Hearts Beat Loud is your classic summer indie film that's fresh off the film festival circuit. I screened this movie, in June, 2018 at the Charles Theater in Baltimore.
The premise behind this movie centralizes around a single dad, whom is about to close a few chapters in his life: sending his smart, hardworking daughter off to college, and closing his music store. Nick Offerman, who plays Frank Fischer, lives in an up and coming neighborhood, Red Hook, of Brooklyn. His bonding moments with his daughter comes from their love for music and weekly jam sessions.
The driving force of this movie is the solid soundtrack and the fun simple moments between Offerman, and his daughter, Sam played by Keirsy Clemmons. The budding relationship between Sam and Rose (played by Sascha Lane) left some desires of being developed a bit more, as well as the backstory of Sam's mother.
Tuesday 3 July 2018
The Seagull
The Seagull is a movie adaptation of Chekhov's work of the same name. I was able to screen this version at The Chekhov's work is often laden with a large cast with multiple connections to the other characters. Over the years, I've often wondered with seeing different staged versions of Chekhov's work done for college thesis projects, I often wondered if my confusion or aversion to his staged productions where the translations presented. I was on the fence about screening this movie for much of the same reason. I thought, is the translation going to be decent? Am I going to be able to pick up themes or how each character is connected? Or am I just going to be lost in scenery for 100 minutes.
The Seagull, as a film, has something that many stage productions lack: original live set. By filming this outside in a lake village, it made it far easier to visualize and pick up on smaller references that frequently get lost in stage sets. Despite me not seeing a staged production of the Seagull, I think many of the other staged versions of Chekhov's work I got lost in trying to relate the set design to the natural ideas that were trying to be conveyed within the work. It is a bit of a loss that the Seagull is filmed it in upstate New York, rather than a small lake village in Russia, the scenery and cinematography for this "production" eased some of the viewing needs. It made the play productions within the film, easier to comprehend, and it incorporated many of the natural elements, which made it easier to tie the overall themes and the micro-scenes within the movie, which can easily
The cast for Seagull was a star-studded European cast, some of whom had theater experience, which I think lead to the overall well dramatized versions, but it would have been nice had there been some Russian leads, whom may have been able to add something other than what westerners are familiar with seeing on the screen. Despite this, I found most of the cast that had been selected for the film had other character study type rolls under their belts, so I felt that acting was a stronger carrying point of this film. The group played well together and I felt that the director managed to keep all the different love triangles tight and managed well, in a 100 minute film, so you weren't trying to take notes in the movie of how Character X was connected to Y.
I am not one that is an avid proponent of Chekhov's work, but I can appreciate a well done version of his work. With that regard, it is also important that you take my review with a grain of salt much for that reason. I enjoyed this film rendition more than I thought I would, and I find that it was a good early summer film to take in on a hot summer's day.
The Seagull, as a film, has something that many stage productions lack: original live set. By filming this outside in a lake village, it made it far easier to visualize and pick up on smaller references that frequently get lost in stage sets. Despite me not seeing a staged production of the Seagull, I think many of the other staged versions of Chekhov's work I got lost in trying to relate the set design to the natural ideas that were trying to be conveyed within the work. It is a bit of a loss that the Seagull is filmed it in upstate New York, rather than a small lake village in Russia, the scenery and cinematography for this "production" eased some of the viewing needs. It made the play productions within the film, easier to comprehend, and it incorporated many of the natural elements, which made it easier to tie the overall themes and the micro-scenes within the movie, which can easily
The cast for Seagull was a star-studded European cast, some of whom had theater experience, which I think lead to the overall well dramatized versions, but it would have been nice had there been some Russian leads, whom may have been able to add something other than what westerners are familiar with seeing on the screen. Despite this, I found most of the cast that had been selected for the film had other character study type rolls under their belts, so I felt that acting was a stronger carrying point of this film. The group played well together and I felt that the director managed to keep all the different love triangles tight and managed well, in a 100 minute film, so you weren't trying to take notes in the movie of how Character X was connected to Y.
I am not one that is an avid proponent of Chekhov's work, but I can appreciate a well done version of his work. With that regard, it is also important that you take my review with a grain of salt much for that reason. I enjoyed this film rendition more than I thought I would, and I find that it was a good early summer film to take in on a hot summer's day.
Sunday 24 June 2018
24 Frames
24 Frames is the final film of Abbas Kiarostami, an Iranian film director. Kiarostami, a film director, artist, and photographer melded cinema and photography into his final ode to cinema. It was worked on and completed in 2016, however, it did not make it to Baltimore, MD, until June 2018. I am not sure if this was because of editing reasons, or abilities to promote or obtain the film. The premise behind this film, was to take 24 of his still frame photographs and animate them. The idea seemed to be something right up my alley of different, and combining of art forms. Each frame was roughly four and a half minutes, focusing on stark or bleak landscapes.
Many of these frames were black and white landscapes. Snow and water seemed to be central themes in the frames, and I am not sure if this was a thematic choice, or more based on the ease of animating these features. Birds were also a regular theme, most commonly ravens or crows, which again, had me thinking if these were allusion to foreboding of death. There were some cow scenes, and the two frames that the cows were used seemed to be pretty similar animated footage.
The concept behind the film is creative and different, and while I can appreciate the stills for what they were, I felt some of the moments before and after what would be the normal stills to almost tamper with the simple beauty that was included in his photography. Some of the frames, the four and a half minutes was enough, others it seemed like an eternity.
There was music included in some of the frames, and when included, I found those frames to be more of the ones that peaked my interest. While the approach was to get the viewer to be more in the moment, some of the inclusions of animation was a bit too jilted, which made it a bit more of a challenge to be able to fully surrender to the scenes.
While I appreciated many of the water and snow frames, how some of them were spaced in the group was seamless. It appeared to have some that transitioned well. My only complaint with some of the use of birds, and animals in some of these scenes were a bit too surrealist for my taste (a cow sleeping on a beach for one, a wolf rolling in snow while others worked a carcass, a pigeon flying by a window after a group of crows passing by the same stark countryside view, a song bird singing for four and a half minutes as tree work comes to the two trees close by). These images and animations at times seemed like an odd Dali painting in a moving photo, which was a bit too much for me to process as a viewer. Some of these frames I think would have been more effective and achieved the same beauty in the moment effect if they were shorter.
The final frame, was the ideal climax pinnacle of the body of work, and tied the collection together well. I'd be curious to know more about his work, and if any these started their journey in a Chelsea Gallery.
Many of these frames were black and white landscapes. Snow and water seemed to be central themes in the frames, and I am not sure if this was a thematic choice, or more based on the ease of animating these features. Birds were also a regular theme, most commonly ravens or crows, which again, had me thinking if these were allusion to foreboding of death. There were some cow scenes, and the two frames that the cows were used seemed to be pretty similar animated footage.
The concept behind the film is creative and different, and while I can appreciate the stills for what they were, I felt some of the moments before and after what would be the normal stills to almost tamper with the simple beauty that was included in his photography. Some of the frames, the four and a half minutes was enough, others it seemed like an eternity.
There was music included in some of the frames, and when included, I found those frames to be more of the ones that peaked my interest. While the approach was to get the viewer to be more in the moment, some of the inclusions of animation was a bit too jilted, which made it a bit more of a challenge to be able to fully surrender to the scenes.
While I appreciated many of the water and snow frames, how some of them were spaced in the group was seamless. It appeared to have some that transitioned well. My only complaint with some of the use of birds, and animals in some of these scenes were a bit too surrealist for my taste (a cow sleeping on a beach for one, a wolf rolling in snow while others worked a carcass, a pigeon flying by a window after a group of crows passing by the same stark countryside view, a song bird singing for four and a half minutes as tree work comes to the two trees close by). These images and animations at times seemed like an odd Dali painting in a moving photo, which was a bit too much for me to process as a viewer. Some of these frames I think would have been more effective and achieved the same beauty in the moment effect if they were shorter.
The final frame, was the ideal climax pinnacle of the body of work, and tied the collection together well. I'd be curious to know more about his work, and if any these started their journey in a Chelsea Gallery.
Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom
While one must have some suspended, non science logical approach to view and of the reptilian world movies, the original, Jurassic Park, had much more of a clever, well written script.
Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom, had far less of a promising script. It tried too hard to please the original reptilian world fans. The premise behind this lackluster film, was Isla Nublar, island home to the Jurassic World Park, is under duress. Three years after the demise of the park, the dinosaurs are left to their own devices. They have overtaken the island, but there is a nearby volcano that is on the brink of eruption. Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) are summoned to rescue some of the dinosaurs from the extinction level natural disaster. While procured to find Blue, the smartest of Owen's pod of velocraptors, the duo and team of interns uncover a cover up corruption ring.
Jurassic Park, the original one, at least despite being science fiction, had some decent approaches to facts, and while it wasn't completely believable, it had some form of potential, and used a reasonable fact based concepts behind it. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, threw all those out the window. There was mixing of trex and raptor blood. There were weird hybrids that didn't have any typical reptile behavior. While I realize that this type of movie is not PhD biology thesis material, and simply trying to be an entertaining mindless summer movie, it tried to hard to reconnect the original, the most recent, and appease science fiction nerds, and restorted to a failure worse than Dune level of what is this rubbish? I had strong inclinations that this was going to be the driving force, and was going merely for the summer blockbuster effect, and honestly if I didn't have MoviePass, I probably would have passed on this one. I'll save my comments for MoviePass for another blog post, but albeit, I had Sharknado sequel standards going into this: extremely low standards, and this movie didn't even meet those, nor do I really think The Rock would have starred in this which is also, not saying much.
While the graphics and CGI premise on the original dinos from Jurassic World were impressive, and the sound of the roars were regular that I envision bad weather drinking games made to this, I'd put this more in the terrible movie category well below Anaconda: not even worth the redbox rental fee. However, I'm sure back in the day, when I lived in the middle of nowhere Minnesota in the dead of winter, this would have been our classic drinking game movie.
The premise behind the movie was trying to take on the whole potential catastrophe and what it could do to the environment and the need to save animals, which is a point I usually am gung ho about supporting, but not when it's attached to a movie that can't seem to have valid plot points or make my science oriented brain hurt. Animal trafficking, was also touched on, as these bandits truck these dinosaurs into a home to then be marketed in hopes to raise enough money to use dinosaurs as a military weapon is such a far fetched idea, that it makes the real animal trafficking issues to also be a a joke, which is a shame, while I'm sure this wasn't the intention, they wanted to take on so much point wise that it ended up being a fizzle.
As I struggled to watch, all I could think of was the cliched plot lines of every other summer and winter blockbusters I have seen in recent years: King Kong (2006), Godzilla (2014) and Jurassic Park (1993). While recent remakes of King Kong and Godzilla were mediocre and good, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, just couldn't seem to live up to the rest of the field. Peter Jackson's 2006 King Kong was a long winded 3 hours, with pretty island scenes and an overly anthropomorphized animal chasing after a girl. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, took on a similar approach, but altered, destruction of a pretty island, overly anthropomorphized animals that eventually chase after girls. And even then the hybrid dinosaurs that they used were as if the CGI team came up with the notion of what if we create a mutt of a dinosaur as if Alien, Predator, TREX and raptors all went to a raging orgy. Even the suspense that they tried to build fell short of the building suspense of the 2014 Godzilla.
Movie production companies seem to be building more of the empire of remakes, adding on to franchise story lines, and blockbusters. I felt that Solo, the prequel of the Star Wars movies worked more in the interest of new fans of the Star Wars Franchise, as well as the old. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seemed to want to appease to the original Jurassic Park fans, but instead threw in a weird plot line to tie the Jurassic World Series to the Jurassic Park originals. and failed miserably.
Unfortunately, I was hoping for a reasonable summer blockbuster, and instead was given mush that was trying to pass as diamond worthy.
Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom, had far less of a promising script. It tried too hard to please the original reptilian world fans. The premise behind this lackluster film, was Isla Nublar, island home to the Jurassic World Park, is under duress. Three years after the demise of the park, the dinosaurs are left to their own devices. They have overtaken the island, but there is a nearby volcano that is on the brink of eruption. Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) are summoned to rescue some of the dinosaurs from the extinction level natural disaster. While procured to find Blue, the smartest of Owen's pod of velocraptors, the duo and team of interns uncover a cover up corruption ring.
Jurassic Park, the original one, at least despite being science fiction, had some decent approaches to facts, and while it wasn't completely believable, it had some form of potential, and used a reasonable fact based concepts behind it. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, threw all those out the window. There was mixing of trex and raptor blood. There were weird hybrids that didn't have any typical reptile behavior. While I realize that this type of movie is not PhD biology thesis material, and simply trying to be an entertaining mindless summer movie, it tried to hard to reconnect the original, the most recent, and appease science fiction nerds, and restorted to a failure worse than Dune level of what is this rubbish? I had strong inclinations that this was going to be the driving force, and was going merely for the summer blockbuster effect, and honestly if I didn't have MoviePass, I probably would have passed on this one. I'll save my comments for MoviePass for another blog post, but albeit, I had Sharknado sequel standards going into this: extremely low standards, and this movie didn't even meet those, nor do I really think The Rock would have starred in this which is also, not saying much.
While the graphics and CGI premise on the original dinos from Jurassic World were impressive, and the sound of the roars were regular that I envision bad weather drinking games made to this, I'd put this more in the terrible movie category well below Anaconda: not even worth the redbox rental fee. However, I'm sure back in the day, when I lived in the middle of nowhere Minnesota in the dead of winter, this would have been our classic drinking game movie.
The premise behind the movie was trying to take on the whole potential catastrophe and what it could do to the environment and the need to save animals, which is a point I usually am gung ho about supporting, but not when it's attached to a movie that can't seem to have valid plot points or make my science oriented brain hurt. Animal trafficking, was also touched on, as these bandits truck these dinosaurs into a home to then be marketed in hopes to raise enough money to use dinosaurs as a military weapon is such a far fetched idea, that it makes the real animal trafficking issues to also be a a joke, which is a shame, while I'm sure this wasn't the intention, they wanted to take on so much point wise that it ended up being a fizzle.
As I struggled to watch, all I could think of was the cliched plot lines of every other summer and winter blockbusters I have seen in recent years: King Kong (2006), Godzilla (2014) and Jurassic Park (1993). While recent remakes of King Kong and Godzilla were mediocre and good, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, just couldn't seem to live up to the rest of the field. Peter Jackson's 2006 King Kong was a long winded 3 hours, with pretty island scenes and an overly anthropomorphized animal chasing after a girl. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, took on a similar approach, but altered, destruction of a pretty island, overly anthropomorphized animals that eventually chase after girls. And even then the hybrid dinosaurs that they used were as if the CGI team came up with the notion of what if we create a mutt of a dinosaur as if Alien, Predator, TREX and raptors all went to a raging orgy. Even the suspense that they tried to build fell short of the building suspense of the 2014 Godzilla.
Movie production companies seem to be building more of the empire of remakes, adding on to franchise story lines, and blockbusters. I felt that Solo, the prequel of the Star Wars movies worked more in the interest of new fans of the Star Wars Franchise, as well as the old. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seemed to want to appease to the original Jurassic Park fans, but instead threw in a weird plot line to tie the Jurassic World Series to the Jurassic Park originals. and failed miserably.
Unfortunately, I was hoping for a reasonable summer blockbuster, and instead was given mush that was trying to pass as diamond worthy.
Monday 16 April 2018
Unsane
Unsane is Steven Sodorberg's 2018 thriller. It was shot mostly with an Iphone and is the story of Sawyer Valentini. Sawyer relocates from Boston to a small town in nowhere Pennsylvania. She relocates as a way in hopes to escape the man whom has been stalking her for the last two years. Once she relocates, she goes to see a counselor, and unbeknownst to herself, she signs papers to have herself committed for 24 hours. The 24 hours then becomes a week, and she then becomes convinced that her stalker is one of the night nurses. She does what she can to try to survive and get out.
While this wasn't the best thriller I've seen this year, I think it brings to light some of the stigmas most of what our society has towards getting help. At the same time, the movie can serve as a hindrance for a lot of people to want or be able to admit or try to get the help they need. While I'm sure that there are psychiatric centers like the one portrayed in this movie that tries to get patients by any means necessary and bill insurance for what they need.
