Sydney Film Festival - The Future (2011)

The Future, 2011.

Directed by Miranda July.
Starring Miranda July and Hamish Linklater.


SYNOPSIS:

When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life is changed dramatically.


Following her fantastic multi award winning (most notably Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival) debut Me, You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July's The Future follows 30 days in the life of L.A. couple Jason (Hamish Linklater) and Sophie (July) - who try drastically attempt to start living out their life’s dreams before they are bound to their commitment to a terminally ill adopted Cat – Paw Paw – the films narrator.

We hear in the voice over narration that they’re going to adopt a cat and the characters are sure that it will have a limited life span - when they visit the Vet where Paw Paw resides they discover that if they truly bond with it that it could live for a long time. Jason and Sophie panic – they’ve adopted a terminally ill cat to ensure that this commitment and responsibility for a life is temporary. The prospect of a longer-term commitment causes an existential crisis. This seemingly minor event is the catalyst for the characters to attempt to drastically change and improve their lives.

Jason and Sophie are flawed and quirky and have a great chemistry. Jason is an tech-support worker that works from his home who abandons his job in this final ’30 days’ to adopt the philosophy of letting his ‘destiny’ call out to him. This leads him to volunteer for a conservationist group that travels door-to-door selling trees. During his travels he meets one receptive client, a wise, dirty limerick writing, sage that imparts his experience about love and life. Jason feels an indelible connection to him that initially is unqualified.

Sophie is a dance teacher that doesn’t seem to be able to dance in the style that is required of her. She’s constantly jealous of the audience and attention that her work colleague garners by her provocative and gyrating YouTube dances. So like Hamish, she leaves her job teaching kids to embark on a 30 Dances in 30 Days ‘YouTube challenge’ in her final thirty days. Sophie is perpetually distracted and finds herself addicted to watching the dances of everyone else instead of choreographing her own. In an attempt to get away from the distraction Sophie cancels their Internet connection and formulates a plan to achieve her challenge. In the midst of one of her distracted moments she sees the phone number on the back of the drawing that Hamish purchased and calls the artist, which changes the course of their future.

The films title The Future was actually changed from Separation (its working title). July establishes two characters physically together but immediately separated by their connection to technology. The opening shot is constructed with Jason and Sophie forming a ‘U’ shape by sitting directly facing each other on their lounge. But they are both staring at their laptops and not each other.

In any examination of the future (especially in the science fiction genre) filmmakers pose questions about our reliance on technology and how it interacts or will interact with humanity. And throughout The Future interaction with technology perpetually disappoints, fails and depresses the characters. Instead of positing these questions to a far off impression of the future, July skilfully brings those questions down to two individuals in the present day and acts questions about an increasingly ‘present’ future state.

July’s rich script is constantly generating disarmingly beautiful moments – in particular when Jason and Sophie agree upon a song to play as an aural key to unlock the memory of their love in case they forget it during their endeavour (which fails in the moment it is needed most because of a flat iPod battery). Like Me, You and Everyone We Know there are moments where characters are able to manipulate time and the very conventional temporality established at the beginning of the film is progressively messed with. I loved how seamless the future projection was integrated into the films mostly conventional reality and how each character interacted with the [un]reality around them in these moments.

The Future illustrates the fleeting reality of life, and challenges people scared of the seemingly racing clock. And to use a phenomenal line from the film, we’re viewing a relationship that like a building immediately after the impact of wrecking ball stands for a split second before it crumbles into debris. I was moved by this film – and although audience expectations of genius illustrated in Me, You and Everyone We Know may lead them to not immediately love this film, the filmmaking landscape is a far more optimistic prospect if Miranda July continues making films.

Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com.

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - Psalm 21 (2009)

Psalm 21, 2009.

Directed by Fredrik Hiller.
Starring Jonas Malmsjö, Niklas Falk, Björn Bengtsson, Görel Crona, Josefin Ljungman and Per Ragnar.


SYNOPSIS:

Investigating the death of his father, a priest arrives in a desolate village where he inadvertently opens a door to the other side where ghosts from the past begin to cross over into the real world with a single purpose... vengeance.


The subject of hell in films is such an easy thing to handle in a hammy fashion. Once you go down the path with fire, brimstone and laughing red men with hooves, you’re stuck down Dante’s cul de sac of generic visions. Personal hells are usually the best ones, although they can’t really exist outside the genre of psychological horrors. And then of course there’s the other hazard of going down Freudian Lane. And once you go down that road, it’s only a matter of time until you can’t look at your mother the same way again. In the recent Scandinavian horror by Fredrik Hiller, a priest is smothered in the face by his inner demons in a rather compelling and tense fashion.

Psalm 21 feels like a Japanese version of The Sixth Sense with a thoughtful message about the personal definition of hell. Our main man is a priest whose life almost descends into total madness after hearing about the death of his father. What ensues next is a mix between a murder mystery and a Silent Hill videogame. Father Henrik Horneus has a disinterested son and a divorced wife. Despite his seemingly confident nature, he is shown to have an undermining element of pathos which instantly makes you cling to the character. There are many scenes where is played well by Malmsjö as a tortured soul who tries to keep a lid on the font of his emotion. When he gets the call about his father tragically drowning, the performance takes you by slight surprise. This isn’t just another cheap shock in the dark.

Rather than linger on all of the extremely nasty parts constantly, the focus tends to be on the utter saturation of suspense. One moment in the film seemed to act out like a slow motion car crash. Father Horneus is reading from a book whilst a figure emerges from behind him. This ghoulish motion seems to go on for ten minutes, and all throughout I was on the verge of screaming to look behind him. The personal demons in question take the form of the figures of his mother and a recently deceased member of his congregation. Oh! And their faces keep rotting away. It’s a cheap trick to use such CGI wizardry to stir my bowels into terror, but I have to say I think it came across well in places. After the initial shock of having some half melted ghost woman stare at you for a peek a boo moment, the macabre look on their faces. It really gives some of the visions a rather decent nightmare feel to them.

Accompanying the mood of the film is the fantastic musical score. Instead of tailoring itself completely to the horror aspect, it tends to reflect on Father Horneus’s emotional state, usually playing to the tune of tortured soul searching for salvation, rather than a panicky man running from zombies. Along with the moody grey lighting, I felt that they were trying extra hard to remove themselves from the horror genre in some way. But they didn’t stray too far. There are still some fantastic shock moments, even if some are easier to spot out than Canterbury Cathedral. Psalm 21 seems like a cheap horror at first, but soon you’ll find yourself converted. Something that fans of a good psychological horror will truly appreciate and go away a little more thoughtful than before.

