Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

  • 17 May

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    Sturm und Trek: Brief thoughts on the Con Game of NuTrek

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    [There are more than a few *Spoilers* in here, so beware of both the following text, as well as the comment section if you are concerned about such things]

    I have been falling off the summer movie blockbuster for some years now, there are fewer reviews of such in these pages, and the discussion revolves more around the box office and cultural acceptance of these things than the films. Prometheus excepted. So this is not a review as such of Star Trek: Into Darkness, but rather what the Rebooted Trek universe, hereafter, NuTrek, is about. The writers and creative team wrote themselves out of a continuity corner with the first entry by using (creatively) the old time-travel saw to offer themselves a tangent universe. Now all of a sudden, there is a bright open canvas to paint new Star Trek movies, with a different tone and different versions of the lead characters. So come back and play shadow puppets with Star Trek II? The line of prequel, sequel, sidequel, reboot has never been more blurry than it is here.

    I certainly had my nits to pick with a planetary organization such as Star Fleet show-building an aggressive preemptive strike military branch without any seeming public debate, but that is the state of the nation with NuTrek. Things just happen, and they happen very quickly. As best as I can determine the bulk of the films plot happens here within a 48-72 hour span. That’s two ships heading out to the neutral zone, a significant portion of the Starfleet brass executed, and a goodly portion of San Francisco destroyed. This is not to mention the understanding of arming and timing a host of bleeding edge experimental proton torpedoes and figuring out a curious side effect of a blood sample. Don’t get me wrong, Karl Urban’s portrayal of Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy is once again a high-light of the film, he sells his throw-back lines with gusto, and offers an avenue towards the film suspending disbelief on the actions of the executive officers on the Enterprise, and somehow goes a long way to shielding his own tough-ideas-to-swallow. Bravo. But really, everything was said in the 2009 version of Star Trek about J.J. Abram’s ability to keep the plot moving so fast that it doesn’t allow the audience to over think what is actually happening. It’s not so much the ‘not opening the Mystery Box,’ but rather juggling five different boxes and asking you to guess which one to not open. Part of me is saddened that NuTrek is not about an optimistic future and a co-operative human spirit, but rather a bit of a short-con game in one-upping the moive-plot surprises – to seek out new gasps and new sleight of hand. To boldly re-create and mirror-image things shot before. The audience seems quite satisfied with the slick reboot and glossy high-budget look, and that there is the greatest trick the director ever pulled.

    In spite of all of the running around and explosions, the actors continue to do the lions-share towards making NuTrek better than their pair of screenplays. Embodying the much prettier, leaner, aspects of the original cast, they are, at this point on the verge of actually making the beloved (and overly familiar ) characters their own. Bruce Greenwood once again brings a real touch of class to the proceedings as Kirk’s mentor and father figure. John Cho, Simon Pegg and Anton Yelchin all get their moment or two to contribute, but function here in a more reduced capacity from the previous film. This makes way for the addition of Alice Eve as wild-card science officer Dr. Carol Marcus, exist as a cipher and more than a bit fan-service (the character was mom to Kirk’s kid) more than as an actual realized character. Much like blonde Marcus and her connection to doing much of anything (in a previous life, she was chief scientist behind the Genesis project, also delivered by experimental proton torpedo, beyond being just Kirk’s main squeeze), so too does the entire Klingon race just kind of sit there because the plot needs it. The NuCrew personality and character development are actually quite stagnant in terms of character arc – James T. is back in the bar drinking and flirting when the fall out from his rule-breaking prime directive stint stings his career – with the exception of Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto who get enough screen time together to build on their chemistry from first film. Spock and Uhura’s romantic squabbles are certainly a new addition to the character dynamics of this crew, and it certainly works onscreen, but it further underscores that these films are no longer science fiction films, but are now fully Space Operas in the Star Wars tradition. Han and Leia have been down this road before.

