A catastrophe has left the earth uninhabitable. It may have been nuclear holocaust, but most likely it was a meteor. It's left unexplained. A bright light and a serious of concussions are all we are given as explanation for the desolate wilderness left behind. A man and his young boy wander the nothingness in search of food, warmth and protection from a squandered world gone insane.
For many this film will be too relentlessly upsetting. There is not much hope to find from a story where families commit suicide just to avoid starvation and where a person will kill you for your shoes...or your meat. For others it will offer the faintest flicker of hope. When humanity is gone and all that's left is the will to fight forward, a friendly face is as comforting as the ocean shore or a beetle. I find myself in the former category.
Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee are father and son who have lived for years roaming from place to place searching for the bare necessities. The boy had a mother, but she's long gone and all the two have left are each other and their little shopping cart filled with anything useful. There has been no attempt to civilize or repopulate--the crops are gone and the animals are dead. All that's left are wandering bands of masked men ready to rape and kill. They have turned cannibal.
Dad and Boy, as the credits list them, are heading south to the shore where they may find a better life. They need someplace warm, someplace away from treeless forests and ashy skies. Someplace where men don't look at Boy with lusty eyes and someplace where Man doesn't have to teach Boy to commit suicide should the time come. They have a pistol with two shots and Man tells Boy not to be afraid.
There is not much more to say about this. Among the skeletons and discarded diamonds they find solace in simple pleasures like a can of Coke or a bag of Cheetos. Sometimes they meet other people: Man treats them with suspicion and hostility, but Boy, a sign of a better future, meets them with trust and love. He is anxious for friendship, but still ignorant of the world where this was not so.
Mortensen and Smit-McPhee give powerful performances. As Man, his face is careworn, his voice smokey like the air he breathes. The thinly veiled despair in his eyes sometimes unleashes itself onto the world and the result is very moving. Almost better than him is the boy, whose natural sincerity and chirpy voice makes the horrible events his faces unendurable. They don't live a life, they live an existence and their performances in these situations speak volumes about their talent.
The film is exquisitely shot. Every scene is a painting of orange and grey where dust-covered faces seemingly disappear into the background. In the end, however, this is a film about emotion, not ideas nor any of real substance. It is the realization of the Hobbesian state of nature, but that is not enough to make a film engaging for 100 minutes. The film relies on our sympathy with the two people to assume that the film will end happily, but with the reality they have set up it made it impossible for me to think that way. I simply found a bleak, hopeless story about people destined to die. Maybe not today, but eventually and when it happens I know it will be as black as a cellar full of half-eaten bodies.
2.5/4
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
El baño del Papa (2007)
As the film tells us when it begins, the events in this story are essentially true. The year is 1988, and for the first time the Pope has added Uruguay to his list of places visited on his worldwide peace-spreading tour, hoping to bring attention to some of the most impoverished places in the world. The small town of Melo has been gifted with the opportunity of hosting his visit and there is a fervor of excitement. The townspeople hustle and bustle preparing to welcome him, and hopefully plenty of Brazilian tourists, to their poor little community. The date is set for the miracle and we get to see God's blessing for these good folk.
Our story is Beto's (Cesar Troncoso), a smuggler for the small grocery stores who bicycles 60km round trip to Brazil to bring in anything from laundry detergent to whiskey. Living hand to mouth, praying for work to support his family, his daily concerns are his bum knee, his bicycle chain and most importantly the customs check at the border. He and his friends sometimes make two trips a day through marshes and hills, laden with parcels, hoping to dodge corrupt officials and macho soldiers.
Beto's family is too important for him not to risk it, though. His wife, Carmen (Virginia Mendez), is ever enduring to her husband's whims, suffering the highs and lows of their marriage and their finances with grace. The two work symbiotically for the benefit of the family, but it's not always clear that they understand they do. Their daughter is Silvia, a precocious young teen hoping one day to go to university in Montevideo to become a reporter. There is animosity between her and her father which is not completely explored.
They all have their dreams. For Silvia it's an escape; Carmen wants a happy household with a new patio; Beto wants a motorbike. Everyone in the community has their aspirations and the Pope's arrival is seen as a Godsend, there to cure their day to day misery. Well, perhaps not cure it, but at least make things a little more tolerable.