Will Preston is a student at the University of Portsmouth. He writes for various blogs (including his own website), presents a weekly radio show on PURE FM and makes various short films.

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The Warrior's Path (2009)

The Warrior's Path (a.k.a. The Sanctuary), 2009.

Directed by Thanapon Maliwan.
Starring Michael B., Russell Wong, Intira Jaroenpura, Patharawarin Timkul and Erik Markus Schuetz.


SYNOPSIS:

When a priceless antique is discovered deep in the dark heart of the Thai jungle a young explorer thinks all his dreams have come true. Little does he know that this artefact harbours a dark secret and will set in motion a series of catastrophic events.


Personally speaking, I try to steer clear of spending a hazy Sunday afternoon watching film channels. It’s at this time of day that you’re usually subjected to something lacking an edge or a cheap knock off of something that has a bit of an edge. Even worse, a cheap knock off that doesn’t know what edge is, but decides to keep swinging a blunt object until the hour and a half mark is over. My Sundays are best spent choosing my films wisely. The Warrior's Path is a film I can’t imagine anyone bringing up in conversation unless their day was really that unfulfilling.

Shambling along from the first scene, we are subjected to bad acting and a very cheap feel. A phrase that came to mind during the set up to the film's story was ‘crap Bond film’. The macguffin is introduced, stolen and is then the centre of an underwhelming fight scene in the first ten minutes. The unoriginal object of desire in question is a set of royal pottery and a mystical jewel, most likely worth enough to have five members of the Royal Family killed. This generic charade takes place in the latter half of the 19th century before we are fast forwarded to a modern day Thailand (I forgot to mention the location before, but this story could take place anywhere, to be frank.) where we are introduced to a collection of cut out bad guys and frightfully awful protagonists.

I’m not overreacting when I’m saying I had no idea who to root for. The bad guys seemed like phoned in anti heroes who would be suited in a Channel 5 standard heist movie, whilst the leading ‘heroes’ just seemed irritatingly young and whiney. In a way, I just wasn’t interested in who got what they were looking for; I just wanted them to go away. Even the cookie cutter heisters didn’t seem like they were trying at all. Imagine if Tomb Raider was stripped of its entire Indiana Jones links and the action scenes were reduced to below par Chuck Norris fights. Can you do that? Now imagine a terrible soundtrack and use of sound effects that make the finished product have the feel of a particularly bad videogame adaption of a film that probably wasn’t that good anyway.

I might sound like I’m repeating myself, but The Warrior's Path does not feel like its own film. There’s an overhanging sense of borrowing things from other films. In a word, generic. Everything slots into place in such a painfully simplistic way that the film could be about a talking duck hunting down a large supply of concrete pancakes, before a gang of retired office desks armed with dangerous loaves of bread can get them and you’d still be watching the same film, to an extent. I really don’t know how this film came together in its conception stage. Was it a pulp martial arts flick with a tacked on antiques hunt? Or was it a poor man’s Indiana Jones with fight scenes thrown in? I don’t think anyone has a clue about what the film was supposed to achieve, not even the director. If you find this in the bargain bin at your local Tesco, find another Tesco.

Will Preston is a student at the University of Portsmouth. He writes for various blogs (including his own website), presents a weekly radio show on PURE FM and makes various short films.

Movie Review Archive

365 Days, 100 Films #27 - The Proposition (2005)

The Proposition, 2005.



Directed by John Hillcoat.

Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt, Danny Huston and David Wenham.





SYNOPSIS:



Australia is still an untamed country and the British colonies there are still in their infancy. Captain Stanley is the sheriff of one of them, and he is determined to have the violent criminal and gang leader Arthur Burns killed.





Captain Stanley (a magnificent Ray Winstone) opens The Proposition as a man of wealth and taste. To his new prisoners, after laying siege to the brothel in which they hid, he makes a proposition: Charlie (Guy Pierce) and the simple-minded Mikey (Richard Wilson), will be allowed to walk free if they kill their older brother, head of their notorious family gang, Arthur Burns (Danny Huston). That name is a statement in itself - Arthur burns. Arthur murders and Arthur rapes. Captain Stanley is determined to civilize Australia’s wild land, and he will start by being rid of its most fearsome outlaw. He has to become the devil himself to achieve his aims, offering his two captives such an unholy deal.

Captain Stanley:I wish to present you with a proposition. I know where Arthur Burns is. It is a God-forsaken place. The blacks won't go there, not the trackers; not even wild men. I suppose, in time, the bounty hunters will get him. But I have other plans, I aim to bring him down - I aim to show that he's a man like any other. I aim to hurt him. And what will most hurt him? Well I thought long and hard about that, and I've realized, Mr. Burns, that I must become more inventive in my methods. Now suppose I told there was a way to save your little brother Mikey from the noose. Suppose I gave you a horse, and a gun. Suppose, Mr. Burns, I was to give you and your young brother Mikey here a pardon. Suppose I said that I could give you a chance to expunge the guilt, beneath which you so clearly labour. Suppose I gave you 'til Christmas. Now, suppose you tell me what it is I want from you.



Charlie Burns: You want me to kill me brother.



Captain Stanley: I want you to kill your brother.

The dialogue constantly makes reference to Hell. The sparse Australian outback and visible heat could easily be mistaken for that punishing afterlife. Sweat smudges every face and dampens every garment. The hot, wavering air distorts the sun. Maybe this is what a Western set in Hell looks like.



The Proposition has the Western genre’s fundamental element – its characters are completely dwarfed and at odds with their landscape, insignificant in its vastness. “There is the sense that spaces there are too empty to admit human content. There are times in The Proposition when you think the characters might abandon their human concerns and simply flee from the land itself” (Roger Ebert). But the scenery itself is crumbling, bathed in a hellish red by the setting sun. Flies are everywhere – on faces and on food – hovering around anything living or dead. Perhaps everything in this outback is dead. The flies’ presence is as good as the stink lines drawn in cartoons.



Hidden in this land are the surviving Burns gang, their leader hunted by one brother to save another. They stress the importance of family, but they’d kill each other for fun if they had a good enough excuse. Charlie could be partly redeemed for his sins if he saves Mikey, but instead he wonders around in a half-dream. Meanwhile, the town grow restless and demand more action from Captain Stanley. There is a thin Victorian veil covering their blood thirst for revenge. They stage a lynching of their Burns prisoner, but only show they are no better than the savages that they hunt.