I appreciated the approach of using an IPhone to shoot this movie, however, I think that Soderberg used this method, as this seems to be the new up and coming method to approach film-making. At times, the phone allowed for some new fresh angles. The downside, was in a lot of the dark hospital scenes or forest scenes, the coloration of the shots becomes distracting. The approach fails to have the sheer beauty of Tangerine, the 2015 crime thriller movie that started the iphone approach to filming.
The thriller aspect of the movie, was mostly a sleeper approach, wanting to appeal more towards the "smart people horror movie" crowd. (The Witch, Good Night Mommy, A Quiet Place would also fall into the same category). While the movie had some good seat jumper moments, and surprises and plot twists. I wanted to enjoy the movie, and while the story seemed new to the genre, it still fell short. I had paired this with a double feature with the 12 days documentary. While I think the two served as a good contrast on the topics of self help and care, ultimately it still fell short a bit in being a solid approach for what I was expecting with this film.
While this wasn't the best thriller I've seen this year, I think it brings to light some of the stigmas most of what our society has towards getting help. At the same time, the movie can serve as a hindrance for a lot of people to want or be able to admit or try to get the help they need. While I'm sure that there are psychiatric centers like the one portrayed in this movie that tries to get patients by any means necessary and bill insurance for what they need.
I appreciated the approach of using an IPhone to shoot this movie, however, I think that Soderberg used this method, as this seems to be the new up and coming method to approach film-making. At times, the phone allowed for some new fresh angles. The downside, was in a lot of the dark hospital scenes or forest scenes, the coloration of the shots becomes distracting. The approach fails to have the sheer beauty of Tangerine, the 2015 crime thriller movie that started the iphone approach to filming.
The thriller aspect of the movie, was mostly a sleeper approach, wanting to appeal more towards the "smart people horror movie" crowd. (The Witch, Good Night Mommy, A Quiet Place would also fall into the same category). While the movie had some good seat jumper moments, and surprises and plot twists. I wanted to enjoy the movie, and while the story seemed new to the genre, it still fell short. I had paired this with a double feature with the 12 days documentary. While I think the two served as a good contrast on the topics of self help and care, ultimately it still fell short a bit in being a solid approach for what I was expecting with this film.
12 Days
12 Days is a 2017 documentary out of France. It's US release date was in March 2018, and I viewed it at the Parkway Theater. By law, in France, anyone whom is committed to a psychiatric ward or hospital, must see a judge roughly 12 days after their commitment. This is to deem whether or not they are fit to be released or should continue treatment.
The documentary follows a grouping of patients, some of their time in the hospital, as well as their hearings. They also have many scenic scenes between cases. The scenic scenes help set the tonal, grey and cold rainy or misty scenes of some of the hospitals. The premise of the documentary is fascinating to me, as the stigma of needing to get psychiatric help in the United States is always a challenge. Many in the states can't get the help that they need due to sheer costs, limited insurance or options for that matter. Many of the stories that they portray are heartbreaking. Some don't see the need for their commitments, while others appreciate the help that they are receiving and comment on how they feel the treatment to be helpful. Unfortunately, I'm sure mostly due to doctor-patient privileges, most of the documentary covers only the trials. Some of the trials we see are early in the treatment process, others are later. Everyone that we witness, the patient is told that they need to receive more treatment.
There is enlightenment in seeing another country's process, it's just a shame that we weren't given more information about maybe the hospitals, what allows others to commit certain people against their will, in addition to the court cases. I realize that most families, friends, patients or doctors may not want to disclose everything about why somebody is committed, the healing process, treatment, etc., but there are just so many other approaches that this documentary could have brought forth in it. The documentary itself was relatively short, and like I said, was a string of the different court cases. It also would have been beneficial to see a variety of different rulings, in addition to the variety of judges. Another topic that could have been pursued could have been why these judges chose to hear these types of cases. Overall, I enjoyed the film, I just left wanting to know more.
The documentary follows a grouping of patients, some of their time in the hospital, as well as their hearings. They also have many scenic scenes between cases. The scenic scenes help set the tonal, grey and cold rainy or misty scenes of some of the hospitals. The premise of the documentary is fascinating to me, as the stigma of needing to get psychiatric help in the United States is always a challenge. Many in the states can't get the help that they need due to sheer costs, limited insurance or options for that matter. Many of the stories that they portray are heartbreaking. Some don't see the need for their commitments, while others appreciate the help that they are receiving and comment on how they feel the treatment to be helpful. Unfortunately, I'm sure mostly due to doctor-patient privileges, most of the documentary covers only the trials. Some of the trials we see are early in the treatment process, others are later. Everyone that we witness, the patient is told that they need to receive more treatment.
There is enlightenment in seeing another country's process, it's just a shame that we weren't given more information about maybe the hospitals, what allows others to commit certain people against their will, in addition to the court cases. I realize that most families, friends, patients or doctors may not want to disclose everything about why somebody is committed, the healing process, treatment, etc., but there are just so many other approaches that this documentary could have brought forth in it. The documentary itself was relatively short, and like I said, was a string of the different court cases. It also would have been beneficial to see a variety of different rulings, in addition to the variety of judges. Another topic that could have been pursued could have been why these judges chose to hear these types of cases. Overall, I enjoyed the film, I just left wanting to know more.
Sunday 15 April 2018
Annihilation
Annihilation is 2018 film from Alex Garland. Garland had previously directed 28 days Later, and wrote and directed Ex Machina. It was released in February and I screened it in March in a Chinatown theater in DC. Annihilation is by far one of the best visually stunning movies that I have seen in years. Certainly a movie made for the big screen, and not one that would have the same effect if you were to watch it at home, especially on a computer.
Annihilation's premise of the movie, centralizes, around Natalie Portman's character, a army veteran biologist. It's sent in a dystopian type world, where her husband returns from the "Shimmer". The Shimmer is the result of an alien asteroid hitting earth. It expands and alters the world around it. While the movie was based on the book of the same name, of the Southern Reach trilogy of Jeff Vandeermer. This is where the movie was a bit shaky. Perhaps Garland's weaker film of his body of work. Ex Machina was pretty well executed, and I'm not sure if it's because of his ability to write a solid script on his own. While I haven't read the book, I can't say how true the movie is to the book, or whether or not Garland ruined the concept of the original book. I am also not sure if the intention is to make the trilogy. As a downfall of the movie, at times the story-line is a bit muddled and inconclusive. It's hard to say if this was an issue, or whether or not there is going to be a follow up and finishing of the series.
Annihilation is visually stunning. It succeeds well in pulling in and captivating the audience with it's visual effects. Much like Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the world created in the movie was the driving force, and everything else seemed to fall by the wayside. Unlike Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the movie's acting and storyline didn't live up to everything else. While creating these hybrid creatures, the movie is able to stir in the tension thriller aspect I have been craving solidly all season from my thriller movies. The CGI wasn't so overly done to make the Shimmer, creatures, or side effects odd. They all played well and drew the viewer more so into the film. While the team of women explore the Shimmer, the tension is laid on thick and viewers are drawn drastically into determining and learning about what the ultimate causation is, and Portman's story of working through the Shimmer. I appreciated the woman dominated cast, especially portraying roles you don't often see women in: science, veterans.
The acting in the film was a bit short, but I felt it wasn't the mere driving force of the movie. You frequently forgot how the acting was poor in areas, when something visually stunning like deer with flowering antlers prance around the screen. The story line had some holes and was a bit hard to follow at times as it jumped around in time with flashbacks. Despite the somewhat flawed script, this is one of the films I've enjoyed the most this year. The final 30-45 minutes of the film justified the whole movie going experience with this movie for me.
Annihilation's premise of the movie, centralizes, around Natalie Portman's character, a army veteran biologist. It's sent in a dystopian type world, where her husband returns from the "Shimmer". The Shimmer is the result of an alien asteroid hitting earth. It expands and alters the world around it. While the movie was based on the book of the same name, of the Southern Reach trilogy of Jeff Vandeermer. This is where the movie was a bit shaky. Perhaps Garland's weaker film of his body of work. Ex Machina was pretty well executed, and I'm not sure if it's because of his ability to write a solid script on his own. While I haven't read the book, I can't say how true the movie is to the book, or whether or not Garland ruined the concept of the original book. I am also not sure if the intention is to make the trilogy. As a downfall of the movie, at times the story-line is a bit muddled and inconclusive. It's hard to say if this was an issue, or whether or not there is going to be a follow up and finishing of the series.
Annihilation is visually stunning. It succeeds well in pulling in and captivating the audience with it's visual effects. Much like Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the world created in the movie was the driving force, and everything else seemed to fall by the wayside. Unlike Blade Runner 2049 and Mad Max Fury Road, the movie's acting and storyline didn't live up to everything else. While creating these hybrid creatures, the movie is able to stir in the tension thriller aspect I have been craving solidly all season from my thriller movies. The CGI wasn't so overly done to make the Shimmer, creatures, or side effects odd. They all played well and drew the viewer more so into the film. While the team of women explore the Shimmer, the tension is laid on thick and viewers are drawn drastically into determining and learning about what the ultimate causation is, and Portman's story of working through the Shimmer. I appreciated the woman dominated cast, especially portraying roles you don't often see women in: science, veterans.
The acting in the film was a bit short, but I felt it wasn't the mere driving force of the movie. You frequently forgot how the acting was poor in areas, when something visually stunning like deer with flowering antlers prance around the screen. The story line had some holes and was a bit hard to follow at times as it jumped around in time with flashbacks. Despite the somewhat flawed script, this is one of the films I've enjoyed the most this year. The final 30-45 minutes of the film justified the whole movie going experience with this movie for me.
Thoroughbreds
Thoroughbreds is a 2018 thriller centralizing around two reunited estranged teen friends. It seems that the 2017-2018 film scene seems to be frothing at the bit for teen drama movies, thrillers, romcoms, Thoroughbreds seems to be one of the better of the crop that's been coming out recently.
The premise behind the movie was that two friends, Lily and Amanda, whom grew up in a suburban Connecticut town, much like the Stamford ilk, rekindle their drifted friendship. Lily is home from her elite boarding school, Amanda is working towards revamping her image. The two hatch a plan to solve both their problems.
I found this to be one of the better thrillers I have seen of 2018, most have been an attempt at thriller, but it seems that Thoroughbreds builds more plot twists and suspense than others that I have seen recently. I found the premise between the two friends to be believable and relatable. While this isn't much of a movie targeted for more the teen audience, but more like Ladybird, where I think most of the audience attending the movie is going to be younger adults reflecting back on their youth. This seems to be a driving theme in approaches to movies recently, and part of me wonders if with Thoroughbreds, the screenwriter and director perhaps wanted to hitch a plan of what they had WISHED they had done growing up. Despite this, it seemed like the ultimate revenge bitchy stuck up teen movie, of girls with nothing better to do with their time than to hatch a plan to get back at a nasty step father.
The music added some good overall tension to the movie, and the lighting and camera angles at times where an interesting approach. While the movie didn't really leave me on the edge of the seat, it was a creative approach to teen angst.
The premise behind the movie was that two friends, Lily and Amanda, whom grew up in a suburban Connecticut town, much like the Stamford ilk, rekindle their drifted friendship. Lily is home from her elite boarding school, Amanda is working towards revamping her image. The two hatch a plan to solve both their problems.
I found this to be one of the better thrillers I have seen of 2018, most have been an attempt at thriller, but it seems that Thoroughbreds builds more plot twists and suspense than others that I have seen recently. I found the premise between the two friends to be believable and relatable. While this isn't much of a movie targeted for more the teen audience, but more like Ladybird, where I think most of the audience attending the movie is going to be younger adults reflecting back on their youth. This seems to be a driving theme in approaches to movies recently, and part of me wonders if with Thoroughbreds, the screenwriter and director perhaps wanted to hitch a plan of what they had WISHED they had done growing up. Despite this, it seemed like the ultimate revenge bitchy stuck up teen movie, of girls with nothing better to do with their time than to hatch a plan to get back at a nasty step father.
The music added some good overall tension to the movie, and the lighting and camera angles at times where an interesting approach. While the movie didn't really leave me on the edge of the seat, it was a creative approach to teen angst.
Saturday 7 April 2018
Kill Me, Please
Kill Me, Please is a teenage slasher film set in the West Side of Rio De Janerio. It was released in Brazil in 2015, and had a release in 2017 in the States. It made it's way to the Parkway Theater in Baltimore, in 2018. Kill Me, Please, or Mat-me por Favor is a different kind of movie, but I have been a bit underwhelmed by the Brazilian movies I have seen recently, as the grouping I have seen seems to lack a direct story line approach. The movies tend to have a general theme, and groupings of scenes that support that theme without much plot driven concepts. This movie seemed of the same concept, and left a lot to be desired. It was a sex comedy thriller. Unfortunately, the movie was two thirds of scenes of teens making out, which got overly tiresome. I realize that most teenagers tend to be make out kings and queens, the quantity of making out scenes seemed pretty excessive.
The movie, set in Barra de Tijuana in the richer outer parts of Rio De Janerio, a city that is home to a gaggle of usually bored youths full of hormones and living a sheltered life until a serial killer turns up in the neighborhood. Young Bia, becomes fascinated by the killings, more so, when she and her clique of mean girls, find one of the girls in a bush, just prior to her life runs out. Bia, is also equally obsessed with her friends, sex, and her cute boyfriend, Paulo. The two frequently hook up in a variety of settings, however, Paulo is trying to redirect her attentions to the more religious groups at school.
The movie has a solid soundtrack, and decent thriller scenes when they get beyond the takeout scenes, however, the minimal scenes of the thrillers didn't hold my interest, or build enough suspense. While, the movie eventually draws on ideas on how Bia's brother is connected, it ended without really answering any possible questions. While I realize most good movies creates more questions that it answers, this movie doesn't answer any. It just seems to try to mix drama thriller and horror with comedy. With other Brazilian movies I've seen this year, the writer and director, Anita Rocha da Silveria has created a movie similar to other Brazilian movies I've seen this year. She also, mentioned that she drew inspiration on David Lynch, Dario Argento, Brian De Palma, and Claire Dennis. This is evident in some scenes, but overall I wish I had taken a by on this film.
The movie, set in Barra de Tijuana in the richer outer parts of Rio De Janerio, a city that is home to a gaggle of usually bored youths full of hormones and living a sheltered life until a serial killer turns up in the neighborhood. Young Bia, becomes fascinated by the killings, more so, when she and her clique of mean girls, find one of the girls in a bush, just prior to her life runs out. Bia, is also equally obsessed with her friends, sex, and her cute boyfriend, Paulo. The two frequently hook up in a variety of settings, however, Paulo is trying to redirect her attentions to the more religious groups at school.
The movie has a solid soundtrack, and decent thriller scenes when they get beyond the takeout scenes, however, the minimal scenes of the thrillers didn't hold my interest, or build enough suspense. While, the movie eventually draws on ideas on how Bia's brother is connected, it ended without really answering any possible questions. While I realize most good movies creates more questions that it answers, this movie doesn't answer any. It just seems to try to mix drama thriller and horror with comedy. With other Brazilian movies I've seen this year, the writer and director, Anita Rocha da Silveria has created a movie similar to other Brazilian movies I've seen this year. She also, mentioned that she drew inspiration on David Lynch, Dario Argento, Brian De Palma, and Claire Dennis. This is evident in some scenes, but overall I wish I had taken a by on this film.
Tuesday 27 March 2018
Werewolves
Werewolf is a 2016 film directed by Ashley McKenzie. It had originally premiered in Baltimore, in 2017 with the Maryland Film Festival. I screened it however, in March, 2018, when it had more of a theatrical release, and when it came back to the Parkway Theater. I feel like that this movie has a bit of a misnomer for a title. I had originally had avoided this with the film festival, merely based on the title, thinking it was going to be something more like Twilight. Despite this notion, the title can be illusionist of the concept of changing into someone or something new.
Werewolf is a movie that follows Blaise and Nessa, a young homeless outcast couple in a small town. They relationship is the classic codependent addict relationship. They go door to door, begging to cut people's lawns in the small town, frequently resorting to a run-down bus on the outskirts of town to live out of. TThey are using their earnings to work towards methadone treatments. Nessa, the stronger, and younger of the two, creates a plan to get better and out of the small town. She slowly tries to chip away at her dream to leave the small town, as Blaise spirals back on the brink of addictions. He starts to hinder Nessa's progress, and you can't help but wonder, if she will break the addiction cycle.
