Sometimes we watch stuff that we want to talk just a little bit about, not a full review worth. These are those films. Also check out our From Our Netflix Queue series, highlighting worthwhile films and TV series that are available on Netflix Instant Watch.

Brighton Rock

(4/5)

2010 Britain. Director: Rowan Joffe. Starring: Sam Riley, Andrea Risenborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Andy Serkis, Philip Davis.

The latest adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1938 novel of the same name, director Rowan Joffe sets his version of Brighton Rock against the 1964 England youth riots and casts Sam Riley as Pinkie Brown, a vicious small time mobster looking to movie up in the Brighton criminal underworld. This suspenseful and gut-twisting film noir is masterfully made; the setting, cold and eerily beautiful, is combined with superb cinematography, shot composition, lighting and editing, all of which contribute to the films inescapable atmosphere of imminent doom. Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andy Serkis all give expectedly strong supporting performances, while Andrea Risenborough is excellent as Rose, a timid young waitress who ends up in an abusive relationship with Pinkie. That particular plot point does cause some consternation; perhaps it is because the film never quite establishes a consistent time-line, but it is somewhat difficult to believe Rose’s undying devotion to so hideous a man, no matter how much of a wet blanket she is. That said, Sam Riley is absolutely magnetic in the central role. Rarely will you see a film with a more despicable protagonist than Pinkie Brown, but Brighton Rock will hold you captivated in spite of your revulsion.
-TOM

Japanese Girls At The Harbor

1933 Japan. Director: Hiroshi Shimizu. Starring: Michiko Oikawa, Yukiko Inoue.

Sunako and Dora are two school age friends who promise that they will always be together. Until, of course, a boy enters the picture. Hiroshi Shimizu’s 1933 silent film Japanese Girls At The Harbor may begin with this shopworn initial premise, but uses it to build a lovely story of the relationship between trust and love. The change in moral values within Japanese society and the lure of Western culture is certainly present within the film given the time frame (after all the main male character’s name is the very Western “Henry”), but its focus is on how the girls approach their relationships and their expectations about what love is. Shimizu’s gentle touch to the pace of the story along with some outstanding (and very innovative for the time) camerawork and editing make this a wonderful treasure. Though the DVD (part of the “Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu” 4 disc set from Eclipse) comes with an optional musical score, I found the film worked best in complete silence. That’s not a criticism of the music itself, but just a statement that the film doesn’t need the additional backing of music to shape its tone or emotions. It’s all expressed via the visuals. Shimizu’s camera stays with the characters via several long strolling tracking shots to allow us time with them, links them between scenes and frames them in different relationships to each other. In the aesthetics of the film, there’s a strong resemblance in look and feel to the “poetic realism” approach to filmmaking from France (which began a bit more in earnest a year or so after this film). Whether it was the lovely use of shadows during key moments (presaging film noir), dreamlike transitions or simply the softer, quieter acting style, I found numerous linkages between the two styles even though there are also some quite definite departures in other aspects. The entire film feels so modern in many ways via its acting, the camerawork and the crispness of so many of the scenes thàt it’s hard to believe at times this is from 1933. Regardless of when it was made and the context of its innovations, it’s a simple, beautifully told and emotionally resonating story. “Love must be generous or it’s nothing at all”.
-BOB

Attack the Block

(3.5/5)

2011 UK. Director: Joe Cornish. Starring: Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker, Luke Treadaway.

Apologies for only posting a capsule review of this, but I’m a bit busy for full reviews at the moment and someone beat me to it at the other site I write for.

Attack the Block is a British comedy-horror about an alien invasion on a South London block of flats that’s been attracting a lot of buzz on the festival circuit, with the phrase “cult classic” being bandied around a lot. After catching it on it’s UK release last week I can say that the hype might be a little over the top, but it doesn’t stop the film from being a hell of a lot of fun. It’s never hilariously funny and never all that scary, but it’s consistently enjoyable and tight as a drum. The running time is kept brief and first time director (away from TV) Cornish keeps things rocketing along at a fine pace, paring down the plot and characterization to a healthy minimum. The writing has it’s clunky moments, but ignore the critical praise and take the film as a simple genre piece and you won’t be complaining. Largely your enjoyment of the film will rest on the language of it’s South London teenage protagonists though. Their ‘yoof’ banter will either endear or infuriate. It’s used to an extreme degree which made some of the more serious moments falter, but generally it didn’t bother me and I felt it added a fresh edge to proceedings. I know others who hated it largely for this reason though.

My advice would be to lower expectations and think Critters rather than American Werewolf or Evil Dead and you’ll have a hell of a good time.
-DAVID

Under Western Stars

(3/5)

1938 USA. Director: Joseph Kane. Starring: Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Carol Hughes, Guy Usher, Tom Chatterson, Stephen Chase.

Despite growing up with my mom talking about Roy Rogers and Gene Autry films, I think this was my first singing cowboy film – perhaps fitting that it’s also Roy Rogers’ first starring role. He’d go on to make over 80 more programmer westerns – the TCM Festival showed four as a sidebar celebrating what would’ve been his 100th birthday (and tying into their music-in-the-movies theme). I wanted to catch one just so I could say I’d seen a Roy Rogers movie, and it’s pretty much what I expected, though it’s actually got a stronger story than most oaters. A water shortage is plaguing the ranchers and farmers, thanks to the water company damming up the river. The town elects Roy to congress to speak out for them. Like Chinatown meets Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but earlier than either! Not to worry those great classics, though, this is still a pretty standard programmer, with some truly painful line readings at times and some really awkward transitions into songs. But Rogers is so charismatic despite his sometimes stiff delivery that it’s not hard to see why his films were so popular. All he’s got to do is smile and break into a bit of a song, and I was like “oh, okay, I’m fine watching this.”
-JANDY

Vagabond

(4/5)

1985 France. Director: Agnès Varda. Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Yolande Moreau, Macha Méril.

A young woman’s body is found in a ditch by a vineyard worker; after establishing this end, Varda flashes back to show us the woman’s last few weeks/months. It’s a simple trajectory, and we obviously already know how it’s going to turn out, but Varda and Sandrine Bonnaire invest it with such great humanity that it’s hard not to get invested in her story. Interestingly, Mona is not a particularly sympathetic character. As she drifts from place to place and falls in with various groups (spending a few weeks with a lover squatting in a vacationing man’s home, living in a trailer alongside some goat farmers, hanging out for a while with a botanist inspecting diseased trees, etc.), she tends to be rather inconsiderate of people, and uninterested in doing anything to contribute or support herself. At first she seems to just love the freedom of the road, a position that was really unusual for women to take at the time (which is what interested Varda in the subject) and not being tied down. But as the weeks pass and she gets further and further on the fringes of society, she’s unable to get help anymore and eventually the end comes. Varda, like other New Wave-era directors, has an ability to film unlovable subjects in such a way that we’re drawn to them, care about their plight, and yet can’t solidly judge either for or against them, generating a compassion without sentimentality. Though Mona is to some degree responsible for her situation (it’s not clear what started her on the road in the first place or if she has other options in the beginning), Varda also implicates the people who increasingly ignore and dismiss her when she clearly needs help. All through, as well, Varda’s great eye for echoed composition draws us along Mona’s path, placing long tracking shots of her walking in between each vignette of her interactions with others – all the tracking shots connect together with the transitions on a shot related either visually or thematically. Add in the unusual discordant score by Joanna Bruzdowicz, and the mood created in these tracking shots is hard to beat.
-JANDY