The final scene is set at Christmas, a cruel joke on Captain Stanley and his wife, trying their best to adjust themselves to the non-British climate. They attempt a pathetic excuse for a Christmas. The tree is grand, and the table covered in delicious foods, but there’s no hiding from the piercing Sun outside. Nor from the Burns gang, with a murderous glint in their eye.



Rating: *****

Oli Davis



365 Days, 100 Films



Movie Review Archive

Sydney Film Festival - Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)

Hobo with a Shotgun, 2011.

Directed by Jason Eisner.
Starring Rutger Hauer, Pasha Ebrahimi, Brian Downey, Molly Dunsworth and Rob Wells.


SYNOPSIS:

Hobo (Rutger Hauer) comes into Hope ‘Scum’ Town on a freight train and after being disgusted by the Drake family and their murderous torture games, he decides to enact some vigilante justice with ... you guessed it, a SHOTGUN!


I’ll start this review by saying that I did watch this film at 9am so I may not have been as keen for violence…scratch that, exceptionally gratuitous and violence that trivialises brutally in a way that is disconcerting ... so early in the morning.

Hobo with a Shotgun began like Machete, as a trailer between the Quentin Tarantino /Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse features and due to the fan demand for a full-length feature this film was produced.

The film begins with the titular Hobo (Rutger Hauer) entering ‘Hope [Scum] Town’ which is essentially a cesspool of poverty, murder, police corruption, prostitution and exploitation. Hobo’s first day in ‘Scum Town’ he bears witness to a public murder show where the town’s evil boss character Drake (Brian Downey) and his sons Ivan (Nick Batemen) and Slick (Gregory Smith)- stick Drake’s brother into a man-hole, stick a barb-wired noose attached to the back of a car around his neck drive away to decapitate him; and a female follower of Drake bathes in his blood. As I said – probably not ideal morning viewing.

Eisner’s colour palette in Hobo is striking. The primary colours are emphasised so that the blood, flames and chill feels like they burst out of the screen. Eisner also uses all the stylised credits to affect your nostalgia for films in this genre.

In this kind of film you’re never sure whether actors are acting badly intentionally or they're bad actors – but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they did what director Eisner’s vision set them out to achieve. Rutger Hauer has got a great grizzled and weathered face that makes him compelling to watch even when he’s delivering the intentionally corny dialogue. Hauer's lined face also suited to the vigilante justice because the rage seems to drip from his expression – in my opinion he’s an actor that good to watch in anything. Drake was the corny, street entertainment version of Killian (Richard Dawson) from The Running Man; Slick was really, really bad and a poor man’s Joker (The Dark Knight) imitation at his meanest; and Ivan (also bad) was a poor man’s crazy Stifler (American Pie) meets Fredo (The Godfather).

I fully appreciate that this film is meant to be intentionally ‘bad’ because it is paying homage to a 70s exploitation genre, but I think that what the trailer brought in a snappy, concise and fun looking snippet – when padded out into a full length feature feels like spreading one knife of butter over an entire loaf of bread. There are brief glimpses of tongue in cheek humour toward the genre that standout but the mix for me was 20% fantastic, homage and visual flair for the trashy genre and 80% real garbage.

Maybe a guilty pleasure with an appreciative audience but not one that I’d recommend, stick with the markedly better Grindhouse films.

Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com.

Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - Rabbit Hole (2010)

Rabbit Hole, 2010.



Directed by John Cameron Mitchell.

Starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest.





SYNOPSIS:



A married couple struggle to return to their everyday existence after the loss of their child.





Nicole Kidman’s performances can simultaneously win her further legions of adoring fans and additional ranks of grumbling haters. She is wonderful to some, whiny to others, miserable to endure for many and majestic for millions. But it’s generally accepted, even by her diehard supporters, that she seemed to peak in the early years of the 21st century. Her last genuinely astounding performance in a really good film was some time ago. Stars like her that hit a critical rut have a way to clamber out though; after amassing enough power in mainstream blockbusters they can produce their own projects, perfectly tailored to their talents.



This is what Kidman does with Rabbit Hole, adapted for the screen by David Lindsay-Abaire from his own Pulitzer Prize winning play. The character of grieving mother Becca is perfect for her, resembling past roles in Birth and The Others, and providing a bearable outlet for her notoriously divisive bouts of cold and complaining emotion. Even though this is the sort of portrayal we’ve come to expect from Australia’s most successful export to Hollywood, the raw subject matter somehow suits her trademark moody and restrained introspection. You couldn’t call this a bad performance; in fact you feel like you have to say it’s a good one.



In contrast to Kidman’s recent record, co-star Aaron Eckhart is someone on the up and he doesn’t do that progress any harm here. Howie is Becca’s nice, normal husband, doing his best in an impossible situation. In the opening act of Rabbit Hole Kidman’s character is being as irritating as we know she can be from some of her previous roles. Watching this with a friend she moaned that she didn’t like Kidman usually and that she was typically “wet” again in Rabbit Hole. As I’ve said though, you do sympathise with her behaviour because of the grief, even if you might find the efforts of Howie more appealing.



The acting in Rabbit Hole is hard to criticise, with the two leads ultimately convincing, even as we lurch from one dreary standoff to another, with the odd shouting match in between. The supporting cast are good too, with Dianne Wiest as Becca’s mother doing a great job of articulating experienced grief, sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard) authentically rebellious, Sandra Oh as a rounded fellow mourner at a support group and newcomer Miles Teller as the awkward young driver unlucky enough to bear the burden of responsibility and blame on his well meaning, naive shoulders.



Even the script is mostly hard to fault. The quality of the source material shines through, with the truth and wit of the dialogue rising above that of most films. Conversations about the most difficult of subjects are realistic and feel as though they are ripped from real everyday lives. The film is refreshing for approaching grief from an underused and understated angle; eight months on from the drama of the death, this is the story of the shift from the constant tears to keeping appearances of normality. Lindsay-Abaire is fond of metaphor, with mixed success. Some symbols, like that of grief changing in weight until it’s like a “brick in your pocket”, are poignant and moving. However the entire film is a metaphor and crucially this is the one that is less evidently a success.



Rabbit Hole slowly unravels with not much happening and Becca literally getting on with the housework; reflecting the emptiness left behind after loss. The film as a whole is a grim trudge through nothingness. This may be an accurate picture of the reality of grief, a painful journey back to normality, with no big and sudden revelation to make things better, but it’s a story that doesn’t translate engagingly from stage to screen. There are glimpses here of why the play must have been so powerful and well received. It’s easy to see why Kidman saw in this the chance for her critical rebirth. But without the intimacy of theatre and very little happening in the plot, this is one of those films that leaves you exhausted and aching from concentrating on being respectful to the subject matter.