    So, this brings us to the elephant in the room: Benedict Cumberbatch…

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 15 May

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    Blu-Ray/DVD Review: Cria Cuervos

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    Director: Carlos Saura
    Screenplay: Carlos Saura
    Starring: Ana Torrent, Geraldine Chaplin, Mónica Randall, Florinda Chico
    Producer: Elías Querejeta
    Country: Spain
    Running Time: 110 min
    Year: 1976
    BBFC Certificate: 12

    (5/5)


    One thing I love about writing about films and getting sent screeners to review, is discovering great films I’ve never heard of. I still have to request the titles and don’t have time to ask for all that get offered, so I tend to do a little research beforehand to pick and choose. This entails looking up a few reviews from trusted sources, so for films I don’t know much about I do develop a certain level of expectation based on the critical response to them. However this can be a help and a hindrance. Living up to hype is always difficult and some classic films may be admirable or groundbreaking but not necessarily have the same impact they once had within a film landscape that perhaps they helped shape. Once in a while I get a film like Cria Cuervos sent over though. I must admit I hadn’t heard of the film, but on looking up a couple of reviews and noticing it had been added to the Criterion Collection I figured it would be worth a watch. And it certainly was.

    Cria Cuervos (translated ‘Raise Ravens’), directed by Carlos Saura, is set in Madrid in a mansion seemingly cut off from the rest of the city, despite being set in the heart of it. As the film opens we see eight-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent) creep downstairs in the middle of the night to hear her army general father die during a sexual liaison with his friend’s wife. Later we learn that Ana believes she killed him using ‘poison’ (actually baking soda) that she had promised her (also dead) mother to throw away long ago. As an orphan, Ana has to grow up with her two sisters under the care of their aunt Paulina (Mónica Randall). Ana doesn’t get on with her aunt, who is more strict and cold than her mother was, and she develops a desire to ‘kill’ her too. The only solace she gets is in her visions of her mother she conjures up in her imagination and memory.

    It’s a peculiar film which is hard to pin down. A number of critics describe it as an allegorical piece hitting out against the Franco regime, of which Saura was an outspoken opponent. To me however, having little knowledge of Spanish politics and history, the film worked in other ways. In particular, as a look at life and death through the eyes of a child the film is incredibly powerful.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 13 May

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    DVD Review: Of Two Minds

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    Of Two Minds Still

    Director: Douglas Blush, Lisa J. Klein (What A Ball, Cult Culture: The Poseidon Adventure)
    Producers: Kristin Chambers, Lisa Klein
    MPAA Rating: NR
    Running time: 89 min.

    Illness is never easy to deal with but mental illness is particularly difficult. Here’s an illness that has no easy fix. It doesn’t manifest as a rash you can treat and there’s no little pill that will make a sufferer feel better but often it can manifest in very physical ways. Douglas Blush and Lisa J. Klein’s Of Two Minds sets off to explore the tricky rollercoaster world of bipolar disorder.

    Focusing on a handful of individuals, Klein and Bush delve into the manic highs and suicidal lows of the disorder one that, for many of the individuals interviewed, was not diagnosed until later in their adult lives. Cheri Keating explains how she was diagnosed at a free clinic in LA and her experience living her youth as a sufferer and not knowing what she was suffering from. Journalist Liz Spikol and architect and artist Michael Peterson share similar stories of rollercoaster emotional highs and lows that often brought them to the brink of death.

    Of Two Minds follows these individuals as they share their stories. They recount their lowest moments and also the highs, the manic energy that makes you feel invincible and alive and capable of doing anything and how those moments of high energy can also be the most dangerous. While in this state the mind loses reservations and people will do things that they generally wouldn’t, causing them to end up in compromising situations that they sometimes don’t remember or would rather not remember when they finally come down. It’s interesting and heartbreaking that the sufferers, all of whom hail from different walks of life, share such similar experiences.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 May

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    DVD Review: Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever

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    Director: Calum Waddell
    Starring: Mark Atkins, Emily Booth, John Carl Buechler, Corey Feldman, Tobe Hooper, Adam Green, Mick Garris
    Producers: Naomi Holwill, Calum Waddell
    Country: UK
    Running Time: 75 min
    Year: 2012
    BBFC Certificate: 18

    Documentary: (2.5/5)
    DVD Set: (4/5)



    There has been a minor surge of celebratory film-focussed documentaries over the last few years. I’m not sure of the correct ‘label’ for them, but I mean the type of documentary that plays as an enjoyable nostalgia-trip with a ‘fan-boy’ feel. We’ve had Not Quite Hollywood presenting the joys of Ozploitation movies, Machete Maidens Unleashed looking into the Filipino genre film industry and several celebrating the work of a single director/producer/artist, such as Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan and Corman’s World. I’m a bit of a sucker for these types of films, so I track them down whenever I can – who doesn’t like a trip down memory lane or a chance to find some lost gems within a genre you love?