While most movies circulating the drug addictions, I feel like most build on notions of platitudes or a variety of judgement in one field or another. Werewolf was refreshing in the sense, as you watch this couple struggle, and the viewer can only hopes that Nessa is able to continue towards her path of betterment. It's a film that centralizes around the ideas and themes of there being no right answers or development in the area. The balance between the vulture who circulates around bad habits, and those that reach several road blocks, was refreshing and different than many other drug abuse films. I appreciated the struggle between the two, and the nature of their relationship. Not being a drug addict, the movie gave me a different appreciation for those that are struggling to get their lives together.
The movie lags at times, and I felt that McKenzie drew out some scenes a bit more than I cared for, but overall, I appreciated the smaller approach. The codependency of the relationship I think is something that is not explored as much. The length was short, and I'm sure a challenge to really work on developing certain themes or story-lines more. I would have liked to have seen more of Nessa's development or progression that would have gotten her started or mixed in with Blaise's concepts. There were some differences in characters, which I'd like to think were a driving attraction to the two starting. Despite this, I would have liked more of a frame of mind of a bit before or after the projected story line. The movie was apparently filmed just under a month, and was loosely based on an actual couple's life. I think McKenzie was able to really capture the small town feel, and the struggle to overcome addictions well. The storyline I found interesting, and I'd be interested to see what McKenzie develops later.
Werewolf is a movie that follows Blaise and Nessa, a young homeless outcast couple in a small town. They relationship is the classic codependent addict relationship. They go door to door, begging to cut people's lawns in the small town, frequently resorting to a run-down bus on the outskirts of town to live out of. TThey are using their earnings to work towards methadone treatments. Nessa, the stronger, and younger of the two, creates a plan to get better and out of the small town. She slowly tries to chip away at her dream to leave the small town, as Blaise spirals back on the brink of addictions. He starts to hinder Nessa's progress, and you can't help but wonder, if she will break the addiction cycle.
While most movies circulating the drug addictions, I feel like most build on notions of platitudes or a variety of judgement in one field or another. Werewolf was refreshing in the sense, as you watch this couple struggle, and the viewer can only hopes that Nessa is able to continue towards her path of betterment. It's a film that centralizes around the ideas and themes of there being no right answers or development in the area. The balance between the vulture who circulates around bad habits, and those that reach several road blocks, was refreshing and different than many other drug abuse films. I appreciated the struggle between the two, and the nature of their relationship. Not being a drug addict, the movie gave me a different appreciation for those that are struggling to get their lives together.
The movie lags at times, and I felt that McKenzie drew out some scenes a bit more than I cared for, but overall, I appreciated the smaller approach. The codependency of the relationship I think is something that is not explored as much. The length was short, and I'm sure a challenge to really work on developing certain themes or story-lines more. I would have liked to have seen more of Nessa's development or progression that would have gotten her started or mixed in with Blaise's concepts. There were some differences in characters, which I'd like to think were a driving attraction to the two starting. Despite this, I would have liked more of a frame of mind of a bit before or after the projected story line. The movie was apparently filmed just under a month, and was loosely based on an actual couple's life. I think McKenzie was able to really capture the small town feel, and the struggle to overcome addictions well. The storyline I found interesting, and I'd be interested to see what McKenzie develops later.
A Wrinkle in Time
I was really torn going into seeing this movie. I had to read the book in middle school one summer for summer reading. It was a dark time, where I wasn't too keen on reading, but for some reason, this book spoke to me. I think it was the Sci-fi concept, the weird shunned nerdy science based type characters. For some reason the whole concept of Christian themes were lost on my 12 year old brain. I was also lost on this concept with the Narnia books as well. Despite my strong liking for this book, I never reread it, and was hesitant going into the movie. Honestly, I probably would have opted out of it had I not had MoviePass.
One of the first issues that I had with the movie, was the fact that the director for the movie, does not have much of a science fiction background. While in some circumstances, this may not matter, but it leaves a lot to be desired. While it wasn't a complete flop like Dune, it just did not seem to live up to the current standings of the genre. Ex Machina had set the bar of recent scify thrillers for me, so the family type approach to sci-fy wasn't as well developed as I would have liked.
I like the concept of wanting to take the whole idea of an absent father movie, I just don't think that this story classic was the time or the place. While it can be nice to have a refresher of a classic book, I don't know how these two could have melded as much on two different planes than this movie. This movie is just so different than the book, that I am almost wonder if they would have been better to do something with titles and character names.
I appreciated the whole concept of the sibling relationships and the family dynamic of the movie. I also really enjoyed the idea of creating a movie around the idea self worth and development. I just don't know if I like the alterations of approach or refresher for this book in particular. I don't know if I was too keen on the Mean Girls type approach to this movie and middle school drama, as it wasn't much of a developed theme in the book.
There were some scenes that were worth seeing on the big screen. Mainly the best scene on the big screen was the fields of flowers and the flying scenes, but some of the CGI was just a bit overly done, that it became distracting. This was also true with some of the costumes, mostly with Oprah's. I'm torn with the movie, mostly because it was trying too hard in many areas, but had some smaller noteworthy concepts. I think I would have enjoyed the movie more, had they selected a director that had a scify background. I think I would have enjoyed it more, if the visuals had matched most well done scify movies as well. I'd be interested in seeing more of what she does in the non-sci-fy movie sector
One of the first issues that I had with the movie, was the fact that the director for the movie, does not have much of a science fiction background. While in some circumstances, this may not matter, but it leaves a lot to be desired. While it wasn't a complete flop like Dune, it just did not seem to live up to the current standings of the genre. Ex Machina had set the bar of recent scify thrillers for me, so the family type approach to sci-fy wasn't as well developed as I would have liked.
I like the concept of wanting to take the whole idea of an absent father movie, I just don't think that this story classic was the time or the place. While it can be nice to have a refresher of a classic book, I don't know how these two could have melded as much on two different planes than this movie. This movie is just so different than the book, that I am almost wonder if they would have been better to do something with titles and character names.
I appreciated the whole concept of the sibling relationships and the family dynamic of the movie. I also really enjoyed the idea of creating a movie around the idea self worth and development. I just don't know if I like the alterations of approach or refresher for this book in particular. I don't know if I was too keen on the Mean Girls type approach to this movie and middle school drama, as it wasn't much of a developed theme in the book.
There were some scenes that were worth seeing on the big screen. Mainly the best scene on the big screen was the fields of flowers and the flying scenes, but some of the CGI was just a bit overly done, that it became distracting. This was also true with some of the costumes, mostly with Oprah's. I'm torn with the movie, mostly because it was trying too hard in many areas, but had some smaller noteworthy concepts. I think I would have enjoyed the movie more, had they selected a director that had a scify background. I think I would have enjoyed it more, if the visuals had matched most well done scify movies as well. I'd be interested in seeing more of what she does in the non-sci-fy movie sector
Tuesday 20 March 2018
Black Panther
Black Panther is a 2018 Marvel superhero film directed by Ryan Coogler. The film commences with T'Challa returning to his African home of Wakanda, to take the throne after his father's death. When there is a rise of a powerful enemy, T'Challa must lead Wakanda to rise up against the challenge.
Black Panther is an entity in itself. It is well worth seeing on the big screen, merely for the African landscapes. While it fits into the typical realm of action studded Marvel scenes, it takes on more of a Bond or Batman approach of science and technology based enhancements. It is, however, one of the more approachable of the comic book movies, and has a lot of what ifs and sociological jabs that most Marvel or comic book movies don't seem to breech. There was more of a human and almost mythological approach to the movie, I haven't seen in most Marvel type movies.
The movie takes approaches on "what could have been" with Africa, it's a bit of a swirl of throwing the term colonizer out, and Wakanda's hesitation of wanting to open themselves with the rest of the world. There is a futurism within Wakanda that is enticing. Their connections with local tribes, but not much further out can be drawn to the country first aspects seen in some of the current countries with the largest colonizing histories (US, Britain) .
While most comic movies tend to cater more towards a younger and a comic nerd crowd, there are many "onion" layers to Black Panther. While current politics maybe considered these countries in Africa as "shit hole" you can't be short of amazed of the levels of what Wakanda as a nation achieved despite being more based on much of the traditional approaches, while also embracing the powers of technology.
The strong build on science and technology is refreshing. There aren't many films that draw or build on the basis of including science and incorporating technology as domineering and driving force of a nation. Most films will look at science and technology in terms of medical fields, healing powers, science fiction, and biopics of certain techno hubs, and not as much of the driving force of what is the potential of country and it's next generations.
The movie takes on a tone of black power, without it being overbearing or extreme in presentations. I was curious about the idea of the title or base of the culture of Black Panthers in the 50's and 60's in the states. The history itself in the US is a strong group of people looking to be a driving force for their people in their neighborhoods and nation.
The tour de force of women and their abilities to be the advisers, and the main reasons the society as a whole was able to succeed was an interesting approach and empowering in a different way. The feel good forces of this Marvel movie were far more deep seeded than your average Spider-Man, Avengers, and the ilk. While it seems to stay true to the concepts of most comic book approaches and developments, there are much more of a modern take and historical contexts that make this movie far more of approach. I am looking forward to similar takes on this type of approach, or threads in the series.
Black Panther is an entity in itself. It is well worth seeing on the big screen, merely for the African landscapes. While it fits into the typical realm of action studded Marvel scenes, it takes on more of a Bond or Batman approach of science and technology based enhancements. It is, however, one of the more approachable of the comic book movies, and has a lot of what ifs and sociological jabs that most Marvel or comic book movies don't seem to breech. There was more of a human and almost mythological approach to the movie, I haven't seen in most Marvel type movies.
The movie takes approaches on "what could have been" with Africa, it's a bit of a swirl of throwing the term colonizer out, and Wakanda's hesitation of wanting to open themselves with the rest of the world. There is a futurism within Wakanda that is enticing. Their connections with local tribes, but not much further out can be drawn to the country first aspects seen in some of the current countries with the largest colonizing histories (US, Britain) .
While most comic movies tend to cater more towards a younger and a comic nerd crowd, there are many "onion" layers to Black Panther. While current politics maybe considered these countries in Africa as "shit hole" you can't be short of amazed of the levels of what Wakanda as a nation achieved despite being more based on much of the traditional approaches, while also embracing the powers of technology.
The strong build on science and technology is refreshing. There aren't many films that draw or build on the basis of including science and incorporating technology as domineering and driving force of a nation. Most films will look at science and technology in terms of medical fields, healing powers, science fiction, and biopics of certain techno hubs, and not as much of the driving force of what is the potential of country and it's next generations.
The movie takes on a tone of black power, without it being overbearing or extreme in presentations. I was curious about the idea of the title or base of the culture of Black Panthers in the 50's and 60's in the states. The history itself in the US is a strong group of people looking to be a driving force for their people in their neighborhoods and nation.
The tour de force of women and their abilities to be the advisers, and the main reasons the society as a whole was able to succeed was an interesting approach and empowering in a different way. The feel good forces of this Marvel movie were far more deep seeded than your average Spider-Man, Avengers, and the ilk. While it seems to stay true to the concepts of most comic book approaches and developments, there are much more of a modern take and historical contexts that make this movie far more of approach. I am looking forward to similar takes on this type of approach, or threads in the series.
Monday 19 March 2018
The Insult
The Insult is a 2017 French and Lebanese film directed by Ziad Doueir. It was released in most US theaters in 2018. The film is set in present day Beirut, when a contractor and his crew is going through a neighborhood to update buildings to code. Unbeknownst at the start of the movie, the contractor is a Palestinian refugee. While checking the neighborhood, his crew realizes that there was one house that had some illegal gutters and drains. While trying to convince the home owner to allow him to fix it, the two get heated, leading the contractor to then insult the homeowner, a Lebanese Christian.
The insult then leads to a series of events, ultimately bringing the two to court. The media centralizes around the build of the trial, creating a social explosion between both extreme sides. The two, Tony and Yasser, the original people involved are forced to reflect on their values and troubled past, which jades their values. Some of the revelations the two face during the trial, allow both parties to begin to understand where each other is coming from.
The Insult is a movie that raises questions not only on Beirut's approach to the refugee crisis as well as what other countries take on with their approaches. At times, especially towards the end of the trial, it seems to be taking on a bit of the Law and Order style, of trying to look and dig deeper into different approaches to the trial, however, unlike Into the Fade, which picked up the Golden Globe nomination, it broached far more topical questions of refuges, the roles media can play in high profile cases. It also looks at a nation's idea of a more turbulent past.
There are no easy answers or solutions to this trial, and the movie takes a sweeping approach to the two extreme views in both, and tries to bring forth a middle ground. The added bonus, is that the movie exceeds in presenting many of the gray areas that create and promote challenges and speed bumps in the process, and at times, there may be no good answer, other than a simple apology.
While the movie is high in it's political charge, the questions it raises, and histories it presents, one of the well achieved aspects, is that in many circumstances and scenes, the movie is not super pushy in presenting one side as the correct side. It certainly makes the movie far more relateable and relevant. There may not be any good, better, or fully right or fully wrong presented approaches. There are a lot of grey areas when it comes to many of the differences, and it raises valid points in the prejudices that we me bring to the table/
The insult then leads to a series of events, ultimately bringing the two to court. The media centralizes around the build of the trial, creating a social explosion between both extreme sides. The two, Tony and Yasser, the original people involved are forced to reflect on their values and troubled past, which jades their values. Some of the revelations the two face during the trial, allow both parties to begin to understand where each other is coming from.
The Insult is a movie that raises questions not only on Beirut's approach to the refugee crisis as well as what other countries take on with their approaches. At times, especially towards the end of the trial, it seems to be taking on a bit of the Law and Order style, of trying to look and dig deeper into different approaches to the trial, however, unlike Into the Fade, which picked up the Golden Globe nomination, it broached far more topical questions of refuges, the roles media can play in high profile cases. It also looks at a nation's idea of a more turbulent past.
There are no easy answers or solutions to this trial, and the movie takes a sweeping approach to the two extreme views in both, and tries to bring forth a middle ground. The added bonus, is that the movie exceeds in presenting many of the gray areas that create and promote challenges and speed bumps in the process, and at times, there may be no good answer, other than a simple apology.
While the movie is high in it's political charge, the questions it raises, and histories it presents, one of the well achieved aspects, is that in many circumstances and scenes, the movie is not super pushy in presenting one side as the correct side. It certainly makes the movie far more relateable and relevant. There may not be any good, better, or fully right or fully wrong presented approaches. There are a lot of grey areas when it comes to many of the differences, and it raises valid points in the prejudices that we me bring to the table/
The Party
The Party, a dark comedy, is a 2018 British film written and directed by Sally Potter. It is a small budget art house film that shot entirely in black and white and has a small A list British cast. Janet, played by Kirsten Scott Thomas, hosts a small gathering in her house to celebrate her new political posting. The gathering of friends, for a champagne toast, along with her preoccupied husband, all bubble over with news of their own.
The short 70 minute film, is direct and to the point. At times, the dialogue and wit that graces the script, is eminent of an older British thriller or film noir style movie. While there weren't many aspects to categorize this film as either thriller or film noir, it'd be better to be considered more of a satirical approach to present day society. As a modern twist on Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, there are times where the jabs of societal struggles are almost too poignant.
The movie commences with the typical awkward scenes of parties kick starting. While the cast did not seem to gel as well in the beginning as the latter half of the movie. Between the wine pours and whining of characters of the plagues of their life, there are a plethora of jabs for all walks of life. I think the movie was catering more to the 50's generation, as it seemed to be more of their ilk and desires, the stark contrasts of grays, blacks, and whites draw in the viewer despite this.
The angles portrayed and framing of the scenes gave the film much more of the illusion of tight space that I think Potter was trying to achieve. The mere staging of the camera at many points in the film give far more of an objective view of the stifling tight space that the dialogue and cast of six seem to drum up with projected announcements of recent and past discretion, changes in life, and the unwillingness to progress forward in any real sense of personal growth.
While, as a viewer, I know that I may not have been the ideal target audience that Potter was looking for generation wise, but I had an overall appreciation for the artistry approach brought through this film. It was not my favorite recent plot driven or character study movie, but I certainly think Potter has some promising concepts to bring to the table.