With his arrival nearing, these poorest of the poor give up great amounts, in some cases everything they have, to set up booths selling chorizo, breads, cakes and anything else they can think of. Beto has a better idea: he is going to create a public toilet in his front yard for all of those Brazilian visitors. With every visit he will be a few pesos closer to achieving all of their goals. But what he has to do in order to build that bathroom could tear his family apart.
This is a lot of setup, but it's necessary to understand the importance of what Beto decides to do. If I simply opened saying Beto wants to build an outhouse it would negate his goal and would cheapen the ideas of the people of this wasteland community. The nature of the event--these true stories--are heartbreaking. Watching them eek out less than a living doing whatever they can makes their fervor at the Pope's arrival almost admirable. There are times when we should hate Beto, reprimand him for the choices he makes and for his outbursts, but how can we when we know he is a man on the edge? It is not possible for me to empathize with him. After all, I have never had to work for dirty money to make sure my family can eat. But I can sympathize with him and I do. There is love, resentment and self-hate in his eyes; Beto is an emasculated man who has abandoned dignity to do what he feels is right. Those are feelings that rise beyond a look at poverty and focus in on the very specific consequences of underdevelopment.
This movie is powerful because there is no gloss, there is no sentimentality, there is only human beings trying to survive. Melo is a forgotten place in the world, looked over by modernization and therefore this visit is something worth filming. These people had stories to tell just like the rest of us and that toilet, cheap though it was, was as fitting a dream as any of ours.
3/4
Our story is Beto's (Cesar Troncoso), a smuggler for the small grocery stores who bicycles 60km round trip to Brazil to bring in anything from laundry detergent to whiskey. Living hand to mouth, praying for work to support his family, his daily concerns are his bum knee, his bicycle chain and most importantly the customs check at the border. He and his friends sometimes make two trips a day through marshes and hills, laden with parcels, hoping to dodge corrupt officials and macho soldiers.
Beto's family is too important for him not to risk it, though. His wife, Carmen (Virginia Mendez), is ever enduring to her husband's whims, suffering the highs and lows of their marriage and their finances with grace. The two work symbiotically for the benefit of the family, but it's not always clear that they understand they do. Their daughter is Silvia, a precocious young teen hoping one day to go to university in Montevideo to become a reporter. There is animosity between her and her father which is not completely explored.
They all have their dreams. For Silvia it's an escape; Carmen wants a happy household with a new patio; Beto wants a motorbike. Everyone in the community has their aspirations and the Pope's arrival is seen as a Godsend, there to cure their day to day misery. Well, perhaps not cure it, but at least make things a little more tolerable.
With his arrival nearing, these poorest of the poor give up great amounts, in some cases everything they have, to set up booths selling chorizo, breads, cakes and anything else they can think of. Beto has a better idea: he is going to create a public toilet in his front yard for all of those Brazilian visitors. With every visit he will be a few pesos closer to achieving all of their goals. But what he has to do in order to build that bathroom could tear his family apart.
This is a lot of setup, but it's necessary to understand the importance of what Beto decides to do. If I simply opened saying Beto wants to build an outhouse it would negate his goal and would cheapen the ideas of the people of this wasteland community. The nature of the event--these true stories--are heartbreaking. Watching them eek out less than a living doing whatever they can makes their fervor at the Pope's arrival almost admirable. There are times when we should hate Beto, reprimand him for the choices he makes and for his outbursts, but how can we when we know he is a man on the edge? It is not possible for me to empathize with him. After all, I have never had to work for dirty money to make sure my family can eat. But I can sympathize with him and I do. There is love, resentment and self-hate in his eyes; Beto is an emasculated man who has abandoned dignity to do what he feels is right. Those are feelings that rise beyond a look at poverty and focus in on the very specific consequences of underdevelopment.
This movie is powerful because there is no gloss, there is no sentimentality, there is only human beings trying to survive. Melo is a forgotten place in the world, looked over by modernization and therefore this visit is something worth filming. These people had stories to tell just like the rest of us and that toilet, cheap though it was, was as fitting a dream as any of ours.
3/4
Monday, May 28, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
An early favorite at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Wes Anderson's latest whimsical peer into the inner-workings of the family unit is his greatest triumph in years. Bearing his unmistakable visual trademarks this film lacks the vapid eccentricities that have faulted his previous work and simply leaves the audience with an irresistibly endearing poem about the powers of young love.
