tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4432799151760463752024-03-14T11:02:43.395-07:0024Truth and lies at 24 fpsChris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-90112553419453211452014-01-02T23:00:00.001-08:002014-01-02T23:03:09.637-08:00The Best Films of 2013<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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These are the ten best films I saw in 2013.<br />
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<b>10. The Hunt </b></div>
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Thomas Vinterberg’s best film since <b>Festen</b> features Mads
Mikkelsen as Lucas, a kindergarten teacher accused of molesting one the
children – his best friend’s daughter. Mikkelsen, so chilling in <b>Hannibal</b>,
displays admirable versatility. Since we know Lucas is innocent of the crime
right from the start, Vinterberg derives much tension from how – if at all –
Lucas convinces others of his innocence, and from the paranoia he experiences
from colleagues, friends and townspeople. </div>
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<b>9. Beyond the Hills</b> </div>
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Two young Romanian women reunite after years apart; one has
relocated to France, while the other has become a nun. It is clear that their
relationship had a sexual nature, and the desire of these women – one desires
the other, while the other desires God – makes for captivating viewing.
Director Christian Mungiu’s film is slow but rewarding, and some of his shots are
pure cinematic poetry: the film has one of the best closing shots I saw in
a film all year. </div>
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<b>8. Django Unchained </b></div>
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Tarantino’s slavery vengeance fantasy is very nearly the equal of
his previous film <b>Inglorious Basterds.</b> Yes, I know, <b>Django</b> is maybe too
indulgent, but I’m happy to be a guest in a world as intricate and dynamic as
Tarantino’s. As for the performances, Samuel L . Jackson is a scene stealer. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>7. Lincoln </b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Spielberg’s biopic is a magisterial, beautifully written
piece of historical fiction. Of course Daniel Day-Lewis got most of the
attention for his award winning performance as one of America’s greatest
presidents, but the real stars are screenwriter Tony Kushner (who previously collaborated
with Spielberg on <b>Munich</b>), cinematographer Janusz Kaminski who weaves wonders
with light and shadow, and Spielberg himself, here redeeming himself for his over-cooked
<b>Amistad</b> with a far more restrained epic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b>6. Lore </b></div>
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<b>Lore</b> is a harrowing family drama set against the backdrop of
the demise of Nazi Germany. The film opens shortly before Hitler’s death, with
a Nazi-sympathetic German family suddenly having to flee their home. It is up
to the eldest child, Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), to deliver herself and her younger siblings
(including a baby brother) safely to their grandmother. Director Cate Shor<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tland’s
film is breath-taking character piece. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>5. Rust & Bone </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Jacques
Audiard follows up his acclaimed work <b>The Prophet</b> with the sensitive
survivalist romantic drama <b>Rust and Bone.</b> This is a film for those who avoid
mainstream approaches to romance because romance seems to be far from the
characters’ minds. Starring Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>4. Holy Motors </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Writer-director Leon Carax loves cinema, loves it, and this
film is both an elegy for the cinema as well as a demonstration of its
innovation. At the center is actor Denis Levant, who is, simply, a force of
nature. I’m going to skip a plot synopsis and rather mention that this is the
first time Kylie Minogue’s given me goosebumps. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>3. The Act of Killing </b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary is nothing short of
astonishing: the film follows two men responsible for mass killings during the
military take-over in Indonesia in the 1960s, and Oppenheimer (the military
men, Anwar and Kotto, often mention ‘Joshua’ as if he’s a friend) allows/guides
them to recreate some of their crimes using amateur actors and props. The
result is a film that is disturbing and mesmerising. That the film exists is
itself a miracle. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>2. Gravity </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>Gravity</b> is the most spectacular film I’ve seen in a long
time, and the single best argument for why 3D has cinematic value. Even without
the additional dimension, the film is still a technological marvel, and a feat
of economic storytelling. If American studio films have a future, <b>Gravity</b> is
it; it’s what happens when big Hollywood stars (Sandra Bullock, George Clooney)
end up in the hands of a visionary filmmaker, Alfonso Cuaron. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>1. Amour </b></div>
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<br /></div>
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The best film of the year is Michael Haneke’s sensitive drama
<b>Amour</b>. Haneke, known for his disturbing material (the <b>Funny Games</b> films, <b>The
Piano Teacher</b>) and politically charged narratives (<b>Hidden</b>), here delivers a
deeply personal film that is every bit as meticulously crafted and intelligent
as his other work. In addition, I found <b>Amour</b> to also be an acutely emotional
film, given Haneke’s delicate depiction of old age, illness and debilitation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-34796217104074501552013-06-30T23:13:00.000-07:002013-06-30T23:13:37.024-07:00God of Carnage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Zack Snyder (with some assistance from Christopher Nolan) does some interesting things with one of the most archetypally America superheroes, Superman, in <b>Man of Steel</b>. While movies have traditionally presented Superman as the icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way, <b>Man of Steel</b> gives us a questioning hero, a drifter who has not yet defined himself in relation to his environment even if he has an idea of inevitability. <br /><br />The film opens with an extended segment set on Krypton, home planet of Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer). Unfortunately, Krypton is also home to the militant General Zod (Michael Shannon), and in the time honoured fashion of clearly differentiating the good guys from the bad, Jor-El speaks in an English accent while Zod is unmistakeably American. We soon find out that Krypton is doomed, but Jor-El’s baby boy Kal-El is saved from planetary destruction and sent into space to eventually land on earth. <br /><br />Grown-up Kal-El, going by the name of Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), occupies himself with odd jobs whilehe tries to figure out Who He’s Meant to Be. Much of the film is about Clark’s road to awareness as told in flashback, which is where we meet the Kents as played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. Early on, the themes of sacrificing for the greater good and the recognition of accountability are outlined, and I was surprised – and impressed – by how much time Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer were willing to spend solely on investing in their main character. <br /><br />Along the way, the film introduces a spirited Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and weaves her into Kal-El’s search for himself (it sounds cornier than it is). Many critics have commented that there’s little spark or chemistry between Cavill and Adams as romantic leads, but honestly, the film doesn’t pitch these characters as possible lovers as much as colleagues. The film is so Kal-El centered that romantic subplots are briefly spun off at best. By the time Zod and his cronies make it to earth, having all survived the destruction of their home planet, Kal-El is ready to do what needs to be done. <br /><br />In completely rebooting the Superman story, <b>Man of Steel</b> gets a few things right, and many things wrong. There are character moments strong enough to make me want to revisit the film on Blu-Ray, and say what you will of Snyder’s work, but he’s a fantastic visualist. In <b>300</b> he demonstrated his ability to craft impeccable big-screen carnage, and in <b>Watchmen</b> he took on one of the most daunting directorial challenges of the past twenty years and, in my view, pulled it off. In addition, Nolan’s involvement favours a ‘realistic’ approach to the character, with even the red underpants falling away. <br /><br />Yet for a film so intent on presenting some sort of realistic take on the superhero, Krypton is strangely fantastical, complete with flying creatures. And for someone who’s excelled at clear, convincing combat in some of his earlier the films, Snyder prefers the fashionable accelerated aesthetics for most of the fight scenes, especially those early in the film. As a result, it’s hard to see who’s doing what to whom, and the 3D only makes it worse. The repeated punch-ins on objects lose their novelty quickly. <br /><br />Much has been made of the messiah-like character of Kal-El, as if it’s some sort of revelation. The Christ-like character of the hero is nothing new, but Snyder handles it as if the audience won’t get it unless it’s hammered, repeatedly, into their heads. That is Snyder’s approach in general, for most of the film: why show someone getting punched if you can show them getting punched, bounced, and dribbled? Why have a villain verbally express his anger if you can rather show him pick up a car and throw it through someone’s house? <br /><br />Like it or hate it, Snyder’s visuality, often focusing on movement and using filmic techniques that emulate movement , gets results. In this case, <b>Man of Steel</b> showcases quite possibly the most jaw-dropping action in any superhero movie. For Snyder, less is simply less. The destruction and debris filled finale makes <b>The Avengers</b> seem cute, and I had to wonder about the actual death toll such a battle would have. Overall the film is also a strangely humourless affair, possibly in a misguided attempt to keep things realistic and serious. <br /><br />Less is less for the characters too, unfortunately. Cavill certainly looks the part of the hero, but he delivers dialogue like a low-rent Michael Fassbender at best. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is seldom imaginative and often overly familiar. Much of what Cavill has to say are clunkers, and would come across as such regardless of who says it. On the other side of the spectrum, Shannon follows the Pacino approach to villainy: shout, and if in doubt, squint and shout some more. <b> </b></div>
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<b>Man of Steel</b> delivers spectacle in spades, even if it lacks the deep thought that made <b>Watchmen</b> so compelling, even if it skims over the moral quandaries that made the <b>Dark Knight</b> so interesting. While <b>Man of Steel</b> is far flashier, bigger and meaner, it doesn’t have the heart that <b>Superman Returns</b> had (and that’s a sentence I never thought I’d type). </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-86276902270223335442013-05-22T23:15:00.000-07:002013-05-22T23:15:38.488-07:00A feature-length film about love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Michael Haneke is one of the greatest living filmmakers. I’m not going to add “arguably” to that statement. Consider the Austrian’s oeuvre: the cruel experiment of <b>Funny Games</b> (via Jim Emerson); the sexual masochism of <b>The Piano Teacher</b>; the black-and-white collective psychosis of <b>The White Ribbon</b>; repressed guilt and accountability in <b>Cache</b>. With his latest film <b>Amour</b>, which garnered Haneke a second Palme d’Or in Cannes (2012), the director enters a much more personal territory than before with a film that has been considered (rightly so) as his most humane. <br />