The short 70 minute film, is direct and to the point. At times, the dialogue and wit that graces the script, is eminent of an older British thriller or film noir style movie. While there weren't many aspects to categorize this film as either thriller or film noir, it'd be better to be considered more of a satirical approach to present day society. As a modern twist on Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, there are times where the jabs of societal struggles are almost too poignant.
The movie commences with the typical awkward scenes of parties kick starting. While the cast did not seem to gel as well in the beginning as the latter half of the movie. Between the wine pours and whining of characters of the plagues of their life, there are a plethora of jabs for all walks of life. I think the movie was catering more to the 50's generation, as it seemed to be more of their ilk and desires, the stark contrasts of grays, blacks, and whites draw in the viewer despite this.
The angles portrayed and framing of the scenes gave the film much more of the illusion of tight space that I think Potter was trying to achieve. The mere staging of the camera at many points in the film give far more of an objective view of the stifling tight space that the dialogue and cast of six seem to drum up with projected announcements of recent and past discretion, changes in life, and the unwillingness to progress forward in any real sense of personal growth.
While, as a viewer, I know that I may not have been the ideal target audience that Potter was looking for generation wise, but I had an overall appreciation for the artistry approach brought through this film. It was not my favorite recent plot driven or character study movie, but I certainly think Potter has some promising concepts to bring to the table.
Sunday 18 March 2018
Nostalgia
Nostalgia, a 2018 film by Mark Pellington, is a strong star studded casted movie, but falls short in many respects on everything else. The characters and setting of the movie shifts throughout, but the little vignettes centralizes around the general theme of Nostalgia. The script, was written and based on a grouping of short stories, would have been better left off screen, or written more specifically for the the theater rather than the movie screen.
Nostalgia is a connection of people reminiscing on different pieces of their life and the keepsakes. What makes things noteworthy to save, what are things of value to an individual, trinkets that you'd want to pass on. Each character has a bit of time to get nostalgic about whatever bit it is that is their central focus in the film. You start with an old man and an agent whom is going through his house to then report back to the old man's grand daughter to fill in if there's anything noteworthy in his small house suffering through hoards of piles. The agent then goes to an old lady's house who burned down, and saved the Ted Williams ball that's been in her family for generations. She doesn't seem to know much about it, other than the fact it's been in her family for generations. She then in turn goes out to Vegas, to a memorabilia dealer to see if it's worth anything. The dealer, then goes to visit his sister to help her pack up their parent's house that have downsized and moved to Florida.
For a roughly two hour film, there's just too much jam packed into the movie, plot and character development wise. And while you're segwaying into a different component of the story the voice overs are filled with cliched metaphors and platitudes on why these trinkets or random objects have a deep seeded connection into existence.
This is the type of book, collection of short stories, or a play that I would have probably enjoyed because I felt that the written word probably could have done a better job at connecting the stories. And while I usually like most movies that John Hamm is in, I just felt this movie was an overall flop and trying to be more than it actually could pull off. While the premise of the story was interesting, and the ideas of what mattered, I think this movie would have been better executed by a well thought out book or stage production, where they could focus more on the shift of characters and their development. There were so many missed opportunities in the film with a dire need for better dialogue, character shifts and development.
Nostalgia is a connection of people reminiscing on different pieces of their life and the keepsakes. What makes things noteworthy to save, what are things of value to an individual, trinkets that you'd want to pass on. Each character has a bit of time to get nostalgic about whatever bit it is that is their central focus in the film. You start with an old man and an agent whom is going through his house to then report back to the old man's grand daughter to fill in if there's anything noteworthy in his small house suffering through hoards of piles. The agent then goes to an old lady's house who burned down, and saved the Ted Williams ball that's been in her family for generations. She doesn't seem to know much about it, other than the fact it's been in her family for generations. She then in turn goes out to Vegas, to a memorabilia dealer to see if it's worth anything. The dealer, then goes to visit his sister to help her pack up their parent's house that have downsized and moved to Florida.
For a roughly two hour film, there's just too much jam packed into the movie, plot and character development wise. And while you're segwaying into a different component of the story the voice overs are filled with cliched metaphors and platitudes on why these trinkets or random objects have a deep seeded connection into existence.
This is the type of book, collection of short stories, or a play that I would have probably enjoyed because I felt that the written word probably could have done a better job at connecting the stories. And while I usually like most movies that John Hamm is in, I just felt this movie was an overall flop and trying to be more than it actually could pull off. While the premise of the story was interesting, and the ideas of what mattered, I think this movie would have been better executed by a well thought out book or stage production, where they could focus more on the shift of characters and their development. There were so many missed opportunities in the film with a dire need for better dialogue, character shifts and development.
Kekszakallu
Keszakallu is Gaston Solniki's 2016 film out of Argentina. It originally premired in Baltimore, MD, at the 2017 Maryland Film Festival. I missed it in the film festival, but was able to catch it when it came back to the Parkway theater for it's theatrical run.
The movie takes a fly on the wall approach of the lives of several daughters of the wealthy industrialists of Argentina. This film, much like Porto, did not have a linear plot line or direction it chose to go for the feature length. While both were short feature films under 90 minutes, Solniki was able to achieve far more visual feats that Klinger was unable to achieve in Porto.
The title of the movie, is taken from the Spanish title of an opera, and included music from the opera while on board a ferry, in the midst of a sausage making plant. While it was frequently hard to determine the scatter plot approach of the story line, and it only seemed to have one partial resolution to some of the young lady's stories, it was easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the well framed scenes. The only downside is that for many of these, there was no real semblance of a connection, and it was often hard to keep track of who was who, and if there was a relationship between the large cast and what those connections may have been.
While I feel it was an interesting approach to the beginning of Argentina's turn into an economic recession, I would have enjoyed a little more glue to the stories and how the women were connected a bit more.
There were some wonderful stark contrasts of the natural beauty of Argentina, with pool scenes, scenes in a country estate, fields, contrasted with the developments of the rising sprawls of cities, pools, and machinery of the industrial workforce. There were art references lost on me, as I haven't done much with art history, or with the idea of theater or operas, so that side was lost on me. I did enjoy the photography approach to how the movie was framed. It just would have been better served with a more developed plot and character development and distinctions.
The movie takes a fly on the wall approach of the lives of several daughters of the wealthy industrialists of Argentina. This film, much like Porto, did not have a linear plot line or direction it chose to go for the feature length. While both were short feature films under 90 minutes, Solniki was able to achieve far more visual feats that Klinger was unable to achieve in Porto.
The title of the movie, is taken from the Spanish title of an opera, and included music from the opera while on board a ferry, in the midst of a sausage making plant. While it was frequently hard to determine the scatter plot approach of the story line, and it only seemed to have one partial resolution to some of the young lady's stories, it was easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the well framed scenes. The only downside is that for many of these, there was no real semblance of a connection, and it was often hard to keep track of who was who, and if there was a relationship between the large cast and what those connections may have been.
While I feel it was an interesting approach to the beginning of Argentina's turn into an economic recession, I would have enjoyed a little more glue to the stories and how the women were connected a bit more.
There were some wonderful stark contrasts of the natural beauty of Argentina, with pool scenes, scenes in a country estate, fields, contrasted with the developments of the rising sprawls of cities, pools, and machinery of the industrial workforce. There were art references lost on me, as I haven't done much with art history, or with the idea of theater or operas, so that side was lost on me. I did enjoy the photography approach to how the movie was framed. It just would have been better served with a more developed plot and character development and distinctions.
Western
Western is a 2017 film from Germany. It is a slow burning thriller that follows a group of German Construction workers installing a hydroelectric plan in a remote, rural Bulgarian Town. The foreign land awakens the sense of adventure in the workers. This begins with swimming in and around river areas, getting worked up around local women bathers. As the film develops, Meinhard, the new comer to the construction crew, begins seeking out time spent in the local village, and starts to befriend some of the villagers. While some of these budding relationships, have some tender and tension filled moments, the film brings to the table the role of foreign seasonal workers in remote areas that may or may not want the help.
The two sides of people in the film speak different languages, in addition to sharing a troubled history. The stark, mountainous landscape, creates a visually harsh backdrop for the film. While most of the construction workers vie for attention of the local women, and try to show off, much of their own prejudices and mistrust of the villagers and their mistrust of each other and the villagers creates a mounting pressure and thriller type of feel to the movie.
The film is visually stunning, with its large sweeping approaches to the mountainous and river landscapes. Dialogue is minimal and very pointed. I found the dialogue to carry more of a heavier tone, than most thrillers or film noirs, out of the US or Britain, which tend to be a bit more quippy. While I find most thrillers, especially Hitchcock films reminiscent of a look at human behavior, I found Western to take a more darker philosophical tone. The historical approaches and mistrusts added a more humanistic approach to the film and drew the viewer in a bit more. I found the scenery and much of the cinematography and non dialogue scenes far more fascinating and more of a driving tour de force of the movie. This movie's a bit more refreshing in the sense that much of the sweeping views of the landscape were not CGI altered, which gave far more to the natural, rocky, dusty and grit needed to help drive the visuals and story-line. Well worth seeing on the large screen.
The two sides of people in the film speak different languages, in addition to sharing a troubled history. The stark, mountainous landscape, creates a visually harsh backdrop for the film. While most of the construction workers vie for attention of the local women, and try to show off, much of their own prejudices and mistrust of the villagers and their mistrust of each other and the villagers creates a mounting pressure and thriller type of feel to the movie.
The film is visually stunning, with its large sweeping approaches to the mountainous and river landscapes. Dialogue is minimal and very pointed. I found the dialogue to carry more of a heavier tone, than most thrillers or film noirs, out of the US or Britain, which tend to be a bit more quippy. While I find most thrillers, especially Hitchcock films reminiscent of a look at human behavior, I found Western to take a more darker philosophical tone. The historical approaches and mistrusts added a more humanistic approach to the film and drew the viewer in a bit more. I found the scenery and much of the cinematography and non dialogue scenes far more fascinating and more of a driving tour de force of the movie. This movie's a bit more refreshing in the sense that much of the sweeping views of the landscape were not CGI altered, which gave far more to the natural, rocky, dusty and grit needed to help drive the visuals and story-line. Well worth seeing on the large screen.
Sunday 4 March 2018
The Road Movie
The Road Movie, Dmitrii Kalashnikov's 2017 movie out of Russia, is more one of those movies you watch more for the pure enjoyment of crazy things or guilty pleasures on the big screen.
The Road Movie is a compilation of Russian dashboard camera montages. Roughly 5 years ago, Russia made it a requirement to have dashboard cameras, in order to help with insurance purposes. These videos were recently brought to US light with The Daily Show and Jon Stewart. This was mostly done when there was a comet that hit the earth and was caught on Russian Dashboard cameras with minimal to no reaction. Stewart then showed some highlights, which sparked a guilty pleasure for many.
The Road Movie certainly didn't disappoint with random street scenes. There's a nice montage of angry drivers, forest fires, and things that would typically surprising on the streets in the US or European streets, but certainly not Russia.
While there is no real direct theme, aside from horrid drivers, the stories don't really connect much, aside from the mere random and angry drivers, it's more of a guilty pleasure movie. Certainly an enjoyable simple film, if you go in with that mindset, and fun seeing on a larger screen. Especially with the forest fire scenes, as somebody who lives on the east coast of the United States, it is especially difficult to fully understand the magnitude of these types of disasters when you hear about them on the news.
The Road Movie is a compilation of Russian dashboard camera montages. Roughly 5 years ago, Russia made it a requirement to have dashboard cameras, in order to help with insurance purposes. These videos were recently brought to US light with The Daily Show and Jon Stewart. This was mostly done when there was a comet that hit the earth and was caught on Russian Dashboard cameras with minimal to no reaction. Stewart then showed some highlights, which sparked a guilty pleasure for many.
The Road Movie certainly didn't disappoint with random street scenes. There's a nice montage of angry drivers, forest fires, and things that would typically surprising on the streets in the US or European streets, but certainly not Russia.
While there is no real direct theme, aside from horrid drivers, the stories don't really connect much, aside from the mere random and angry drivers, it's more of a guilty pleasure movie. Certainly an enjoyable simple film, if you go in with that mindset, and fun seeing on a larger screen. Especially with the forest fire scenes, as somebody who lives on the east coast of the United States, it is especially difficult to fully understand the magnitude of these types of disasters when you hear about them on the news.
Have A Nice Day
Have a Nice Day is a neo-noir feature length 2018 film out of China. The animation much like a well done graphic novel, takes to the screen much in the same sort of appearance. A hard rain is about to fall on a small town in southern agriculture based town of China. Xiao Zhang, a driver, is in a huff to find a way to raise money to help fix the botched plastic surgery job of his girlfriend. As a result, he steals roughly 1 million RMB from his boss, and shortly after, most of the small town hears of the shakedown. A cast of about 10 other townies then search out Xiao and the money before the skies open.
I thought the animation was well done and not your typical approach to animated features. It was the classic neo-noir, almost Gotham-esque but southern China. Having lived in a small southern Chinese town, southwest of Shanghai, I could appreciate the despair of the town. The farmers, resturant hole in the walls, the general public all up in your kool-aid, the question of authenticity of money paid by outsiders, the odd fascination with internet cafe's. I'm sure that it'd be a stretch of culturalisims for some, but overall for film and thriller buffs, it'd be a good film to check out.
The characters seemed to be right out of a noir graphic novel, and not developed as much as I would have liked. I would have enjoyed more of semblance and development for some, and felt some characters could have been omitted. Much of the movie has the makings of a good thriller: creepy non-descript man in black hunting down the crime plot, multiple people trying to thwart the bad guy while not being the best people either, rising tension, and funky plot twists. The plot twists for Have a Nice Day ranged from small, to colliding cars at different points. Not quite the classic Hitchcock, but sort of a mild sleeper of Batman, without the Batman.
The overall length, 77 minutes seemed about right for the story-line, but could have used some heavier editing towards the end. There was a nice play on time warps, time perceptions, and plays on space. I enjoyed many of the sweeping shots, and oddball sleeping workers, which made me wistful for days spent wandering down Chinese alleys. This is Liu Jian's first feature film, and I'd be curious to see what he develops in years to come.
I thought the animation was well done and not your typical approach to animated features. It was the classic neo-noir, almost Gotham-esque but southern China. Having lived in a small southern Chinese town, southwest of Shanghai, I could appreciate the despair of the town. The farmers, resturant hole in the walls, the general public all up in your kool-aid, the question of authenticity of money paid by outsiders, the odd fascination with internet cafe's. I'm sure that it'd be a stretch of culturalisims for some, but overall for film and thriller buffs, it'd be a good film to check out.
The characters seemed to be right out of a noir graphic novel, and not developed as much as I would have liked. I would have enjoyed more of semblance and development for some, and felt some characters could have been omitted. Much of the movie has the makings of a good thriller: creepy non-descript man in black hunting down the crime plot, multiple people trying to thwart the bad guy while not being the best people either, rising tension, and funky plot twists. The plot twists for Have a Nice Day ranged from small, to colliding cars at different points. Not quite the classic Hitchcock, but sort of a mild sleeper of Batman, without the Batman.
The overall length, 77 minutes seemed about right for the story-line, but could have used some heavier editing towards the end. There was a nice play on time warps, time perceptions, and plays on space. I enjoyed many of the sweeping shots, and oddball sleeping workers, which made me wistful for days spent wandering down Chinese alleys. This is Liu Jian's first feature film, and I'd be curious to see what he develops in years to come.
90th Academy Awards
I think this is one of the first years I'm not overly invested or excited about the Oscars. Mostly because I thought the selections this year were pretty weak. Lady Bird, the big buzz film, aside from Porto is one of the weakest films I've seen. Usually there is at least a film or two within the pool that grabs me, but most of the films were either lower on my 2017 enjoyable films, and certainly not within my top 10 list.