Diverging from past films, this one centers on two children on a small island of the coast of New England. Bob Balaban sets the scene as the narrator, describing the island as unpaved, wooded Chickchaw territory. It is the 1960's, the people are simple, churchgoing folk. In three days time Hurricane Mabel will strike the region.
Suzy and Sam are two troubled preteens on the island--and they are in love. After a chance encounter at a rendition of Noah's Ark at the local church the two become pen pals until they finally decide to run away together on a ten day journey from one side of the island to the other. Suzy is depressive, violent, book-wormy and observant. Sam is curious, tactile and wise beyond his years. The two are freaks, but they find solace in the company of each other as two misfits with a common goal.
Sam is a member of the Khaki Scouts; he is always prepared with his raccoon cap and his woodland survival skills. Orphaned and troubled, he never made any friends at the Scouts, but his disappearance from the troupe sends Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and the local policeman, Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), on the hunt for him. Suzy's parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) also come into the chase after finding their daughter gone, leaving them with nothing but Sam's letters and watercolor nudes.
There is something uplifting about Anderson's treatment of the fantastic. The pastel, children's book world these hyperbolized characters inhabit feels like it bellowed its way out of the pages of stories Suzy is so fond of. They tell tales of magic and adventure as a metaphor for the struggles that children face. We accept that since these characters are young they can't know what life is about, but for them their problems are all too real and they are of the utmost importance. This film is not about magic, but it is magical and the struggles of this orphan and this misunderstood girl are very real to us.
I have a feeling that Anderson was one of these kids once. Artists are too often misunderstood, and I expect the person who imagined this singular world was someone who never had many friends himself. The escapism he pens into his narratives is bewildering and unreal, but as parables they are sometimes very poignant. In this case it is very much so. We are looking into the mind of this man when we watch his film much more completely than many other directors, and luckily for him he has created a majestic story was rich and detailed characters.
It is always funny and often hilarious. The absurd nature of this island is often injected with drops of razor-sharp wit. My favorite little additions included mentioning of the US Dept. of Inclimate Weather, a kid with an eye patch wielding a bow and arrow and Scout Master Ward's evening glass of brandy sitting next to the cot in his tent. The jokes are laugh-out-loud funny and played with a genius cast also including Tilda Swinton as Social Services, Harvey Keitel as Commander Pierce and Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben.
It's a real pleasure watching a movie with so many A-list actors which doesn't simply rely on their skills to make a fine picture. Anderson obviously had a very clear vision as to what he wanted to give to his audience and was meticulous in its framing and direction. He was also fortunately gifted with two great new-comers, Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman as the kids. Their conviction to Anderson's peculiarities is admirable.
Interjected with the comedy is a very clear portrait of two people nearing and fearing adulthood trying to find a place they can call home. Their Moonrise Kingdom is as much each other as it is their destination. It is wistful, imaginative, exuberant and charming in equal measures. The pangs of young love and the glorious realization of family made me happy and appreciative of the world I inhabit as well.
4/4
Diverging from past films, this one centers on two children on a small island of the coast of New England. Bob Balaban sets the scene as the narrator, describing the island as unpaved, wooded Chickchaw territory. It is the 1960's, the people are simple, churchgoing folk. In three days time Hurricane Mabel will strike the region.
Suzy and Sam are two troubled preteens on the island--and they are in love. After a chance encounter at a rendition of Noah's Ark at the local church the two become pen pals until they finally decide to run away together on a ten day journey from one side of the island to the other. Suzy is depressive, violent, book-wormy and observant. Sam is curious, tactile and wise beyond his years. The two are freaks, but they find solace in the company of each other as two misfits with a common goal.
Sam is a member of the Khaki Scouts; he is always prepared with his raccoon cap and his woodland survival skills. Orphaned and troubled, he never made any friends at the Scouts, but his disappearance from the troupe sends Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and the local policeman, Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), on the hunt for him. Suzy's parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) also come into the chase after finding their daughter gone, leaving them with nothing but Sam's letters and watercolor nudes.
There is something uplifting about Anderson's treatment of the fantastic. The pastel, children's book world these hyperbolized characters inhabit feels like it bellowed its way out of the pages of stories Suzy is so fond of. They tell tales of magic and adventure as a metaphor for the struggles that children face. We accept that since these characters are young they can't know what life is about, but for them their problems are all too real and they are of the utmost importance. This film is not about magic, but it is magical and the struggles of this orphan and this misunderstood girl are very real to us.
