Movie Review: The Call (2013) Dir. Brad Anderson

The Pelham 123 remake but with a kidnapped girl.

The Call (2013) Dir. Brad Anderson

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Blurb: Jordan Turner (Halle Berry) is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgement and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But then teenager Casey Welson (Abigail Breslin) is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911. And Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save Casey, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.



Thoughts: Brad Anderson is responsible for high quality recent thrillers The Machinist and Transsiberian as well as great work on The Wire, The Killing, Treme and Boardwalk Empire but after the giant misstep of 2011's Vanishing on 7th Street the best he could get for his next project was this WWE Studios production complete with a wrestler in the cast. It did not bode well and that's before I take in to consideration the fact that guaranteed quality repellent Halle Berry is the star.

If you want a popcorn thriller this is probably as good as it gets in 2013 thanks largely to the skill of Brad Anderson. There's a good concept at its heart, the 911 operator dealing with a call from a kidnapped girl, but when it goes beyond that basic idea it treads the line of absurdity far too readily.

The opening scenes were pretty much as expected, i.e. stupid and exposition filled and I was filled with regret at having gone against my initial instincts and seen this movie just because of the director.

The middle section surprised the hell out of me with its quality, although with Anderson at the helm it shouldn't have, the tension is skilfully built up to almost unbearable levels despite the best intentions of a dodgy screenplay.

But once it comes out of the other side it lost me once more with a final act that had no place in the kind of film we had just had set up for us. I appreciate that there are certain expectations from your lowest common denominator audience and that these are almost certainly met with the slasher horror that the film becomes but I just find these things stupid and unnecessary.

It certainly could have been worse but I don't think Brad Anderson disgraced himself too much by taking on this project. It was so not awful that I didn't even want to punch Halle Berry in the face. I'm actually astounded that it won't even trouble my "Worst of 2013" list.

Any thoughts on Halle Berry? Is there any way back for Brad Anderson? Join the discussion in the comments, on Letterboxd or tweet @bbbgtoby

30 Countries Parts 29 - 30 (The Unknown Woman/Esma's Secret)

The Unknown Woman (2006) Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Part 29 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Italian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Directed by the man behind the acclaimed Cinema Paradiso this Italian suspense thriller won multiple Italian Film Industry awards but failed to win me over. Irina is a Ukrainian immigrant in Italy. She has your typical back story and demonstrates the typical hard working attitude of people trying to create a better life for themselves. Only, typically, things are not that straight forward because this isn't a Dardenne Brothers picture, it is a generic Euro thriller trying to emulate Hollywood, so enter stories of prostitutes, Russian mafia, child trafficking,a plot filled with deceit and lies. But that isn't the worst part, the worst part is the cynical nature of storytelling adopted by the director, making liberal use of flashbacks to add unnecessary drama and back story, creating tension with tricks and an overbearing score.

Ksenyia Rappaport on the other hand is wonderful and deserves more success as an actress. It's a shame that she's working in a national cinema that is, in the 21st century, pretty much bereft of interesting ideas, whose major exports are charming comedies for old ladies and the worldwide Italian diaspora who want to see movies from the old country about olive groves and nonnas.

Esma's Secret (2006) Dir. Jasmila Žbanić

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Part 30 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Bosnian origin as per its listing on imdb.

In the end I chose a Bosnian movie dealing with the aftermath of Yugoslavian genocide over Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves because it seemed easier.

Esma is a single mum, struggling to give her teenage daughter a good life, working multiple jobs. Her daughter, Sara, is noticing boys for the first time and wondering about her origins.

It's award winning Eastern European cinema with a story filled with potential but written and directed by an average talent. There's a big "reveal" which is telegraphed early on and the composition uniformly messy throughout which does nothing to add to the intended tone of repressed fear and memories of horror.

These films that deal with the horrors of the recent past are important social commentaries and reminders of things that should never be repeated but that alone does not make for a good film. I expect more from art than to be told something sad and then be told it is time to feel bad about it.

 

Movie Review: Broken (2013) Dir. Rufus Norris

Broken (2013) Dir. Rufus Norris

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Blurb:  Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences. The story of a young girl in North London whose life changes after witnessing a violent attack.
 
Thoughts: A thoroughly unsatisfying 3 stars.

Broken starts out full of energy, three stereotypical familes in three stereotypical houses on a stereotypical British street (they wish a typical street in England was this nice) and the promise of dark events and lashings of conflict.

Slowly you realise that the director is playing games with you, instead of making an accurate portrait of Broken Britain he's sugar coating things, instead of real relationships he is going to show you ideals. Instead of looking at reality he is going to demonise the weakest elements of the society he chooses to show. The upwardly mobile working class are evil. The mentally handicapped are evil.