Sophie Ivan, reviewing Rabbit Hole for Film4, sums up the film perfectly: “Rabbit Hole is a film that's easier to commend than it is to like”. No one will want to say anything bad against Rabbit Hole; but very few people will enjoy it.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)



Movie Review Archive

365 Days, 100 Films #26 - Cedar Rapids (2011)

Cedar Rapids, 2011.



Directed by Miguel Arteta.

Starring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kurtwood Smith, Stephen Root, Mike O'Malley, Sigourney Weaver and Alia Shawkat.





SYNOPSIS:



An innocent, small-town insurance salesman is introduced to the harder, partying ways of life at a conference in Cedar Rapids.





John C. Reilly used to be a respectable guy. He was the solid character actor of Boogie Nights, The Thin Red Line and Magnolia. Actors like that often plod away with these thankless roles, getting stuck in their own revolving doors. But then came Will Ferrell. He showed Reilly a sneaky way out.



If this were school, Reilly’s drama teacher would have been disappointed. “Such high hopes for that boy,” she’d bemoan in the staff room, “but now he’s fallen in with that bunch of comedians.” It was Talladega Nights what did it, playing Ferrell’s best friend, Cal. They seem to have been joined at the hip ever since. Accomplished actors usually make for quite good comedic ones, but Reilly goes straight for the clown, sometimes even surpassing Ferrell for absurdity. Maybe it’s his puffy face.



That’s why any film with him in is worth your time - he’s the Philip Seymour Hoffman of comedy films. Cedar Rapids casts him as a hard-drinking and partying insurance salesman, Dean Ziegler. He’s the one that our lead insurance salesman, Tim Lippe (Ed Helms), is instructed to avoid at all costs. You see, Cedar Rapids is an annual convention for Christian insurance companies. Each conference sees the representative with the most Christian commitment to serving their customers honoured with the prestigious Two Diamonds award. Lippe’s company have won the award for the past three years, all thanks to his predecessor’s charisma and charm (and maybe something else). But following his suspicious death (auto-erotic asphyxiation is implied), it’s now up to Lippe to take home the Two Diamonds trophy.



The problem is that Lippe is overwhelmingly mild-mannered and naïve. He’s never been on a plane before and has a sexual relationship with his old school teacher (Sigourney Weaver, in a creepy, mothering way). As Cedar Rapids is a new experience for Lippe, his boss provides him with the aforementioned list of people to seek out and people to avoid. Only one name adorns the ‘Avoid’ side: Ziegler.



As events often do in these situations, Ziegler ends up in the same room as Lippe. His original roommate, Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr., or Senator “Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit” Davis from The Wire), volunteered them to put up an extra bed because of an overbooked hotel. Initially Lippe wants nothing to do with Ziegler. He’s under strict orders not to. But Ziegler wears him down, first getting him to drink, then to sing (Helms, by the way, has a tremendous voice) and, ultimately, to “dance with the tiger”. Lippe never seems to get any less naïve, but his innocence is sorely tested.



Along the way there’s your standard sub-plots of romance and corruption. Not much to see there; move along. There’s also a far bawdier third act, which seems to have seeped in from some Judd Apatow film being shot in a studio nearby. There’s prostitutes, hard drugs and Rob Corddry. This part has some of the film’s funniest moments, and it’s cool to see the characters far removed from their insurance conference safety zone, but it jars with the observed nature of all before it.



There is a very good film somewhere in Cedar Rapids, but it’s impossible to say where. Maybe if they ran more with the Lippe as a 40-Year Old Virgin character, but it’s hard to say if that would have worked. It would have been great to focus more on the three guys, Reilly, Helms and Whitlock, as their banter was very fluid – but the romantic sub-plot isn’t actually that bad. More Reilly overall would have been appreciated, but you’d run the risk of making him a caricature.



Near the end of the film in particular, Cedar Rapids highlights how important conferences are to these characters. Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) sees it as an escape from her family in a what-happens-in-Cedar-Rapids-stays-in-Cedar-Rapids kinda way. Yet she remains very likeable so you share her moral ambiguity. Ziegler’s recent divorce is also gently hinted at, and you get the sense Cedar Rapids lets him forget that void at home. There’s a sweet melancholy for the prostitute, Bree (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat) that stands outside Cedar Rapids’ entrance too. The place must be a good source of business; with a hotel full of people who don’t know each other and are far away from the people they do. It’s like a Freshers Week for grown-ups.



Maybe that’s it, then. If Cedar Rapids played for the darker, Pathos laughs in this world of three-night stand conferences, it wouldn’t be so forgettable. It isn’t bad, but in no way is it anything above ‘average’. Even then, that’s largely due to the quality of the cast.

Oli Davis



365 Days, 100 Films



Movie Review Archive

Blu-ray Review – The Superman Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006)

The Superman Motion Picture Anthology, 1978-2006.

Directed by Richard Donner, Richard Lester, Sidney J. Furie and Bryan Singer.
Starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Terence Stamp, Susannah York, Richard Pryor, Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth.


SYNOPSIS:

The complete big-screen adventures of the Man of Steel.


With a cinematic Superman reboot set to begin filming later this year courtesy of director Zack Snyder (Watchmen), producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises) and The Man of Steel himself Henry Cavill, now would seem like a pretty good time to deliver a shiny HD upgrade of Warner Bros.’ Superman feature film series. Well, that’s exactly what we’re getting with the release of The Superman Motion Picture Anthology on Blu-ray this coming Monday and – with a set that consists of all five theatrical movies, two alternative versions and a whole boat load of special features – this really is a must-buy for fans of the Last Son of Krypton.

So, first of all, what about the movies themselves, then? In all fairness, aside from the fine work of Christopher Reeve in what became his signature role, Warner Bros.’ Superman movie franchise has been pretty mediocre overall and never quite managed to hit the same heights as its titular hero. Things started out well enough though, with Richard Donner’s landmark Superman: The Movie (1978) paving the way for the modern superhero film, while Superman II (1980) somehow managed to survive all the internal wrangling and firing of its director to deliver not only an entertaining sequel, but also one of the great screen super villains in Terence Stamp’s General Zod.