I have a feeling that Anderson was one of these kids once. Artists are too often misunderstood, and I expect the person who imagined this singular world was someone who never had many friends himself. The escapism he pens into his narratives is bewildering and unreal, but as parables they are sometimes very poignant. In this case it is very much so. We are looking into the mind of this man when we watch his film much more completely than many other directors, and luckily for him he has created a majestic story was rich and detailed characters.
It is always funny and often hilarious. The absurd nature of this island is often injected with drops of razor-sharp wit. My favorite little additions included mentioning of the US Dept. of Inclimate Weather, a kid with an eye patch wielding a bow and arrow and Scout Master Ward's evening glass of brandy sitting next to the cot in his tent. The jokes are laugh-out-loud funny and played with a genius cast also including Tilda Swinton as Social Services, Harvey Keitel as Commander Pierce and Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben.
It's a real pleasure watching a movie with so many A-list actors which doesn't simply rely on their skills to make a fine picture. Anderson obviously had a very clear vision as to what he wanted to give to his audience and was meticulous in its framing and direction. He was also fortunately gifted with two great new-comers, Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman as the kids. Their conviction to Anderson's peculiarities is admirable.
Interjected with the comedy is a very clear portrait of two people nearing and fearing adulthood trying to find a place they can call home. Their Moonrise Kingdom is as much each other as it is their destination. It is wistful, imaginative, exuberant and charming in equal measures. The pangs of young love and the glorious realization of family made me happy and appreciative of the world I inhabit as well.
4/4
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Death Becomes Her (1992)
When a stunning, successful and adored dame steals the man in your life again, the only logical thing to do is off her, right? Well... after you finish your seven year binge-eating, obsessive cat lady phase. Goldie Hawn is Helen Sharp, whose fiance (Bruce Willis) is once again devoured by the insatiable, youth seeking Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep). Months of counselling brings Helen to the sinister conclusion that the only way to reclaim her husband and end Madeline's reign of feminine terror is to wipe her from the face of Earth.
Willis is Dr. Menville, a brilliant plastic surgeon whose work has captured the eye of Madeline. An actress for the stage, she has become fixated on wrinkles and dark spots and anything that might reveal her age. As the years wear on, however, the makeup and facials stop working their magic and she must look somewhere other than the work of her husband, now a limp makeup artist for the deceased.
Helen's return, thin and beautiful as ever, and aggressively seeking her man back, Madeline is frightened into asking for the help of Lisle Von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) who gives her a potion which will make her beautiful forever. When Helen and Dr. Menville plot to kill Madeline they discover that not only is she young and beautiful, she is immortal.
Robert Zemeckis directs this wacky, FX-laden comedy with style, but unfortunately it isn't very funny. The 90's were a spectacular time for idiotic plots centered around magic and the wiles of women, but the tones are never quite right and everyone's purpose in the story is rather muddled. Helen is meant to try and kill Madeline which is all well and good. I expected a comedic send-up of "Fatal Attraction". But that plot seems to go by the wayside when Madeline, in a fit of hysterics, finds herself at a random castle patrolled by dobermans and virile young men.
From there the story devolves into some sort of romp between two insecure women fighting for a squirrely little man with no possible outcome. The characters become walking mannequins for Zemeckis's makeup and silly story about two petty women trying to get the attention of men who don't want them.
I did like this for all of the references and little in-jokes. My favorite was the scheme Helen and the doctor were forming to kill Madeline. Their goal was to drive her off of a cliff on Mulholland Drive. Although the film did not come out until ten years after "Death Becomes Her," David Lynch directed a film called "Mulholland Drive". One of his other films was "Blue Velvet" which was Rossellini's claim to fame. A bit of a stretch, but it's little connections like that which makes me smile.
This may be a good drinking film. When sober, however, it's mind-numbing with not much to speak for it besides a good cast in hollow roles.
2/4
Willis is Dr. Menville, a brilliant plastic surgeon whose work has captured the eye of Madeline. An actress for the stage, she has become fixated on wrinkles and dark spots and anything that might reveal her age. As the years wear on, however, the makeup and facials stop working their magic and she must look somewhere other than the work of her husband, now a limp makeup artist for the deceased.