Every time there's a decision to make that would make this film better, harder, edgier, more realistic, he takes the easy and lazy option. Of course the chavs are evil, the Daily Mail says so. Naturally the handicapped guy is a danger to children, the Daily Mail says so. By the time the third act drags the carcass of an already rotting film towards the finish line I could take no more as every obvious event unfolds exactly as expected. Even chavs hate the handicapped so they can't all be bad can they?
 
I know it is based on a novel which potentially was written for young teens or those adults with arrested development (most of the world?) so perhaps most of the blame should lay with the guy wrote the novel or the guy who adapted it for the screen and I am so disgusted with them that I won't even bother looking up their names.

This gets the three stars because every single caricature is played to perfection, there's not a bad performance amongst them. Eloise Laurence shines as the lead girl and deserves all the praise in the world but her supporting cast led by a delightfully accurate Rory Kinnear should bask in the collective glow of a job well done.

In addition, I'm pretty certain there is at least one scene filmed in Hatfield, a town I sadly spent a fair amount of time living in. Spotting its shitty abandoned town centre cleaned up with some fake shops put in was a particular highlight for me and justifies every bad thought I ever had about the place.

Join the discussion in the comments below, at Letterboxd or #broken @bbbgtoby.

Movie Review: Stay Cool (2011) Dir. Michael Polish

Stay Cool (2011) Dir. Michael Polish

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Blurb: The film centers on a successful author who is forced to confront an unrequited high school crush when he returns home to deliver a commencement address to graduating seniors. Shasta O'Neil, a sexy high school senior flirts with the visiting author and invites him to the prom.

Thoughts: I really wish this movie didn't exist. The Polish Brothers have been responsible for some truly interesting and unique independent cinema over the years; a movie about conjoined twins, Billy Bob Thornton as a farmer who builds a spaceship in his barn, a comedy about manure salesmen and Northfork a wonderful movie that defies accurate description but this straightforward enough premise of a writer giving a commencement speech at his old high school and all the inevitable generic clichéd events that this usually throws up is their strangest film film yet. But not in a good way.

After building a relationship with filmmakers over this amount of time you have a tendency to go in to every picture they release with a set of expectations. In this case I expected oddball humour, an intelligent response to genre conventions and interesting visual composition and always good performances. I can't say my expectations were met, infact they were pretty much universally destroyed.



What is with Americans and their obsession with high school? It feels like their are hundreds of teen movies released every year on the same themes, and almost running level in recent years are the films with adults, fully grown human beings with real lives, returning to high school, not necessarily even their own. Sure you occasionally get something wonderful like Grosse Point Blank or Young Adult but by and large they are shit and very rarely are they as humorous as they think they are.

 

Mark and Michael Polish make some nice obscure and subtle references to the plethora of genre films gone before and simultaneously couldn't restrain themselves enough to avoid a Say Anything reference. Their attempts at oddball humour largely fall flat, with a truly offensive hobbit as THE homosexual stereotype and Chevy Chase the main offenders. Nepotism aside I think Mark Polish is a good choice for this type of protagonist, he has the right every man quality that you very rarely find in cinema and his performance (which some have referred to as flat) had a great blend of exhaustion, apathy, exasperation and insecurity, he should have just written himself a better script and we might all have heard about it.

You can't expect something as great as Northfork every time but you can remain hopeful, everyone has a bad movie in them and hopefully this is theirs.

Join in the discussion in the comments below, at Letterboxd or #staycool @bbbgtoby.

30 Countries Parts 26 - 28 (Julia/Yojimbo/Tokyo Sonata)

Julia (2008) Dir. Erick Zonca

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 26 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Mexican origin as per its listing on imdb.

This movie owes it all to Tilda Swinton. Without her this would be nothing. Her titular character is a trainwreck, the kind of alcoholic people only dream of writing when they create fluff like Smashed, add to that murder, kidnapping, fleeing to Mexico and a complete lack on conscience and you have the ingredients for an interesting crime thriller and a good redemption story.

Julia is living in the moment, making this shit up as she goes and we are along for the ride with her. The editing representing the characters blackouts is handled well but largely this is a bit of a messy story that at 2.5 hours takes far too long to be told. But Swinton gives it her all, she's a wild thing driven by fear and insecurities and it shows in every scene.

Yojimbo (1961) Dir. Akira Kurosawa

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 27 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Japanese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Forgive me lords of cinema but I just didn't enjoy this classic as much as I think I was supposed to. Pretty universally loved, Kuroswa's tale of Sanjuro the ronin and how he cleaned up the town with no name left me frustrated more than anything.