    So I of course leapt at the chance of reviewing Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever. This is a documentary by Calum Waddell and editor/animator/producer Naomi Holwill (who have been steadily churning out featurettes for DVD/Blu-Rays for the last few years) which, as the title suggests, looks at the history and continuing love for the slasher film. We are taken through the birth of the sub-genre with films like Psycho, Peeping Tom and Bay of Blood, then into its refinement and boom in the late 70′s/early 80′s with the release of Halloween and Friday the 13th and finally looks at what’s on offer now and where the films are heading. On top of the history, the interviewees discuss the essence of what makes a slasher film and why they love them.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 10 May

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    Review: I Declare War

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    One weekend day a number of the nerdier kids from the local middle school gather their sticks and twine and balloons filled with red dye, and head into the local woods to play capture-the-flag. Oh, those tweens today with their Bieber hair-cuts and their war games. While we are never given any visual context of this one-day war, it is implied that these games have been going on for some time and someone is keeping statistics. Jason Lapeyre’s odyssey of two groups of kids battling in the forest (no this ain’t The Hunger Games, more like a leafy, agora-version The Stanford Prison Experiment) is a peculiar, but totally engrossing combination of make-believe and reality. At that age friendships seem like everything, everything takes on air of importance and intensity. The film often shows real guns and grenades (and explosions) even if the kids are just using whatever sticks and whatever hobby kit items they happen to have crafted into weapons. Make no mistake however, they take their game very serious; there are rules (handily communicated in the animated opening credits, so as to not belabor the exposition) and things are played with strategy and a chain of command. I Declare War delights in juxtaposing war-film cliches with a real ear for 12 year old banter. Its war sequences are a combination of thrilling battles and humorous knowing nods; certainly for those who grew up in the 1970s, but probably anyone who grew up with a creek behind their house.

    Nobody takes the war more seriously than P.K. Sullivan (Gage Munroe with his afore-mentioned Beiber do) fancies himself General George S. Patton; albeit he is young enough that loyalty is not valued as much as a collection of soldiers to throw under the bus for whatever plan he has to win-at-all-costs. Nevertheless, as the alpha-male of his team, he remains in charge. The other team, headed up by equally blonde, Quinn, has some leadership issues, and the only girl in the game which adds some pre-teen sexual tension to the equation. Mackenzie Munroe, who looks like a very young Emma Stone is really quite magnificent and has real screen presence (some of the other supporting kid actors are a bit more dodgy in their acting) sporting a brain and a crossbow and A-cups (and is not afraid to use either or all of them.) Let us be clear, while this film wears the clothing of war and adventure in the woods, it is equally interested in being a crucible for all of the kids to work out their issues and anxieties while waiting for the next battle. War is 10% violence and 90% waiting, so there are plenty of opportunities to talk about religion, philosophy (albeit at a youth level) or perhaps what species of dog would you allow to give you a blow-job if you were rewarded with riches and fame. Yes, these 12 year-olds drop F-bombs often, and when provoked can be total assholes to each other.

    A subject such as bullying is far better handled, as I see it, in a fictional narrative form than as a doc (as in, say 2012′s Bully) and I Declare War certainly covers several (if not all) angles of bullying, making the entertaining movie perhaps one of the definitive voices on the subject. It postulates that bad leadership is the worst kind of bullying, and that is something which is as applicable to the adult world as it is to the playground set.

    [After a successful festival tour, including ActionFest, FantasticFest and TIFF, I Declare War opens in Toronto today, with an opening in Vancouver on May 17th.]