Unfortunately, it’s all down hill from there and the problems really start to kick in by the time we get to Richard Lester’s Superman III (1983). Rejecting a pitch from producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, Warner Bros.’ preferred to camp things up with a disappointing comic approach for Supes’ third outing while frankly, the less said Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) the better. Then, almost twenty years later, director Bryan Singer delivered another disappointing effort with his homage to the earlier films, the lacklustre Superman Returns (2006), which saw Brandon Routh’s Superman pale in comparison next to Christopher Reeve (you can’t help thinking that Singer should have went for the reboot, although it is entertaining in parts and certainly a vast improvement over the previous couple of movies).

Now, putting aside the fact that three of the movies are a bit naff, what is it that makes this set so special? Well, it’s just so damn comprehensive, that’s what. Aside from pristine transfers of the five theatrical movies we get two alternative versions (an Extended Cut of the original and 2006’s Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut), along with a mountain of special features that even Superman himself would struggle to leap. In addition to commentaries and making of documentaries for each of the movies, highlights include all 17 episodes of the fantastic 1940s Superman cartoon from Fleischer / Famous Studios, the 1951 Superman and the Mole Men feature film starring George Reeves, The Adventures of Superpup 1958 TV pilot, the feature-length Look, Up in the Sky! documentary (directed by Kevin Burns, who previous credits include the fabulous Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy), the previously unseen opening to Superman Returns, and much, much more. In fact, the only thing that seems to be missing is the 1984 Supergirl movie, which isn't too much of a disappointment in all honesty.

While later efforts in the series are severely lacking, there's no disputing the fact that for fans of the Man of Steel, The Superman Motion Picture Anthology really is the ultimate box-set and, given the sheer wealth of Superman goodness that Warner Bros. have crammed across the eight discs, it could very well be the best box-set available on the Blu-ray format. Although the majority of the special features are already present in the Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD set, if you haven't made that purchase - or just want to upgrade your Superman movie series to HD - then The Motion Picture Anthology will make a fine addition to your collection.

Check back early next week when we'll be giving away a copy of The Superman Motion Picture Anthology on Blu-ray.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

The Superman Motion Picture Anthology is released on Monday, June 13th.

Second Opinion - X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class, 2011.



Directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Caleb Landry Jones, Álex González, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt and Ray Wise.





SYNOPSIS:



Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) work together to try and prevent nuclear war in the epic beginning to the X-Men saga.





Flickering Myth ran a poll earlier in the year about which summer superhero movie people were most looking forward to. The contenders were surprise hit Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America: The First Avenger and this X-Men prequel, steered by director of Kick-Ass Matthew Vaughan. For me X-Men: First Class was the most anticipated of the selection by a mile.



The trailers promised a truly epic reinvention of a stagnating franchise. Vaughan went for a completely new look cast of mutants, with the exception of one comic cameo. Amongst this cast the partnership of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender takes centre stage, with the enormous task of matching and exploring the rivalry portrayed by thespian heavyweights Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in the previous Bryan Singer films. For the most part, their youthful interpretations bring something different that really works.



The film starts off brilliantly with Fassbender’s Erik Lehnsherr and McAvoy’s Charles Xavier on separate paths. Xavier is a brilliant Oxford academic with a fondness for pubs and science heavy chat up lines, which seem rather redundant when he can read minds. Lehnsherr however is driven by revenge into stalking the globe in search of his enemy and his mother’s murderer, Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw.



We see both of our key protagonists as children. The film starts with the young Erik, played rather limply by Bill Milner, being threatened in a Nazi concentration camp, by a toying doctor who turns out to be Shaw, into manipulating metal by moving a coin. We see the young Charles, far more convincingly played by Laurence Belcher (who was also excellent in the Doctor Who Christmas special), finding a fellow mutant, shape shifter Raven, in his kitchen and taking her in as a sister.



Things really get interesting when Xavier has graduated as a Professor in genetics and the CIA come to call on him. He then demonstrates his mind reading telepath tricks in a variety of ways, until he is believed enough to get free rein to create a team of mutants to take on Shaw, who is engineering a nuclear war via the Cuban Missile crisis, which he hopes will leave only mutants as Earth’s dominant species. The best bit of First Class however, is Fassbender’s pursuit of his Nazi nemesis.



What really excited me, more than anything else, was the historical setting of this film. Fassbender has been championed as a future 007 in the past and there hasn’t been a review of X-Men: First Class that doesn’t praise the mini James Bond adventure within it. Adult Erik travels in stylish, suave period suits to banks in Switzerland to interrogate the keepers of Nazi gold for info, by painfully plucking out fillings with his powers, and to bars in Argentina in cool summer gear to kill hiding Nazis with flying knives and magnetically manipulated pistols. In all these locations Fassbender speaks the native tongue and oozes the steely determination of a complex and damaged killer. His quest is a snapshot of what a modern Bond set in the past, bilingual and faithful to Fleming’s creation, could be like.



Aside from the dreams of a reinvented Bond though, the Cold War setting is exciting and thought provoking for other reasons. The mutant situation mirrors the struggles at the time for civil rights for black Americans and other minorities, such as homosexuals (hinted at by the line “Mutant and Proud”). The whole film can make the most of the visual benefits of period costume, with fabulous suits and dresses, as well as period locations and set designs. The rooms on Shaw’s secret submarine resemble a villainous Ken Adam Bond set. And the ideological conflict between the US and Russia, echoes the differences in outlook between Xavier and Lehnsherr.



Despite rave reviews at first, respected critics have given X-Men: First Class an average rating. I think this is mostly because the film doesn’t live up to the enormous possibilities of its setting and doesn’t explore as well as it could the beginnings of the relationships in the X-Men. It is still a good film. For a blockbuster this is a slow burning watch, which I liked, but I admit that the action scenes could have been more frequent; even though a couple are terrific the film never really ignites. All in all Vaughan’s prequel is good but not as good as it could have been.



One of the reasons cited for disappointment is a lack of focus on the rest of the X-Men. It was a difficult balance to strike, with Xavier and Lehnsherr’s relationship proving so fascinating. I actually thought that characters like Beast and Raven were fleshed out more than I was expecting. A much criticised code name scene, in which the younger X-Men members sit around joking about what they’d like to be called, has been pummelled with criticism. I thought this scene was funny, as much of the film is, for not taking itself too seriously and entertaining for introducing the powers of the characters.



X-Men: First Class will divide audiences. Some will think it’s boring, others will love its action punctuated with character development and solid acting. Fans of X-Men will differ with some salivating over the explanations to Professor X’s wheelchair and Magneto’s helmet and others feeling letdown by the promise of so much more. Perhaps the most reliable fan base for this film is James Bond fans waiting for next year’s Bond 23. Fassbender’s literally magnetic and chilling performance is Bondian, as are the locations, the villains and babes on show like January Jones and Rose Byrne.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)



Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)

As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, 2001.