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An elderly couple, George and Anne (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva), live out their retirement in a Parisian apartment. They go to musical performances and appreciate good literature. They seem perfectly contented to spend time with one another, revisiting memories and doing the chores around the house - all part of a comfortable, sustaining routine. Then one morning, Anne has a stroke. The scene is spellbinding; Georges does not realise what’s is happening to Anne, but when he seems to begin to understand that something is wrong, he takes rational action. Haneke’s use of image and sound is perfect; visually, he alternates two-shots and close-ups, while the sound of water running off-screen adds to the tension. <br />
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The stroke causes paralysis in half of Anne’s body. George, her husband of decades, her lover, her companion, becomes her caretaker. She makes him promise that regardless of what happens, he will not have her hospitalised (an arrangement reflecting the real-life pact between Haneke and his wife). As Anne’s condition worsens, George must address not only his responsibilities towards his wife, but also deal with a daughter (the beautiful Isabelle Huppert) concerned for her mother’s well-being and uncertain as to whether her father can take care of her. <br />
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What an audacious move to call your film <b>Love</b> – and Haneke gets away with it. While the elements of suffering are there – ageing; disease; incapacitation; the certainty of death – Haneke chooses to foreground love. In its sombre and stark way, the film shows how love is a barrier against the suffering which is irrevocably part of life. In embodying the power of love, Trintignant and Riva deliver superb performances. Riva realises every phase of Anne’s mental and physical degeneration, while Trintignant’s grief and perseverance in the face of his wife’s condition is inspiring without being indulgent or celebratory. A husband is simply doing what one does when a loved one is in need. George and Anne come to vivid life in the carefully constructed apartment, which is not just a home anymore, but a space for love and care to manifest in considerable capacity. Haneke never sugar-coats the severity of the couple’s situation, but makes the devotion that George has for Anne palpable. Haneke does not deal with an ideal of love, but with the act of love. While many films deal with love as abstraction, <b>Amour</b> shows love as a performed part of daily existence.<br />
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There are so few truly great films about love, yet there are so many lifeless attempts at showing and understanding love in soulless films that either focus on youthful exuberance or prefer to idealise human relationships as a series of happy events. Love often has little to do with happiness, as Haneke understands, and much with commitment, devotion and determination. <b>Amour</b> deservedly won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. It is a <i>flawless</i> film, full of life, with a master filmmaker delivering some of the best work of a decades-long career. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-28342370116291597742013-04-11T00:42:00.003-07:002013-04-11T00:42:38.866-07:00Family First <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Paul Eilers’ <b>Verraaiers</b> is a long film. At two hours, it feels like three. This Bosbok Ses production is overall a more merit worthy experience than <a href="http://24truth24lies.blogspot.com/2011/06/woerwoer.html" target="_blank"><b>Roepman</b></a>, their previous film I liked but a film I found to be too whimsical and spiritually thin for its own good. <b>Verraaiers</b> is, for better and for worse, a more grounded experience, an exploration of loyalty and betrayal against the backdrop of the South African War (Anglo-Boer War).<br />
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At the centre of events is Jacobus van Aswegen (a strong Gys de Villiers), who with his sons – including Vilje Maritz – fight the British until he starts to question the wisdom of their involvement in the conflict. With the implementation of Kitchener’s scorched earth policy, whereby farms were burned down and women and children taken to concentration camps, Van Aswegen decides to rather stay at home with his wife (Rika Sennett) and daughters (including <b>Roepman</b>’s Beate Olwagen) so that he can be there to protect them if necessary. This decision is seen as betrayal by some of the Boer authorities and before long Jacobus and his kin (and some friends) are arrested and set to stand trial on charges of treason. <br /><br />The first part of the film is the narrative and thematic set-up and provides a clear idea of why some Boers decided to personally withdraw from the war even if they supported the effort as a whole. The second part of the film concerns the trial, and is a complete slog to sit through. When the trial-part of the film begins, the film has nothing else to focus on, no B-storyline to alternate with the trial-storyline. So, for nearly an hour we see the men worry, talk to the Boer authorities, question themselves and so on. There are some cutaways to the women all alone at the homestead, but those quickly become pointless due to a specifically bizarre scene which suggests something completely unconvincing about the Boer women in question, particularly the mother. <br /><br />Then we’re back with the men who sit and toil and wonder their way to an unsurprising ending. Half the film is thus claustrophobic and constraining without visual reference to whatever else is happening while the protagonists are imprisoned – why are we not shown the scorched earth policy in practice? – and the film grinds to a halt. In films such as <b>Der Untergang</b> (<b>Downfall</b>) such characteristics – claustrophobia; constraint; a focus on a specific small group of characters – were beneficial in sustaining suspense and a sense of foreboding, but in <b>Verraaiers</b> their sum total is tedium. There’s something in the combination of shot selection, editing and the screenplay that severely undermines the film, something I hope will become clearer to me in a second or third viewing (which I’m not looking forward to, given how leaden half of the film is). <br /><br />Johan Baird and Stian Bam are solid in important supporting roles, but there are odd character moments that don’t convince, such as an early scene with Carel Trichardt as a judge wondering aloud (as if on stage) about loyalty and betrayal, somewhat clumsily foregrounding the film’s themes. Yet it’s the pacing that remains the biggest problem. I’ve seen war films that go on for three hours; I’ve seen hour upon hour of Tarr and Tarkovsky and am all the better for it. Those films, regardless of their running time, have a poetry to their images that is undeniable, and often, to me personally, unshakeable. Maybe that’s why <b>Verraaiers</b> felt so long and seemed so lifeless as it continued: it is so sincere, so focused on representing history in a functional and visually instrumental manner, that, to its detriment, it fundamentally lacks a sense of imagistic poetry. Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-86799996715827157202013-01-01T00:27:00.001-08:002013-01-01T00:27:20.154-08:00The best films of 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not going into a long-winded explanation of "value" and "worth", or even of "eligibility"; simply, these are the films that made 2012 a very good movie year. I know that I've missed a few must-see's - I still cannot bring myself to rent <b>The Artist</b> - and I haven't gotten to some of the currently showing critics' darlings like <b>Silver Linings Playbook</b>. All lists exist as versions of themselves and I may well revisit this list down the line.</div>
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Honorable mention goes to <b>The Grey</b>'s existential adventure; <b>The Raid</b>'s superlative action; <b>Kill List</b>'s last 30 minutes; <b>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</b>'s Salander; and Lena Dunham's mumblecore family drama <b>Tiny Furniture</b>. <br />
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Now for the top ten.<br />
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<b>10. Wuthering Heights</b><br />
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Andrea Arnold's bold, animalistic retelling of the famous story of doomed love is unsettling and poetic, if not a perfect fit for adaptation purists. </div>
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<b>9. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</b><br />
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This is a police procedural by way of detailed character study. In Nuri Bilge Ceylan's glacially paced (in a good way) drama, the frustrating search for a buried corpse over the course of a day brings masculinity and authority into sharp focus.</div>
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<b>8. Cloud Atlas</b><br />
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This film appears on as many "Worst of 2012" lists as Top Tens. I found this Wachowski-Tykwer collaboration to be an emotionally engaging, visually breathtaking secular fantasy about human kindness. Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent are standouts in this time-traversing epic.</div>
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<b>7. War Horse</b><br />
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I know, I know: Spielberg is an unrepentant sentimalist who never saw a saccharine close-up he didn't like. And yet, what his critics forget is that Spielberg is also an informed lover of cinema, and <b>War Horse</b> is as much an ode to American film as it is an engrossing ensemble drama set against against the backdrop of WWI.</div>
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<b>6. Shame</b><br />
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Michael Fassbender stars as an alienated corporate male in Steve McQueen's intense character study. Driven by sexual imagery devoid of any erotic dimension, McQueen shows a man at the brink of implosion when his sister unexpectedly shows up at his apartment. Fassbender is mesmerising. </div>
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<b>5. A Separation </b> <br />
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Asghar Farhadi delivers one of the most suspenseful films of the year in this story of truth and accountability. The film weaves perceptions of a central event until it becomes a tapestry of memory - and when is memory truth? </div>
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<b>4. Melancholia</b><br />
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Danish provocateur Lars von Trier follows the apocalyptic <b>Anti-christ</b> with another apocalyptic drama in this tale of two sisters facing nothing less than the end of the world while at a country lodge. Kirsten Dunst is superb as the younger sister struggling with depression. </div>
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<b>3. The Skin I Live In </b><br />
Pedro Almadovar's mad scientist thriller blew me away the first time I saw it and I haven't been able to shake it from my mind. Featuring Elena Anaya as the object of Antonio Banderas's obession, it's one of the Spanish auteur's best. <br />
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<b>2. The Turin Horse</b><br />
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A hansom cab driver and his daughter try to make sense of increasingly strange events on their farm in Italy, 1889. Filmed in crisp black and white, Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr's hypnotic final film (or so he claims) is a deeply haunting apocalyptic vision of the world as place of habitual suffering. Like Werner Herzog, Tarr remains one of the most fascinating figures of world cinema. </div>