  • 06 May

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    Blu-Ray Review: Bakumatsu Taiyô-den

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    Director: Yûzô Kawashima
    Screenplay: Yûzô Kawashima, Shôhei Imamura, Keiichi Tanaka
    Starring: Frankie Sakai, Sachiko Hidari, Yôko Minamida
    Producer: Takeshi Yamamoto
    Country: Japan
    Running Time: 110 min
    Year: 1957
    BBFC Certificate: 12

    (4/5)


    In 1951, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon played at the Venice Film Festival and introduced not only the well-loved director to the Western World, but also Japanese cinema in general, which previously had been little seen outside of its home and neighbouring countries. Funnily enough, Kurosawa wasn’t quite as respected in Japan, in fact Rashomon’s production company Daiei and the Japanese government didn’t feel the film was the right choice to enter in to the festival as it was “not [representative enough] of the Japanese movie industry”. Kurosawa was always thought to have too much of a Western style in his home country, local tastes tended towards directors such as Ozu and Mizoguchi. With the success of Rashomon overseas however, these directors (and others) did begin to receive recognition in the West and Japanese cinema brought forth many critical favourites for audiences around the world.

    One film which has still remained relatively unknown however, despite being released during the Japanese cinema boom of the 1950′s and despite being considered one of the greatest films of all time in the country itself, is Bakumatsu Taiyô-den (a.k.a. A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era or Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate). As far as I’m aware (after having a scan online), the film has never seen a release in the UK or US, other than through imports. Well fear not world-cinema aficionados, as Eureka, through their superlative home release range Masters of Cinema, are finally giving us Brits the chance to see this period comedy for ourselves.

    Bakumatsu Taiyô-den is set during the last days of the Shogunate, in and around a popular brothel in the red light district. The bustling location sees home (or home away from home) to numerous characters, including Saheiji (Frankie Sakai), a grifter who gets caught out trying to swindle a free night of lavish entertainment. To pay off his debts he works for the brothel and ends up using his ‘talents’ to solve everybody’s problems, from a geisha that too freely hands out marriage agreements to a group of nationalist samurai who are looking to attack the droves of foreigners invading the city.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 May

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    MSPIFF 2013 Review: 7 Boxes

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    Directors: Juan Carlos Maneglia & Tana Schembori
    Writers: Tito Chamorro, Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori
    Producer: Maneglia Schémbori Realizadores
    Starring: Celso Franco, Celso Franco, Lali Gonzalez, Nico García
    MPAA Rating: NR
    Running time: 100 min.
    Country of Origin: Paraguay

     

    It’s a hot day in the capital city of Paraguay and the exchange rate for US Dollars is running as high as the mercury in Asunción’s bustling marketplace. Narrow rows of stalls glutted with people, consumer goods, and hanging animal meat, all of which is for sale, barter, hustle, or theft. Enter Victor, a young kid who wheel-barrow’s purchases, stock, whatever around the market for a price, when he is not day-dreaming about being an action hero on TV. Pestered by his best friend Liz (a remarkably natural girl-power performance from young Lali González) to buy a used cell phone with video capability, and desiring to be the star of his own movie Victor takes a job carting around the eponymous crates from the brother of a pregnant friend of his sisters. If that three-degrees of separation relationship seems convoluted, it is a mere warm-up as the number of characters and their tangled web of interrelations and tangled webs of lies, frantic sales pitches and waves of delegation hit the ground running – often literally through the maze of the marketplace. Pile in a gang of other wheel barrow operators who get wind of the value of those boxes, a smitten police officer, a korean restaurant delivery boy, a lady-boy prostitute and a host of ‘owners’ of the boxes mysterious (but never a Maguffin!) contents and well, genre-film bliss.

    Initially Victor’s cargo has no tangible destination other to be moved around the marketplace, and the filmmakers delight in letting us into this world, a microcosm of the South American off-the-grid financial landscape in the same way that Fabian Bielinsky’s Nine Queens functioned as a metaphor for the collapse of Argentina’s economy. 7 Boxes is not a grifter-picture per se, but it is one is spirit. An honest-to-goodness pro-bono act by two random thieves is met with giddy celebration because it is unexpected and yet ironically appropriate. The filmmakers don’t rub our noses in their social commentary too much, though they clearly relish playing with the subject in an entertaining, wryly self-deprecating sort of way. Everyone is bumping into each other, connected yet compartmentalized, in the same way the boxes rattle and grind into one another without giving up their contents. The Boxes changes hands as often as peoples mobile phones which might require a flow-chart to keep track of them all, but the filmmakers communicate the information with a mastery of craft. To say more, plotwise, would be to spoil the surprise – actually surprises – of which there are as many as there are retail opportunities in the market. That the film is about something (more than Victor just getting on TV), has a fair bit of heart in its cutely romantic relationship which it tucks gently in between episodes of inventive kinetic energy, is all just icing on the cake. I live for smart genre-films like this one to be discovered at festivals.