Directed by Hardy Martins.
Starring Bernhard Bettermann, Iris Böhm and Anatoliy Kotenyov.


SYNOPSIS:

A German soldier escapes a Siberian labour camp and must brave 8,000 miles of unforgiving terrain, freezing temperatures and constant danger to reunite with his wife and child.


Last year Peter Weir made his directorial return with The Way Back, a star studded and old fashioned tale about the possibly true and possibly grossly exaggerated escape of a group of Polish prisoners of war from a Siberian gulag. Its critical reception was mixed, with some praising the film’s ambition and visuals, whilst others bemoaned its fatal lack of emotional engagement. However a German film, As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, beat Weir’s epic to the broad concept by nine years.

Released in 2001 As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, now available on DVD, follows a German officer fleeing from imprisonment on Siberia’s easternmost shore. And for this reason its ethical foundations are considerably flimsier and more controversial than The Way Back’s.

This is saying something because The Way Back was based on a bestseller by Slavomir Rawicz, which since publication, has been disputed and branded a fake from a number of sources. And yet Weir’s film is unlikely to be attacked for historical bias of any kind. The story of Poles and Jews getting one over on their persecutors, be they German or Russian, is a common and acceptable one. Make your hero a German who has fought for a Nazi controlled state and buying into the character becomes far more complex.

Some might say that the way in which As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me is told twists and distorts historical fact. We see Bernhard Betterman’s Clemens Forell hug his wife and young daughter goodbye on the platform in 1944 Germany. Then we cut swiftly to Forell being sentenced to 25 years forced labour in Siberia. He is charged with war crimes but the implication is that Forell is being unfairly condemned by corrupt and vengeful Communists. Then there is a long and grim train journey across the cold expanse of Russia, with glimpses of the grim hardships to come. Finally, exhausted from malnutrition and a hike through the snow, they are thrust into life at a camp.

Throughout all of this we discover nothing about Forell’s war record and his potential sins and little too about his political sympathies. He is shown to be a compassionate and brave man though; in other words a typical hero. He treasures the picture of his family and uses it for galvanising motivation that replaces the sustenance of food and drink. It is never explicitly mentioned during the camp scenes and moments of inhumane, cruel punishment but the shadow hanging over the story the whole time is that of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. You can’t help but feel uneasy as your sympathies inevitably gather around Forell in his struggle.

Of course the debate about the moralities of the Second World War and the balance of its sins can hardly be squeezed into a film review. Indeed the sensible view is probably to admit that it’s an unsolvable problem; evil was committed on both sides on an unimaginable scale. Stalin’s Russia was carrying out atrocities throughout the 1930s, long before the worst of Hitler’s cruelties were inflicted and on a larger scale than the Holocaust. It’s impossible to reason with or categorize such statistics of death and horrific eyewitness anecdotes. But this is a film that unavoidably makes the viewer think about such issues and not necessarily in the best of ways.

I don’t object to a story from a German soldier’s perspective. In fact I find it refreshing and necessary to witness an often overlooked point of view. But As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me glosses over too much at times, so that it becomes ethically dubious, compromising and limiting your investment in the narrative. The filmmakers will probably argue they are simply telling the story from Forell’s viewpoint alone. I think this argument falls down because of the film’s other weaknesses in plausibility though.

As Forell slowly makes his way back, first through Siberian snow, then Siberian summers and on through other outposts of the USSR, in a muddled route elongated by the help and hindrance of kind (and not so kind) strangers, we are continually shown glimpses of his waiting family in Germany. These scenes are so unconvincing that they spark the questions about the rest of the film.

The lives of his family are completely unaffected by the war, with only two exceptions; one is his ever present absence and the other a throwaway remark by the son Forell has never met, which his mother labels “Yankee talk”. Presumably they have therefore encountered American occupiers in some way. Forell’s daughter is only ever shown getting upset or dreaming about her lost father. I’m not being callous but the girl was young when her father left and her reaction is so simplistic that it punctures the believability of the entire story. I’m not saying she wouldn’t be absolutely devastated by her father’s absence but she would perhaps have moved on in some way. The possibility of Forell’s wife finding another man is never raised and they never give him up for dead.

All of this, coupled with the chief of security from the Siberian camp pursuing Forell across Russia like an ultimate nemesis, transforms As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me into am unrealistic fairytale. Forell is helped by a Jew at one point but the issue is merely touched upon. The period elements of this film are so secondary that they become redundant, but then the film does not claim to be “inspired by true events”.

It’s possible to enjoy this film if you look at it as simply one man’s impossible journey back to his impossibly perfect family. At way over two hours long, As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me is hopelessly brutal at times but somehow snappy too. It’s an engaging enough example of traditional storytelling, despite my doubts, but the only truths to be found are symbolic and stereotypical.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

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Turning The Page: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Trevor Hogg reviews Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson...

Writing in a breezy and plain manner, Daniel H. Wilson, who obtained a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, has entered into the realm of science fiction thriller. If Wilson is able to channel his youthful and mischievous enthusiasm into more polished adult yarns he could become the next Michael Crichton. Oscar-winning moviemaker Steven Spielberg certainly believes in Wilson’s literary talent as he acquired the film rights to the latest effort from the Portland, Oregon based novelist before the book even had found a publisher.

Divided into five major sections, Robopocalypse chronicles the rise and fall of a malevolent artificial intelligence which highjacks everyday and military technology, such as smart cars, toys, domestic robots, and tanks, and converts them into lethal predators. The devastating World War III between men and machines is documented through a series of vignettes compiled via a transcript composed by human resistance fighter Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace; he combines his personal recollections with the material obtained from a black box once belonging to Archos, the robotic nemesis that has a genocidal mission to annihilate humanity in a way that makes Adolf Hitler seem like a schoolyard bully.

Focusing more on the human struggle to survive as opposed to the machines’ is the smart choice, as well as the incorporation of short chapters as the tale becomes more interesting and speeds along to its conclusion. “I intentionally included very little science fiction up front,” stated Daniel H. Wilson in the Doubleday press release. “That’s the scariest part of Robopocalypse – that it’s feasible. There are no glinting robot armies from outer space, just the ordinary technology of our lives turning on us, ripping apart our civilization, and then evolving into something that human beings never intended.”