Of course it is a well told story with excellent visual style, it is Kurosawa, but it sure does amble along at its own pace with a series of unnecessary plot points that meander all over the place, half an hour less and you've got a tightly plotted movie here. The other issue I have is with the acting style and the attempts to play for humour; I'm sure it is traditional for the genre, at least, but it and I just don't get along. I expected a bit more subtlety from a film that inspired Clint Eastwood to not move a facial muscle for two hours.

One of the many great things about this film is the influence it wielded and still wields, for example despite the unnecessary nature of some of the plot it is easy to see where every yakuza movie since stole their plot from like one long sixty year battle without honour and humanity.

Tokyo Sonata (2008) Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 28 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Hong Kong origin as per its listing on imdb.

I've seen too many films about financial crises and unemployment I think. At the same time Swedish youths are rioting over long term unemployment I saw this film about the effect of down-sizing and outsourcing on Japanese salarymen and the disintegration of a nuclear family. That this one doesn't exactly end where you think it will is a blessing indeed. I do however think the Swedish riots might have been more relevant to me.

This film is pretty much what you might expect if you took a slow moving family drama and asked Kiyoshi Kurosawa to get involved with it. A comfortable life slowly disintegrates and suddenly the movie takes a left turn in to the unexpected which has Kurosawa's prints all over it. This juxtaposition of the real and unreal dragged me out of the slow moving drama/horror and with my apathy towards such GFC related storylines these days I don't care to take any messages from it.

Give me some of that post-communism miserabilia from Eastern European countries over this any day.

30 Countries Parts 23 - 25 (Festen/Sonbahar/Indigenes)

Festen (1998) Dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part 23 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Danish origin as per its listing on imdb.

It's fifteen years since I first heard of the Dogme '95 movement and ten years since I studied the first group of films and the two major players involved in drafting the manifesto, von Trier and Vinterberg, and yet somehow viewing Festen has eluded me until now.

Festen is quite clearly the best film made under the guidelines, not just for the visceral nature of the storytelling but the way Vinterberg made the obstructions, the restrictions, the vow of chastity work for his film. It seems like all other Dogme directors actively sought out loopholes but Vinterberg embraced the challenge and it shows in the quality of the finished product.

A celebration of 60 years of a man's life brings his family together at their large country estate and a shock announcement causes conflict is essentially the entire premise but what you get is so much more. Incredibly raw performances not diffused or heightened through the tools and tricks of the industry combined with the handheld cameras create a real sense of being a guest at this awful party whilst the content itself holds a mirror up to Danish society in a more subtle way than von Trier's Idioterne but it is no less shocking than a retard gang bang.

Sonbahar (2008) Dir. Özcan Alper

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part 24 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Turkish origin as per its listing on imdb.

Another piece of wonderful minimalist cinema (I'm nothing if not consistent) this time from a Turkish filmmaker making his debut feature. Yusuf, a political prisoner, is released from jail on health grounds and returns to the tiny village community he grew up in.

As you might expect from that premise this is a film with a political message which is at times forced upon the viewer, a distraction from the contemplative mood of the piece as Yusuf comes to terms with everything he gave up for his ideals, his new found freedom, his mortality and his struggle to reintegrate with village life.

Packed with beautiful vistas and long moody takes without dialogue it is the use of ambient noise, or at times a lack of, that most impressed and so the occasionally invasive use of melodramatic music only served to irritate rather than accentuate the moment.

The sub story of his connection with a young boy and a prostitute are pretty standard narrative devices but never feel arbitrary, which in itself is impressive but the emotional arc they guide you through places them as some of the more impressive uses of the trope I have seen.

Quality low budget world cinema from a strong new voice worth keeping an eye on.

This film can be found on two great letterboxd lists for the discerning viewer looking to try something new: Take 100: The Future of Cinema and Looking for Something to Watch.

Indigenes (2006) Dir. Rachid Bouchareb

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 25 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Algerian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Indigenes: Colonial African soldiers who fought for France in World War II.

With a similar structure to Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One Rachid Bouchareb's Oscar nominated war movie is less a statement on the folly of war but a political picture about the mistreatment of these Indigenes by the French. It's the same old racist story told again and again and it does get any less galling, each injustice feels as fresh and offensive as if it was the first time and it is that power that caused a policy change by the French government in 2006 after President Chirac saw the movie.

Yep. It took 60 years and this movie to make the French do what was right. But let's not judge them too harshly, the Americans forced racial segregation in the racially enlightened countries wherever their troops were stationed during this war.

The overly political nature of the film detracts from the usual power of the futility of war stance a great war movie will have but there are plenty of your typical explosions and gun fights to keep war enthusiasts happy.