Helen's return, thin and beautiful as ever, and aggressively seeking her man back, Madeline is frightened into asking for the help of Lisle Von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) who gives her a potion which will make her beautiful forever. When Helen and Dr. Menville plot to kill Madeline they discover that not only is she young and beautiful, she is immortal.
Robert Zemeckis directs this wacky, FX-laden comedy with style, but unfortunately it isn't very funny. The 90's were a spectacular time for idiotic plots centered around magic and the wiles of women, but the tones are never quite right and everyone's purpose in the story is rather muddled. Helen is meant to try and kill Madeline which is all well and good. I expected a comedic send-up of "Fatal Attraction". But that plot seems to go by the wayside when Madeline, in a fit of hysterics, finds herself at a random castle patrolled by dobermans and virile young men.
From there the story devolves into some sort of romp between two insecure women fighting for a squirrely little man with no possible outcome. The characters become walking mannequins for Zemeckis's makeup and silly story about two petty women trying to get the attention of men who don't want them.
I did like this for all of the references and little in-jokes. My favorite was the scheme Helen and the doctor were forming to kill Madeline. Their goal was to drive her off of a cliff on Mulholland Drive. Although the film did not come out until ten years after "Death Becomes Her," David Lynch directed a film called "Mulholland Drive". One of his other films was "Blue Velvet" which was Rossellini's claim to fame. A bit of a stretch, but it's little connections like that which makes me smile.
This may be a good drinking film. When sober, however, it's mind-numbing with not much to speak for it besides a good cast in hollow roles.
2/4
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
On rare occasions there is a producer or director who is able to tap directly into the minds not of any particular demographic, but audiences as a whole and create something that is truly enjoyable for groups of all ages with every sort of pleasure. Who knew that 2003's crowd wanted to see a theme park ride's characters spring to life, or that such a pirate film could be so pleasurable to watch? Apparently Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski did for they made something that has become a cultural phenomenon. Bruckheimer is one of those people who makes other producers roll their eyes for his lack of interest at what he throws money to, but here he found something worth while. Laugh on, Mr. Producer.
There seems to be a child in all of us which fancies the notion of being a pirate. There is a sort of black romanticism about having boundless freedom and adventure, about following no rules except those of your captain who only gives them to best lead you to booze, women and all things silver and gold. Every man wants to be more than an everyman and the pirate is like the cowboy or the renegade--he sticks it to the man.
What Disney did fantastically in this film is tap into that idea while removing the cartoonishness of it all. The characters in this movie are not Captain Hook's and Long John Silver's; they are nasty, swashbuckling, lusty, ugly men who are, in fact, pretty awesome. Our main hero, however, is not a pirate (well...), but a blacksmith. Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) works on one of the thousands of islands in the Caribbean and is in love with Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightly), the governor's daughter. When a group of cutthroats descend on Port Royal, Will must team up with an outcast pirate to save his love.
Johnny Depp plays Capt. Jack Sparrow, in what will probably be known as his most iconic role. With nasty dreads, too much mascara and doing an impression of Keith Richards with sunstroke, he has invented one of the strangest, coolest characters ever to set sail on the high seas. Will and Jack adventure to Isle de Muerta in chase of the Black Pearl to recapture Elizabeth who has been stolen for very dark purposes.
Unbeknownst to them all the crew of the Black Pearl is plagued with a terrible Aztec curse, damning them to live as the undead. Captained by the fearsome, yet strangely poetic Barbossa (a fantastically cast Geoffrey Rush), the band of pirates seeks to appease the heathen gods with gold and blood.
This movie is fast paced, beautifully shot, and immensely fun. There is so much that could have gone wrong with it--which did happen in its successors--but for this one it doesn't take itself seriously and the entire cast seems to be enjoying themselves so much. Depp, as always, seems to create a world all to himself, stumbling and squinting with a physicality hilariously unique and an accent which sounds as though he has a mouth full of mushed bananas. Rush is also wonderful. He is the bad guy, but he's pitiable and almost likable, and he gives me chills the way he relishes the lines he hisses.
Unlike the unfortunate sequels the plot is engaging, full of surprises, but never more than the audience can handle. It is all done with purpose, but it's manageable, simply with the goal of making something enjoyable for the family. It shall endure. Like "Star Wars", "Jaws" or "Jurassic Park" this is one of those supreme blockbuster entertainments that will live on as a family classic. The effects, though good now, will age appallingly, but even so the zippy writing, colorful characters, terrific battle sequences and its roguish spirit guide it to distant and welcoming shores.
