Suicide Squad may not have won over the critics, but the DC Comics adaptation is poised to win its second weekend at the box office regardless. Actress Kirsten Dunst, for one, does not seem terribly impressed with it, however. Back in 1999, she starred in a well-received indie drama called The Virgin Suicides. This haunting, dreamy film, Sofia Coppola’s feature-length debut, centered around the five sheltered, mysterious Lisbon sisters, whose outsider status makes them objects of obsession for neighborhood boys. Without giving too much away, the siblings live up to at least half of their film’s memorable title. The Virgin Suicides was a pivotal role for Dunst and established the young Coppola as a director worth watching as well.
Recently, in reaction to all the Suicide Squad hype, Dunst took to Instagram to post a vintage group shot of herself with the four other Lisbon girls, i.e., actresses Leslie Hayman, A.J. Cook, Chelse Swain, and Hanna R. Hall. The caption reads simply: “There’s only one REAL suicide squad.”
Shots fired. DC could cite precedence as well, however, since its Suicide Squad appeared in its modern form back in 1987, while the Jeffrey Eugenides novel that spawned the Coppola film did not arrive in bookstores until 1993. Neither Suicide ensemble makes for great role models, frankly.
Either way, the similarity of the two titles has not gone unnoticed in other corners of the internet. Chicago-born digital filmmaker and artist Nelson Carvajal has created a mock trailer called (what else?) The Virgin Suicide Squad. Here, the footage all comes from Coppola’s movie, but the music is from the inescapable Suicide Squad trailer. The dramatically slowed-down, echo-laden remake of “I Started A Joke” by ConfidentialMX and Becky Hanson seems even more eerily appropriate in this new setting.
THE VIRGIN SUICIDE SQUAD (Mashup trailer of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES and SUICIDE SQUAD) from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.
[via Indiewire]