 

30 Countries Parts 17 - 19 (Dogtooth/Melancholia/Tetro)

Dogtooth (2010) Dir. Giorgos Lanthimos
 
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part 17 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Greek origin as per its listing on imdb.

I cannot describe what I think I just saw. My mind struggles for comprehension. I am exhausted. I feel like I have been repeatedly struck by a large stick for the past 90 minutes. A new friend recently referred to Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny as the most bizarre movie they'd ever seen. I think their brain might explode if they saw this.

So this family, they choose to create their own world for their children with their own rules and their own meanings, they build walls both physically and mentally and keep their children within their compound despite them being adults. That's the premise. It doesn't sound too bad really.

Giorgos Lanthimos takes this entirely unreal, unknowable, incomprehensible to at least 99% of the world I'm sure, scenario and films it in the style of Michael Haneke et al. It is this contradiction between natural realist cinema and a subject matter that is unfathomable that causes your brain to react in this manner. He's just so matter of fact about it all.

Much like the work of Haneke you can take a thousand different readings of this film, you can believe it is a political statement, you can see it as an allegory, you can even watch it as a documentary of an evil man but if you watch this film and aren't affected or moved, even if it's to nausea, you probably weren't paying attention.

Cinema like nothing else I've experienced so far.

Melancholia (2011) Dir. Lars von Trier

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 18 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Swedish origin as per its listing on imdb.

An interesting and visually stunning film with a real insight in to the effects of depression. Utilising different points of view for each half of the movie to demonstrate this insight in a very effective way. Von Trier's most accessible film to date I'm sure and most certainly his most assured. This is filmmaking of the highest order by somebody fully aware of how much skill they have at their fingertips. The introduction is at a whole other level however and after such impressive visuals the film itself could never live up to it.

Tetro (2009) Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 19 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Argentinian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Coppola directs Gallo in a black & white Buenos Aires. It's a compelling concept that almost lives up to my expectations. A beautiful film to look at but beyond that I was not as enamoured of the story as others have been.

Gallo is a writer in seclusion, distancing himself from his family in America. He lives a quiet life, the locals know nothing of his past, not even his girlfriend but when his half brother arrives looking to reconnect it all goes to shit. You know how this works, family secrets are revisited, old wounds reopened, conflict, conflict, conflict, but the approach taken by Coppola isn't as straightforward or deliberate as you are used to.

The performance of Gallo is exactly what you would expect and carries the film, giving what might be taken for a soulless film a layer of depth and emotion and a real edge that any other actor couldn't hope to achieve. Because they're not actually crazy.

This is certainly better than Jack and The Rainmaker and represents a much more interesting direction for the man who many consider to be a filmmaking genius.

30 Countries Parts 14 - 16 (Police, Adjective/Window in to Summer/Cairo Time)

Police, Adjective (2009) Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part 14 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Romanian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Police, Adjective is a minimalist police procedural film that follows the hard work of one man trailing a teenage boy on suspicion of drugs offences that is at the same time a portrait of post-Communist Romanian, a discussion of the nature of police work and the law, alienation and the effects of being a policeman on the policeman.

Very much cut from the same political cloth as Sjowal & Wahloo's Martin Beck sequence of novels, the slow pace and incredibly long takes become mesmerising from the first six minute silent tracking shot of the cop following the teen and doesn't let up through meals, meetings and stakeouts. I couldn't help but enjoy it and even now I find it growing on me further. It's not as powerful as my other recent Romanian film experience but is another superb example of what is coming out of that country in recent years.

Summer Window (2011) Dir. Hendrik Handloegten

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Part 15 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Finnish origin as per its listing on imdb.

If Nina Hoss hadn't been so phenomenal in Barbara and if Barbara hadn't been so good there is no way the German Film Festival of Australia would have screened this film as it's just not very good.

Yes, I am complaining at being suckered in by the presence if Hoss and the soft science fiction angle of the plot, a soft science fiction time travel story that's been told a thousand times before with different variations sure; but still nothing interesting was done with the concept, nothing was at stake and I certainly didn't care whether the movie ended in a positive or negative manner for the protagonist, as long as it ended and ended soon.

I felt totally ripped off coming out of this movie, it was so half baked and ill conceived and completely misrepresented in the promotional material, i.e. they told lies to entice viewers.

Cairo Time (2009) Dir. Ruba Nadda

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 16 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Irish origin as per its listing on imdb.

I've had this film sitting around the house for so long now that I'd completely forgotten why I picked it up in the first place. In my mind it had almost become an awful indie version of Eat Pray Love set in Egypt with Patricia Clarkson in the Julia Roberts role. This last fact being the only reason worth watching it, who wouldn't want to watch Patricia Clarkson in anything?