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<b>1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</b><br />
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This British anti-Bond spy drama is the epitome of meticulous filmmaking. Director Thomas Alfredsson assembles a great cast headed by Gary Oldman as aging British intelligence worker George Smiley who is tasked with finding a mole in the agency. <b>TTSS</b> is more than just a genre film; it's a measured character study with beautifully underplayed moments of betrayal and revelation. Watching the film, it felt like I was unable to breathe for two hours. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-30202952030125262312012-12-29T00:36:00.000-08:002012-12-29T00:43:15.247-08:00The Cause<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>The Master</b>, the latest film by American ingénue Paul Thomas Anderson, is a demanding and frustrating film. I have no problem with it being demanding, but the film needs to meet its audience somehow, and that’s where <b>The Master</b> reveals its Achilles heel. Anderson’s major works to date, <b>Magnolia</b> and <b>There Will Be Blood</b>, hum with a dynamic tension that makes the films’ three hour running times fly by and present the viewer with a point of entry into the film unvierse, usually through a sympathetic character. Both of these films represent some of the best American filmmaking of the past twenty years, so expectations were high for <b>The Master</b>. But Anderson also made <b>Punch Drunk Love</b>, the oddly ineffectual drama with Adam Sandler; this film plodded onward driven by Sandler’s solid performance. <br />
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With <b>The Master</b>, it’s once more the performances that drive the film. For most part, the electricity that flowed from every frame of <b>There Will Be Blood</b> has been replaced by scenes that seem strangely static. Not all of the film has this problem; there are moments, such as the “informal processing” scene and a power-establishing scene between the titular character and his wife, that make the film come alive. Still, these scenes are few and far between. Another problem is that the film’s main character is a simple-minded and offensive WWII Navy veteran, Freddie Quell. Quell is a fevered character thoroughly rooted in all sorts of conflict, yet is the single most boring character in the film. He likes sex, liquor and farting. He is an all surface character in a complex film, and it doesn’t fit. Some will argue that Quell holds a mirror up to the far more intelligent Lancaster Dodd, and even so Quell is not nearly as compelling as Dodd. <br />
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We are introduced to Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix) while he’s still in the Navy, and Anderson makes it clear that the man is somewhat sex focused and has little social skills. To his credit, he is a master distiller. Back in the States, Freddie has a hard time holding on to jobs and one evening he slips onto a boat where a lavish party is being held. His choices have brought him into the company of Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), often simply referred to as the Master, the author of the worldview-challenging The Cause and currently working on its long awaited follow-up. For reasons that are hard to pinpoint, the sophisticated Dodd takes the intellectually limited Freddie under his wing. There is a third party in this power relationship, Dodd’s wife (Amy Adams), whose crucial role becomes clear only later on and had me wishing to spend more time with her than with Quell. <br />
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The three main performances in this film are all worth savouring; Adams seemingly has little to do but she is a force of nature when required, while Hoffman presents another fascinating, rather walled-off character. But it is Phoenix who completely embodies Freddie as a broken man who goes through life without any idea where he’s going. As much as I have issues with the character, Phoenix cannot be faulted; he surrenders himself to a challenging role. <br />
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<b>The Master</b> is far from a failure. The cinematography is superb, as one can expect from an Anderson film, and there are parts of the film that are inspired and enthralling (Quell’s hallucination at a Cause get-together). As a whole, though, Anderson’s film doesn’t quite come together. Additional viewings may change this perception, but for now, <b>The Master </b>lacks the compelling character ensembles and rhythm of previous Anderson films.<br />
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Note: much has been made of <b>The Master</b> as based on the life of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, but don't expect anything salacious. It's simply not Anderson's nature. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-64528290559220850612012-12-29T00:21:00.000-08:002012-12-29T00:21:23.056-08:00A boy and his tiger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yann Martel’s novel <b>Life of Pi</b> reaches the screen in spectacular fashion thanks to Ang Lee (<b>Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain</b>). The largest part of the film features two characters – one human, one animal – adrift at sea, and Lee makes sure to provide some breath-taking ocean-bound imagery as the film unfolds. From the star covered skies mirrored in a flat ocean surface to phosphorous night-time aquatic visitations, <b>Life of Pi</b> is, if nothing else, visually tantalizing viewing. Even the 3D is functional; I could hear audience members gasp for breath during a storm sequence and also where Lee allows us to enter a frame in a comic book. <br /><br /><b>Life of Pi</b> tells the story of Pi Patel who leaves India for Canada after his father decides to relocate the family to the West for financial reasons. Along for the boat ride are all of the family’s animals that they acquired while running a zoo, including a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker after a name registration mishap. A savage storm hits, and Pi (Suraj Sharma) finds himself on a lifeboat with the tiger, a hyena and a zebra. The film details Pi’s attempts to stay alive and not lose hope while caught between the pitiless if beautiful sea and a hungry carnivore. Throughout, Pi finds his faith in God tested as sharks circle the boat and the sun beats down relentlessly. The story is framed by a journalist interviewing the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) on his extraordinary adventure, a tale that, according to Pi’s uncle, will make a man believe in God. <br /><br />But it’s best to not think too much of the film’s religious dimensions, which get increasingly fluffy towards the film’s end. Pi’s initial interest in various religions is entertaining and sympathetic, and once he is out to sea, his faith is a necessity for survival. As an adventure based on the relationship between a boy and a tiger and as a psychological drama the film works like a charm, but as a spiritual film, it’s a real meringue. The final explanation of how the story makes one believe in God is a horrible theological cop-out. <br /><br />Yet I remain in awe of the film’s visual effects, and with how much emotional heft Lee invests Pi’s relationship with Richard Parker. Lee establishes the animal as predator kept alive by instinct, but as Pi explains, there’s more to animals, and to the tiger in particular, than just basic instincts.It's a gripping story of survival and resilience; don't be too put off by the design-your-own-brand approach to religion. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-4918933264322593402012-12-28T23:59:00.000-08:002012-12-28T23:59:00.580-08:00Capsules: The horse, the fish & the cult<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3pmTTCHyZ_vMe5DT0QPX1rdeLay0TU6Tuf94T6xVAaDKrUL-oGz26C-bqZzJQtg13bIl5NwsadF2w64mWlqq-5QYVm6Nxg4hse1cxEfER2Brg8_PXzehBw_lGD4v1El9EevEf3mkKg/s1600/WarHorse_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3pmTTCHyZ_vMe5DT0QPX1rdeLay0TU6Tuf94T6xVAaDKrUL-oGz26C-bqZzJQtg13bIl5NwsadF2w64mWlqq-5QYVm6Nxg4hse1cxEfER2Brg8_PXzehBw_lGD4v1El9EevEf3mkKg/s320/WarHorse_1.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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As can be expected from Spielberg, <b>War Horse</b> is relentlessly sentimental. I fell for every lavishly lit and shot second. By the end of the film, I was properly doused in Spielberg’s particular brand of saccharine, and I savoured every moment. Spielberg is superb at historical drama (<b>Schindler’s List</b>, <b>Munich</b>), but here his focus is less on history and more on humanity. Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, Steven Spielberg’s latest epic is a family drama set against the backdrop of the World War I. It’s a stunning looking film, shot as usual by Spielberg’s right hand man Janusz Kaminsi, and scored by the legendary John Williams. Again Spielberg explores a favourite theme, the return home, but this time he anchors the narrative around a noble horse instead of a human character. That said, in the figure of Albert (Jeremy Irvine) the recurrent character of the young male innocent returns, as does the father who cannot be trusted (Peter Mullan) and the sensitive mother (Emily Watson). The film also has Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Niels Arestrup in smaller but important roles.</div>
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So it’s the familiar Spielberg film of virtuous youthful faith and belief, but told from the position of Joey the horse. <b>War Horse</b> follows Joey as he leaves his home and becomes a participant in World War I as he moves from owner to owner. The film builds to an ending that depends so much on coincidence and chance that it can only happen in a Spielberg film, and he’s a master at emotion for those susceptible to it. I’m sure that some thorough psychoanalysis can shed light on my readiness to be exhilarated by the infamous filmmaker, but for the moment I’ll say that the masterful final images are perfectly constructed moments of affect as well as tributes to another classical master in cinema history. </div>
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With references to <b>A Nightmare on Elm Street</b>, an opening
scene-setter featuring Gary Busey and bringing David Hasselhoff in for support, <b>Piranha 3DD</b>, the sequel
to last year’s moderate hit 3D horror, has fewer stars, a lower budget and a
less competent director who doesn’t allow things to go completely off the rails
during the bloody climax (admittedly, this could be due to budget constraints).
Set in a water park no that the lake from the first film has become a quarantined wasteland, <b>Piranha 3DD</b> has a bunch of horny teenagers up their genitals in blood
and mayhem when the prehistoric piranha make a return. Mercifully clocking in
at only 79 minutes, <b>Piranha 3DD</b> is exploitative and gratuitous, and not in a good
way. The film gets most of the nudity out of the way its opening minutes, and
from there on there are many budget-restoring underwater piranha POV shots as
the aquatic critters go for heels, hands, breasts and, once again, penises.
While the film has enough gore for horror hounds, it is devoid of ideas. In
other words, it’s pretty much what you expect from a film called <b>Piranha 3DD.</b> It
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Writer-actor Brit Marling, so impressive in<b> Another Earth</b>, stars in <b>The Sound of My Voice</b> as Maggie, a sickly woman claiming to be from the future where living in America is a daily struggle for food and survival. She presents herself as someone who can train people to prepare for this dark future. So
convincing is her story that she’s become nothing less than a minor cult
leader. A teacher (Christopher Denham) and his girlfriend (Nicole Vicius) enter the cult with the
prerogative to film a documentary expose on Maggie and her clan. <b>The Sound of
my Voice</b> plays with the absurdity of Maggie’s tales of time travel and what
future America looks like, and as can be expected draws you in to believe some
of her stories only to have you later shake your head at the impossibility of it all.
