Leslie, My Name Is Evil

Leslie (Kristen Hager) is one of Manson family on trial and Perry (Gregory Smith) is interviewed to be one of the jury. He has to postpone his wedding as the jury gets sequestered. In flashbacks, the two characters journey through two different sides of America after the JFK assassination.

This is trying to be a surreal telling of the trial. It has some good potential but the director has no skills to pull off the surrealism. There is no style to it other than a faltering attempt at being off-kilter. It's clunky and poorly executed. This is like Oliver Stone without the filmmaking skills.

This 2009 Canadian Movie attracted much professional criticism over its deceptive titles: (1) Leslie: My Name Is Evil; (2) Manson: My Name Is Evil; (3) Manson Girl. A title was finalised after its release, but its not clear what that is, as the movie is listed on other websites as one or the other. According to IMDb the movie is categorised as a Comedy Crime.

Comedy Crime? What is that? A ridiculous crime? A joke about the crime? A laugh at the rich & famous who couldn't use their wealth to save themselves? A laugh at the victims?

The movie is a kind of 'Abstract Art', that showcases the movie's music composer, Paul Kehayas, who literally adds volume to feature the great soundtracks and powerful lyrics of the movie - a bit like heavy metal music is associated with devil worship. The music in this movie desensitises the audience, whilst the lyrics uemphatically draws the viewer's eyes back to the screen.

The main subject is Leslie Van Houten - a murdering member of Charles Manson's 'Family'. However, there is a plethora of storylines, surrounding the 'era' of the Charles Manson Murders.

Whilst I Am still struggling to find the 'Comedy' in the IMDb's categorisation of this movie - the mood of the movie gave me the impression that it was in defence of the Charles Manson Family - 'not the crimes' - but the family members. There is definitely a bias towards the Manson Girls, particularly Leslie.

I found the ending & end credits surprising.

There's no indication anywhere that this film is a dark comedy, probably because no one would rent it. I don't personally feel like the subject matter should be made into a comedy, but some people might like that sort of thing. If I had known that this was a comedy, I would not have rented it. The acting is pretty atrocious, too.

Only us, Canadians, çan take a well documented fact of american history, make a movie with it, and completly screw it up big time. This thing is so bad on every aspect, that it is not even funny. This is so embarrassing. Good thing i just watched it on t.v. i would have feel really dumb paying too rent it or something. I just lost an hour and a half of my life that's all.

Maybe it's my fault for not reading the synopsis before renting, but the title and cover image lead me to believe this was going be a movie primarily about Charles Manson maybe in the vein of "Summer of Sam". What I was hoping to see was maybe a historical account of the events that took place surrounding the "Manson Family", instead it was yet one more movie seemingly priding itself on a sarcastic stab at morals & ideals of a "Christian Nation" when confronted with the horrors of war. The main character is a young boy who was brought up in a Christian home and pretends, & maybe tricks himself into thinking he is a Christian because its what his father expects of him and also what he must be to be with his girlfriend. The film is much more artistic, musical and lighthearted than you would expect for this story. I do not enjoy movies that portray such evil people in a less than negative light and so overall I did not enjoy this movie.