So having dismissed it as a bit of fluff I was more than a little surprised by the quality of the filmmaking from the very first scene and by how similar the dislocation of Clarkson's character from her surroundings were to Lost in Translation. Suddenly I remembered that I'm not the kind of person to pick up romantic fluff even if Patricia Clarkson was starring and infact, when was Patricia Clarkson ever in romantic fluff?

Ruba Nadda is a much less confrontational director than Sofia Coppola but in her own way she perfectly captures the near paralysing nature of arriving in a strange place with different customs to your own, the cacophony of sounds and overwhelming images attacking your brain, forcing you to wander around in a disconnected personalised fog. The way she brings you out of that at the same time as Clarkson is staged as wonderfully too.

There is a romantic angle to the film and it is staged with such a subtle touch you might be forgiven for missing it I suppose. That guy from Star Trek DS9 is so much more than a holiday fling, a tool to highlight the social and cultural differences of life in Egypt or a catalyst for personal awakening, he is a character in his own right and the perfect accompaniment to Clarkson's lead.

Having compared the film to Lost in Translation I should point out that this film is more impressive visually but lacks a little of that final punch to the guts that Coppola delivers via Bill Murray, so more than likely won't resonate quite so much with most viewers, but the final scenes, whilst expected, still manage to flaw you with their emotion.

30 Countries Part 11 - 13 (Home/Cache/Reprise)

Home (2009) Dir. Ursula Meier

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 11 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Swiss origin as per its listing on imdb.

Idyllic family unit, living in the countryside, next to an abandoned freeway. The freeway is reopened and their lives change forever.

I expected a movie with this concept to be a little more surreal, instead this is a political message film posing as magic realism disguised as kitchen sink drama.

I cannot even pretend to know what this movie is a metaphor for but I would hazard a guess at the perils of modern life, the planetwide disaster that is technological pollution, mental illness, the importance of family.

It looks amazing from start to finish, Meier does a great job of making you feel dirty and claustrophobic as the film progresses with the help of an excellent cinematographer of course. The story is not explained, the characters are not open books, events unfold and the characters react in different ways. There's a certain amount of similarity to the Todd Haynes film Safe both in terms of central character and visual design which leads me to believe that the major statement is similarly about pollution and/or mental illness.

Of all of the films picked for this challenge Home was one I was most looking forward to and I wasn't disappointed, but for once I am left wishing there had been less realism in a movie.

Cache (2005) Dir. Michael Haneke

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 12 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Austrian origin as per its listing on imdb.

"I like the multiplicity of books, because each book is different in the mind of the reader. It's the same with this film - if 300 people are in a cinema watching it, they will al see a different film, so in a way there are thousands of different versions of Hidden. The point being that, despite what TV shows us, and what the news stories tell us, there is never just one truth, there is only personal truth." - Michael Haneke

I guess that told me more about the content of this film than watching it did. I have a lot of respect for the man as an artist and I've enjoyed the films of his that I have seen so far but I am yet to find myself gushing over him like so many others.

This film is an interesting psychological drama bordering on horror that holds your attention throughout by not explaining anything. Well played Heneke as that was obviously your intention. But much like American horror movies this is populated by stupid people who don't behave like normal people when faced with these scenarios. They didn't make Scream for no reason you know. We're all aware that people have to behave like idiots and Haneke is no different, he seems to be trying to subvert the genre whilst following all of the rules of the game.

Reprise (2006) Dir. Joachim Trier

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 13 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Norwegian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Joachim Trier is a very interesting director. He takes a little of the Amelie gimmick and rubs it in a heavy dose of coming of age realism to create a sobering yet joyful experience filled with poetic visuals and somehow succeeded in making a quite lovely film despite it being is debut.

I actually dismissed this film repeatedly back when it came in to the video store, deciding not to watch it as it was heavily promoted by people who thought Control was a great comparison for it. I wish I had just given it a go now. It would almost certainly have meant more to me in my youth than the jaded curmudgeon I am today.

It's an inspirational film for any wannabe film maker too, of everything you can take from this movie that is the one thing that sticks in my mind - if you believe in your story and ability you too can make an inspiring and beautiful debut film without spending a zillion dollars or resorting to gimmick and indie cliche.

30 Countries Parts 8 - 10 (Surveillance/Children of Glory/Little Red Flowers)

Surveillance (2008) Dir. Jennifer Lynch

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 8 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Canadian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Enjoyable enough drama/thriller from the daughter of David Lynch. Lazily referred to as a sick and twisted Rashomon by some reviewers, both with a positive and negative intention. This is nothing like Rashomon in terms of structure, style or content. In the aftermath of a murder in a small town in America two FBI agents question three witnesses who tell the story of the same events from completely different points of view. That sounds like Rashomon I grant you but the approach towards the idea taken by Lynch will not bring Kurosawa to mind in the slightest.

