stories of the people who make the work happen, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound goes beyond the scope of the usual behind the scenes movie documentaries. ‘Cinematic sound’ is a big umbrella to fit some things under, and it’s to the credit of director Midge Costin that it feels as though there’s been very little left out, despite its compact running time.

Making Waves explores the sonic world of cinema in a way that makes the technological something immediate and personal. Costin’s first bit of brilliance is having the film tell the story of sound in cinema overall before she even starts putting terms to things, allowing any viewer to see and hear how movies went from live music to synched music to talking to moving and talking to stereo to surround sound and more.

It’s a natural progression, interspersed with stories from technical people and directors, wherein they explain why how a movie sounds is just as important as how it looks. Given the myriad components involved, there’s a visual aid present throughout Making Waves, called the circle of talent. It divides sound in cinema into the three subsets – voice, sound effects, and music – and then further divide those categories into their component parts, such as production recording, dialogue editing, and ADR for voice.

As with the history, one sees just how one development flows into the next, and the circle analogy is perfect for explaining how all of this is connected. The viewer and listener are given so many examples of just how effective certain things are when viewing in connection with the others. Sometimes, music and voice work in conjunction, whereas other times, the music and voice are gone completely to focus entirely on some Foley work from sound effects. The faders are literally going up and down in front of one’s eyes as they make their way through Making Waves, seeing how one thing can be compensated for or complemented by the aspect of something else.

Midge Costin’s film could easily have become a morass of technological terminology and talking heads, but the intimate stories of the sound men and women involved in the industry bring their individual connections to the forefront and make the picture very relatable. By film’s end, it’s been less a documentary experience, and more like having some new, talented friends telling war stories about what they do for a living.

THE PERISHED [FrightFest 2019]

the perished

THE PERISHED [FRIGHTFEST 2019] / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PADDY MURPHY / STARRING: COURTNEY MCKEON, FIACH KUNZ, PAUL FITZGERALD, LISA TYRRELL, OISIN ROBBINS, CONOR LAMBERT, NOELLE CLARKE / RELEASE DATE: TBC

When college student Sarah unexpectedly becomes pregnant, the discovery is only the start of her problems. Dumped by her uncaring boyfriend and shunned by her sanctimonious mother, she travels abroad for an abortion and returns to recuperate at the family home of a sympathetic friend. Unfortunately, the house has a history surrounding mothers and unwanted babies, and through her sorrow, the lost souls of those denied life find a way to the world of the living.

One of the great things about horror is its inherent flexibility that allows for the exploration of human issues through the medium of visual fear. Using this malleability, Paddy Murphy follows up his excellent debut feature of brutal crime tale The Three Dont’s with an examination of an issue often shied away from. When it comes to the stigma of abortion, you may imagine it as something consigned to the past, but The Perished is set in contemporary Ireland, where abortion was only decriminalised as recently as last year, and prior to this thousands of women had to travel abroad to get the help they needed.

However, rather than wade into the morality of the debate, the film instead asks us to express empathy for the women who find themselves in a situation with no easy way out, and where each option is not made lightly and comes with its own difficulties that must be dealt with in the aftermath. Although it’s clear on which side of the issue Murphy stands, the film also acknowledges that people have reasons to object to abortion that go beyond ignorance and bigotry.

There are two stories at work here. First is the social commentary drama of the reality of women forced to endure disgrace artificially fashioned by a society that seeks to shame them into acquiescence. Complementing this is horror both psychological and grotesquely physical, which without wishing to give too much away, is reminiscent of what you might find in something made by Clive Barker or David Cronenberg, portraying that same disregard and contempt made manifest.

Courtney McKeon, who had a supporting role in The Three Don’ts as a ruthless fixer for a drug kingpin, is given the chance to showcase a far greater range and does not disappoint. From the moment Sarah discovers her predicament in a jump cut from the fun of a clubbing hook-up in the back seat of a car to vomiting into a toilet and terrified of what the nearby pregnancy test might show her, she exists in a permanent cycle of misery and despair. As if making what is likely the hardest and most traumatic decision of her life wasn’t enough, she must also endure the judgement of people who know nothing about her, in addition to the supernatural torment of blood-tinted nightmares and the ethereal echoes of crying infants. It’s a good twenty minutes before anything otherworldly is even alluded to, but the incorporeal powers gathering around Sarah soon use her raging tempest of conflicting emotions to grow in strength.

The Perished is not an easy watch, and was never intended to be one. Its compelling fusion of emotional anguish and supernatural horror allows you to understand a fraction of the torment women have suffered because of abortion laws, and that everyone involved is a victim of circumstance only trying to make the best decision for their own future.