Cinematically, I will enjoy seeing the eerie city street scene where all the cellphones in the surrounding area ring as a computer hacker is stalked by Archos. The one element I have a hard time getting my mind around is the Japanese storyline where an infatuated computer genius seeks to save his virus-infected robotic pleasure doll. The inclusion of the characters from the Osaga Nation is a nice touch as Native Americas too often serve as a forgotten footnote in American culture. For those who seek light entertainment with a futuristic twist Robopocalypse is a worthwhile read; and for their added enjoyment, Steven Spielberg will be working his movie magic to bring the world created by Daniel H. Wilson to the big screen in 2013.


Order Robopocalypse from Amazon and visit Daniel H. Wilson's website here.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

365 Days, 100 Films #25 - True Grit (2010)

True Grit, 2010.



Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.

Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper and Domhnall Gleeson.





SYNOPSIS:



A tough U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer.





If you’re really good at making films, the audience forgets they’re watching them. Reality dissolves into a dream-like state, only with more clarity and a musical score. You come to just as the credits start to roll. “That was pretty good,” slowly dawns on you as you wake.



Afterwards, you start to appreciate those bits that were so finely crafted that they made you forget the film wasn’t real. There are many of these in True Grit, but by far the most impressive, and poetic, is the script. It’s as bold as Hemmingway and flows just as good. The characters speak in some lost American dialect from the turn of the last century. In another’s hands it would come across forced and clunky. The Coens make it effortlessly naturalistic. An example;



LaBoeuf: You give out very little sugar with your pronouncements. While I sat there watchin' I gave some thought to stealin' a kiss... though you are very young, and sick... and unattractive to boot. But now I have a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.



Mattie Ross: One would be just as unpleasant as the other.



It’s as though the script were written out in modern tongue, only for every other word to be replaced by its much grander synonym.



True Grit is about Mattie Ross, a girl no older than fourteen, who seeks revenge on the man who murdered her father. To do so she employs Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), an old, U.S. marshal. They cross paths with a Texas Ranger by the name of LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) who seeks the same man. Cogburn is a drunk and a murderer. LeBoeuf is dull-witted. But in helping Ross they get to show they are both men of ‘true grit’. Not that fake stuff that’s flooded the market.



True Grit is a long way from the black and white morals of most classical Westerns, but it evokes the same misty-eyed steel that they projected - when people were good and decent and weren’t prone to self-indulged soul-searching like the protagonists of the present day. Though it takes the course of the film to show it, all three characters are built upon their principles. Stubbornly so.



It is Ross who eases out Cogburn and LeBoeuf’s true grit. She’s a remarkable gal. Her superego seems too large for her age, separating everything into either ‘good’/‘bad’, ‘lawful’/‘unlawful’ and ‘godly’/‘godless’. She goes about revenge in the language of bureaucracy and supports her sass with knowledge (often to the embarrassment of the adults with whom she talks). It’s what makes her pairing with Cogburn so parental, like she’s some chip off the ol’ block. There’s always the sense that she’s imitating the talk and actions of those much older than her. It’s kinda cute, if a little brash.



The film’s great strength, alongside and because of the script, is this sincerity. The score doesn’t have an ironic note in it. Being post-modern is the easy way out these days. The Coens don’t allow their characters to sit and agonise over personal pain – they internalise it and proceed with the tasks at hand. Psychoanalysis had yet to take off on those shores. Consequently, True Grit conducts itself in heroic charges against terrible odds. It’s easily the film of the year thus far.

Oli Davis



365 Days, 100 Films



Movie Review Archive

DVD Review - The Halfway House (1944)

The Halfway House, 1944.

Directed by Basil Dearden.
Starring Mervyn Johns, Glynis Johns and Sally Ann Howes.


SYNOPSIS:

A group of strangers take shelter at a remote Welsh Inn during a storm where they are soon brought together by a series of unsettling events.


If you are yet to enter the competition here at Flickering Myth to win a copy of Ealing Studios' production The Halfway House on Digital Versatile Disc, I do suggest that you hurry up and get a move on. This is a film worth seeing for three very good reasons. Pay attention ladies and gentlemen and I shall outline them for you.

Firstly The Halfway House is a fragment of history, a slice of our country’s past, and an especially engaging and vivid one too. For those of you enjoying the developments in three dimensional cinematic viewing or perhaps partial to the high definition of your colour television sets, it might be rather off putting that this is a film presented in mere black and white. I readily admit that I am not an avid viewer of black and white pictures myself.

I can assure you though that the lack of variation in colour is more than made up for by numerous other qualities. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it added to the charm of the film. In any case, this is top notch black and white, because The Halfway House has been digitally restored to a wonderful standard, so that it is, to all intents and purposes, as good as a modern day release.

This film was originally released in 1944 and judging by references to the date during the plot, filmed in 1943. It is therefore significantly influenced by the context of the ongoing Second World War in Europe. A number of the characters have lost friends, colleagues and relatives during the conflict. Others are affected in other ways.

The Halfway House is somewhat inaccurately and crudely labelled as a horror but in reality it is an interesting infusion of ghost story, fable and propaganda. The propaganda element is particularly fascinating and marks the film out as a genuine historical artefact. It is not overdone to affect the level of satisfaction for a modern audience, but certainly during the conclusion an Irishman’s change of allegiance from neutrality to supporting the Allies is noticeably underlined.

The second principal reason you should see The Halfway House is the impressive and rounded characterisation, forming part of a touching and timeless narrative. Whilst the historical background to the plot is crucial to setting it apart from modern releases, the quality and nature of the storytelling is also no longer replicated by studios today.

The first half of the film introduces a wide range of characters across Britain (showcasing unusual scope and variety of outdoor locations for Ealing Studios), each with their own problems, from terminal illness to divorce and criminality. The second half then brings all of these characters together at The Halfway House, a Welsh inn that may or may not have been destroyed by fire. The kindly and wise owners of the inn, who speak almost poetically at points, help the guests to help each other. Gradually they all gain perspective on their issues and worries by taking time out from the everyday grind. Such an intricately woven moral is still just as relevant today.

The Halfway House is superbly acted, even by modern day standards. It has a marvellous script that seems to transfer something from the original play by Denis Ogden. Primarily that something is dialogue which allows characters to breathe and grow convincingly, as they would on stage. Somehow The Halfway House is full of excellently fleshed out characters, despite the ensemble cast.

The third key reason for seeing The Halfway House is that it is tremendously amusing. Part of that humour arises inadvertently from the old fashioned and outdated formal register of the dialogue, which I have tried unsuccessfully to mirror regularly throughout this review. In certain situations the tone and accent of 1940s British speech, along with that persistent formality, is unavoidably hilarious.