But this is what I'm predicting for the winners:
Best Picture: Three Billboards
Lead Actor: Gary Oldman: The Darkest Hour
Lead Actress: Francis McDormand, Three Billboards
Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards
Supporting Actress: Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Director: Jordan Peele, Get Out
Animated Feature: Coco
Animated Short: Lou
Adapted Screenplay: Call Me By your Name
Original Screenplay Get Out
Cinematography: Bladerunner 2049
Best Documentary Feature: LAst Men in Alleppo
Best Documentary Short: Traffic Stop
Best Live Action Short: Delkab Elementary
Foreign Language: The Insult
Film Editing: Dunkirk
Sound Editing: Blade Runner 2049
Sound Mixing: Blade Runner 2049
Production Design: Blade Runner 2049
Original Score: Three Billboards
Original Song: This is me, Greatest Showman
Makeup and Hair: The Darkest Hour
Costume Design: The Shape of Water
Visual Effects: Blade runner 2049
But this is what I'm predicting for the winners:
Best Picture: Three Billboards
Lead Actor: Gary Oldman: The Darkest Hour
Lead Actress: Francis McDormand, Three Billboards
Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards
Supporting Actress: Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Director: Jordan Peele, Get Out
Animated Feature: Coco
Animated Short: Lou
Adapted Screenplay: Call Me By your Name
Original Screenplay Get Out
Cinematography: Bladerunner 2049
Best Documentary Feature: LAst Men in Alleppo
Best Documentary Short: Traffic Stop
Best Live Action Short: Delkab Elementary
Foreign Language: The Insult
Film Editing: Dunkirk
Sound Editing: Blade Runner 2049
Sound Mixing: Blade Runner 2049
Production Design: Blade Runner 2049
Original Score: Three Billboards
Original Song: This is me, Greatest Showman
Makeup and Hair: The Darkest Hour
Costume Design: The Shape of Water
Visual Effects: Blade runner 2049
Tuesday 27 February 2018
Double Lover
Double Lover is a 2017 film from France. It was released in the States in 2018, and I screened it at the Parkway theater in Baltimore. Based loosely on a Joyce Carol Oates short story, Double Lover is a kinky romance thriller drama. It's almost a Fifty Shades approach to the thriller, building on the stronger dominating and controlling male force, While it didn't take on the same type of murderous or suspenseful thriller of a Hitchcock type film, aside from some of the stair visual effects, Double Lover was a fast paced cryptic approach to human nature and the doctor/patient relationship.
While I feel like the movie took liberties with the approach of relationships between the doctor and patient to questionable levels, the movie drastically also worked towards a split screen type and other visual enhancements to add to the hair raising approach to the storyline.
Chloe, is a 25 year old young woman suffering from abdominal pains and has stares that could eat your soul. While there was no set physical diagnosis for the causes of her stomach pains, she is then referred to Paul Meyer, for therapy sessions. The early stages of the film, Chloe prattles on in oddly cut scenes of her distant mother, struggles with relationships, overall loneliness of growing up as an only child, her complex anxieties, and strange often demon-ish dreams. These almost soliloquy type monologues in the movie are often used in a split screen type approach, fading and dissolving techniques are also used in a matter to build the suspense of the film, rather than the typical environmental or behavioral ticks so commonly seen in a Hitchock film, making Double Lover more reminiscent of the classic 1980's thrillers from Europe, with more modern techniques and pizzazz.
The climax of Chloe's sessions with Dr. Meyer, is when she lands a cushy flexible hour security guard job at a museum and as she proclaims in a session that she's finally starting to feel good and confident, due to the sessions. Upon this proclamation, Meyer claims that it be best if they conclude their sessions due to his unorthodox feelings towards her. A few months progress in the film, and viewers are aware of the budding relationship, progressing into the moving in stages. As Chloe and Paul start the process, she uncovers a box of his belongings only to have questions arise, why does he have a passport with the name Paul Delong, and who is the unidentified boy in his childhood pictures.
This is when the plot thickens and begins the theatrics of oddball plot twists to deepen the thriller approach. In order to answer those questions, I would then spoil the movie, which I don't like to do for others, especially when it comes to thrillers. As previously stated, it's based on a short story of Joyce Carol Oates, the Lives of Twins, which she wrote under the pseudonym Rosemund Smith.
Chloe soon discovers that Paul has a "lost" twin brother, also a psychoanalyst, Louis DeLord. Louis has a drastically different and more forceful approach to his methods. In much more prodded and stiff original meetings, DeLong claims he can cure Chloe of her frigid and stodgy approaches to relationships. The mirrors, and mirrors with in mirrors, camera work, staircases, and visually skewed approaches and haunting exhibits seen in the museum, the viewer is thrown deeply into the depths of a psychological thriller.
Having seen Kaladiscope earlier this year, I could appreciate the faceted camera work, the split screens and the other worldy cat and wood scenes which in it's own right, made this an interesting attempt into the the thriller genre.
While I feel like the movie took liberties with the approach of relationships between the doctor and patient to questionable levels, the movie drastically also worked towards a split screen type and other visual enhancements to add to the hair raising approach to the storyline.
Chloe, is a 25 year old young woman suffering from abdominal pains and has stares that could eat your soul. While there was no set physical diagnosis for the causes of her stomach pains, she is then referred to Paul Meyer, for therapy sessions. The early stages of the film, Chloe prattles on in oddly cut scenes of her distant mother, struggles with relationships, overall loneliness of growing up as an only child, her complex anxieties, and strange often demon-ish dreams. These almost soliloquy type monologues in the movie are often used in a split screen type approach, fading and dissolving techniques are also used in a matter to build the suspense of the film, rather than the typical environmental or behavioral ticks so commonly seen in a Hitchock film, making Double Lover more reminiscent of the classic 1980's thrillers from Europe, with more modern techniques and pizzazz.
The climax of Chloe's sessions with Dr. Meyer, is when she lands a cushy flexible hour security guard job at a museum and as she proclaims in a session that she's finally starting to feel good and confident, due to the sessions. Upon this proclamation, Meyer claims that it be best if they conclude their sessions due to his unorthodox feelings towards her. A few months progress in the film, and viewers are aware of the budding relationship, progressing into the moving in stages. As Chloe and Paul start the process, she uncovers a box of his belongings only to have questions arise, why does he have a passport with the name Paul Delong, and who is the unidentified boy in his childhood pictures.
This is when the plot thickens and begins the theatrics of oddball plot twists to deepen the thriller approach. In order to answer those questions, I would then spoil the movie, which I don't like to do for others, especially when it comes to thrillers. As previously stated, it's based on a short story of Joyce Carol Oates, the Lives of Twins, which she wrote under the pseudonym Rosemund Smith.
Chloe soon discovers that Paul has a "lost" twin brother, also a psychoanalyst, Louis DeLord. Louis has a drastically different and more forceful approach to his methods. In much more prodded and stiff original meetings, DeLong claims he can cure Chloe of her frigid and stodgy approaches to relationships. The mirrors, and mirrors with in mirrors, camera work, staircases, and visually skewed approaches and haunting exhibits seen in the museum, the viewer is thrown deeply into the depths of a psychological thriller.
Having seen Kaladiscope earlier this year, I could appreciate the faceted camera work, the split screens and the other worldy cat and wood scenes which in it's own right, made this an interesting attempt into the the thriller genre.
Porto
I have really been on the fence over whether or not I should write a review for Porto. I had screened it earlier this month at the Parkway theater in Baltimore, MD. This is Gabe Klinger's 2017 film about the emotional aftermath of a powerful one night stand, set in Porto, Portugal.
Porto, a film in three parts focuses on the one night stand between Jake, a jack of all trades, master of none type of person, and Mati, a budding grad student studying in Porto, the city where Jake just happens to be living and working at the time being. Jake is the relateable character for me, as he has no real set directions in life, or any real semblance of what direction he wants to take work wise. He works merely for the sake of needing to live. He's a groundskeeper of sorts at an archeology site, where one of Mati's classes visits one afternoon by chance. They eye each other, but nothing amounts. They then see each other at the same train station, and then happen to meet in the same cafe.
The movie itself seems to struggle in the budding and fizzle of this relationship. Mati, a woman of the world, the only thing the two seem to have in common is that at that sheer moment, that the couple didn't want to be tied to anyone, anything, or any one particular place. While I struggled throughout the film to even pinpoint why Mati would even give this stiff floating log the time of day. While it's understandable that it seems to be a cliched approach that all beautiful women at one point go slumming, or choose to be someone, even if albeit briefly, that is the complete opposite of what they are. Despite this, while there are so many sparse scenes while Klinger is desperately trying to achieve the "artsy" ilk, there are scenes that just make it so hard to believe that these people would ever even consider being together. Mati chooses to continue to speak to him despite an awkward tussle in the street, leading to Jake slapping her. Why would she then willingly meet up with him, when Jake tries to snake his way back into her life years later. Then there's the whole Jake being the third wheel when Mati's actual boyfriend shows up a few days after their one night stand and he creepily stalks her and hangs out in her apartment.
There are just so many oddities about this relationship and Klinger tries too hard to have a cliched story where he's also trying to be artistic. He wants to take on the classic 1920's-1930's European classics, such as Fellini and put a new updated spin while also using the classic film techniques but really falls short. Klinger bites off far more than he can chew and really not achieve in the 76 minute film.
I give Klinger credit for wanting and utilizing a variety of different types of film. In this day in age, it's easier and often cheaper to go in the way of digital, but it's refreshing to still have some artists take on the film concept. The film is shot in three different sections, and is shot in 35 mm, 16 mm and Super 8 mm. The different types of film was what I felt the only redeeming quality of the film. The first section is from Jake's point of view. The second is from Mati's point of view, and then the third section of the triptych approach is how the night in question actually occurs from the outsider view. While the triptych approach is interesting and ambitious, it's a skill set that a novice film maker should not necessarily tackle unless they have a very good editing team, which Klinger did not. In addition, in each sections, you have various random scenes in each sections of the Jake and Mati's life.
The screening I had gone to, had a q&a session with Klinger and most viewers esstially ripped the movie to shreds, as there was no real semblence of why these two would ever get together. It would have been more interesting if we had the final section of the movie, and no dialogue after that, more just music and montages of the night and life after, and the approach would have been far more effective.
Porto, a film in three parts focuses on the one night stand between Jake, a jack of all trades, master of none type of person, and Mati, a budding grad student studying in Porto, the city where Jake just happens to be living and working at the time being. Jake is the relateable character for me, as he has no real set directions in life, or any real semblance of what direction he wants to take work wise. He works merely for the sake of needing to live. He's a groundskeeper of sorts at an archeology site, where one of Mati's classes visits one afternoon by chance. They eye each other, but nothing amounts. They then see each other at the same train station, and then happen to meet in the same cafe.
The movie itself seems to struggle in the budding and fizzle of this relationship. Mati, a woman of the world, the only thing the two seem to have in common is that at that sheer moment, that the couple didn't want to be tied to anyone, anything, or any one particular place. While I struggled throughout the film to even pinpoint why Mati would even give this stiff floating log the time of day. While it's understandable that it seems to be a cliched approach that all beautiful women at one point go slumming, or choose to be someone, even if albeit briefly, that is the complete opposite of what they are. Despite this, while there are so many sparse scenes while Klinger is desperately trying to achieve the "artsy" ilk, there are scenes that just make it so hard to believe that these people would ever even consider being together. Mati chooses to continue to speak to him despite an awkward tussle in the street, leading to Jake slapping her. Why would she then willingly meet up with him, when Jake tries to snake his way back into her life years later. Then there's the whole Jake being the third wheel when Mati's actual boyfriend shows up a few days after their one night stand and he creepily stalks her and hangs out in her apartment.
There are just so many oddities about this relationship and Klinger tries too hard to have a cliched story where he's also trying to be artistic. He wants to take on the classic 1920's-1930's European classics, such as Fellini and put a new updated spin while also using the classic film techniques but really falls short. Klinger bites off far more than he can chew and really not achieve in the 76 minute film.
I give Klinger credit for wanting and utilizing a variety of different types of film. In this day in age, it's easier and often cheaper to go in the way of digital, but it's refreshing to still have some artists take on the film concept. The film is shot in three different sections, and is shot in 35 mm, 16 mm and Super 8 mm. The different types of film was what I felt the only redeeming quality of the film. The first section is from Jake's point of view. The second is from Mati's point of view, and then the third section of the triptych approach is how the night in question actually occurs from the outsider view. While the triptych approach is interesting and ambitious, it's a skill set that a novice film maker should not necessarily tackle unless they have a very good editing team, which Klinger did not. In addition, in each sections, you have various random scenes in each sections of the Jake and Mati's life.
The screening I had gone to, had a q&a session with Klinger and most viewers esstially ripped the movie to shreds, as there was no real semblence of why these two would ever get together. It would have been more interesting if we had the final section of the movie, and no dialogue after that, more just music and montages of the night and life after, and the approach would have been far more effective.
Monday 26 February 2018
Cage Fighter
Cage Fighter is Jeff Unay's 2018 documentary that focuses on the life of Joe Carman, a family man, who continuously breaks his promise to stop MMA cage fighting. Carman, is forty years old, with a sickly wife, and four daughters. He claims he finds that the only way he can feel proud of himself beyond creating his four daughters, is to be a MMA fighter. Fighting for him, is a self justification of his own self worth. The documentary focuses on whether or not the fighting is worth risking his marriage, family and health in order to come to terms with his troubled past.
I went into this movie with the pretense it was going to be similar to the ilk of the Rocky series, or Southpaw. Despite my lack of proper research of the film, I was presently surprised with the raw family life presented in this documentary. While I enjoyed the raw approach and the underdog old fighter, the smaller changes and discussions between Carman and his rival, and trainer, were scenes I thought added a life breath to the 80 minute documentary.
Unay takes on the fly on the wall approach. While there isn't much background going into the film, or much info given on how the family progressed after Carman's ultimate choice to turn down a fight. This is one of my biggest negatives of the film. I would have liked a bit more premise going into the film. Many of the scene of Joe interacting with his wife and daughters were arguments that never achieved any real discourse of why Carman could never seem to give up the fight that is more for his own challenge vs. his family's fight.
As someone whom has recently been watching a fair amount of older films in order to school my understanding of film developments, I can appreciate a film that raises more questions that it answers. With Cage Fighter, I find that it didn't really take any approach to answer any questions. Instead, as a viewer, like his daughters, you begin to understand that fighting to a certain degree will always be a part of Joe's life, I think the movie would have drastically been improved if there was some form of answers given to justify the fly on the wall approach as well as the strains the viewer continues to watch without much answered.
Despite my frustrations with the vague approaches, I appreciate Unay's approach in the "Common Joe" who doesn't have much going for him, and even with the potential of giving up fights, small windows and doors that open for Carman. Carman is not your typical Rocky. He doesn't come out on top, but must find ways to be happy with solutions in order to include his solace to be able to enjoy life and family.
Among the Gods: Two Worlds
Among the Gods: Two Worlds is a 2017 movie out of South Korea. The movie is based upon the highly popular webcomic of the same name. The South Korean movie, Along with the Gods, begins when Firefighter Ja-hong sacrifices himself to save a young girl. His death is only the beginning of his journey, to determine whether or not he is virtuous enough to be granted the rare shot of being reincarnated.
The journey is spearheaded by a stoic lawyer, impertinent security expert, and a kind hearted assistant. The quad group progresses through the seven different trials concerning Ja-Hong's life on earth. Some of the topics of the trials range from violence, family piety, deaths, and injustice. His journey through these trials are complicated by the relationships with his mute, destitute mother and his vengeful soldier brother.
Many of the references and periodic tongue and cheek dialogue throughout the movie, much of the film is based on some common Asian myths. It is helpful having some idea of these prior to viewing but at the same time, the myth. While it is typically common for Asian films to be lengthy and overdone, Among the Gods was certainly nothing short of such concepts. Laden with CGI and it's easy to see that the actors spent much of the time filming the movie in front of green screens, part of me still had an enjoyment of the film. While I could see many underlying tones of the popular Chinese story of the Monkey King, many of the popular Asian myths were so prevalent thematic wise that at times, it was too much.
Certainly this is a film you wouldn't go to specifically for the merit of the work, or story-line. The plot and script if it had been pared down to a certain extent would have created a more appealing movie, but I enjoyed it to extent, as it was a nice wistful experience of my time living in China, and the over done movies that typically were screened or playing in various restaurants, background destresser noise in my apartment, or hospitals. The film is heavy handed with it's CGI, and overly done visual effects and is the complete opposite of many of the traditional art house movies I've screened at the Parkway theater in Baltimore. While I appreciate the plot and storyline that was developed in some areas, many other areas were thrown in merely to get to the seven seperate trials and side stories to get to those points.
I would be curious to track down the webcomic to see how much of it was true to the original comic, if the comic was as scattered with plot twists and story developments.
