![]() Lawrence, a young 20-something man, lives in New York where he works as a busboy at a disco club. Lawrence is not particularly right in the head, constantly fighting with sexual problems related to the events of his childhood. This leads him to set his sights on Nora, a deejay and hostess at the disco club. Lawrence's ever growing obsession with Nora leads to obscene phone calls, acts of voyeurism, and trips to the porn shop in an effort to quench / understand his sexual desires. Becoming frightened for her safety Nora seeks out Bill Madden, a grim, obsessive policeman who specializes in sex crimes. Joseph Cates' Who Killed Teddy Bear provides a detailed look into the life of a man suffering from mental illness of the sexual variety. The film doesn't condemn Lawrence as a psychotic but rather presents him as a man suffering from mental illness stemming from his childhood. He is dangerous no doubt, but he himself isn't totally aware of his own actions. This is a film about violated innocence and maybe my favorite aspect of the film is the dichotomy which exists between Lawrence and Bill, the man obsessed with finding and catching him. Bill is a man obsessed with crimes of the sexual nature, spending every waking second studying evidence and in turn, neglecting his own daughter. He is a vengeful man whose personal vendetta stemming from his wife's death make him just as unstable as Lawrence at times, to the point that towards the end of the film one because to even question who the true monster is. In a way these two men represent each other, as Bill's neglect of his daughter mirrors Lawrence's neglect of his mentally unstable sister. Who Killed Teddy Bear is a far from perfect film, sometimes veering too far into melodrama but one cannot deny the unsettling forward thinking nature of this film. 7/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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