However most of the comedic moments are intentional, with a mixture of fabulous and average one liners on show, alongside character humour enabled by their believability. One moment in the opening segment, in which we meet a dodgy dealing crook, is amusing due to role reversal; our criminal dismisses an employee for NOT having a criminal record and lying about it. This is also an example of one of many moments where the war has turned things upside down.

As if those three major reasons alone weren’t enough to at least have a go at the competition, there are also too many minor points of interest to mention. Director Basil Dearden has been underrated for years, only to be steadily recognised more and more recently as a groundbreaking filmmaker, with films like Victim starring Dirk Bogarde challenging taboos long before that was easy to get away with and just an arty saying. His direction here is simple for the most part, with the exception of one smartly edited action sequence which could fit into a modern film, but effective and professional. It’s remarkable enough they were making films as entertaining as this with the war raging on.

Good luck in the competition! But basically make sure you see The Halfway House when it’s released on the 20th of June. It’s an unseen and unappreciated classic of British cinema.

Liam Trim (follow me on Twitter)

Movie Review Archive

Movie Review - Super 8 (2011)

Super 8, 2011.



Written and Directed by J.J. Abrams.

Starring Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Noah Emmerich and Glynn Turman.





SYNOPSIS:



A group of kids making a film on their ‘Super 8’ camera witness a freight train crash that releases ‘something’, causing the military to shut down their town and setting a series of mysterious disappearances and weird occurrences in motion.





There are always going to be comparisons between the films that influenced Super 8 and the film itself. And its success is really going to be measured on that. Just prior to the release director J.J. Abrams, distributor Paramount, cinema Alamo Drafthouse and AintitCoolNews.com hosted an event screening the following films that were said to have heavily informed and influenced Super 8. They included: Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, The Thing, and Scanners. Now if you’re going to aim for a the kind of film that you want to make when you’re heading down the sci-fi road - aiming to harness the youthful exuberance and bravery of three Hollywood masters Spielberg, Carpenter and Cronenberg, working at the peak of their powers, is commendably ambitious. To come remotely close to affecting your viewers with an experience like watching The Thing or Close Encounters is quite simply – super.



The production design and cinematography aesthetically align themselves with iconic Hollywood films like The Goonies, E.T. and Poltergeist and from the moment the film begins I found myself slipping into an uncontrollable nostalgia. The summer, the bikes, the great detached naïve perspective of youth. Abrams creates an authentic portrait of small-town-working class America of a somewhat broken American family in the late 70s. Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and his father Jackson (Kyle Chandler) are in a traumatic state in the wake of an accident at the town steel mill that killed Mrs Lamb, mother and wife of the family. This trauma heightens the contrast between Jackson, one of the town deputy’s and Joe the young artist whose relationship is left in the void made by the death in the family. Joel Courtney’s performance as Joe is soulful and heartbreaking but terrifically sweet. His look infuses the baby face of Sean Astin in The Goonies and the great wisdom conveyed in the eyes of Henry Thomas as Elliot in E.T. Since the passing of his mother Joe carries her locket around and he turns to holding it as the only form of comfort in the varying extreme situations that he and the group face. Joel’s acting in the scene after the wreck was so affective that it nearly had me weeping. Kyle Chandler who plays Joe’s dad Jackson is probably best known for his role as Coach Eric Taylor in the great Friday Night Lights television series. Jackson’s tough exterior is immediately examined and given a fragile dimension by Abrams that distances him from the stoicism of his most famous role. I loved the father son dynamic here that’s without (the necessary) maternal figure – and that the two starkly different characters are having to deal with the warmth being out of their lives.



Abrams made all the right choices with casting - filling out the cast with a group of character actors most people will go "oh yeah he was in that movie with um... yeah I've seen him before in that TV show". And the adult characters, while being believable and authentic really take a back seat to a great little bunch of child actors. Normally the golden rule for a director is to NEVER work with animals or children. Abrams must be commended for extracting such deep and multi dimensional performances from the core group of kids. They are the focus of the films and they carry it. Cary (Ryan Lee) the firebug, Preston (Zach Mills), lead actor Martin (Gabriel Basso) and tyrannical amateur director Charles (Riley Griffiths) form an eclectic little group that represent the burgeoning generation of filmmakers influenced by the explosion of B-Grade monster centric films of the period that the film is set. They are all authentic and quirky and in contrast to their adventurous Goonies brethren; yearn to create an adventurous scenario on their friend’s ‘Super 8’ instead of participating in a grand adventure. Some of the best moments in the film for me were watching the kids filming. Watching Charles hilariously utilise his counterparts to realise his vision and use their ingenuity for ‘production value’ was a source of many laughs; I especially enjoyed the last minute rewrites for Martin. And when Charles needed a wife for Martin’s character so we can ‘care’ more about him we’re introduced to the wonderful Alice (Elle Fanning); whose moments acting in the film within Super 8 are the most stunning for Joe, the boys and the audience in alarmingly legitimizing something that is the source for most of the comedy in the film.



Now this great chemistry and authenticity of the characters provide a great foil for the films other dimension - a suspenseful alien/monster thriller. I really don’t want to say too much, as to not spoil the plot but the kids witness the crash of the freight train, what caused it, and that something escaped the wreckage – and have course to investigate. Now saying that, despite the great deal of secrecy that the filmmakers and distributor have been making to conceal the catalyst for the film’s mysterious event and strange goings on, I found that there wasn’t the traditional emphasis on incremental glimpses of the films alien/monster. I wouldn’t say that it is quite as overt as the stunning South Korean Host in terms of showing the monster right up front but I felt that we (the audience) had enough glimpses of the alien visitor that it quenched anyone usually gearing himself or herself for the big reveal.



Super 8 engages your sense memory. There are certain songs, smells of nature in the breeze, the taste of home cooking and films from your childhood that when you’re re-exposed to them – instantly transport you to that moment. I think that the biggest compliment I can give this film is that it elicits the same feelings I get when I watch E.T. Ricky Gervais was onto something when once described Abrams as the next Spielberg – and I think that a late seventies summer where kids are making zombie movies with their friends is indicative of a hat tipping to say thank you for your influence. This is a great Hollywood MOVIE. Go and see it to feel like a kid again, if you love sci-fi and want to see Spielberg’s successor working under the supervision of his mentor and affirming Mr Gervais’ claim.

Blake Howard is a writer/site director/podcaster at the castleco-op.com.



Movie Review Archive