The journey is spearheaded by a stoic lawyer, impertinent security expert, and a kind hearted assistant. The quad group progresses through the seven different trials concerning Ja-Hong's life on earth. Some of the topics of the trials range from violence, family piety, deaths, and injustice. His journey through these trials are complicated by the relationships with his mute, destitute mother and his vengeful soldier brother.
Many of the references and periodic tongue and cheek dialogue throughout the movie, much of the film is based on some common Asian myths. It is helpful having some idea of these prior to viewing but at the same time, the myth. While it is typically common for Asian films to be lengthy and overdone, Among the Gods was certainly nothing short of such concepts. Laden with CGI and it's easy to see that the actors spent much of the time filming the movie in front of green screens, part of me still had an enjoyment of the film. While I could see many underlying tones of the popular Chinese story of the Monkey King, many of the popular Asian myths were so prevalent thematic wise that at times, it was too much.
Certainly this is a film you wouldn't go to specifically for the merit of the work, or story-line. The plot and script if it had been pared down to a certain extent would have created a more appealing movie, but I enjoyed it to extent, as it was a nice wistful experience of my time living in China, and the over done movies that typically were screened or playing in various restaurants, background destresser noise in my apartment, or hospitals. The film is heavy handed with it's CGI, and overly done visual effects and is the complete opposite of many of the traditional art house movies I've screened at the Parkway theater in Baltimore. While I appreciate the plot and storyline that was developed in some areas, many other areas were thrown in merely to get to the seven seperate trials and side stories to get to those points.
I would be curious to track down the webcomic to see how much of it was true to the original comic, if the comic was as scattered with plot twists and story developments.
Sunday 25 February 2018
A Fantastic Woman
A Fantastic Woman is Chile's submission for the 2018 Academy Awards for best foreign language film. Recently I got into a discussion with someone about the foreign language category. Mostly due to the concept that this year is the first year that there's a "foreign film" that is in the main stream categories, of best picture and best actor and supporting actor. While I have seen many foreign films of a variety of skill sets this year, I'd certainly say that this one could easily fit into the category of one of the best ones I've seen in awhile.
Maria, a young woman has fallen in love with an older man, Orlando. We are introduced to their life and relationship as they are celebrating Maria's birthday and budding into the stage of moving in together. Upon returning to their apartment for the evening, and after going to sleep, Orlando wakes up not feeling well. Struggling to determine the source of the pain, Maria fixes to take him to the hospital. While waiting for Maria to come out of the apartment, Orlando goes into the stairwell and falls down two flights of stairs, cutting his head badly in the process.
Upon reaching the hospital, the emergency room works to find the source of Orlando's pain. A nurse eventually comes out to notify Maria, that while trying to help him, Orlando had died. In shock, Maria, contacts one of Orlando's sons, Gabo. He tells her to stay there and to not contact the rest of the family. Maria flees from the hospital, only to be picked up and returned by police officers to the hospital. It is then that viewers become more aware of the nature of Maria and Orlando's relationship.
Maria, is questioned at the hospital revealing that she is a trans-gendered woman. The movie then embarks on the quest Maria begins to properly say goodbye to Orlando and begin to move on. I found that the film takes on many sides of the transgender argument, many of Orlando's family raising questions about the nature of the relationship, fear of the other, while Maria's family tries to get her through the harsh realities of losing her loved one, her dog, not being able to attend the funeral, and being thrown out of her apartment. It's a film that takes on many of the arguments many nations are facing, and entwines it with the beauty of merely wanting to exist and love.
The music is haunting and helps evoke strong feelings in most scenes. I found the most tender scenes to be when Maria goes for a music lesson, and when she preforms. Daniela Vega, who plays Maria, a trans-gendered woman herself, brings a nuanced and touching performance to the screen of dealing with death and hatred. One of first movies I've seen on the subject and thought it was a touching, well thought out approach to the subject.
Maria, a young woman has fallen in love with an older man, Orlando. We are introduced to their life and relationship as they are celebrating Maria's birthday and budding into the stage of moving in together. Upon returning to their apartment for the evening, and after going to sleep, Orlando wakes up not feeling well. Struggling to determine the source of the pain, Maria fixes to take him to the hospital. While waiting for Maria to come out of the apartment, Orlando goes into the stairwell and falls down two flights of stairs, cutting his head badly in the process.
Upon reaching the hospital, the emergency room works to find the source of Orlando's pain. A nurse eventually comes out to notify Maria, that while trying to help him, Orlando had died. In shock, Maria, contacts one of Orlando's sons, Gabo. He tells her to stay there and to not contact the rest of the family. Maria flees from the hospital, only to be picked up and returned by police officers to the hospital. It is then that viewers become more aware of the nature of Maria and Orlando's relationship.
Maria, is questioned at the hospital revealing that she is a trans-gendered woman. The movie then embarks on the quest Maria begins to properly say goodbye to Orlando and begin to move on. I found that the film takes on many sides of the transgender argument, many of Orlando's family raising questions about the nature of the relationship, fear of the other, while Maria's family tries to get her through the harsh realities of losing her loved one, her dog, not being able to attend the funeral, and being thrown out of her apartment. It's a film that takes on many of the arguments many nations are facing, and entwines it with the beauty of merely wanting to exist and love.
The music is haunting and helps evoke strong feelings in most scenes. I found the most tender scenes to be when Maria goes for a music lesson, and when she preforms. Daniela Vega, who plays Maria, a trans-gendered woman herself, brings a nuanced and touching performance to the screen of dealing with death and hatred. One of first movies I've seen on the subject and thought it was a touching, well thought out approach to the subject.
Tuesday 6 February 2018
Hostiles
Hostiles, a 2017 Scott Cooper movie came to Baltimore in late January 2018. Scott Cooper I find tends to take on a variety of human interest stories of leads with a notorious past and a questionable future, but has more of a vague approach to plot lines, rather than neatly packing up his story lines. Hostiles is no different in this respect, however takes on much of the potential positive change in the lead, as seen similarly in Crazy Heart. Other of his films, Crazy Heat, Out of the Furnace, and Black Mass have a good build up to Hostiles, which I think is one of Cooper's better approaches in film. This also, was Cooper's second film project with Christian Bale as a lead role.
Hostiles, like Black Mass, tackles a more historical approach. While Black Mass, was more a biopic approach, Hostiles was more of a historical fiction approach. The film is set in 1892, in New Mexico and Montana. Legendary Army Captain Joseph Blocker must complete one final mission before he can retire. He is to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family to their tribal land. Blocker assembles a team to assist in the journey from Fort Berringer, New Mexico, to the Great Bear Valley grasslands of Montana. Early in their expedition, the corps encounter a young widow whose family was killed on the plains. Blocker takes her into his corps of travelers, as they try to survive the punishing landscape, and hostile outliers and Comanches migrant tribes.
I had a variety of sentiments about this film. As someone whom has been reading a lot recently on native tribes of the southwestern regions, I know the Comanches were originally a tribe of indigenous people to that region, many of these migrant and hostile tribes had left the regions Blocker and his men traveled as of the 1850's. While it's not too far off date wise (not quite 50 years), and it's a work of historical fiction, the little details still matter, especially if it's going to be a topical regular theme in the movie.
Many western type movies have the classic, predictable approach of how native Americans are either complete blood thirsty savages, or stoic sages that don't say much but a few harrowing points. While at many points throughout this movie, Hostiles, unfortunately was no different. In that sense, this film fell short a bit. There is a middle ground with a lot of tribes, but this was lost in translation with the film, as most of the character development growth came from the men taking the family back to their tribal land. The backstory of the chief had presented some potential harshness to his past, but the film failed to explore the topic of change much beyond a few short discussions.
I appreciate the development of Blocker becoming more sympathetic to the native tribes, but part of me wonders about the time frame in the change in his character development. For the late 1800's and even today, there is still much of a misunderstanding of many of the native cultures. The DPAL pipeline discussion, or the lack there of, goes to show you there has not been much change in the treatment of many of the native cultures. While it is refreshing to have Cooper approach the change in attitudes towards the native tribes, I find it hard, that a mere few months of these relationships that this would have drastically changed Blocker's outlook, and that of some of his companions traveling with them to Montana. The start of the movie saying he had a strong aversion to native tribes and the sheer force needed to get Blocker to merely take this mission, and a complete 180 in thought process. Despite this being an issue, there were some scenes that I found worth screening in the movie, the offering of the tobacco to the chief; Blocker and the chief saving the chief's family from the voyageurs; returning to the native land. I just felt there could have been more to tie these well intended and well acted scenes to the overall development of the story line without it being as preachy.
For me, the driving force was the music and the cinematography. Unfortunately with the ease of CGI, many of our current films take the easy computer generated route out. Murder on the Orient Express is a perfect recent example of the overuse of CGI for natural sunset and mountain scenes. If you are given a beautiful but harsh landscape to work with, there are so many things that you can do, without the need to overly edit the sky or natural beauty. Cooper, however, used much of natural light scenes, and the natural, harsh beauty of the landscape he was filming in. Many of these landscape shots were reticent of the natural light seen in 2015's The Reverent. There were many scenes that were well worth seeing on the large screen: Sunsets, horses, grasslands, mountains, rock formations.
Music was also a driving force of the story line. A mix of the classic western twang, there was also a good collection of native music that was used. The 135 minute film had minimalist dialogue and much of the well done cinematography was well matched with music.
Hostiles, like Black Mass, tackles a more historical approach. While Black Mass, was more a biopic approach, Hostiles was more of a historical fiction approach. The film is set in 1892, in New Mexico and Montana. Legendary Army Captain Joseph Blocker must complete one final mission before he can retire. He is to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family to their tribal land. Blocker assembles a team to assist in the journey from Fort Berringer, New Mexico, to the Great Bear Valley grasslands of Montana. Early in their expedition, the corps encounter a young widow whose family was killed on the plains. Blocker takes her into his corps of travelers, as they try to survive the punishing landscape, and hostile outliers and Comanches migrant tribes.
I had a variety of sentiments about this film. As someone whom has been reading a lot recently on native tribes of the southwestern regions, I know the Comanches were originally a tribe of indigenous people to that region, many of these migrant and hostile tribes had left the regions Blocker and his men traveled as of the 1850's. While it's not too far off date wise (not quite 50 years), and it's a work of historical fiction, the little details still matter, especially if it's going to be a topical regular theme in the movie.
Many western type movies have the classic, predictable approach of how native Americans are either complete blood thirsty savages, or stoic sages that don't say much but a few harrowing points. While at many points throughout this movie, Hostiles, unfortunately was no different. In that sense, this film fell short a bit. There is a middle ground with a lot of tribes, but this was lost in translation with the film, as most of the character development growth came from the men taking the family back to their tribal land. The backstory of the chief had presented some potential harshness to his past, but the film failed to explore the topic of change much beyond a few short discussions.
I appreciate the development of Blocker becoming more sympathetic to the native tribes, but part of me wonders about the time frame in the change in his character development. For the late 1800's and even today, there is still much of a misunderstanding of many of the native cultures. The DPAL pipeline discussion, or the lack there of, goes to show you there has not been much change in the treatment of many of the native cultures. While it is refreshing to have Cooper approach the change in attitudes towards the native tribes, I find it hard, that a mere few months of these relationships that this would have drastically changed Blocker's outlook, and that of some of his companions traveling with them to Montana. The start of the movie saying he had a strong aversion to native tribes and the sheer force needed to get Blocker to merely take this mission, and a complete 180 in thought process. Despite this being an issue, there were some scenes that I found worth screening in the movie, the offering of the tobacco to the chief; Blocker and the chief saving the chief's family from the voyageurs; returning to the native land. I just felt there could have been more to tie these well intended and well acted scenes to the overall development of the story line without it being as preachy.
For me, the driving force was the music and the cinematography. Unfortunately with the ease of CGI, many of our current films take the easy computer generated route out. Murder on the Orient Express is a perfect recent example of the overuse of CGI for natural sunset and mountain scenes. If you are given a beautiful but harsh landscape to work with, there are so many things that you can do, without the need to overly edit the sky or natural beauty. Cooper, however, used much of natural light scenes, and the natural, harsh beauty of the landscape he was filming in. Many of these landscape shots were reticent of the natural light seen in 2015's The Reverent. There were many scenes that were well worth seeing on the large screen: Sunsets, horses, grasslands, mountains, rock formations.
Music was also a driving force of the story line. A mix of the classic western twang, there was also a good collection of native music that was used. The 135 minute film had minimalist dialogue and much of the well done cinematography was well matched with music.
Lover for a Day
Lover for a Day, is a 2018 movie out of France. Phillipe Garrel tackles the concept of love and relationships in this short 76 minute feature film. Jeanne, a 23 year old moves back in with her father after a harsh break up to discover that he is dating a graduate student of the same age as her.
While Garrel, attempts to tackle much of the commentary seen in many Woody Allen films, I think this was more of why I just couldn't seem to sink my teeth in the movie. Where it lacks in sarcastic New York dialogue, the movie makes up for in the stark contrast of light, in the black and white and focus on physical lines of windows, stair cases, doorways, bookcases.
I was far more fascinated by the framing of the scenes than I was of the dialogue or the odd triangle dynamics of the crammed French apartment. As a result, questions of fidelity arise and what individuals bring together in a relationship, whether it be family, friends or intimate. While it was titled Lover for a Day, I went in thinking it would be more a film that questions the May-December type romances, but rather focuses more on the odd subordinate budding friendship relationship between the daughter and graduate student. Ironically enough, this was the only relationship throughout the film that was able to hold my interest.
I found that this film was fairly predictable in the sense, in which relationships were going to last and which ones weren't. It also seemed like nothing new to the romantic comedy approach. Ordinary people trying to being ordinary, but somehow managing to really screwing up every decent relationship. Despite this, it does raise questions on how truthful an individual is towards what they claim they want in existing relationships, whether it be a romantic relationship or not. While, early on in the movie, questions and answers were given on a few different notes. While originally, the idea of potentially exploring other side pieces, was discussed, this was the ultimate demise of everyone's concept of relationships. While Jeanne is trying to win her father back in a more focused attempt in solving her life's drama, scenes do become resonate of vindictive behavior of Allen's films that women can only serve as pawns in a man's world. I have never been a fan of Allen's films, and I think as a result, I just couldn't grasp Garrel's artistic approach, as it seemed far to similar.
While Garrel, attempts to tackle much of the commentary seen in many Woody Allen films, I think this was more of why I just couldn't seem to sink my teeth in the movie. Where it lacks in sarcastic New York dialogue, the movie makes up for in the stark contrast of light, in the black and white and focus on physical lines of windows, stair cases, doorways, bookcases.
I was far more fascinated by the framing of the scenes than I was of the dialogue or the odd triangle dynamics of the crammed French apartment. As a result, questions of fidelity arise and what individuals bring together in a relationship, whether it be family, friends or intimate. While it was titled Lover for a Day, I went in thinking it would be more a film that questions the May-December type romances, but rather focuses more on the odd subordinate budding friendship relationship between the daughter and graduate student. Ironically enough, this was the only relationship throughout the film that was able to hold my interest.
I found that this film was fairly predictable in the sense, in which relationships were going to last and which ones weren't. It also seemed like nothing new to the romantic comedy approach. Ordinary people trying to being ordinary, but somehow managing to really screwing up every decent relationship. Despite this, it does raise questions on how truthful an individual is towards what they claim they want in existing relationships, whether it be a romantic relationship or not. While, early on in the movie, questions and answers were given on a few different notes. While originally, the idea of potentially exploring other side pieces, was discussed, this was the ultimate demise of everyone's concept of relationships. While Jeanne is trying to win her father back in a more focused attempt in solving her life's drama, scenes do become resonate of vindictive behavior of Allen's films that women can only serve as pawns in a man's world. I have never been a fan of Allen's films, and I think as a result, I just couldn't grasp Garrel's artistic approach, as it seemed far to similar.
Wednesday 31 January 2018
Please Stand By
Please Stand By is a 2017 film directed by Ben Lewin. It made it's way to Baltimore's Parkway theater in January 2018. The screenplay is based on the play of the same name. The film, based in Oakland and LA, is a character study of Wendy, a 21 year old autistic young lady living in a group home. She is fixated on Star Trek and ultimately wants to submit a nearly 500 page script to a Star Trek writing competition. When denied the opportunity to mail out her script, Wendy embarks on the journey to hand deliver her script to Universal Studios.