    Apparently Paraguay cinematic output in the countries entire history amounts to about a mere twenty feature films in total. But do not let this gushing review lead you to believe that because films from the central South American country are rare they should be given a free pass. Quite the contrary: The storytelling confidence, the unaffectated acting, and above all a heightened grasp of plotting and logistics, on display in 7 Boxes is astonishing. It belongs in the company of Norway’s Headhunters and France’s Sleepless Night. That is to say there are a lot of balls in the air, and the film juggles them both effortlessly and inventively. Rare is the film that has me grinning like a fool as the chaos and bustle of all those casual seeming set-ups pay off; all the threads fold and tangle with one another. There is a Swiss watch sneakily clicking right along under its cracked concrete and corrugated steel veneer. Filmmakers Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schémbori have got my attention, and they are, if I may say so, worthy of yours.

  • 03 May

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    Review: Iron Man 3

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    Director: Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
    Writers: Drew Pearce & Shane Black
    Producers: Kevin Feige
    Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley
    MPAA Rating: PG-13
    Running time: 130 min.

     

    (3.5/5)

     

    Review courtesy of Adam Cook

     

    Marvel’s ambitious Phase Two begins with a confident bang as Tony Stark returns for his latest solo outing. After the phenomenal success of The Avengers it was always going to be interesting to see how these individual stories, away from the world destroying peril and star-studded team-up would fair, and despite numerous references to the New York showdown in Whedon’s movie it is reassuring that neither Stark, nor the audience, really miss the other superheroes.

    After the indulgent mess that was Iron Man 2 it is good to see the self-proclaimed genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist back in fine fettle. The decision to hand over the reins to writer-director, Shane Black, has paid off handsomely as this is a bold, funny and sharp superhero movie that retains the core appeal of the character whilst reinvigorating other areas. However, whilst it is a lot of fun it is still far from perfect.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 01 May

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    Carlos’ Review Round-Up

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    Here’s a quick sampling of my week’s watches. You can find more of my reviews at Always Watch Good Movies.

     

    Mud (2012)

    Directed by: Jeff Nichols
    Country: USA

    I was astonished two years ago with the disturbing “Take Shelter”, but this time Jeff Nichols was not capable of maintaining me a hundred percent clung to “Mud”, his third feature film. Ellis is a sensible 14 year-old kid, who is passing through difficult times with the imminent separation of his parents. One day, he and his friend Neckbone, went to a deserted island, across the Mississippi river, to search for an old abandoned boat that has been placed on top of a tree. For their surprise, they found a famished man called Mud living there. Wanted by the police and by some thugs who wanted him dead, Mud asks for the kids’ help after telling them his story of love and crime. The old question arises: is the story true or false? The adventure never lost interest, but some excessive situations made the story fall into a sort of triviality. Ellis’ appetite for punching faces was in some cases absolutely ridiculous. The pace didn’t help too, and visually the film didn’t cause much impact for the eyes. The exception to these issues was the final shooting, which was very well done, putting intensity on the screen and adrenaline in our veins. “Mud” showed some moments of sincerity, especially those depicting the relationships between parents/sons, and gave a respectable vision of coming of age and the complexities of love associated to it. Being perfectly watchable, I felt it needed more agitation in the story and the suppression of some unnecessary scenes, to become more appealing.