She builds atmosphere from the start and presents some interesting Jim Thompson-esque cops, a basic horror movie family on a road trip complete with creepy child and a young couple with the prerequisite quirk of being crackheads, their stories told in voice over as the events unfold in flashback, slowly building to a dramatic if predictable ending. It bears more similarity to 70s grindhouse (including colour palette) than it does to anything else.

There's nothing too special about the film except perhaps the performance of Pullman & Ormond as the investigating agents or even Stewart & Harper as the cops, both pairings might have been enough to carry an entire movie with a stronger script but the major flaw of the film is that it tries too hard to be too many things and therefore doesn't do anything beyond averagely.

There's too much fake intrigue, too many red herrings, not enough Michael Ironside and not enough depth to the characters to make it work. Overall disappointing considering how much it got right.

Children of Glory (2006) Dir. Krisztina Goda 

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 9 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Hungarian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Hungarian made for Hungarian people, a film to memorialise the brave men and women who fought back against Communist oppression in 1956 only to be left to die by the West as Soviet Russia returned to destroy the uprising. There's little in the way of explanation for those of us uneducated on the subject but nevertheless it's an interesting wartime biopic with an Olympic showdown sub-plot which allowed the distributors to use the marketing phrase "Lives of Others meets Chariots of Fire!" Co-starring Sandor Csanyi from Kontroll who has now become my most watched Hungarian actor working in their native language, the ensemble cast all put in good performances and the script, rather bizarrely penned by Joe Eszterhas of Showgirls, Flashdance and Basic Instinct fame, does a good job of keeping enough detail in whilst keeping the final product under two hours.

We were recently in Budapest and learned quite a lot about the various revolutions and some of the horrors perpetrated by the Russian regime, they are stories that deserved to be told to as many people around the world as possible so that these people can be remembered and these acts might never be repeated. For that reason alone you should seek out this movie.

Little Red Flowers (2006) Dir. Yuan Zhang

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 10 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Chinese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Quite intriguingly this Chinese film looking at the uniformity of their preferred society in an undefined period post 1949, could have been classed as an Italian picture. The vagaries of modern film funding.

Much can be said about the strength of the child performers throughout, it is from a child's perspective that we see the magic of the world used for Communist gains afterall, without strong performances this would have been quite dreadful. As it is however they are perfect examples of children; constantly screaming, screeching, moaning, whinging, crying, grizzling and generally giving me a headache. Nope, I'm still not ready for fatherhood.

It's beautifully filmed and I can see exactly why such a big fuss was made of its premiere on British TV several years ago when I first saw clips from it (and have had it recorded and unwatched ever since) but I have a heart of stone and it just didn't effect me the way it is intended to and the way others surely were.

If you're not as cold and hard to the beauty of childlike wonder as I am you may well have a great time with this one.

30 Countries Parts 5 - 7 (Soldier of Orange/Three Businessmen/Jamon Jamon)

Soldier of Orange (1979) Dir. Paul Verhoeven

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Part 5 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Dutch origin as per its listing on imdb.

Soldier of Orange is adapted from the book of the same name which tells the true story of its author Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, was voted second greatest film in Dutch history in 1999, also a four part TV series in Holland and the movie that brought Paul Verhoeven to Hollywood's attention, not to forget without which we wouldn't have witnessed our memories being lost like tears in the rain.

Roelfzema is renamed Erik Lanshof and is played by Rutger Hauer, the centrepiece of this drama of German occupied Netherlands and a group of wealthy college kids who are swept up in various ways by the war, some fighting with the resistance movement whilst others side with the Nazi's.

I've now seen eight Verhoeven movies and I am yet to cease being amazed that the same person who made his Dutch movies made his American movies. They're like chalk and cheese they're so incompatible. Although if you have a cheese sandwich with white bread there's likely to be some chalk involved somewhere. Hmmm. Food for thought.

This is a classy and intelligent wartime biopic that suffers from some of the same flaws that all pictures of this type suffer from; a large cast of characters that get lost in the wide scope, an episodic plot, details left out or glossed over for the sake of brevity, that kind of thing but not to any major detriment.

It seems to me that the Europeans make WWII movies in a much more interesting manner than Americans, they focus on the small details and the personal stories rather than overt displays of flag waving patriotism, masses of explosions, the glory being an American and saving the world or revenge for Pearl Harbour.

