The Institute (2017)

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1. 

   Mrtrick

   When you make an exploitation movie that can't bring itself to admit that it's an exploitation movie' you wind up with "The Institute". Which is to say, a film that can't seem to fully accept it's own potential. Every frame screams the desire to make "ART". Yet there' a genre heart found here, rooted in the same realm more eagerly and unapologetically tread in the seventies, by the likes of Jess Franco. But this is a James Franco joint, buried under pretentious Arthouse psychobabble, delivered via stagy, grandiloquent and clumsy attempts at period dialogue.
   
   There are a few moments here where excess is teased. A dip in the shallow end of the BDSM pool. Orgiastic cult shenanigans. A fare amount of skin (including our leading lady, Allie Gallerani, doing commendably fearless work). And some decent moments of Grand Guignol. But by and large, I was left feeling that the filmmaker's lacked the courage to push matters. Which is the only thing that would have saved this "Hedonism Lite" from it's highbrow mediocrity.
   
   I'm sure there's a good story to be told about the Rosewood Institute. But one more about institutional malaise and chillingly mundane evils than grotesque cultish bedevilment. Writers Matt and Adam Rager, with co-directors Franco and Pamela Romanowsky merely use the framework of "truth" to make some statement on the moral turpitude of the wealthy and the repression of Women. Ostensibly at any rate. "The Institute" seems more fixated on it's prurient pursuits. Scene after scene of psychological manipulation, bondage enthusiasm and torture fetishism make up most of the runtime. Well..watered down versions of those things. Like a tale told by kinksters who lacked a definition for the word.
   
   Instead we get a lot of good actors, acting badly as they attempt to wrestle with the stuffy dialogue. Tim Blake Nelson and Eric Roberts looking weirdly stiff. A bland Joe Pease as our heroine's concerned brother. Scott Haze as an honest to god Hunchback. James Franco's mustache. Josh Duhmell as "Exposition Detective". (Seriously, why is he even in this movie?) Lori Singer shows up, which is neat. There's also Gabrielle Haugh as Allison..Who I mention, not because she has much to do, but more because she's absolutely stunning, which provides a nice distraction in a bad movie.
   
   And "The Institute" is pretty bad. Gallerani gives all of herself in the lead, but she's sabotaged by rushed storytelling, logic leaps and the dourest of visuals. What's really going on turns out to be completely absurd. The movie would have been served better by fully embracing the madness. 4 years 6 months ago

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