RPIFF: Kill List (2011)

Welcome to the first blablahblahgay review from the Revelation Perth International Film Festival. 11pm is a ridiculous time to start watching a movie for me. Back when I was 16 you'd find me and my friend Owen wandering the dangerous streets of Stevenage waiting for the late night showing of whatever terrible movie we'd decided to see that weekend but now I can't remember the last time I was awake at 11pm let alone settling down to watch a film.

As already mentioned this week Kill List is Ben Wheatley's second film, following up the fantastic Down Terrace (reviewed recently here on blahblahblahgay,) with another piece of great cinema that highlights his maturing as a storyteller and growth as a film maker. This film is an enigma, it's difficult to categorise; for Ben Wheatley, genres are simply a guide, he lets his films go wherever they need to ignoring conventions and disregarding cliche. What starts out as a kitchen sink drama moves in to hitman territory quite quickly before evolving in to a serious what the fuck ending filled with mysticism and gore.

Jay is a former hitman, retired after he screwed up a previous job in Kiev (this fact pops up quite a bit throughout but is never explained) and living with his ex-Swedish military wife, Shel, in suburban England. The couple are broke and the wife, who subtly dominates the relationship, is pressuring him to go back to work. His former partner Gal (on orders from Shel) offers another job, killing 3 people, and Jay, reluctant at first, agrees.

What ensues is a mysterious journey focusing on the psychological changes in Jay and Gal, punctuated with gore filled scenes and a never ceasing increase in the nameless, shapeless dread that permeates the film. With an ending you know the less about the better before seeing.

It seems to be a major advertising point so I'm not spoiling anything here but the ending is truly horrifying, not in a modern torture porn way or in a lets make use of really loud noises to make you jump way but in a truly psychologically challenging manner. You may watch this film or hear about some of the violence contained within and think me crazy but Ben Wheatley makes very subtle movies and this mind-bending finale borders on ambiguous, there is blood and there is gore and there are shocking realisations but that all takes a back seat to the psychological study of the man. Not to mention trying to piece together exactly what the ending means.

At 2am I was thinking about this movie, all the way home we were trying to understand what happened, neither of us could actually state with 100% confidence what the ending was about. This is a film that not only deserves a second viewing but may need one so you can divorce yourself from the WTF factor and piece together the puzzle. Because hints are left throughout, religious undertones, a sigil carved in to the back of a mirror, victims happy to die, repeated requests for Jay to wake up, dead animals left in their garden, what are the red herrings and what is the explanation? You may even be watching again and again to clarify your own thoughts and you will be thoroughly entertained every time I'm sure.

At times this is a funny movie, with the comedy taken from the human interaction, not from the violence like some other movies. At other times it's deeply unsettling, the use of sound really helping to increase the tension; using strings and whistles, moans and backwards played speech and even the moments of silence to ratchet things up step by step. But mainly this movie is enjoyable as a fantastically well crafted film that utilises the handheld camera aesthetic to it's full claustrophobic best to unsettle before unleashing an ending that will impact on your daily life for weeks to come. Guaranteed.

Well that's a departure for blahblahblahgay. Anyone else seen this yet? I'd love to get some other opinions, leave some blah below. Next up Charlie Casanova.

Revelation Perth International Film Festival

It seems strange to me that I hadn't really heard of this event before. It's one of the problems with Perth I think, if you're not listening to local pop radio or reading the free music press you have no idea what's going on around the city.

The RPIFF has being going in one form or another since 1990. It's current format includes music, visual art, shorts, documentaries as well as feature films. Their website blurb states

Revelation was (and still is) concerned with the conservative nature of film distribution and exhibition practice in Australia. It has always sought to deliberately challenge current marketplace modes and biases through unusual and contextualised screening concepts, focused curation and active interaction with industry guilds, independent curators, the academic community and other Arts related activity and practitioners. The event has also always maintained a playful approach to both its programming and audience. Areas of pop and youth culture have always figured heavily in Revelation programs alongside some of the most individual and acclaimed works from the local and international scene. Whatever your taste though, Revelation seeks to challenge audiences and the industry itself with vibrant, individual, unusual, passionate and committed works.

As you can see they like to use their own name quite a lot in their blurb. But on a serious note it's a worthy mission statement.

My interest in the festival is the feature films as I have never really felt the need to watch short films or documentaries in cinemas. There's something about watching "real people" in movies or on TV that makes me very uncomfortable. I've never been able to put my finger on it but it's something I might have to look in to at some point. Needless to say that when the news has eyewitness accounts from passersby I tend to switch channels.

My initial picks (before factoring the need to go to work instead of the cinema) were:
A little Australian film titled LBF (on the website but it's full name is Life Between Fucks,)
Irish crime drama Charlie Casanova,
Ben Wheatley's followup to Down Terrace, Kill List,
the new (and I'm very excited about this) film from Takeshi Kitano AutoReiji,
Philip K. Dick adaptation Radio Free Albemuth,
Coenesque American Indie Small Town Murder Songs,
debut directorial effort from The I.T. Crowd's Moz, Submarine,
possible mumblecore film from Zach Clark, Vacation!
Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur has been highly praised.

However with scheduling conflicts and financial requirements it looks like I may be bringing you news from just a few of them. This Friday Kill List plays at 11pm, which is about 2 hours after my preferred bedtime these days but after Down Terrace I'm willing to go to great lengths for a Ben Wheatley film. Charlie Casanova plays Monday and I have my fingers crossed I can get across the city in time. Vacation! plays next Friday, Small Town Murder Songs Saturday and Autoreiji closes the festival for me next Sunday.