Not quite as affecting as Black Book however.

Three Businessmen (1998) Dir. Alex Cox

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Part 6 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of British origin as per its listing on imdb.

I recently supported Alex Cox's new project on kickstarter, based purely on his approach towards cinema. Yes I love Repo Man but beyond that his work has been very much a mixed bag of entertainment in my opinion.

Three Businessmen is another interesting and mostly ignored Alex Cox movie, a largely justified status for it I must say and exactly the reason why he has to raise funds on a crowd sourcing website. A bizarre tale of two obnoxious strangers who get lost whilst walking the streets of Liverpool, England in search of food and spend the next hour or so on an absurd journey around the globe whilst discussing the state of the capitalist world. Part Luis Bunuel, part Gus van Sant , almost all of it annoying.

Jamon Jamon (1992) Dir. Bigas Luna

Rating: 2 out of 5

Part 7 of the 30 Countries project.

 For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Spanish origin as per its listing on imdb.

This movie about ham is responsible for making stars of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. It's also a farcical comedy of manners and discourse on Spanish society in the early 1990s featuring nude all male midnight bullfighting. Those Spanish males really are pumped up on their own machismo aren't they.

If I saw this movie advertised today I would avoid it like the plague, it seems perfectly pitched for the Perth yummy mummy white pant brigade that find everything simply wonderful and charming and make me froth with rage. It's certainly saucy enough to appeal to older ladies, with enough nudity to conform to the stereotypical Anglo views of European cinema.

However it is a film I'd heard praised repeatedly over the past 15 years and thought this might be a good chance to get it out of the way. Perhaps the praise only came from Spanish friends and something got lost in translation or maybe I don't have the right sense of humour because for a comedy this didn't manage to actually make me laugh, smile politely a few times sure but laugh, no.

I wish I'd picked something more interesting from Spain now.

Movie Review: Bug (2006) Dir. William Friedkin

First they send in their drone... Then they find their queen.

Bug by William Friedkin

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Blurb: Having escaped her abusive ex-husband Goss, recently released from state prison, Agnes, a lonely waitress with a tragic past moves into a sleazy motel. Her lesbian co-worker R.C. introduces her to Peter, paranoiac drifter and they begin a tentative romance. However, things aren't always as they appear and Agnes is about to experience a claustrophobic nightmare reality as the bugs begin to arrive....

Thoughts: Well that was certainly unexpected. I had assumed that an Ashley Judd movie called Bug would be a really shitty slasher movie of some kind. Turns out it's not. I don't know what it is. I might never know. The second half of this movie was like a train wreck that somehow blows up a nuclear reactor. Horrible, shocking, mesmerising, the kind of cinema that is so far removed from the staid comfortable lifestyle most of us live that your jaw will drop repeatedly (if you manage to raise it to begin with,) you will want to vomit several times, if you think on it too hard you may find tears have sprung to your eyes and the whole time your brain is screaming, fighting to unscramble what you're seeing, to put a label on it and quantify it as a metaphor or several metaphors even, a statement about something, anything, just so long as you can classify it and deal with the fall out in a more comfortable manner.

The pairing of Friedkin and Tracy Letts was enough to make me actually reconsider this film after the dynamite that was Killer Joe last year but it was discovering that Michael Shannon has a lead role that made me seek it out and press play, knowing that if all else fails I'd at least have another great Michael Shannon performance to enjoy.

This one makes everything else he's done look like a sane man on a bad day, it's so far beyond batshit crazy that a colloquial term hasn't been invented for it yet. Boy does he go all the way balls out (literally and figuratively) for his art in this one too, dragging the usually infuriatingly magnolia Ashley Judd along by the roots of her hair, somehow inspiring her to her own very good performance opposite him.

If you thought Friedkin took things too far with the chicken scene in Killer Joe then I'd hate to see your reaction to this movie. I have previously called Killer Joe a statement of intent from Friedkin to reinvent himself as a filmmaker but it is clear now that Bug was his statement and Killer Joe is the film that reaped the benefits. There is so much in Bug that would be later toned down and shined up, the rough edges removed and experiments in camera positioning perfected in Killer Joe that in many ways this is the film that deserves the plaudits. Except that would mean acknowledging this evil little film and I'm not sure I'm OK with that.

Join me in trying to make some sense of this film in the comments or tweet @bbbgtoby with #bug

30 Countries Parts 2 - 4 (Girlfriend Experience/Tears For Sale/Alice In The Cities)

The Girlfriend Experience by Steven Soderbergh (2009)

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part 2 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of American origin as per its listing on imdb.