The science fiction element (the possibility of time travel) is even less
prevalent here than in <b>Another Earth</b> (literally another Earth appearing close
to our own), and <b>The Sound of my Voice</b> seems more prone to actively avoid
spectacle. The result is a quiet, claustrophobic drama that is far more
successful in exploring cult psychology than the over hyped <b>Martha Marcy May
Marlene</b>. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-6492541805210989072012-12-19T22:18:00.000-08:002012-12-19T22:18:37.410-08:00Capsules: the ghost, the bear, the MMA champ<div style="text-align: justify;">
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James Watkins’s <b>The Woman in Black</b> is an old fashioned ghost story unconcerned with the post-adolescent thirst for bloody carnage, putting atmosphere above gore and playing with tragedy rather than troublesome suburban poltergeists. Daniel Radcliffe carries most of the film alone as a young lawyer, Arthur, recently widowed, who treks to a remote part of the English country to settle the affairs of an estate. But he’s not alone in the old deserted mansion where no-one else is willing to set foot, and how is it that so many children have died in the nearby village? This is a horror for audiences who understand horror to be about tragedy coated with the supernatural, not drowned in blood. As a remake of a Hammer studios classic, Watkins succeeds in evoking a sense of dread and grave inevitability as the young lawyer, ably performed by post-Potter Radcliffe, comes to fear for his own safety. It’s an atmospheric, quiet, satisfying horror. </div>
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Here we have another film that seems more concerned with other films than with telling a story itself. Instead of telling an involving and funny story, <b>Ted</b> steadies itself upon other movies, propped up on pop references and cues to make things funny when there’s very little happening on screen. I’d rather watch <b>Flash Gordon</b> again than watch <b>Ted </b>again. Between the <b>Saturday Night Fever</b> reference (or rather an <b>Airplane!</b> reference) and many other winks at better films, the film plods along with an odd and misguided stalking subplot thrown in featuring Giovanni Ribisi. I’ve seen <b>Ted</b> described as transgressive and subversive, but the film is the same-old-same-old story about friendship that we’ve seen a hundred times, even if the titular character is a marijuana smoking foul mouthed teddy bear. Indeed, contemporary American cinema’s celebration of the persistence of adolescence has become quite tedious, and despite a few genuine laughs – including an inspired jab at a <b>Twilight</b> cast member – and excellent visual effects, <b>Ted</b> is neither refreshing not intelligent comedy entertainment. Creator Seth McFarlane’s television work, mainly <b>Family Guy</b>, provide better material. </div>
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<b>Haywire</b>, Steven Soderbergh’s first foray into mainstream action (accepting that his <b>Oceans</b> movies are lightweight capers, not action films) is a sombre, yellow-hued affair with MMA star Gina Carano starring as Mallory Kane, an employee of a company contracted by the United States government to address sensitive international situations by way of assassination. While Carano is clearly not a strong actor, her physicality more than makes up for often clunky line delivery. <b>Haywire</b> is a female driven <b>Bourne</b> but stripped of spectacle and with Soderbergh’s trademark restrained editing. As a result, the combat scenes are exciting without being exaggerated or indulgent. <b>Haywire</b> tells a simple story but in Soderbergh’s hands it becomes (momentarily) cerebral. The film features Ewan MacGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas and Bill Paxton. Fans of <b>The Expendables 2</b> need not apply.</div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-2046570493476100922012-12-18T11:18:00.001-08:002012-12-18T11:18:11.276-08:00The new word in redundancy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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While the first film had its retro-charms by paying homage to the conservative political simplicity of 1980s action cinema, <b>The Expendables 2</b> is a rambling mess. It’s even more self-aware than the first film, with even worse CGI visual effects, and without Mickey Rourke to add some redneck gravitas. Instead, we have painful-to-watch scenes where Dolph Lundgren’s Gunnar Jensen attempts to flirt with sole female addition Maggie (Nan Yu); paternal bonding between Sylvester Stallone’s Barney and newcomer Liam Hemsworth’s sniper Bill the Kid; and villainous Jean-Clade van Damme looking, in one particular close-up, like he belongs in formaldehyde in Roswell. <br />
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Back in slightly larger roles this time are Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, which sees them quoting each other’s movies. Instead of knowing and funny, it comes across as sad and desperate. Jet Li disappears after the action front loaded opening scenes, but Chuck Norris pops up (literally) once or twice at opportune moments, a familiar piece of music indicating his presence. The decision to play the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to introduce Norris is a mystery – he’s no Clint Eastwood, and no Man With No Name either. <br />
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Norris looks so cheerful in the midst of the tedious mayhem that he makes the rest of cast seem comatose, especially Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas, who often speaks to his love interest over the phone, much to the irritation of both Barney and the viewer. There seems to be a suggestion that something will come of Barney’s notion that Christmas should not become involved with someone who’s been unfaithful to him, but all it does is serve as an indication of male insecurity in matters where grenades and mortar attacks aren’t helpful. While machismo and testosterone-driven male banter was at the centre of much of the first film, at least it never distracted one from the main plot. </div>
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Speaking of which: The Expendables are on a mission that goes wrong, and then they want revenge on those involved. Something like that. It’s a simple set-up for action overload, but much of the action is badly staged, and CGI blood has seldom seemed more obvious. <b>The Expendables 2</b> continues the American Saviour motif present in 1980s action cinema but doesn’t have the decency to have ironic fun with the notion. On the good side: Terry Crews’s Hale Caeser returns with more to do this time, as does Randy Couture, who has the good sense to keep his mouth shut for nearly the entire film. Between the blood, smoke, stiff limbs and aging egos, <b>The Expendables 2</b> is a grating bore.</div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-70202647116838503632012-12-18T11:14:00.001-08:002012-12-18T11:14:41.078-08:00Return of the RingNote: I saw <b>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</b> projected at 24 fps in 3D. The 24 fps was fine, the 3D superfluous.<br />
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Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth is delightful. Where <b>Lord of the Rings</b> told a major story with nothing less than the fate of the known world at stake, <b>The Hobbit</b> recounts a tale much smaller in scale. This gives Jackson, Philippa Booyens, Fran Walsh and Guillermo del Toro (who ceded directing duties to Jackson) the opportunity to play with and expand Tolkien’s universe. While <b>The Hobbit</b> is not the ground-breaking fantasy epic <b>Lord of the Rings</b> was, Jackson clothes the story with whimsy and populates it with endearing heroes. Actually, just seeing Gandalf and Gollum back on screen are alone certainly worth the effort both in terms of revisiting major fantasy characters as well as the visual effects and make-up used for each. <br /><br />That’s what’s going to make the crucial difference between joy and disappointment: whether or not one accepts <b>The Hobbit</b> as a delightful three-hour indulgence in glorious fantasy for the filmmakers and the audience. Anyone looking for something to top <b>Lord of the Rings</b> in terms of scope and sheer adventure will come away disappointed. <b>The Hobbit</b> is best seen as a family friendly companion piece to Jackson’s magnum opus from the previous decade. Seen in this way, there’s nothing frivolous about the film, and then the long exposition will enthral, not infuriate, as peace-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is called to adventure by wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) in a quest to join a selection of dwarves headed by Aragorn-substitute Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) as they set off to reclaim their ancestral home and heritage from the dragon Smaug. <br /><br />It’s a basic story, then, and Jackson and co stretch a single novel into another nine-hour epic, with parts two and three coming out in 2013 and 2014. Many have accused the film of being unnecessarily bloated and overlong, but I found myself won over by the film’s charms, from a beautiful rendition of the “Song of the Misty Mountains” that becomes a key motif in Howard Shore’s score, to touching moments between Gandalf and Galadriel (the eternally luminous Cate Blanchett) and spectacular flashbacks that flesh out characters’ backgrounds. The story also introduces another wizard, the fauna and flaura loving Radagast the Brown who adds another dimension to the story and makes it seem a little less contained. In addition, Gollum has never looked better, and once again Andy Serkis makes the character homicidal and sympathetic. </div>
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Speaking of villainous characters: the film cleverly avoids any revealing views of Smaug but manages to establish the dragon as a figure of immense power. <b>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</b> will frustrate those looking for fast action, and the film is far less dark than its predecessors, opting instead for a familiar sense of questing and derring do. The film falters slightly with a clumsily conceived troll scene and there’s a bit of pandering to younger viewers, but <b>The Hobbit</b> manages enough excitement – especially in its final hour – to make up for some occasional and minor missteps.</div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-6669392911025378112012-12-17T02:33:00.003-08:002012-12-17T02:33:58.264-08:00PTSD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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British filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s second film opens as a domestic drama located in the financial insecurity of the recession-struck UK. An ostensibly upper middle-class couple bicker about how to spend the money they have left; he spends their cash on wine, and she reminds him that he didn’t even remember to pick up some toilet paper. By the start of the third act of the film, <b>Kill List</b> has completely become a horror film, with every image drenched in despair. This is one of those films that you know from early on cannot end well for some of those involved. </div>
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Jay (Neill Maskell), a former soldier still bitter about his tour of duty in Iraq, is now a contract killer. With this kind of profession, it helps that his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) did a stint of her own in the Swedish army. With financial pressures being what they are Jay agrees to join his mate Gal (Michael Smiley) on his next job. They get a kill list with three individuals indicated as targets; each is introduced with large white latters splashed across a black screen. The money they get paid to take out these individuals is considerable, and their need for financial security is pressing. When Jay’s credit card is declined at a hotel, this point is underscored. Gal is increasingly concerned about this particular contract – why, for instance, does a victim thank them before he is killed? - whereas Jay, enraged by what he sees in the home of one target, becomes irrationally driven to complete the contract. </div>