    (3/5)

     

     

    Any Day Now (2012)

    Directed by: Travis Fine
    Country: USA

    Set in the 70’s, “Any Day Now” depicts the struggle of a gay couple to gain the custody of a Down syndrome boy whose junkie mother had been arrested. Despite of some noticeable issues, especially in the story’s development, the film succeeds in gaining our sympathy for the cause. This is achieved through very solid performances, especially from Alan Cumming, and from the anger we feel from observing the negligent attitude of the boy’s mother. The biases were evident in many occasions: in a scene with a police officer, at work, at school, and in courtrooms, the latter with very laughable interventions from lawyer and judges. The couple’s differences were highlighted, with the low profile and sobriety of the law expert Paul (Garret Dillahunt), balancing with the expansiveness of Rudy (Cumming) whose dubious artistic talent only served the purpose of putting more sentiment in the final moments. Inspired on a true story, “Any Day Now” revealed an inevitable tendency for melodrama, but compensates with some honesty and a sense of true feelings. I could not help feeling sorry for the sympathetic young boy Marco (Isaac Levya), in Travis Fine’s most interesting film so far, a real champion of audiences in Festivals such as Chicago, L.A., Seattle, and Tribeca.

    (3/5)

     

     

    42 (2013)

    Directed by: Brian Helgeland
    Country: USA

    42 is a biopic about Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player hired to play in a major league team, breaking the color barrier that prevailed since 1880′s. Robinson became an official player of Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, fighting in silence against racist prejudices, both inside and outside the team. His exceptional skills, sporting behavior, and effort put in the field, ended up winning the respect of team mates, managers, reporters, and general public. The film also focuses the importance of his wife Rachel, but great part of its time is spend on provocations, threats, and discriminations related with the racial segregation, as well as assorted episodes from several games that remained forever in the history of baseball. This is the fourth feature film from helmer Brian Helgeland, who seems to have won the heart of American audiences, but unfortunately did not touch mine. The approach was banal and nothing new or unanticipated was added to make it interesting. I felt that Helgeland’s main concern was to impress us with the racial theme, forgetting to spend some time building the character itself. 42 depicts Robinson’s life in the most conventional Hollywood tradition, using the same old formulas and manipulations that most of us are fed up. Its noble intentions and a couple of rousing moments, could not make Jackie Robinson’s fantastic achievements seem so special on the screen.

    (2.5/5)

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 30 Apr

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    DVD Review: The Purge

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    Director: Antti Jokinen
    Screenplay: Antti Jokinen, Marko Leino
    Based on a Novel by: Sofi Oksanen
    Starring: Laura Birn, Liisi Tandefelt, Amanda Pilke, Krista Kosonen, Peter Franzén
    Producers: Jukka Helle, Markus Selin
    Country: Finland, Estonia
    Running Time: 120 min
    Year: 2012
    BBFC Certificate: 18

    (4/5)


    Accepting an offer to review a screener of Finnish drama The Purge (a.k.a. Purge or Puhdistus) was a no brainer for me. My wife is a proud Finn and insists on watching any film/concert/event that makes its way over to the UK. Usually it’s her that tracks these down so I get extra brownie points for finding and obtaining them myself. Add the fact that she’s read the book this is based on and given that I can’t always talk her into watching my usual choices of film, I replied as soon as the email from distributors Metrodome hit my inbox and requested a copy to cast my critical eye over.

    The Purge opens with a bruised and battered Zara (Amanda Pilke) seeking refuge in a remote farmhouse in Estonia. Living alone in the house is the elderly Aliide (Liisi Tandefelt) who reluctantly offers her shelter. The two get talking and we learn that Zara has escaped from enslavement and abuse at the hands of a group of sex-traffickers (shown through flashbacks). A possible connection between the two women as well as familiar aspects to her story flashes Aliide back to her youth (where she’s played by Laura Birn). Whilst the Communists cracked down on Fascists in Estonia during World War II, Aliide fell in love with her sister Ingel’s (Krista Kosonen) fiancé Hans (Peter Franzén). In a bid to win him for herself and to survive the ongoing atrocities, she makes some painful yet selfish decisions which put her sister and niece’s lives in jeopardy and haunt her several decades down the line. However, when Aliide discovers Zara’s full background, she finds a way to seek redemption for her past crimes.