Please Stand By is probably one of the better movie depictions of an autistic individual. That being said, it was generic at times, typical Hollywood, of family ditching the autistic relative into a more understanding environment because of the lack of desire to want to care for the individual. The somewhat predictable script, of the individual in question going on some type of journey of self discovery to prove family wrong, is evoked heavily throughout this film.
It's not uncommon for many films, to add a significant amount of behavioral ticks that make it hard to fully believe or encapsulate a character. Dakota Fanning, who played Wendy managed to embrace and play the role relatively well. I had wondered going into the film if Fanning, a former child star would be able to pick up a role of this nature. I was pleasantly surprised. While she got many of the typical ticks down well: eye contact struggle, the need for routine, inability to process certain emotions, louder more monotone type voice and the struggles with being touched. There were a few inconsistencies with some of the behaviors, but to the basic viewer, these small subtle glitches may go unnoticed. Despite the traditional Hollywood, small budget indie film approach, Please Stand By did bring a well rounded cast together. The story-line did have some novel approaches, with the use of fan fiction and the strong obsessive behavior of an individual on the spectrum. The casting alone should be a good enough reason to see the film, and it's a nice homage to aspiring nerd writers everywhere. Overall, a nice light hearted/feel good movie.
Please Stand By is probably one of the better movie depictions of an autistic individual. That being said, it was generic at times, typical Hollywood, of family ditching the autistic relative into a more understanding environment because of the lack of desire to want to care for the individual. The somewhat predictable script, of the individual in question going on some type of journey of self discovery to prove family wrong, is evoked heavily throughout this film.
It's not uncommon for many films, to add a significant amount of behavioral ticks that make it hard to fully believe or encapsulate a character. Dakota Fanning, who played Wendy managed to embrace and play the role relatively well. I had wondered going into the film if Fanning, a former child star would be able to pick up a role of this nature. I was pleasantly surprised. While she got many of the typical ticks down well: eye contact struggle, the need for routine, inability to process certain emotions, louder more monotone type voice and the struggles with being touched. There were a few inconsistencies with some of the behaviors, but to the basic viewer, these small subtle glitches may go unnoticed. Despite the traditional Hollywood, small budget indie film approach, Please Stand By did bring a well rounded cast together. The story-line did have some novel approaches, with the use of fan fiction and the strong obsessive behavior of an individual on the spectrum. The casting alone should be a good enough reason to see the film, and it's a nice homage to aspiring nerd writers everywhere. Overall, a nice light hearted/feel good movie.
Bob Dylan: Trouble No More
Bob Dylan: Trouble No More is a concert documentary of Bob Dylan's final album of the same name. This documentary is more concert footage and has been floating around the States in theaters since November for one night only events. Similar to Pearl Jam's Let's Play Two, it was more concert footage than anything else. The Trouble No More, was Dylan's entrance into more of a gospel phase. The "documentary" also paired this with sermons written by a southern pastor. They were spoken by Michael Shannon. While the sermons provided some insight to Dylan's lyrics from this album, it would have been nice if there was some form of commentary in the film about the correlation between the two. The Pearl Jam Let's Play Two documentary had a nice balance of why Pearl Jam was playing at Wrigley, and gave some additional history of the Cubs, the stadium, the fan base of Pearl Jam and the Cubs, and the neighborhood of Wriglyville, so it was a bit more well rounded. While I could appreciate Dylan's concert footage, the two points didn't seem to converge much, or have any given and take back and forth. Being able to see the concert footage on a large screen was nice, but ultimately I could have probably saved the $11 and streamed it and enjoyed it just as much.
Tuesday 30 January 2018
In Between
In Between is a an Arabic movie out of Israel. This is another movie that I have struggled to formulate my words, mostly due to the subject matter. I have come to appreciate and enjoy Israeli movies. The original release date was 2016, which I believe was in Israel, but the general US release date was November 2017. However, I'm sure it has been a pretty limited release, as Baltimore, and The Parkway Theatre didn't get it until January 2018. It has been about 2-3 years since Baltimore got any Israeli movies, which has been disappointing for me, as cinenophile whom appreciates these hidden gems.
I feel like this is one of the most promising one I have seen, out of Israel since A Borrowed Identity. In an age, where I relish in the different, In Between begins to break many of those barriers. One of the biggest hyped movies for the Oscars is Lady Bird, mostly due to the female director and strong female leads. Lady Bird, is however, what the basic white people enjoy: a semi autobiographical film that was kicked off in 2001 with Napoleon Dynamite. However, In Between, far better achieves the strong female leads and female director that Ladybird severely lacked. While I am not sure if initially In Between was Israel's submission for the Academy Awards, this one is certainly far better than many of those that made the 5 film cut that were nominated.
Maysaloun Hamoud, the director is a Hungarian-born Palestinian Israeli. The film, Bar Bahar/In Between won the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Many people are comparing or labeling it as a female version of The Breadwinner. In Between, focuses on three Arab women roommates in Tel Aviv, . The movie starts with two out of the three whom live together, prior to the third one moving in. The triptych relationship of the women develops as the movie focuses on the ingrained Islamic traditions for many women that live in Tel Aviv. One of the roommates works various restaurant jobs in addition to being a dj. The other original roommate is a lawyer whom likes to liberally blow off steam at the local watering hole bars and raves. These two women are far more liberal in their lifestyles and struggle to find their way in the set indigenous Islamic or Christian views of family and those in their social networks. The third roommate, Noor, when she moves in, is a more conservative Muslim, who needs to move into the apartment for school and studying purposes. She is engaged to be married, to another traditional conservative Muslim. Upon his realization on the lifestyles that Noor is exposed to through her roommates, her fiancee struggles to push for an earlier wedding date. This leads to an assault, which bonds the three women to rise to struggle to answer more questions of how they choose to live their lives and discuss this with family.
This movie does far more towards the rise of the women's movement, Time's Up, etc, than many other movies I have recently seen. That being said, this film however doesn't make strong political concepts or discussion points. For being so emotionally charged, Hamoud does very well in not getting to political or really dragging you to one point more so than the other in being the correct way of life. Rather, it's three women that bond together in a harsh assault. These women also struggle with the newer, more liberal identities, and old tradition, something many US films seem to have struggled to achieve recently. The struggles and many of the questions raised by the three women were all valid questions and took on a very humanistic approach to the film without getting too entangled or tripping up over ideas or dwelling on any ideas too long to hinder the development of the film. I feel many of what I have seem try to appeal to more one main audience, where this focuses more on the victims of assault and cultural change. There were tender scenes, as well as heart and gut wrenching scenes, and ones that simply made me smile. My only real complaint, if it is one, would be that there were some ideas I would have liked her to explore more. This being one of Hamoud's first films, I have a strong interest in seeing work that she will produce in the near future. I would highly recommend this movie.
I feel like this is one of the most promising one I have seen, out of Israel since A Borrowed Identity. In an age, where I relish in the different, In Between begins to break many of those barriers. One of the biggest hyped movies for the Oscars is Lady Bird, mostly due to the female director and strong female leads. Lady Bird, is however, what the basic white people enjoy: a semi autobiographical film that was kicked off in 2001 with Napoleon Dynamite. However, In Between, far better achieves the strong female leads and female director that Ladybird severely lacked. While I am not sure if initially In Between was Israel's submission for the Academy Awards, this one is certainly far better than many of those that made the 5 film cut that were nominated.
Maysaloun Hamoud, the director is a Hungarian-born Palestinian Israeli. The film, Bar Bahar/In Between won the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Many people are comparing or labeling it as a female version of The Breadwinner. In Between, focuses on three Arab women roommates in Tel Aviv, . The movie starts with two out of the three whom live together, prior to the third one moving in. The triptych relationship of the women develops as the movie focuses on the ingrained Islamic traditions for many women that live in Tel Aviv. One of the roommates works various restaurant jobs in addition to being a dj. The other original roommate is a lawyer whom likes to liberally blow off steam at the local watering hole bars and raves. These two women are far more liberal in their lifestyles and struggle to find their way in the set indigenous Islamic or Christian views of family and those in their social networks. The third roommate, Noor, when she moves in, is a more conservative Muslim, who needs to move into the apartment for school and studying purposes. She is engaged to be married, to another traditional conservative Muslim. Upon his realization on the lifestyles that Noor is exposed to through her roommates, her fiancee struggles to push for an earlier wedding date. This leads to an assault, which bonds the three women to rise to struggle to answer more questions of how they choose to live their lives and discuss this with family.
This movie does far more towards the rise of the women's movement, Time's Up, etc, than many other movies I have recently seen. That being said, this film however doesn't make strong political concepts or discussion points. For being so emotionally charged, Hamoud does very well in not getting to political or really dragging you to one point more so than the other in being the correct way of life. Rather, it's three women that bond together in a harsh assault. These women also struggle with the newer, more liberal identities, and old tradition, something many US films seem to have struggled to achieve recently. The struggles and many of the questions raised by the three women were all valid questions and took on a very humanistic approach to the film without getting too entangled or tripping up over ideas or dwelling on any ideas too long to hinder the development of the film. I feel many of what I have seem try to appeal to more one main audience, where this focuses more on the victims of assault and cultural change. There were tender scenes, as well as heart and gut wrenching scenes, and ones that simply made me smile. My only real complaint, if it is one, would be that there were some ideas I would have liked her to explore more. This being one of Hamoud's first films, I have a strong interest in seeing work that she will produce in the near future. I would highly recommend this movie.
The Strange Ones
The Strange Ones is not your typical movie. The concept behind the feature film, began in 2010, when the co-directors: Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein, started filming a short for the 2011 Maryland Film Festival. The short of the same name ended up being a scene that they used later for their 2017 feature film, with different actors.
The 2017 film of the same name, appears to have a simplistic approach to two people whom appear to be going on a camping trip in what could pass as anywhere, remote USA. As the movie develops, you get mysterious and thriller ties to why these to people are traveling together. As a viewer, you begin to question why these two people, a young boy, and a young man are really traveling. What is the nature of their relationship? Why are they really going camping? Do they have any intentions of returning home, wherever that be? Why are they being so secretive? What is a simple vacation spirals into human nature and a web of dark and complex secrets that binds the two travelers together.
I really enjoyed the use of rural areas in this movie. It allowed for wonderful natural light and the concepts of how different environments can effect relationships with individual, as well as others. I liked the use of the cat in the movie as well as it seemed like a good connecting factor to a lot of themes, old and new. The farm for troubled teens the young boy ended up at also truly fascinated me, as I'm curious to find out how many of these actually exist and the reasons why he felt safe there and wanted to stay. The big negative for me, is that it had a lot of various clips that spiraled out from the story. Many of the back story lines they visited I felt truly added to the story and made you question human instincts and relationships people had, but at the same time, this was also a big down fall for the movie. The scenes after the initial arrival to the farm of flash fowards were almost too much in potential options for the movie. I think I would have been more confused about the movie, had I not gone to the q&a discussion with the directors. I think this is a promising debut feature film, and I certainly look forward to other potential movies they do, this one I think could have just had a better selection and editing process for the last 30 minutes of the film.
The 2017 film of the same name, appears to have a simplistic approach to two people whom appear to be going on a camping trip in what could pass as anywhere, remote USA. As the movie develops, you get mysterious and thriller ties to why these to people are traveling together. As a viewer, you begin to question why these two people, a young boy, and a young man are really traveling. What is the nature of their relationship? Why are they really going camping? Do they have any intentions of returning home, wherever that be? Why are they being so secretive? What is a simple vacation spirals into human nature and a web of dark and complex secrets that binds the two travelers together.
I really enjoyed the use of rural areas in this movie. It allowed for wonderful natural light and the concepts of how different environments can effect relationships with individual, as well as others. I liked the use of the cat in the movie as well as it seemed like a good connecting factor to a lot of themes, old and new. The farm for troubled teens the young boy ended up at also truly fascinated me, as I'm curious to find out how many of these actually exist and the reasons why he felt safe there and wanted to stay. The big negative for me, is that it had a lot of various clips that spiraled out from the story. Many of the back story lines they visited I felt truly added to the story and made you question human instincts and relationships people had, but at the same time, this was also a big down fall for the movie. The scenes after the initial arrival to the farm of flash fowards were almost too much in potential options for the movie. I think I would have been more confused about the movie, had I not gone to the q&a discussion with the directors. I think this is a promising debut feature film, and I certainly look forward to other potential movies they do, this one I think could have just had a better selection and editing process for the last 30 minutes of the film.
Sunday 28 January 2018
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope is a low budget British psychological thriller. It was first premiered in 2017, but I didn't see it until it was premiered at the Parkway theater in January 2018. This thriller takes on the concept of kaleidoscopes and how colors change. Instead of colors changing, this takes on potentially different alternatives, almost like one of the Choose your own adventure books.
The premise behind the movie was about a middle aged man whom goes on his first date upon being released from prison. You are taken through the lead up to the date, and as the date is wrapping up. As the date seems to be an awkward attempt of trying to re-stream back into society, as a viewer you are trying to peice together the events that undwind after the date.
While I don't want to give too much synopsis, as I feel that this will spoiler for others. I usually enjoy a good and well done thriller. I like ones that require some form of thought process and overall potential ideas to add what has happened. I feel like this had the makings of a great thriller, my only complaint is that there were a few too many variables. The kaleidoscope approach while interesting and novel to the thriller approach, detracted from the movie at times. I appreciated the troubled relationship he had with his mother, and I enjoyed the play on relationships in the movie. As a first thriller attempt, I found this to be a good start.
While not quite up to the thriller drama or wit of Alfred Hitchcock, Kaleidoscope was interesting in the approach of providing many potential options for how the story progressed. The variations, at first threw me off, but as the scenes progressed I was able to deem the change when the actual skewing of the scenes with a kaleidoscope. I had originally thought I would skip this one, but am glad I changed my mind.
The premise behind the movie was about a middle aged man whom goes on his first date upon being released from prison. You are taken through the lead up to the date, and as the date is wrapping up. As the date seems to be an awkward attempt of trying to re-stream back into society, as a viewer you are trying to peice together the events that undwind after the date.
While I don't want to give too much synopsis, as I feel that this will spoiler for others. I usually enjoy a good and well done thriller. I like ones that require some form of thought process and overall potential ideas to add what has happened. I feel like this had the makings of a great thriller, my only complaint is that there were a few too many variables. The kaleidoscope approach while interesting and novel to the thriller approach, detracted from the movie at times. I appreciated the troubled relationship he had with his mother, and I enjoyed the play on relationships in the movie. As a first thriller attempt, I found this to be a good start.
While not quite up to the thriller drama or wit of Alfred Hitchcock, Kaleidoscope was interesting in the approach of providing many potential options for how the story progressed. The variations, at first threw me off, but as the scenes progressed I was able to deem the change when the actual skewing of the scenes with a kaleidoscope. I had originally thought I would skip this one, but am glad I changed my mind.
Quest: An American Family Portrait
Quest: An American Family Portrait has been a movie that I've taken about two weeks to ruminate on my approach to reviewing this documentary. This is not because the documentary was poorly done, but more, because I live in Baltimore, the parallels to life in North Philly and Baltimore have been racing through my mind. I, at times, was at a loss for words.
Quest, a documentary filmed over an 8 year span, focuses on Christopher "Quest" Rainey, and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest", as they struggle to raise their family in a North Philly home. Their neighborhood has lost much of the funding for localized Boys and Girls Clubs/YMCA type community centers. As they work, and raise their family, the documentary pursues their challenges as they also work with young hip hop artists in their home studio. Through this home studio, the Rainey family creates Freesyle Fridays, and afternoon programming for the neighborhood kids, in hopes to provide options to things other than dealing drugs on the street. I see so much of Baltimore in this idea, of lower income neighborhoods loosing the community support from the city in order to make the neighborhood a more enjoyable existence.
Part of the Rainey family struggle begins when they start helping a son as he commences and progresses through a vigorous brain cancer chemo treatment. The hardships of life seems to be soothed while working with artists. Also, as a direct result of some of these community events, and the lack of funding for good programming, their youngest daughter becomes a victim of gun violence. The documentary follows the healing process and learning to balance the challenges of overcoming the heartbreak and not always understanding ultimately why certain things happen. Again, the paralles with Baltimore rang true here, as there are people that get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the struggle with city violence as a result of struggling communities with minimal options.