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What happens after signals a considerable shift in expectations, if not in tone. Even from the opening scenes depicting the day-to-day and the tensions in Jay and Shels marriage, there’s a discomforting sense of foreboding which later translates into terror. Wheatley makes the family’s domestic existence seem as hostile as the contract killers’ work environment. The film’s leap from suspense drama to hard thriller and horror is entirely justifiable. In its final act, the film pays homage to specific thrillers and horrors that inspired it, and to elaborate on how Wheatley uses those texts to inform his own would spoil too much of the plot. </div>
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In telling the story of the two hit men with dark pasts and darker futures, <b>Kill List</b> is at once an exploration of the psychological tension experienced by those involved in warfare, tensions that don’t stay on the battlefield, and a brutal genre film that ranks as one of the year’s most uncomfortable viewing experiences. </div>
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Not to go off on a tangent, but I’m sometimes asked why one would watch and recommend “uncomfortable” viewing experiences. While I agree that one has to be cautious what one exposes oneself to – I will probably never watch <b>A Serbian Film</b>, for example – a film like <b>Kill List</b> is worth seeing because it does what it does without resorting to gratuity. It’s a disturbing film because of a committed cast, a writer-director who knows his genre heritage and cinematography by Laurie Rose that makes random night skies into harbingers of doom. The film succeeds on its own merits, and when it indeed becomes uncomfortable, it’s well earned. <b>Kill List </b>is not for sensitive viewers, but if you can get through the long exposition and appreciate the character rich first act, genre fans will not be disappointed. Everyone else should steer clear. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-26459042669739870072012-12-17T02:20:00.001-08:002012-12-17T02:20:50.511-08:00Capsules: the spider, the suit, the white girlSome capsule reviews: <b>The Amazing Spider-Man</b>, <b>Men in Black III</b> and <b>Snow White and the Huntsman</b>. <br />
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Coming barely ten years after the release of the first Sam Raimi-directed <b>Spider-Man</b> with Tobey Maguire, Marc Webb’s (<b>500 Days of Summer</b>) more focused and less corny reboot casts Andrew Garfield as the webslinger/Peter Parker and Emma Stone as love interest Gwen Stacey. The usually comedic Rhys Ifans co-stars as the villainous Dr Curt Connors, a colleague of Peter’s late father who busies himself with controversial cross-species biological research. While I had no issue with Maguire’s Parker, Garfield is more adept at being socially awkward, and Webb doesn’t pile on the close-ups like Raimi did. While the new film lacks iconic imagery (consider the first trilogy’s upside down kiss in the rain), as a whole it is dramatic enough and sufficiently humorous to stand as an equal to the earlier films. While I cannot comment on its cinematic showing, <b>The Amazing Spider-Man</b> looks incredible in Blu-Ray, with the main creature effects surprisingly convincing. Despite their familiarity, the characters don’t feel worn out and even the obligatory swinging sequences have a freshness to them. Rumours about the film’s lack of ingenuity are definitely exaggerated. </div>
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There’s always been something cute about the <b>Men in Black</b> universe. The series offers numerous interesting and repulsive aliens secreting all sorts of oozes and juices, and the very existence of planet Earth is always in the balance, yet it’s all so light and breezy that one can only smile at the entire endeavour. Between wanton destruction and ludicrous human-alien interaction, the films have always felt, appropriately, like a pre-Ben 10 era Saturday morning cartoon. For those who still find this rather science-less science fiction universe appealing, <b>Men in Black 3</b> is a highly enjoyable comedic romp again featuring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as J and K (returning with director Barry Sonnenfield). With some time travel thrown in for good measure, <b>MIB 3</b> brings the series to a satisfying end by addressing a recurring theme while delivering the usual mix of one-liners and alien designs. The highlight of the film, though, is Josh Brolin’s young Agent K; Brolin does a perfect version of a younger Tommy Lee Jones. For fans of the series only. </div>
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Director Rupert Sanders’s retelling of the fairy tale in <b>Snow White and the Huntsman </b>makes its heroine into a feisty, battle-ready female (played by a decidedly alive Kristen Stewart) as Snow White joins forces with the good natured dwarves (including, to my eternal delight, Ian McShane) to overthrow the rule of the evil queen, played by Charlize Theron. The beautiful Oscar winning actress makes the queen-cum-stepmother creature of vanity, desperation and despair, and it’s the highlight of the film. Chris Hemsworth co-stars as the titular Huntsman, and just when it looks like it’s going to become a romantic epic, Sanders keeps things unexpectedly sombre, keeping the emphasis on moody fantasy rather than glittering heroes and their chins. </div>
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<b>Snow White and the Huntsman</b> is a dark (isn’t everything these days?) version of the tale that benefits mostly from Theron’s presence, an array of impressive visual effects and a lively pace that make for an exciting if somewhat familiar adventure. I have to say though, if I have to see one more shot of a VFX monsters opening its jaws and screaming into the camera I will not be able to stifle the yawn. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-86932348259606680772012-12-17T02:10:00.000-08:002012-12-17T02:10:03.114-08:00Liberation across the ages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A film of great ambition and scope, <b>Cloud Atlas</b>, an adaptation of David Mitchell’s popular novel, is a rousing tale of love, kindness, and the greater good. Didn’t like the book? Then stay away: the film amplifies the novel’s themes of love and (im)mortality tenfold. If you didn’t buy it in the book, you won’t buy it in the film. This is a story so big that it took two directorial forces to oversee the project. On the one hand, the Wachowskis (brother Andy and sister Lana, best known for their <b>Matrix</b> movies) bring their particular SF aesthetic to the film, while Germany’s Tom Tykwer (<b>Run Lola Run</b>, <b>Heaven</b>) injects his parts of the story with alternately pleasant frivolity and dramatic weight, as appropriate. Altogether the film makes for a sensory journey across time and space that is at times very funny and at others devastating. <br />
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As those who have read the book will know, <b>Cloud Atlas</b> is much concerned with various intersecting plotlines. The film does the same, but does not follow the book’s order and structure to a point; for instance, the film introduces a bookending device that is not in the book, and, for the film, it works. The cast – mainly Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Ben Whishaw, Doona Bae and Hugh Grant – reappear in different shapes and guises throughout the film. Hanks, for example, is a physician on a ship exploring the Pacific islands in one story, but a gangster-turned-writer in another and later again he’s a post-apocalyptic island inhabitant. There is no attempt to disguise the actors; they appear in make-up as different characters, but it’s mostly always clear who we are looking at. Depending on whether you’re fine with this set-up, the film either works or becomes ridiculous. I align myself with the former position. <br />
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<b>Cloud Atlas</b> tells the stories of Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess) who bears witness to inequality and exploitation in the Pacific and of an elderly publisher (Jim Broadbent) with bad debt who ends up in his worst nightmare. There is also futuristic tale set in consumer-driven Neo-Seoul, where a fabricant (Doona Bae) comes to consciousness. And in the 1970s, a reporter (Halle Berry) investigates large-scale corporate criminal activity that threatens her life. A personal favourite is the story of a young composer, Frobischer (Ben Whishaw), who as the assistant to acclaimed Scottish composer Vyvyan Ayrs (Broadbent again) begins to develop his own piece of music, which he calls the “Cloud Atlas Sextet”. It is a musical motif that accompanies much of the film.<br />
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With its emphasis on a collective humanity throughout the ages, I wasn’t bowled over by the film's spiritual truths, but I was overwhelmed by the characters’ commitment to these truths. In the end, <b>Cloud Atlas</b> – its very existence logistically and industrially mind boggling – is bold, theme driven storytelling that flat-out ignores the often popular cynical disdain for cinematic depictions of sentiment and goodness. Indeed, <b>Cloud Atlas</b> shows the latter forces as integral for the continuation of the species. Also, acts of revolution can be brought about through kindness and human engagement much more so than statistical analysis and mind-numbing Powerpoint presentations. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-29124281503737493512012-12-14T19:46:00.001-08:002012-12-14T19:48:09.371-08:00The Bond Identity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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With <b>Skyfall</b>, the Craig-era reinvention of the infamous British spy James Bond has come to a full. The grittier, more grounded and eventually wounded Bond that was introduced in the electric <b>Casino Royale</b> and remained committed to his search for international terrorists in <b>Quantum of Solace</b> has matured into <b>Skyfall</b>, an intelligent Bond film that points to the character’s past as much as it establishes what lies ahead for Bond in future iterations. At the crux of the events in the film stands M (Judi Dench), Bond’s aide across the years. After a rousing opening scene which sets off the events to come, M is held accountable for a major lapse in international security when a list of undercover NATO agents ends up in the hands of a terrorist. <br />
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This terrorist goes by the name of Silva and is played by a blonde-haired and terrifying (for a Bond villain) Javier Bardem. Bardem is well known for his turn as the agent of order, Anton Chigurgh, in <b>No Country for Old Men</b>, and here he creates another memorable antagonist. There seems to be a personal vendetta at play here, as if Bond is caught in the middle between a dangerous Silva and vulnerable M. Complicating matters is government representative Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) and another intelligence agent (Naomie Harris) who has a hand in steering Bond’s life in a particular direction. As the new Q, Ben Whishaw (<b>Cloud Atlas</b>) doesn’t have much screen time but he makes the most of it; his banter with 007 in an art gallery is highly amusing. <br />
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<b>Skyfall</b> sometimes looks like an art film, as if the acclaimed director Sam Mendes is committed to aesthetically reinvigorating Bond. <b>Casino Royale</b> was tropical, colourful; <b>Quantum</b> was filled with browns, greys and blacks. <b>Skyfall</b> has a more balanced colour template until the second half heralds an increase in darker, muted colours. Mendes, who garnered critical acclaim for his films <b>American Beauty</b>, <b>Road to Perdition</b> and <b>Revolutionary Road</b>, gives us Bond at his most introspective yet. It’s as far removed from Roger Moore’s Bond as can be imagined as Craig plays Bond with a weight equal to Timothy Dalton. As filmed by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, some scenes from <b>Skyfall</b> take on a life of their own: Silva against an illuminated background in the dead of night; M’s sense of isolation at a crucial moment; an ocean of lanterns. <br />
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But my favourite scene of all is a fight scene that is symptomatic of the film’s overall aesthetic success: a compact hand-to-hand fight scene with Bond and his opponent etched in silhouette against a changing wall of colour in Shanghai, their movements framed and flanked by sheets of glass. In a scene like that – in many ways the opposite of the spectacular opening scene - the fighting becomes more than that just two men grappling. This scene is shot in a single take for most part; there are no quick cutaways to elbows and knees to frustrate the viewer. Everything happens in front of our eyes in a fluid, clear and bracing manner. This stands in contrast to the norm for action cinema today, for instance, in the hyperkinetic and self-conscious editing found in the <b>Bourne</b> movies. <br />
