Goddess of Love

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Audience Member Average bunny boiler movie. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/12/18 Full Review Audience Member Decent, if obvious, thriller of a girls decent into madness once she is scorned. The themes of paranoia are handled quite well. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member i kind of really liked this one; the beginning isn't anything special and it was kind of slow -- so at this point i didn't really like it at all -- but after she goes psycho, she really goes psycho; and i really liked that part of it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Being a psychological thriller amid the line-up of films at Monster Fest, Goddess of Love sounded like a seductive triller. Goddess of Love is very much a style-driven film. Being a low-budget production, the story in Goddess of Love is a rather limited one which relies on the relevance of its themes and the way it builds atmosphere to really grasp the audience. Clearly, director Jon Knautz has a flair for this. Within the confines of a limited story and budget, Jon Knautz is able to delve into the psychological thrills of the narrative and harness the intentions of the screenplay. The style of Goddess of Love is very clearly influenced by Darron Aronofsky's iconic work on Requiem for a Dream (2000), both in terms of general story and editing style. When discussing story, Goddess of Love accrues mixed results. Like Requiem for a Dream, Goddess of Love stretches thin plot points on for an extended period of time as a means of reaching feature length. This leaves it with a rather slow plot, and since the film doesn't unfold into being a psychological thriller for quite a while but rather focuses on more simplistic drama and the development of a romantic relationship before it turns things around in the second act. The slow pace of things really drags the experience on during these sequences, and it leaves the style and cast of the film to carry things. It certainly benefits from these assets, but there isn't too much structure that the story provides. When it gets to its second act, it stays true to its central narrative but takes an unpredictable series of twists and turns. As a result, things get more thrilling and the stylized method of filmmaking works to its maximum effect. However, despite all the themes and thrills that Goddess of Love has to offer, they prove to be building towards little due to the unsatisfactory ending of the feature. The ultimate twist of the story ends up being a serious cop out: the protagonist is a schizophrenic. We're already aware she has obsessive psychological issues, but in Goddess of Love the twist ends up being turns the entire story into one that never happened. While this theme could have been used more sensibly to manipulate Venus' perspective on many events that happened, the fact that it retcons most of the entire story changes too much for the film's own good. Essentially, it's like one of those films where the main character wakes up and realizes the entire story had simply been a dream, and just because the dream is actually a large series of schizophrenic delusions this time, it doesn't justify things any better. The film's depiction of schizophrenia stretches beyond reality in Goddess of Love, and for viewers to be misled by a story which actually never happened is just not fair on viewers who have dedicated their time to seeing the entire narrative out. Looking back on the entire film I felt that not all that much had happened which wasn't conventional in the story, and though the main character's descent into madness was a topic of interest, the conventional manner of which the story took this theme upon itself did not match the standard of Jon Knautz's work on salvaging it or the dedication of Alexis Kendra's leading performance But like I said, Jon Knautz' directorial work truly brings things to life with brilliance. Manipulating lighting and cinematography, Jon Knautz is able to make the most of his limited locations by provoking atmosphere in all of them. Using shadow to build a dark mood yet lighting things ever so slightly so the viewer can always see the bare necessities, the visual experience of Goddess of Love is very much in tune with its mood. The cinematography manages touse a lot of close shots to capture the psychological claustrophobia of the main character and give the feeling to viewers. The use of a subtle musical score is able to help reinforce this as well. But the real triumph in the story's narrative comes from the work of Alexis Kendra. Much like the film's thematic similarities to Requiem for a Dream, Alexis Kendra looks quite a lot like one of the film's actresses, Jennifer Connolly. With a natural beauty about her, Alexis Kendra captures the seductive sexual passions of Venus to ensure she caters to the film's title, yet she goes far deeper than that. Hinting at the emotional instability and vulnerability of her character from the start of the film, Alexis Kendra is able to progressively break down the barriers of her character's mystique and unleash the full extent of her psychosis and rage. While starting out seemingly weak, Venus progressively becomes driven by her obsession into a dark fit of sadistic rage which implores Alexis Kendra to maximize all the tension she has and drive it into the lead role. Since the entire film focuses around her character it very much rests on her shoulders, and she proves capable of supporting everything by grasping the mood of the atmosphere at every turn. She can prove to evoke a raw and rigourous insanity in the character one minute yet turn it all around and be calm and steady the next, proving that the actress has a versatile extent of talents which she can reach for any time she sees fit. Alexis Kendra's leading performance constantly makes the themes of Goddess of Love accessible by providing a rich human touch with a very well-developed role. Elizabeth Sandy also delivers a solid effort. As her role changes meaning every time she is on screen she is challenged to branch out and convey a different emotional state in every scene, and she captures the versatility of this all with ease. Goddess of Love provides an effective front for the powerfully stylish direction of Jon Knautz and the brilliant acting skills of Alexis Kendra, but within the atmospheric descent into madness is a story which is ultimately a very slow build-up to a climax which damages too much narrative credibility with its plot twist. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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