3.5/4
There seems to be a child in all of us which fancies the notion of being a pirate. There is a sort of black romanticism about having boundless freedom and adventure, about following no rules except those of your captain who only gives them to best lead you to booze, women and all things silver and gold. Every man wants to be more than an everyman and the pirate is like the cowboy or the renegade--he sticks it to the man.
What Disney did fantastically in this film is tap into that idea while removing the cartoonishness of it all. The characters in this movie are not Captain Hook's and Long John Silver's; they are nasty, swashbuckling, lusty, ugly men who are, in fact, pretty awesome. Our main hero, however, is not a pirate (well...), but a blacksmith. Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) works on one of the thousands of islands in the Caribbean and is in love with Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightly), the governor's daughter. When a group of cutthroats descend on Port Royal, Will must team up with an outcast pirate to save his love.
Johnny Depp plays Capt. Jack Sparrow, in what will probably be known as his most iconic role. With nasty dreads, too much mascara and doing an impression of Keith Richards with sunstroke, he has invented one of the strangest, coolest characters ever to set sail on the high seas. Will and Jack adventure to Isle de Muerta in chase of the Black Pearl to recapture Elizabeth who has been stolen for very dark purposes.
Unbeknownst to them all the crew of the Black Pearl is plagued with a terrible Aztec curse, damning them to live as the undead. Captained by the fearsome, yet strangely poetic Barbossa (a fantastically cast Geoffrey Rush), the band of pirates seeks to appease the heathen gods with gold and blood.
This movie is fast paced, beautifully shot, and immensely fun. There is so much that could have gone wrong with it--which did happen in its successors--but for this one it doesn't take itself seriously and the entire cast seems to be enjoying themselves so much. Depp, as always, seems to create a world all to himself, stumbling and squinting with a physicality hilariously unique and an accent which sounds as though he has a mouth full of mushed bananas. Rush is also wonderful. He is the bad guy, but he's pitiable and almost likable, and he gives me chills the way he relishes the lines he hisses.
Unlike the unfortunate sequels the plot is engaging, full of surprises, but never more than the audience can handle. It is all done with purpose, but it's manageable, simply with the goal of making something enjoyable for the family. It shall endure. Like "Star Wars", "Jaws" or "Jurassic Park" this is one of those supreme blockbuster entertainments that will live on as a family classic. The effects, though good now, will age appallingly, but even so the zippy writing, colorful characters, terrific battle sequences and its roguish spirit guide it to distant and welcoming shores.
3.5/4
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
There is something enigmatic about the desert. Few places on Earth are as wild and unforgiving as open dunes with nothing but snakes and heat. Wes Craven, the face of horror, has increased the danger and turned from something vast and monstrous into a place that is downright terrifying. Far off the beaten track with the old gas station and the older crazed man giving strange warnings, there is an evil far more sinister than the vast unknown. It comes from the womb and neglects what we call "humanity".
A family of seven are stranded in the middle of this desert somewhere in the southwest United States on their way to California. Gas Station Man told them not to go to the silver mine, it's been cleared out for years. Brenda told them they should press on to L.A., full of fast cars and movie stars. Ethel should not have been put in charge of the maps. Now with a shot axle the group is stuck with nothing but their camper between them and...the desert. My opinion would be to split up to try and find people--that was their's too.
The first half of Craven's "Hills" is satisfying and frightening. A child born wrong became a beast of a man, living in the desert and populating his own clan of misshapen cave dwellers with a prostitute he snatched. They forage and scrounge from the wilderness and trade what they can find from the discards of the nearby military base. But times are tough. Dogs are good to eat, but not nearly as tasty as a fat, little mid-west baby.
The film starts out so strong because we don't know what's lurking in the hills. They seem to be human and we even meet one of the more docile of the bunch, Ruby. But peering into the darkness and seeing nothing but bushes and cacti, hearing strange animal cries, and having your two pet German Shepard's whimpering is rather disconcerting. The first attacks on the trailer are very scary until we see what it is we are up against. There are killings, of course, and a couple of them are very unsettling; Cravens anti-religious themes are strong.