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As I pointed out above, <b>Skyfall</b> differs in some way from most contemporary action cinema, and it’s also different from most Bonds. For one thing, there is the notable absence of a proper Bond girl, though Naomie Harris comes close. For another, the film feels contained. While the film features exotic locations (Shanghai, Macau) the brunt of the film is located in the UK. It’s as if the entire franchise, not just Bond, sought to reconsider and re-establish its relationship with queen and country. It makes sense that its climax would concern only a specific group of characters and be located in a very specific, significant place. As for the film’s preoccupation with age and aging (the redundancy of old technology and the shelf life of active field agents are addressed), <b>Skyfall</b> acknowledges the past by bringing it into perfect alignment with Bond’s future; the film’s closing scenes should have Bond fans applauding. <br />
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<b>Skyfall</b> is a superb Bond entry. I'm not yet certain that it is the best of the series, as many have hyperbolically claimed, but it is certainly in the ranks of <b>Casino Royale</b> and <b>Goldfinger</b>. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-11143640670649237642012-12-09T22:35:00.001-08:002012-12-09T22:37:37.219-08:00Of bongs and bear traps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Written by fanboy favourite Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard, <b>Cabin in the Woods</b> is a halfway successful unravelling of horror film conventions. By the end, it’s three movies in one (survival horror; postmodernist horror; apocalyptic horror), and not one of those really gets its due. While certainly one of the better recent horrors of recent times – and certainly one of the funniest – it’s not nearly the genre reconstruction its rabid fans make it out to be. Please note that for reasons of spoiler sensitivity I will provide only the most basic plot set-ups, basically recounting what happens during the film’s opening scenes. </div>
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The film opens with a stroke of genius: Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), dressed like two mid-level businessmen, have an important job to do. They like their job, which consists of various administrative responsibilities, and take pride in doing it well. Meanwhile, four teenagers (including Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly and Fran Kranz) set off to a cabin in the woods for some post-adolescent debauchery. Soon after their arrival, they realise that all is not well at the cabin, and that their lives might be at stake. </div>
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So far, so horror formula, but Whedon’s take on what happens but also how it happens is rather refreshing. <b>Cabin in the Woods</b> is considerably meta; not only does the film explicitly foreground the beat-by-beat mechanics of the genre, it implicates the audience in what’s happening on screen. It’s no coincidence that the opening titles reference Haneke’s <b>Funny Games</b> (the Austrian’s film is far more terrifying and sophisticated). There is one scene in particular that succeeds in creating exquisite discomfort in the viewer, as a moment of celebration and a moment of bloody murder occurring simultaneously in the same frame. </div>
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To be sure, <b>Cabin in the Woods</b> has its highlights: there’s a tense game of truth or dare that ends in a cross-species flirtation; the wonderful use of a marijuana bong; some inventive creatures appear in the third act. By the climax, though, the story goes much too big, and the ending is best described as deafeningly anticlimactic. As good as the film is, it cannot help but collapse under its own weight, and the final shot should never have made it past the editing room. <b>Cabin in the Woods</b> has been described as a game changer, but it isn’t. Despite its initial silliness and eventual gore overload (both of which are entirely appropriate for the genre), the film overplays its hand and overstays its welcome.</div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-86464641652221869402012-12-04T02:37:00.001-08:002012-12-04T02:37:45.318-08:00Iranian tour de force <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In a behind-the-scenes interview on the Artificial Eye DVD, Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi says that the camera sees not only the face, but also what goes on behind it, inside the mind. Farhadi’s tense drama <b>A Separation</b>, winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Film, shows and reveals what it has to in its characters' faces while keeping the viewer in the dark as to what route events will take. This is a film without grand gestures and rousing speeches about the importance of truth, yet the entire film asks exactly what the nature of truth is. <br />
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Nader (Peyman Mooadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) agree to separate in the film’s opening scene. From there we see them make arrangements for living separately, she at her mother’s while he remains in his apartment where he takes care of his Alzheimer’s afflicted father. Their 11-year old daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) stays with Nader for the time being, hoping that Simin will return sooner rather than later. Soon we are introduced to another mother, Razieh (Sareh Bayat), who will act as caretaker of Nader’s father while the son’s at work. Simin permits Razieh to bring her young daughter to the apartment when she’s there; maybe the two young girls will keep each other company. </div>
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That is the basic set-up. What ensues is both expected and surprising, and occurs in scenes of quiet, restraint and anger. When I refer to the film as a tense drama, do not make the mistake of anticipating plot twists and character reversals. The film is so tense because the odds are so high and the characters equally compromised. The actors, adults and children, are superb. As Simin, Hatami has a stunning beauty and dramatic weight reminiscent of Juliette Binoche. The verbal face-offs between her and Mooadi are vivid, compelling, discomforting. For all the cultural differences, they could be my neighbours. <br />
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I mentioned that the film is about truth. Simin makes certain accusations of Nader. He does not take her seriously. Who is right, and, more importantly, in what way are they right? When a marriage begins disintegrating after 14 years, who is responsible for what, and can the initial point of deterioration be pinpointed? </div>
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Then something sad happens. Who is to blame? None of the characters here are inherently bad. Life isn’t easy, and all of them are desperate in different ways. How did one individual cause something to happen to someone else? How does one go about proving that such causality was deliberate or not? Privileging the female position, Simin and Termeh, as well as the viewers, attempt to piece together what may pass as truth, some sort of distillation of versions of a single event. </div>
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In this regard, <b>A Separation</b> recalls not only <b>Rashomon</b> but also John Patrick Shanley’s <b>Doubt</b>. In that film, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) observes that simply being certain of something is a sure indicator of truth. That is the way of danger. In <b>A Separation</b>, there is not a scene or shot that does not serve the whole. The film does eventually arrive at a point of truth, but by then we are far more concerned with the complex dynamic that has been established between the characters than with a causal chain. In a controlled manner, the last two scenes are devastating. Only considered, deliberate filmmaking can seem so natural and effortless. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-87894464275177532982012-12-01T09:42:00.004-08:002012-12-01T09:48:42.891-08:00Level Up <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stop me if this sounds familiar: Tama (Ray Sahetapy), a crime lord, has based himself in a run-down, 30-storey building in inner city Jakarta. A police task team is dispatched to take out this man, who in the film’s opening minutes executes a handful of men with such detachments that we cannot help but align with the police. The team is headed by Jaka (Joe Taslim), but the film’s focus is mainly on the physically unimposing Rama (Iko Kuwais), a rookie member of the team. Getting inside the criminal’s hideout is easy, but then bodies start to pile up on both sides and it seems that the job isn’t a simple takedown after all. Even if they get to Tama, he’s guarded by two much feared men, one of whom is appropriately called Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian). <br />
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To say that <b>The Raid</b> is the new pinnacle of Asian action cinema is to say that it takes a familiar set-up (reminiscent of <b>Die Hard</b>, for example), clothes it with the minimum plot and story and then sets out to reconstitute our expectations of what action films can viscerally achieve. The last time physical combat alone elevated a film to near awe-inspired breathlessness, it was <b>Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon</b>. But <b>The Raid </b>and <b>Crouching Tiger</b> are worlds apart; while the latter laces its intrigue with mythology and romance, <b>The Raid</b> has one relentless drive: invigorating action set in closed and confined spaces. What happens in <b>The Raid</b> makes combat choreography in most other genre films seem positively geriatric by example, and the film had me scratching my head, wondering “how did they do that?”, on a number of occasions.</div>
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The film’s detractors will point to the film’s lack of story, and they are not entirely wrong; Rama has a personal motivation for getting this particular job done, but that’s about it. Plus, the twist towards the end is entirely expected. Yet the film is so frenetic and so focused on delivering visceral combat – much like some video games – that the lack of depth is forgivable. Importantly, the action never reaches the level of tedium that has in the past torpedoed many other action films; think of the <b>Ong Bak</b> movies, which have more developed stories than <b>The Raid</b> but are far less memorable. <br />
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Director Gareth Evans, a Welshman, has with <b>The Raid</b> presented an exhilarating entry into contemporary action cinema by taking the genre back to its fist-to-fist basics and injecting it with silat, an Indonesian martial art so fluid and fast it seems to remap the possibilities of the body in violent motion. With its seamless combination of CGI and astounding physical stunt work, <b>The Raid</b> left me breathless. An American remake is already underway. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-33297897584746142502012-11-18T21:12:00.000-08:002012-11-18T21:12:54.507-08:00Birdy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGSpy77RWd_-I2_qF7LpwLVGb-LYkWDUUNKV8T0ju1XBvzjDsOUHedACL-2vPtnelB-xjS7KcIi4c5BeZiSkMOqCWIb-s3UKGiqp5_a_z_KG8286Q6Ih_IK4MTNqF7rTl-doAZBV1HDQ/s1600/Sparrow_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGSpy77RWd_-I2_qF7LpwLVGb-LYkWDUUNKV8T0ju1XBvzjDsOUHedACL-2vPtnelB-xjS7KcIi4c5BeZiSkMOqCWIb-s3UKGiqp5_a_z_KG8286Q6Ih_IK4MTNqF7rTl-doAZBV1HDQ/s320/Sparrow_1.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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Johnnie To can be such a delicate, precise action filmmaker. Consider the ballet on shattered mirrors in <b>Mad Detective</b>; the operatic shootouts in <b>Vengeance</b> that puts Woo to shame. In <b>Sparrow</b>, the filmmaker's most lightweight film in a long time, the uber-prolific To approaches the film with a near lack of gravity. As a result, the stylised film, essentially a crime caper of sorts, is so light - thematically, character wise - it seems to float before your eyes, and I mean that as a compliment. </div>