The thing that really bugs me about the general response to this film is that it is entirely ludicrous. Just because Sasha Grey happily makes pornography why should you expect to see her fucking people in a low budget, almost mumblecore in its aims, Steven Soderbergh movie? Sure you can blame the marketing and distribution team for raising expectations that could never be met but me theory is that if you want pornography head to the pornography section of the video store not the new releases.

That complaint aside I found this a relatively enjoyable experience. Sasha Grey is a better actor than you might expect from a non-actor even though she doesn't have to do much, but she's certainly better than a lot of the people roped in to other low budget American features. Soderbergh's direction is the most interesting aspect of the entire piece, the way he uses the camera is nearly always a masterclass and this experiment is no different. The juxtaposition of the prostitute and the capitalists who pay her isn't exactly subtle but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Tears For Sale by Uros Stojanovic (2008)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 3 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Serbian origin as per its listing on imdb.

Tears For Sale, also known as Charleston & Vendetta, is a magical realist tale of love and death. The loose plot centres on two sisters who are sent to find a new man for their village after they accidentally killed the old one.

Using beautiful visuals, absurd situations, humour, symbolism & dozens of metaphors and surrealism the director Uros Stojanovic seems to be channelling the visual flair and storytelling methods of Jeunet & Caro and Terry Gilliam (as mentioned by almost everyone who has seen this movie I'm sure) amongst others to discuss the absurdity of war and almost certainly whole other aspects of Serbian history that you'd probably have to be Serbian to fully comprehend.

But you don't have to be Serbian to appreciate fine movie making, which this film most certainly is.
This is my first discovery of the 30 Country Challenge, thanks to Berken for encouraging this exploration, without you I might not have searched my library database for Serbian cinema.

Alice in the Cities by Wim Wenders (1974)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Part 4 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of West German origin as per its listing on imdb.

A slow moving road trip movie from the early career of Wim Wenders. A German struggling to write an article about America, lost in the overpowering nature of its size, neon lights and wall to wall noise of TV and radio is left caring for a young girl. Their trip takes them from New York to Amsterdam to Wuppertal via multiple methods of transport and in true road movie fashion they learn about themselves and each other as they go.

I found the similarities to early Jarmusch and Godard to be very interesting, and the early appearance of themes and styles that Wenders would go on to use throughout his career make it a worthwhile watch for film scholars much in the same way that Permanent Vacation works for Jarmusch.
Already having an appreciation for the director made this an easier viewing experience than it might be for somebody coming at this type of cinema for the first time. It can be hypnotic in its melancholy if you choose to let it and the documentary/verite approach towards cinematography gives the trip an extra sense of reality almost like a travelogue which helps to suspend disbelief of the subject matter.

Movie Review: Wake In Fright (1972) Dir. Ted Kotcheff (30 Countries Project)

May you dream of the Devil and wake in fright. - AN OLD CURSE

Wake In Fright by Ted Kotcheff

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Part 1 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Australian origin as per its listing on imdb.

“In the remote towns of the west there are few of the amenities of civilization; there is no sewerage, there are no hospitals, rarely a doctor; the food is dreary and flavourless from long carrying, the water is bad; electricity is for the few who can afford their own plant, roads are mostly non-existent; there are no theatres, no picture shows and few dance halls; and the people are saved from stark insanity by the one strong principle of progress that is ingrained for a thousand miles east, north, south and west of the Dead Heart - the beer is always cold.”

Blurb: A young man from Sydney, John Grant, is teaching in a one-room school in a tiny outback town, working off a two-year bond to the Education Department. Heading back to the coast for his six-week summer break, he’s obliged to stay overnight in outback town Bundanyabba. Carried away by the local lifestyle, Grant gets drunk and blows all his money – including his plane fare home, then plunges headlong toward his own destruction in many other ways, alcoholic, sexual and spiritual through a five day nightmare.

Thoughts: A truly brilliant example of Australian cinema. A nightmare that piece by piece strips back the civilised veneer of one man and demonstrates the dark animal nature at the heart of us all. Adapted from the masterpiece of Australian literature by Canadian director Ted Kotcheff this was the first time Australia and Australians were authentically depicted in cinema, and it really is brutally honest.

The outback is known for it's vast landscapes but this is a movie of claustrophobic proportions, it's about being trapped by the desert and how small your world quickly becomes when you have no money or water, how close everything feels with the burning heat of the sun beaming down on you. The world of Wake in Fright is a brutal, stark and hallucinatory purgatory, capturing the outback without the sentimental shit designed to sell plane tickets to Brits and Yanks and Salarymen.
 

Wanna take a trip to the outback? Got any recommendations for a double feature? Just want to chat about Aussie cinema? Comment below or tweet @bbbgtoby with #wakeinfright