The second half is as weak as the first was strong, however. The film begs the question at what point do "civilized" people become monsters themselves? It answers that the switch is almost immediate, which is not a novel idea. There are films, though, that tackle the repercussions of what that switch means which this film certainly does not. It devolves from a good, scary horror flick into something more of a thriller and a revenge film which became dull.
Also, the people living in the mountains are not that scary at all. To be fair, I would be scared shit-less if I met one of them walking down the street, but this ended up feeling like more of a "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ripoff, and a far less effective one at that. I hate comparing films to remakes or originals if I can help it, but I have to say that I prefer the 2006 adaptation much more. Of course, it had a far larger budget than this shoe-string, pulp favorite, but there was something so carnally gruesome about the idea of people mutated by the effects of fallout in New Mexico (though maybe it just made me uneasy as I used to live about twenty minutes away from where they filmed). Certainly, it does seem a bit tactless to turn something like the atomic bomb tests into a horror film--though not nearly as much so as the new film "Chernobyl Diaries"--but then at least the story seemed to make a bit more sense.
As a classic horror film I feel compelled to say that it's worth a view, but as far as if it is any good I can list you half a dozen films made at the same time that deserve your attention much more.
1.5/4
A family of seven are stranded in the middle of this desert somewhere in the southwest United States on their way to California. Gas Station Man told them not to go to the silver mine, it's been cleared out for years. Brenda told them they should press on to L.A., full of fast cars and movie stars. Ethel should not have been put in charge of the maps. Now with a shot axle the group is stuck with nothing but their camper between them and...the desert. My opinion would be to split up to try and find people--that was their's too.
The first half of Craven's "Hills" is satisfying and frightening. A child born wrong became a beast of a man, living in the desert and populating his own clan of misshapen cave dwellers with a prostitute he snatched. They forage and scrounge from the wilderness and trade what they can find from the discards of the nearby military base. But times are tough. Dogs are good to eat, but not nearly as tasty as a fat, little mid-west baby.
The film starts out so strong because we don't know what's lurking in the hills. They seem to be human and we even meet one of the more docile of the bunch, Ruby. But peering into the darkness and seeing nothing but bushes and cacti, hearing strange animal cries, and having your two pet German Shepard's whimpering is rather disconcerting. The first attacks on the trailer are very scary until we see what it is we are up against. There are killings, of course, and a couple of them are very unsettling; Cravens anti-religious themes are strong.
The second half is as weak as the first was strong, however. The film begs the question at what point do "civilized" people become monsters themselves? It answers that the switch is almost immediate, which is not a novel idea. There are films, though, that tackle the repercussions of what that switch means which this film certainly does not. It devolves from a good, scary horror flick into something more of a thriller and a revenge film which became dull.
Also, the people living in the mountains are not that scary at all. To be fair, I would be scared shit-less if I met one of them walking down the street, but this ended up feeling like more of a "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ripoff, and a far less effective one at that. I hate comparing films to remakes or originals if I can help it, but I have to say that I prefer the 2006 adaptation much more. Of course, it had a far larger budget than this shoe-string, pulp favorite, but there was something so carnally gruesome about the idea of people mutated by the effects of fallout in New Mexico (though maybe it just made me uneasy as I used to live about twenty minutes away from where they filmed). Certainly, it does seem a bit tactless to turn something like the atomic bomb tests into a horror film--though not nearly as much so as the new film "Chernobyl Diaries"--but then at least the story seemed to make a bit more sense.
As a classic horror film I feel compelled to say that it's worth a view, but as far as if it is any good I can list you half a dozen films made at the same time that deserve your attention much more.
1.5/4
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Charade (1963)
There is something about Technicolor that makes any comedy all that much funnier and any mystery all the more intriguing. It's campy, old fashioned, but delectably fresh in a proper retro style. "Charade" is both and equally good being funny and sharp, making it a simple pleasure to watch. There is nothing special about it, but it certainly doesn't try to stand apart, and falls somewhere in between a Bond film without the gadgets and a Hitchcock thriller without the subtlety.
What it does have, however, is one of the greatest match ups Hollywood could offer in the early 60's: Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. There's is the compulsory love me, love me not story in the mystery and it's charming. But then Hepburn and Grant are both wizards at being charming so putting them together makes almost too much charm. It made the actual plot seem rather superfluous really when faced with the amour. A lovely romantic comedy like "Roman Holiday" might have been better suited to the pairing. But that's irrelevant.