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Being a small time crook doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Kei (Simon Yam) leads a pleasant life, often meeting with his criminal cohorts in a Hong Kong diner to discuss the day’s activities – a stolen wallet here, a lifted mobile phone there. Often tourists are the most visible, easiest targets. Kei is such a pleasant guy that when a sparrow flies into his apartment, he simply puts his fists in his hips and shakes his head, smiling. But when the beautiful, mysterious Chun Chun Lei (Kelly Lin) shows up, Kei’s world is shaken to its surface (there’s not much of a core). One by one, she coincidentally meets up with each of Kei’s colleagues, which invariably leads to trouble. Then Kei finds out about Chun Chun Lei’s secret, and he has no choice but to get involved in her private life.Kei is a bicycle riding, laid back, reluctant hero; Chun Chun Lei is a stunningly beautiful romantic foil. </div>
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To orchestrates some beautiful scenes: Kei’s infatuation with Chun Lei, initially caputred through a lense; a chase sequence that undermines what one expects from chase sequences; a delightful invocation of <b>The Umbrellas of Cherbourg</b> in a rainy showdown. In this film, unlike in many of To’s other, far more brutal films, the villains are as simultaneously weightless and grounded. Towards the film’s end, one cannot help but think of the main villain as an old man whose time has come, and not as a violent killer. To seems to endow <b>Sparrow</b> with a sense of inconsequentiality: for many of the characters, things will remains as they have for a very long time, regardless of what happens. </div>
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This is To’s playground, and he’s surprisingly gentle; once we know the players, he directs them towards moments of playful deception and even physical comedy. There’s a romantic subplot but not in the way one might think. Between cleverly choreographed set pieces and some light character work, <b>Sparrow</b> is an eminently rewatchable old school crime flick. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-34833430704605458652012-11-12T21:56:00.000-08:002012-11-14T21:39:28.911-08:00Paternity Matters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I could write a combo-review of <b>Saak van Geloof</b> ("A Matter of Faith") and <b>Jakhalsdans</b>. Both are Afrikaans dramas set in sparsely populated, small South African towns. <b>Jakhalsdans</b>, about a reclusive musician who comes out of hiding in support of a school fundraiser, is set in Loxton and directed by Darrell James Roodt (<b>Yesterday</b>, <b>Faith’s Corner</b>). <b>Saak van Geloof</b>, a religious drama about faith and family, is set in Prins Albert and directed by Diony Kempen, who produced <b>Jakhalsdans</b>. Both films are shot by Andrew Tolmay. Both films represent some of the worst that Afrikaans drama has to offer. <br />
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One the one hand, there’s very little to say about <b>Jakhalsdans</b>. It stars Theuns Jordaan and is, to my eternal shock and disbelief, written by well-regarded crime novelist Deon Meyer. It has one of the worst endings in recent memory, a slap in the face of everyone who came to see the film based on its musical promise. It’s all build-up and no pay-off. It took me three attempts to finish the film. It is tedious, badly written, cheap looking and insulting to moviegoers as well as Afrikaans music lovers. The dialogue is as solid as a Karoo rock, by which I mean that it’s heavy, lacking in colour, and that it sinks. <br />
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There’s a little more to say about <b>Saak van Geloof</b>, though not necessarily in a good way. Lelia Etsebeth stars as Marietjie Naude, the daughter of Kallie (Robbie Wessels) and Ella (Riana Nel). Shortly before Christmas, Marietjie tells her parents that she’s pregnant, and that the father is none other than the Holy Spirit. Soon the entire town is gossiping about their own immaculate conception while the Calvinist minister (Niekie van den Berg) attempts an intervention. <br />
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Due to their similar ages, the three main actors look like siblings; whoever cast this film must suffer from a sight impediment. Also, Nel’s performance is the worst – <i>the worst</i> – performance by a female actor in an Afrikaans film I have ever seen. At least Lika Berning got to occasionally look cute in <b>Liefling</b>, and <b>Jakhalsdans</b>’s Elizma Theron, while robotic, at least delivered her lines with a modicum of intent. Granted, the dialogue in <b>Saak van Geloof</b> is horrid. Much of it sounds made-up on the spot. </div>
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I pity the actors for having to wrestle with such bad writing, uninspired plotting and shallow characterisation. The scene where Kallie, having struggled with his faith for a while now, receives an affirmative sign from above is an unintentionally bizarre and funny scene. Miscast and misdirected, the actors stumble from scene to scene aiming at moments of serenity and profundity but arriving at absurdity and foolishness instead. Etsebeth is the only one who delivers something close to a heartfelt performance in spite of how stilted her character often comes across. And Van den Berg’s minister Botha is a clichéd mess prone to over delivery: “This … is a matter… of faith!” Spelling out its themes in capital letters, the film is too simple-minded to offend or stimulate. </div>
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I welcome any film that engages religious discourse in a serious minded, informed manner. Bringing Christian discourse into more contemporary settings can be thought provoking (see Pialat’s <b>Under Satan’s Sun</b>) and fascinating (Dornford-May’s <b>Son of Man</b>), not to mention Denys Arcand's superlative <b>Jesus of Montreal</b>. Anyone venturing into evangelical filmmaking surely knows the company they are in, so why produce such a bland drama? Measured against similarly themed films, <b>Saak van Geloof</b>, with its superficial spiritual veneer and misguided messiah motif, is plain ridiculous. <br />
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(Note: a fun way of watching a movie is to play a drinking game where you take shot of mampoer – and it has to be mampoer - whenever an extra looks into the camera.) </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-16818213003466322412012-11-01T09:05:00.000-07:002012-11-01T09:05:02.821-07:00Dawn is intended literally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Given the saturation with Stephanie Meyer’s young adult franchise, what’s the point of a plot synopsis? Either you know the story and you’re maybe interested in seeing for yourself where things go, or you don’t and you aren’t. For my part, I remain mystified by the franchise’s continued success given as how only two (!) major events happen in this entire film (mild spoiler warning, even though everything was pointed out in the trailer): Bella and Edward’s wedding, and Bella’s surprise pregnancy.<br />
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At least <b>Breaking Dawn Part 1</b> is the best directed entry in the series; credit to Bill Condon in this regard, who provides some spooky imagery, even though the wolves still look far too computer generated to be convincing. Then again, so does Taylor Lautner, who plays the mostly quiet (or verbally stunted) Jacob. Quiet, that is, unless he’s screaming at Bella for what awaits her or threatening the perpetually waxy Edward (Robert Pattinson) for loving Bella. Not even Condon (<b>Gods & Monsters</b>) can completely salvage the vacuous narrative. <br />
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In their fourth film together, these characters still define themselves solely by their relationships with one another. Sure, there are social ripples in their own circles – vampires, werewolves – but you get the feeling that if one of the three main characters were to spontaneously evaporate, the other two would shortly follow. The wedding scene is perfectly fine in an adolescent-fantasy-forest-tree-princess kind of way, while the pregnancy is simply tedious. The child (“It’s a monster!”) is making Bella increasingly ill, and that’s all we see: Bella looking thin and frail like a Tim Burton stop motion character.<br />
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Bella remains on the road to vampiredom as her lamentably tired and depressing character arc still positions her as one who despises her species. I’m still amazed at how one shot of Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) can out-camp <b>Rocky Horror</b>. In this sense, the <b>Twilight</b> movies are not without their pleasures, but none of the four films so far has managed to be even the slightest bit exciting. Having read the novel, I’m also disappointed that this film didn’t translate all the gore from the book into corresponding blood drenched imagery. The <b>Twilight</b> films continue to fail as character dramas as well as supernatural narratives. At least this one has the dubious honour of introducing the worst character name yet though it sacrifices the homoerotic tension from<b> Eclipse</b> for some more preaching on the dangers of sex (have sex once and CARRY YOUR DEMON SPAWN!).Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-56155914384738060592012-11-01T09:04:00.000-07:002012-11-01T09:04:24.045-07:00Artificial sweetener<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Semi-Soet</b> is South Africa’s very first post-transitional Afrikaans romantic comedy in the most Hollywood sense of the word. The leads are attractive, the story improbable, the humour often forced; the locations are breathtakingly beautiful; mistaken identities and misunderstandings abound. The formula is as old as classical cinema itself. Director Joshua Rous does not seek to undermine the formula in any way - the film even has a "wild animal" moment - but his command of the Hollywood romcom form is sure and confident. It's a lightweight mix of <b>A Walk in the Clouds</b> meets <b>The Proposal</b>. </div>
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Jaci van Jaarsveld (Anel Alexander) works for the ad company Mojo. To her boss’s (Corine du Toit) concern, a corporate cannibal nicknamed The Jackal (Nico Panagio) has indicated that he wants to buy out the company, which leads to large scale retrenchment. When The Jackal arrives for a meeting with Mojo, Jaci mistakes him for someone else and before you know it, Jaci and her corporate nemesis are on their way to a romantic business weekend (!) at Vrede & Rust wine estate. </div>
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In tow are the obligatory supporting characters, with Sandra Vaughn as Jaci’s chirpy sidekick and Louw Venter as Hertjie, The Jackal’s lawyer colleague who here poses as a gay stylist. <b>7de Laan</b>’s Diaan Lawrenson also appears as Jaci’s ex-boyfriend’s (Paul du Toit) current squeeze, the dim Chadrie. Although her character has little to do, seeing as she plays the consummate blonde bimbo, Lawrenson has one of the film’s best timed comic reactions. <br />
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Speaking of stereotypes: how unfortunate that <b>Semi-Soet </b>would resort to so many of them, especially of the gay variety. Surely there’s a romantic comedy that can work without indulging redundant gender stereotypes? So much of the film offers a viable Afrikaans complement to American romcoms that such a major misstep is indeed disheartening. Jodi Abrahams is a fine actor (he was one of the highlights in the TV series Hard Copy), and his talents are wasted as he prances around as an camp model agent. <br />
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If you’ve seen a couple of American romcoms you know what to expect, but to their credit the creative team keeps the film engaging for most of its running time (starting with some inventive opening credits). As the film nears its end, things get too farfetched and simultaneously old fashioned as the film utilises the type of plot developments that characterised much of 1990s sitcom fare. Regardless, the film puts some of its American contemporaries to shame; it beats genre prototypical drivel like<b> How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days</b> with ease.<br />