    As is to be expected from the source material (and most Finnish dramas for that matter), The Purge is an extremely bleak film. With both women enduring some horrific sexual abuse and mental anguish, it’s a tough film to get through. The grim tone is relentless and there are no moments of light to alleviate the oppression shared by the characters and audience. This of course fits the film’s content, but I actually felt it maybe went a little too far. The film is so consistently brutal through its two-hour running time that it actually loses its power to shock and move as it gets into the latter third. By the end I was quite numb to it all and what was theoretically quite a powerful and affecting finale didn’t really get to me as it should.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Apr

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    DVD Review: Silver Linings Playbook

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    Silver Linings Playbook Still

    Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, The Fighter)
    Screenplay: David O. Russell, Matthew Quick (book)
    Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon,
    Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Matias Varela, Dragomir Mrsic, Lisa Henni
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 122 min.

    I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment I saw Three Kings. It didn’t sound like much, another war movie this one with a comedic angle, but David O. Russell delivered an interesting and uncompromising look at the “business” of war with all its ugliness and occasional hilarity. I haven’t cared much for Russell’s movie’s since then but I’ve kept watching, hoping for another little gem. I never imagined a romantic comedy would be the movie to deliver it.

    Silver Linings Playbook emerged as a bit of a surprise. Sure, it had calibre (director, well loved book, fantastic cast) but it feels like the swell was slow building. World of mouth screenings followed by praise for nearly everyone involved and then an Oscar win. I saw it pre-awards and it was busy but the busy screening was nothing compared to the sold out Monday night outing after Jennifer Lawrence’s award win. Apparently the Oscars do count for something – in some instances at least.

    The premise is pretty standard stuff. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall for each other. Boy and girl pretend they don’t like each other but end up working together towards something bigger than both of them before finally coming together in a happily ever after. In this case a medicated happily ever after since both Pat and Tiffany are suffering from their own personal demons. But as sweet as this romance is and regardless of what anyone tells you this is indeed very sweet, it’s the kind of quirky sweetness that works. Mostly it works because of the performances – both Lawrence and Bradley Cooper (who’s been having a fantastic couple of years) are fantastic – but also because it’s the story of two damaged people who find love in an unlikely place and both of whom take some pretty big risks to eventually end up together.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 25 Apr

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    MSPIFF 2013 Review: The Hunt

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    Director: Thomas Vinterberg
    Writers: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm
    Producers: Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Morten Kaufmann, Thomas Vinterberg
    Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 115 min.
    Country of Origin: Denmark

     

    There is no arguing the craft on display in Thomas Vinterberg’s small-town, big-drama The Hunt. Mads Mikkelsen turns in the performance of his career (and if you look back on his career so far that is an impressive feat) as Lucas, a volunteer teacher at a kindergarden school who is accused and, later, ritually abused by his own friends & neighbors after one of his students, young Klara (in a fit of childish pique) accuses him of ‘pointing his willie’ at her. The cinematography, all warm and woody prior to the accusation and all white and frigid when the milk is spilt. The supporting characters all play their parts to whip the audience into a conflicting bit of rage at how a) we hate pedophiles and b) how we hate to see others rush to judgement. Sure, it feels OK when we do it.

    When I see the Zentropa logo come up in front of a film, my knee-jerk reaction is that the film will be a provocation. After all, Lars von Trier is not only one of the co-founders of the company that deals in that sort of cinema but he created the Dogme95 movement with Vinterberg as well. Their previous film, Dear Wendy, springs to mind as something that is both hysterical and hysterically funny. The Hunt is not that exactly, its satire more sublimated; it aims to tickle a slightly more refined dramatic palette. But it is guilty of leading the witness, both literally in one particular interrogation in the film, and figuratively as it piles on a lot of emotional baggage instead of letting Mikkelsen’s fab performance stand on his own.

    Lucas is going through a chilly divorce with custody of his teenage son in the balance, but otherwise he is a ‘head held high, feet on the ground’ sort of guy in town and a central figure in the circle of men (who hunt) in the rural community. In particular, his best friend Theo, who is father of Kayla, has a long standing friendship based partly in male goofing off, but warm and trusting. He is tentatively dating the only non-local (English speaking) woman at the kindergarten school and he seems to have the most fun at the school with the kids. Hell, it’s Christmas! If you’ve watched movies before, then you know where this is going. You will intuitively feel the beats of this story, even as Vinterberg does his best to keep the audience on its toes with weird indicators and ominously misleading bits foreshadowing.

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