Hepburn plays the Regina Lambert, wife of a wealthy, mysterious gentleman who she suddenly learns has been killed not long before she planned to divorce him. Returning home to Paris, Regina finds her house cleared out and an inspector to meet her with nothing more than bad news and a bag of secrets. Her husband was not what he was thought to be, having four passports and a warrant on his head by the CIA. Found dead at a train station in his pajamas with a small suitcase filled with nothing in particular, Regina is told that he had $250,000 of US Government money with him, but that it was nowhere to be found.
Suspicion turns to Regina as the inspector and three shady, dangerous men begin turning up pressing her to find the money lest something should happen to her. Confused and terrified, Regina turns to the only person she feels she can trust, a stranger she met on holiday named Peter Joshua (Grant). He is suave, funny and sincere in his helpful offerings, but things go awry and suddenly Regina can trust no one.
As a thriller it had its fits and starts. Sometimes the suspense was palpable, and it is a horrible thought being trapped in a close vicinity with people out to kill you. She is, in fact, sharing a wall with her potential killers in a hotel, but is told there would really be no use in her moving. However, advice like this, given by the American Embassy made the end of the story a bit too easy to solve. It tries very hard to steer its audience to two general conclusions, but as Regina explains--and as Scooby Doo always informs us--it's always the person you least suspect. I solved the mystery about ten minutes into the film.
That doesn't make the ride any less fun, though. The final chase and standoff is not as thrilling as they might have thought, but there are plenty of twists and turns (some more obvious than others) to keep you on your feet. I must admit that the hiding place of the money was somewhere spectacularly clever, and for that I tip my hat.
What I loved most about this film is the simple chemistry between two great alchemists of love. Grant and Hepburn shine as always, and set on a Parisian backdrop how could one possibly resist her doe eyes and his sleek, silver-haired smoothness? Her performance has some awkward moments, his is perfect with his pinpoint humor and easy navigation through hero and villain. In the end the two won me over and affirm my belief that this is something worth watching.
3/4
What it does have, however, is one of the greatest match ups Hollywood could offer in the early 60's: Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. There's is the compulsory love me, love me not story in the mystery and it's charming. But then Hepburn and Grant are both wizards at being charming so putting them together makes almost too much charm. It made the actual plot seem rather superfluous really when faced with the amour. A lovely romantic comedy like "Roman Holiday" might have been better suited to the pairing. But that's irrelevant.
Hepburn plays the Regina Lambert, wife of a wealthy, mysterious gentleman who she suddenly learns has been killed not long before she planned to divorce him. Returning home to Paris, Regina finds her house cleared out and an inspector to meet her with nothing more than bad news and a bag of secrets. Her husband was not what he was thought to be, having four passports and a warrant on his head by the CIA. Found dead at a train station in his pajamas with a small suitcase filled with nothing in particular, Regina is told that he had $250,000 of US Government money with him, but that it was nowhere to be found.
Suspicion turns to Regina as the inspector and three shady, dangerous men begin turning up pressing her to find the money lest something should happen to her. Confused and terrified, Regina turns to the only person she feels she can trust, a stranger she met on holiday named Peter Joshua (Grant). He is suave, funny and sincere in his helpful offerings, but things go awry and suddenly Regina can trust no one.
As a thriller it had its fits and starts. Sometimes the suspense was palpable, and it is a horrible thought being trapped in a close vicinity with people out to kill you. She is, in fact, sharing a wall with her potential killers in a hotel, but is told there would really be no use in her moving. However, advice like this, given by the American Embassy made the end of the story a bit too easy to solve. It tries very hard to steer its audience to two general conclusions, but as Regina explains--and as Scooby Doo always informs us--it's always the person you least suspect. I solved the mystery about ten minutes into the film.
That doesn't make the ride any less fun, though. The final chase and standoff is not as thrilling as they might have thought, but there are plenty of twists and turns (some more obvious than others) to keep you on your feet. I must admit that the hiding place of the money was somewhere spectacularly clever, and for that I tip my hat.
What I loved most about this film is the simple chemistry between two great alchemists of love. Grant and Hepburn shine as always, and set on a Parisian backdrop how could one possibly resist her doe eyes and his sleek, silver-haired smoothness? Her performance has some awkward moments, his is perfect with his pinpoint humor and easy navigation through hero and villain. In the end the two won me over and affirm my belief that this is something worth watching.
3/4
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