Seeing 5 films at the cinema in a week is pretty big for me these days, I may be a little out of practice but I did get quite used to seeing three films in one day a little while ago so I shall do my best.

Do I actually have any Perth readers yet? Anyone heard of this festival before and making a trip to Perth for it? Is there anything I've missed that you would recommend? Leave me a blah why don't you.

The Week In Movies 4/7/11 - 10/7/11

OK. Lets knock this one out. I need to go to work. Dammit! What did I watch this week? A lot considering how busy things are.


Two films from the previously viewed archives, The Mighty Ducks or The Mighty Ducks Are The Champions or Champions The Mighty Ducks, whatever they are calling where you are or on whichever format it's released on, it's that Emilio Estevez movie about ice hockey playing kids. Disney really did change it's name a few times too. I think I've watched three copies of it in my life and each of them have had a different title. I used to love this movie, watched it all the time as a kid. How excited I got when Pacey scored the winning goal (do they still call them goals in ice hockey?) And it hasn't aged too badly either, it's not quite as ridiculous as some kids movies are when you grow up. It relies on cliches and stereotypes to tell it's story and there's a meaningless romance for The Breakfast Clubber but it's great fun and includes a poop joke for the kids.

Grumpy Old Men, it's a movie that surely wouldn't get made in Hollywood these days but what can you say about the quality of Jack Lemon and Walther Matthau that could dispute the fact that they deserved to be making this movie? Their rapport and comic timing leaves me chuckling away at the slightest little things that ordinarily wouldn't even be funny or worse an obvious cliche. I shall watch the sequel this week as I remember it being funnier.


Three old movies that I watched for the first time, Dark Blue starring Kurt Russell and Ving Rhames was written by David Ayer (Street Kings, training Day, S.W.A.T - yeah even the cops dial 911, that guy) based on a story by the godfather of crime fiction James Ellroy. Ellroy has his own unique style of writing, most of his work is set in L.A. of the 50's and 60's and I think his voice suits that time, when people were called hopheads or whatever yet this film was set in 1991 (I think) and whilst the dialogue is modernised a little it just didn't sit right. Other than that it was an OK movie apart from Scott Speedman who has a face I hate looking at, whenever I notice him in a movie i groan because he bugs me for some reason. It was a little slow, a little obvious but did have some good work from Madeye Moody and a pretty cool scene set during the Rodney King riots.

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger continued my catching up with recent Woody Allen movies that I had never even heard of. Set in London, something I usually enjoy seeing but then almost instantly grow to hate as the cliches and fictions increase, and starring an American, an Australian, a Welshman and that girl from Slumdog Millionaire the premise of two married couples struggling with their relationships sounded like pretty common Allen fare and it pretty much was. I was mostly bored and occasionally enraged at how Allen imprinted his idea of New York lifestyle on to Londoners and generally I just didn't care about any of it. Lucy Punch was particularly grating but then that was because she was completely and totally accurate in her portrayal of English girls. I still haven't seen Vicky Christina Barcelona, I always meant to. Soon perhaps. It's amazing how Woody Allen has people lining up to invest in his films when it seems like there's a 1 in 4 chance of breaking even. He does make a lot of stuff that goes ignored doesn't he.

And there was Basic Instinct. I managed to go the last 20 years without seeing this iconic film, it just never really appealed for whatever reason, perhaps the constant talk of the leg crossing scene made me just go blah at it. But the research of the (fingers crossed) upcoming noirathon led me to think it might be worth a shot even if it doesn't make the list of modern noir films. Paul Verhoeven, famed for his bloody violence certainly didn't miss a chance to include it in this one. It's quite a bit more subtle than Starship Troopers for example. But really it's quite a sexy movie. I was surprised at myself. The overly absurd filmic ideal of passionate orgasmic sex is a real turn off but it is the performance of Sharon Stone primarily, less so Michael Douglas (even though he is excellent in the role,) that brings sex to the film. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the movie actually, the best bit is that it doesn't pretend to be something that it's not, a staple of all Verhoeven movies. An enjoyable thriller packed with sexual tension, I wouldn't say amazing but I'd swing to a 7 out of 10 if pushed and recommend a viewing if you haven't already seen it. Oh yeah, the leg crossing scene, what the hell was the big deal? It's like that moment in Dirty Dancing when Swayze says "nobody puts baby in the corner" you hear so much about it and it's just some tiny thing that barely registers.


And now the new release, blockbuster, first time viewing of X-Men: First Class. I would invite you to read Alex over at Film Forager as her review says so much more about my feelings for this particular film than I have time for right now. We seem to be in the minority too. The gushing that occurred in the blogosphere when this was released was overwhelming, I thought I actually really wanted to watch this film but I am so glad I paid no money for this piece of dull action cinema.
Key points:
Yes it was better than X3 and Wolverine but that doesn't mean it's good.
I got tired of seeing James MacAvoy touch his head when he was using his powers after the first time let alone EVERY SINGLE TIME.
These characters all seemed to be towards the low end of the mutant spectrum, silly powers etc.
Kevin Bacon? Really?
The entire movie was a series of plot points with no story telling. I think I was 80 minutes in and still waiting for the scene setting to stop so we could get on with the movie.

OK enough for today, leave some blahs below, until next time movie watchers.