The documentary takes a fly on the wall approach to many of the small moments of the Rainey's life. It was a good mix of daily life, and how a strong family deals with a series of unpredictable tragedies. Having lived in Baltimore, I could appreciate the correlation to how the family struggled in the neighborhood. I appreciated the broader view what they did to reduce violence in the area, as well as the struggles. There was a lot of meat to the movie, but not in a heavy handed matter. I was able to screen Quest at the Parkway.
One of the screening sessions on opening weekend, also had a q&a session with Chris Rainey and the director. It was followed by some music demos in the lobby. While at the screening, I had bumped into Theo Anthony, the director of The Rat Film, and we got into a pretty solid discussion on the correlations to his film, as well as the city of Baltimore. I enjoyed the film, as it was an unpretentious approach to family life without being thought pushing.
Quest, a documentary filmed over an 8 year span, focuses on Christopher "Quest" Rainey, and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest", as they struggle to raise their family in a North Philly home. Their neighborhood has lost much of the funding for localized Boys and Girls Clubs/YMCA type community centers. As they work, and raise their family, the documentary pursues their challenges as they also work with young hip hop artists in their home studio. Through this home studio, the Rainey family creates Freesyle Fridays, and afternoon programming for the neighborhood kids, in hopes to provide options to things other than dealing drugs on the street. I see so much of Baltimore in this idea, of lower income neighborhoods loosing the community support from the city in order to make the neighborhood a more enjoyable existence.
Part of the Rainey family struggle begins when they start helping a son as he commences and progresses through a vigorous brain cancer chemo treatment. The hardships of life seems to be soothed while working with artists. Also, as a direct result of some of these community events, and the lack of funding for good programming, their youngest daughter becomes a victim of gun violence. The documentary follows the healing process and learning to balance the challenges of overcoming the heartbreak and not always understanding ultimately why certain things happen. Again, the paralles with Baltimore rang true here, as there are people that get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the struggle with city violence as a result of struggling communities with minimal options.
The documentary takes a fly on the wall approach to many of the small moments of the Rainey's life. It was a good mix of daily life, and how a strong family deals with a series of unpredictable tragedies. Having lived in Baltimore, I could appreciate the correlation to how the family struggled in the neighborhood. I appreciated the broader view what they did to reduce violence in the area, as well as the struggles. There was a lot of meat to the movie, but not in a heavy handed matter. I was able to screen Quest at the Parkway.
One of the screening sessions on opening weekend, also had a q&a session with Chris Rainey and the director. It was followed by some music demos in the lobby. While at the screening, I had bumped into Theo Anthony, the director of The Rat Film, and we got into a pretty solid discussion on the correlations to his film, as well as the city of Baltimore. I enjoyed the film, as it was an unpretentious approach to family life without being thought pushing.
In the Fade
In The Fade is Faith Akin's film out of Germany. It was nominated for the Golden Globes and was Germany's submission to the 90th Academy Awards. The story-line develops through Katja's (Diane Kruger) had met Turkish-born Kurdish Nuri Sekerci (Numan Acar) when she bought hashish from him during her student days. They got married when he was still in prison, although their parents were against the marriage. Since her son Rocco (Rafael Santana) is born, Nuri is no longer working as a drug dealer, because he studied business administration in prison and now runs a translation and tax office in Hamburg. One day Rocco and Nuri are killed by a nail bomb, which was deposited in front of the office. This has shredded everything. Because her husband was in prison for drug possession, the police investigated in the red light district. The investigators do not see that the tracks point in a completely different direction. Then they happen to be the real killers on the net. The main suspects are the neo-Nazi spouses André (Ulrich Brandhoff) and Edda Möller (Hanna Hilsdorf). But the trial is developing differently than Katja had hoped. Although her lawyer Danilo (Denis Moschitto) speaks of a watertight evidence, defender Haberbeck (Johannes Krisch) manages to settle the case in favor of the defendants. Humiliated and destroyed by the trial, Katja sees no reason to continue living. If she wants to give meaning to her life again, she has to take the law into her own hands.
Due to the nature of how the story was filmed, it became a bit of a challenge to really get any real connection to characters other than Katja. She certainly was the driving force behind the movie, and in often times was the real carrier of the plot and movie. The movie itself took on an approach to a story-line of filling in the wholes of the story. Little vignettes are given in each section to develop the backstory. The use of lighting was also a saving grace for the movie. The plot is developed into different segments, and includes home videoesque type videos to give sort of a backstory of why the segment was titled the way it was. I enjoyed the general story-line mostly due to the fact I enjoy Law and Order type shows as well as the early Hitchcock type films. This movie struggles to have a good crime movie feel to it, and doesn't have much of a driving supporting acting roles.
A basic approach, but had some solid attempts for potential growth as a director. While I appreciate the basic approach and attempt, and I am curious to see other roles Acar does and the director does. I just find it a bit disheartening to know that most of the foreign movies during award seasons that are nominated, I feel tend to be the mediocre ones. In the Fade, albeit interesting, directed by a female, and had a strong female lead, I feel like the movie only really got hype because of these two.
Due to the nature of how the story was filmed, it became a bit of a challenge to really get any real connection to characters other than Katja. She certainly was the driving force behind the movie, and in often times was the real carrier of the plot and movie. The movie itself took on an approach to a story-line of filling in the wholes of the story. Little vignettes are given in each section to develop the backstory. The use of lighting was also a saving grace for the movie. The plot is developed into different segments, and includes home videoesque type videos to give sort of a backstory of why the segment was titled the way it was. I enjoyed the general story-line mostly due to the fact I enjoy Law and Order type shows as well as the early Hitchcock type films. This movie struggles to have a good crime movie feel to it, and doesn't have much of a driving supporting acting roles.
A basic approach, but had some solid attempts for potential growth as a director. While I appreciate the basic approach and attempt, and I am curious to see other roles Acar does and the director does. I just find it a bit disheartening to know that most of the foreign movies during award seasons that are nominated, I feel tend to be the mediocre ones. In the Fade, albeit interesting, directed by a female, and had a strong female lead, I feel like the movie only really got hype because of these two.
A Phantom Thread
I had mixed sentiments going into A Phantom Thread, as I appreciate the Daniel Day Lewis' approach to acting and the skill level he brings to each role he takes on. Being an outsider who dabbles as little as possible in typical social settings, being that awkward introvert, jack of all trades, gifted at none type personality that I have, I appreciate all that Daniel Day Lewis is. He eschews the traditional Hollywood roles and feeding the hype and gossip. He goes in, does his work, and then goes about his business of being the elusive one that not many know about aside from his small circle. A Phantom Thread being his last film, I can understand why he's choosing to leave the field, as he has stated he has done all he wants to do role wise, and he wants to finally follow through with what he's claiming to do for years: leave the profession. I think part of this has jaded my take on most of his movies, especially this one.
I went into A Phantom Thread expecting something of a noteworthy final performance from Day-Lewis, but not quite sure if this was my favorite of his. At times, I could tell his heart just was not as much in his role as previous films. That being said, I find this film to be one of the more ironic films that Day Lewis could even consider doing as his final film . This movie the very epitome of all the reasons why Day Lewis was choosing to leave the industry. The movie had a promising lead and opening. It was fun to see the craziness of a fashion industry house in the hustle and bustle, but the film promptly slowed as Woodcock travels to the country and meets Alma. Alma was your typical jealous country bumpkin that quietly acts on her seething rage. This tends to put some odd undercurrents and tones on the movie. While I understand, we are trying to address the whole Time's up and me too campaigns, I feel her seething rage to continuously attempt to poison Woodcock to the point he was violently ill multiple times in the movie for the mere sake of having one on one quite time is far from what the activist movements are really trying to get to. While it is nice to have some domineering women on the screens, Alma is merely domineering herself into an unhealthy co-dependent muse relationship that as a lone wolf woman myself, my skin just crawls as I watch her vile herself into such an unhealthy relationship.
This give and take is much of what Day-Lewis has spoken out against in why he strongly dislikes Hollywood, in addition to the fact he just doesn't enjoy acting anymore. I don't know if it is the mere fact that his growing distaste for acting just really then put a damper on the roles that he chose, especially this one. But by far, this was probably the worst film he could have chosen to have as his career ending role. I also found it a bit ironic when I went to watch the film, the projectioner caught fire with 45 minutes to go. My saving grace should have been to take the comp tickets and just leave, however being at the movie myself at night at a theater that has had some aggression issues upon leaving, I figured it would have been better to ultimately leave with the crowd. Probably one of my least favorite movie going experiences in the last five years, which with the quantity of films I do take in is a challenge in itself.
I went into A Phantom Thread expecting something of a noteworthy final performance from Day-Lewis, but not quite sure if this was my favorite of his. At times, I could tell his heart just was not as much in his role as previous films. That being said, I find this film to be one of the more ironic films that Day Lewis could even consider doing as his final film . This movie the very epitome of all the reasons why Day Lewis was choosing to leave the industry. The movie had a promising lead and opening. It was fun to see the craziness of a fashion industry house in the hustle and bustle, but the film promptly slowed as Woodcock travels to the country and meets Alma. Alma was your typical jealous country bumpkin that quietly acts on her seething rage. This tends to put some odd undercurrents and tones on the movie. While I understand, we are trying to address the whole Time's up and me too campaigns, I feel her seething rage to continuously attempt to poison Woodcock to the point he was violently ill multiple times in the movie for the mere sake of having one on one quite time is far from what the activist movements are really trying to get to. While it is nice to have some domineering women on the screens, Alma is merely domineering herself into an unhealthy co-dependent muse relationship that as a lone wolf woman myself, my skin just crawls as I watch her vile herself into such an unhealthy relationship.
This give and take is much of what Day-Lewis has spoken out against in why he strongly dislikes Hollywood, in addition to the fact he just doesn't enjoy acting anymore. I don't know if it is the mere fact that his growing distaste for acting just really then put a damper on the roles that he chose, especially this one. But by far, this was probably the worst film he could have chosen to have as his career ending role. I also found it a bit ironic when I went to watch the film, the projectioner caught fire with 45 minutes to go. My saving grace should have been to take the comp tickets and just leave, however being at the movie myself at night at a theater that has had some aggression issues upon leaving, I figured it would have been better to ultimately leave with the crowd. Probably one of my least favorite movie going experiences in the last five years, which with the quantity of films I do take in is a challenge in itself.
Wednesday 24 January 2018
The Final Year
The Final Year is Director Greg Barker's 2017 HBO documentary on the former President Barack Obama and his foreign policy staff's work in President Obama's final year in office. It offers the behind the scenes of staff members as they travel and work towards policies as well as preparing to leave for office. The approach of the film is a mix of interviews with staff, fly on the wall scenes of the staff, Secretary of State, President, and ambassador as they travel to a handful of countries. It had a limited 2017 release, and a broader limited release in January 2018. I saw a screening of it in Baltimore, MD at the Parkway Theater.
While I think the general audience for this film are going to be more left winged democrats, and people whom voted for President Obama, I still think this is a critical film in this day in age. Barker does not seem to take the left or right winged approach to the topic, but focuses more on what the staff does in these meetings. Higher end government workers travel a significant amount and this documentary begins to shed some light on the long travel hours many of these staff members log and the prep and debriefing work that goes into meetings abroad. While most of the trailers seem to present more of a broader range of approach to the Final Year, it was a more in depth look at President Obama's foreign policy staff. We mostly following Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Powers, and Ben Rhodes, the deputy aide to President Obama's and speech writers. There are some scenes mixed in of Secretary Kerry, Susan Rice, as well as President Obama.
There are a good amount of scenes of staff on planes, working in tight office spaces, and working with people of Japan, Nigeria, Greece, Laos, and Vietnam. We get to see the Hiroshima Peace meeting, the staff working and meeting with families in Nigeria of the missing school girls, Laos and those that suffer from remaining bombs, and working with Vietnam. The Syrian Refugee crisis and cease fire was also front and center, the Iran deal and working towards less of a military strategy. While I feel like the first half of the documentary was a bit discombobulated, in the sense that we were as all over with the staff, there was less of a focus on how there was going to be a transition. This concept became more apparent in the latter half of the movie, as the office and staff leads into the final four months. The film sheds light on the struggles of staff with opposing views as well as the desire to get as much done within an eight year period, but issues getting forgotten as a result. Many of the staff members seemed to be set and expecting that Clinton would win the presidency and the foreign policy abroad, much of the issues and anger of the rust belt seemed to be forgotten.
It was an interesting and stark contrast between a well spoken staff and their struggles to get many people in war ravaged countries to feel safe, much of the anger of the rust-belt seemed to be left by the wayside. Presidents and their staff are going to struggle to please everyone, but there was a solid amount of tension in seeing where this country is going to go. Most of the approach of the movie was lead ins or post meetings. It is surprising the amount of access that Barker was able to take on with the documentary. It is also takes on the approach of three different opinions between the president and two of his higher aides.
The interviews and topics were much of working in forums within the countries they were visiting, looking at history and how we can use or not use these approaches. It doesn't seem to touch on the advanced teams that these aides or staff members need, but does take on many human interest approaches to staff and aides within the countries they are visiting.
There is a lot of stress and work that these staff members feel that they need to work towards with foreign policy, and takes on an interesting approach as the final four months become more evident that the Democratic party loosing roughly 1,000 seats with the election of Trump. The documentary and Barker seems to elude that while maybe this administration was too focused on their foreign policies, or they were stuck in their bubble so much so that they were not aware of the suffering and the struggles of middle America.
Like I said, I think most of the audience that watches this documentary are going to be more of a liberal crowd, but overall I think it provides an important look into the changing of an administration, and is a documentary that can lead to a good bipartisan discussion
While I think the general audience for this film are going to be more left winged democrats, and people whom voted for President Obama, I still think this is a critical film in this day in age. Barker does not seem to take the left or right winged approach to the topic, but focuses more on what the staff does in these meetings. Higher end government workers travel a significant amount and this documentary begins to shed some light on the long travel hours many of these staff members log and the prep and debriefing work that goes into meetings abroad. While most of the trailers seem to present more of a broader range of approach to the Final Year, it was a more in depth look at President Obama's foreign policy staff. We mostly following Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Powers, and Ben Rhodes, the deputy aide to President Obama's and speech writers. There are some scenes mixed in of Secretary Kerry, Susan Rice, as well as President Obama.
There are a good amount of scenes of staff on planes, working in tight office spaces, and working with people of Japan, Nigeria, Greece, Laos, and Vietnam. We get to see the Hiroshima Peace meeting, the staff working and meeting with families in Nigeria of the missing school girls, Laos and those that suffer from remaining bombs, and working with Vietnam. The Syrian Refugee crisis and cease fire was also front and center, the Iran deal and working towards less of a military strategy. While I feel like the first half of the documentary was a bit discombobulated, in the sense that we were as all over with the staff, there was less of a focus on how there was going to be a transition. This concept became more apparent in the latter half of the movie, as the office and staff leads into the final four months. The film sheds light on the struggles of staff with opposing views as well as the desire to get as much done within an eight year period, but issues getting forgotten as a result. Many of the staff members seemed to be set and expecting that Clinton would win the presidency and the foreign policy abroad, much of the issues and anger of the rust belt seemed to be forgotten.
It was an interesting and stark contrast between a well spoken staff and their struggles to get many people in war ravaged countries to feel safe, much of the anger of the rust-belt seemed to be left by the wayside. Presidents and their staff are going to struggle to please everyone, but there was a solid amount of tension in seeing where this country is going to go. Most of the approach of the movie was lead ins or post meetings. It is surprising the amount of access that Barker was able to take on with the documentary. It is also takes on the approach of three different opinions between the president and two of his higher aides.
The interviews and topics were much of working in forums within the countries they were visiting, looking at history and how we can use or not use these approaches. It doesn't seem to touch on the advanced teams that these aides or staff members need, but does take on many human interest approaches to staff and aides within the countries they are visiting.
There is a lot of stress and work that these staff members feel that they need to work towards with foreign policy, and takes on an interesting approach as the final four months become more evident that the Democratic party loosing roughly 1,000 seats with the election of Trump. The documentary and Barker seems to elude that while maybe this administration was too focused on their foreign policies, or they were stuck in their bubble so much so that they were not aware of the suffering and the struggles of middle America.
Like I said, I think most of the audience that watches this documentary are going to be more of a liberal crowd, but overall I think it provides an important look into the changing of an administration, and is a documentary that can lead to a good bipartisan discussion
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