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Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-12925401835373807272012-10-23T22:43:00.002-07:002012-10-23T22:43:46.103-07:00Verlange<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Katinka Heyns’s first film in well over a decade, <b>Die Wonderwerker</b> (<i>The Miracle Worker</i>), is an engaging character drama built around a specific period in the life of South African poet and naturalist Eugene Marais (1871-1936), played here by Dawid Minnaar in one of the best performances of his career. <b>Die Wonderwerker</b> also provides Eliza Cawood with some powerful scenes where she mostly underplays much of the character Maria’s anxieties, and while many have complained about Anneke Weideman’s Jane, I have to admit that I was neither blown away nor offended by her performance. The way some people talk about her you’d swear the character is expected to be an essayist whose tour de force on Darwin got published at puberty instead of the immature 19-year old farm girl the film gives us. <br /><br />En route to Nylstroom, Marais arrives on the Van Rooyen farm with malaria and the family take him in to see to his recovery. Marais’s presence intensifies tensions that are already present: Maria and her husband Gys (Marius Weyers) have not seen eye to eye for a while, and their son Adriaan (Kaz McFadden) has an unhealthy interest in young Jane Brayshaw, the Van Rooyens' adopted daughter. As these characters turn to each other Marais turns mostly to himself – he is addicted to morphine – until he starts to see Jane as possibly more than just a young girl. <br /><br />Koos Roets, recipient of a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Cape Winelands Film Festival, remains a consummate cinematographer; <b>Die Wonderwerker </b>looks great, with a deeper colour depth than many other Afrikaans films. And how refreshing to see an Afrikaans film that does not feature that annoying sped-up day-to-darkness shots to indicate the passage of time. <br /><br />I have major issues with Heyns’s previous work, and this film isn’t flawless, but it’s as if all of her films have lead to this moment: while the earlier films tick most of the features of old fashioned classical filmmaking, <b>Die Wonderwerker</b> is superb classical filmmaking. This film is far more successful at mastering this approach to storytelling than <b>Roepman</b>. Between all the formulaic storytelling and moments of indulgent exposition, Heyns delivers a memorable portrait of Marais constructed around her favourite theme: the outsider who brings turmoil and change into the Afrikaans nuclear family. <br /><br />It’s a very specific portrait of Marais, and listening to people’s responses to the character construction I was reminded of Roger Ebert’s lukewarm review of <b>Iris</b>¸ the biopic of Iris Murdoch that I quite liked. To paraphrase Ebert: <b>Iris</b> is a wonderful film, but it’s not about the Iris he knew and loved. I suspect the same applies to <b>Die</b> <b>Wonderwerker</b>: it’s a depiction of Marais that may not positively correspond with how many see and appreciate the historical figure. Nonetheless, even those unmoved by the film’s version of Marais should recognise that between some over manipulative moments, <b>Die Wonderwerker</b> has greater emotional resonance than any of Heyns’s previous films.It is one of the best Afrikaans language films of the past few years. </div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-49730587135531108362012-10-08T05:13:00.001-07:002012-10-08T22:16:35.827-07:00The Howling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Wolwedans in die Skemer</b>, the new Afrikaans thriller directed by Jozua Malherbe, starts with an intriguing premise based on memory loss and past and present trauma but becomes increasingly dependent on genre clichés towards the end. In spite of some interesting revelations towards the climax, the film falls flat on a narrative level; on a technical level, some cinematographic flair injects the visuals with some dynamism.<br />
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<i>(minor possible spoilers follow) </i></div>
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Sonja Daneel (Rolanda Marais) loses her memory in a car crash. The management of the local Hotel Njala take her in, given that she was on her way to start working there as receptionist when the accident occurred. Of the hotel staff, Adele (Desire Gardiner) is cold and corporate; her sister Maggie (Lelia Etsebeth) is a sensitive, quiet counter; their father Jan (Andre Roothman) is strangely distanced and estranged from the mother (Riana Wilkens). The tour guide Ryno (David Louw) is a bit of a player; girls seem to clamour for his attention. He has eye on Adele, but Sonja’s arrival provides a new point of interest. In addition to Sonja, a red-hooded, axe-wielding figure also makes his appearance at Hotel Njala. </div>
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The film looks good, has an attractive cast and a beautiful Hazyview
setting. I don’t feel qualified in commenting on the acting except to
say that the actors do what they can with thinly drawn characters: Adele
is Cold, Jan is Eccentric, Maggie is Soft, and Sonja is Absent. We
never really get to align ourselves with Sonja since she is such a passive character. For someone who repeatedly states that she doesn't know who she is, she does not seem too focused on finding out. Paradoxically, Ryno is
the most rounded character, yet there is no clear reason why
numerous girls would be so interested in him. He’s amiable enough, but the motivation behind Adele's evident infatuation remains a bit of a mystery. </div>
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Given how <b>Wolwedans</b> is framed as a thriller the film is bizarrely inert, balancing romance (an attempted love triangle), family drama and thriller conventions. It's the latter that causes some problems: for example, the hooded killer suddenly appears in front of the camera and is accompanied every time by an explosion of musical cues. (In his heyday, M. Night Shyamalan as well as Spanish filmmakers Alejandro
Amenabar and JS Bayona demonstrated the power of musical restraint
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Such reliance on overly familiar genre conventions make the film seem somewhat dated and compromises its suspense. Indeed, the film could have worked as a powerful period thriller – think <b>Red Riding Trilogy</b> – with Sonja’s amnesia and the killings set against the backdrop of politically tumultuous South Africa. Why, after all the self-aware genre commentary of <b>Scream</b> and other titles from the pre-torture porn 1990s thriller-horror revival, and also in the aftermath of <b>The Descent</b>,<b> Wolwedans</b> still uses some of the same visual and narrative devices that those films decried. </div>
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To illustrate: thrillers often feature the damsel in distress running away from her killer. To the exasperation of the audience, two things happen. Firstly, the fleeing girl runs to the least safe place available (that is, away from light, away from crowds) instead of to somewhere safe and populated. Secondly, the girl’s pursuer walks while the intended victim runs. Finally, both end up in the same place within seconds of one another. Then, having cornered the intended victim, the killer does not proceed to just kill the victim but first engages the victim in some expository conversation; Roger Ebert refers to this as the fallacy of the talking killer.<br />
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<b>Wolwedans</b> is too reliant on such conventions in creating tension, and it undermines the impact of the revelations accompanying the ending. That said, the ending is unpredictable enough and delivers exciting moments that demonstrates some considerable acting skills. </div>
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All in all, as a locally produced genre film, the polished <b>Wolwedans in die Skemer</b> is a vast improvement on <a href="http://24truth24lies.blogspot.com/2011/08/south-african-horror-has-blood-no.html" target="_blank"><b>Night Drive</b></a> even if it too does not invigorate the thriller genre.</div>
Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-443279915176046375.post-9404340049730099362012-09-17T22:49:00.000-07:002012-09-17T22:49:03.797-07:00Once there was a Hushpuppy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />With its leafy aesthetic, its portrayal of the human in relationship and in resistance to nature, and a major claim for cinematic realism, Benh Zeitlin’s <b>Beasts of the Southern Wild</b> is eventually less than the sum of its parts. There are only so many times the camera can linger on a young girl’s face or glide restlessly across the trees before I realised that the film is not at all the masterpiece much loved by many, but rather a fetishisation of the child’s role in a nature myth. I had a similar experience with <b>Where the Wild Things Are</b>, Spike Jonze’s tedious child fantasy movie, and like that film, <b>Beasts</b> feels at once strangely overlong and underwritten. <br /><br />Six-year old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) and her father Wink (Dwight Henry) are residents of the Bathtub, a community of normative exiles gathered on an island just off the New Orleans coast, hidden (so they think) behind the levees that separate civilisation from their community. Some reviewers suggest that the characters here are people who are close to nature - and in the film’s beautiful opening scene, Hushpuppy makes that impression utterly vivid – but often they are simply drunk. Hushpuppy’s mother left a long time ago, and Wink, prone to moments of abuse as much as misguided care where he masculinises his young daughter, isn’t a consistently attentive father. Then Hushpuppy hears about global warming, and imagines mythical aurochs breaking free from the ice caps to walk the earth. When flooding becomes a very real threat to the Bathtub, Hushpuppy will be more reliant on one another than ever before, whether Wink is prepared for it or not. <br /><br />Riding waves of acclaim all the way from Sundance earlier this year, the film drifts from one scene to the next until it all finally ends in the way you exactly suspected it would. The notion of death is introduced early on, and the film does little that is creative in its approach to the theme. In addition, the Bathtub community is uninteresting and the story gives the characters very little to do, with Zeitlin milking Willis’s young face for effect in reaction shot after reaction shot. Using a child protagonist to frame the story (complete with some voice over narration) is a tricky business at the best of times, and yet some majestic films have opened up the world through children’s eyes: <b>The 400 Blows, City of God, Cinema Paradiso</b>. In <b>Beasts</b>, Willis’s face simply becomes the emotional crux of the film. Both Willis and Henry, who runs a bakery and here makes his debut, give solid performances and share at least one riveting, emotional scene that involves more than just Hushpuppy’s wide eyes. <br /><br /><b>Beasts</b> is also one of those films that mistakes “immediacy” for “hand held camera”. The one does not by default imply the other. Filmic immersion is earned through character, not waving a camera around and seeing what you come up with. I wanted to grab Zeitlin by his neck and say: stop moving. Put down your camera. Show me what’s worth seeing so that it’s clear, not fuzzy; located, not dizzy. Beyond its truly superlative first five to ten minutes, the film never conveys what is apparently so fascinating about the world and its inhabitants. While the ending also has some emotional resonance, the hour in between is dreary filmmaking. <br /><br />I’m not angry at the film like bell hooks is. (hooks calls the film racist, and amongst other things, the pornography of poverty as shot by a privileged white male.) I clearly don’t think it’s a total failure on the scale of the despicable <b>Precious</b>, and I don’t get a strong sense of exploitation from the film. That said, I strongly agree with MUBI’s Vishnevetsky who perfectly problematizes the film’s world view, which is where my problem with the film is located: “<b>Beasts</b> pretends to be celebrating gumption and resolve, but what it's ultimately selling is stubbornness and isolationism. There is a word for films like this: <i>bullshit</i>” (author's italics).<br />
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With all its chickens, trees, alcoholics, home-made boats and the thematically redundant aurochs, <b>Beasts of the Southern Wild</b> mostly left me cold. It is a profound disappointment. Those who praise the film would do well to seek out Bahrani’s vastly superior <b>Chop Shop</b>.Chris Broodrykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10252112339163624995noreply@blogger.com0