Closing out Fantastic Fest is the latest from Terry Gilliam, another somewhat existential tale of the odd and bizarre. Qohen is a mathematician, tasked with calculating the meaning of existence, and yet his work is constantly interrupted by Management, who just can't seem to leave him alone. As with many films of this genre, I'm left more scratching my head than satisfied.
The Zero Theorem
2013, 107 minutes, directed by Terry Gilliam
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Blue Ruin
Revenge can be sweet. Revenge can be cold. Revenge can be tasty. In the case of Blue Ruin, revenge is senseless. Dwight is a ruined man, devastated by violence against his family, wasting away his life as a drifter. When the killer is released from prison, Dwight embarks on a homecoming of sorts for revenge. Things immediately go awry when he neglects to consider that even the killer, too, has a family...
This film exemplarizes the pointlessness of revenge. I appreciated it.
Blue Ruin
2013, 92 minutes, directed by Jeremy Saulnier
This film exemplarizes the pointlessness of revenge. I appreciated it.
Blue Ruin
2013, 92 minutes, directed by Jeremy Saulnier
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo)
A friend just walked out of a Mood Indigo screening, here in summer 2014, which led me to discover that my reviews for the last few days of Fantastic Fest 2013 were missing. I'm trying to piece together my reviews from memory.
The thing about Mood Indigo is that it is very pretty. The film starts in the happy, whimsical way typical of French film. Batchelor Colin is in love, life is good, and he lives in a magical house with a mouse and live in chef. The world is colorful and dancing as he woos Chlöe his future bride.
But a rare illness - a water lily growing in her lungs - strikes Chlöe on their honeymoon, and things begin to go awry. The great part of this film is how the cinematography adapts to the mood. The colorful is replaced with the grey, the animated world starts to decay, and darkness literally grows into their home and life. The sad part of the film is just how damned depressing it is to see things go so badly for this happy young couple. I think this film epitomizes French cinema - sentient mouse, claymation, live in chef, and horribly depressing ending of death and decay. No thanks.
L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo)
2013, 94 minutes, directed by Michel Gondry
The thing about Mood Indigo is that it is very pretty. The film starts in the happy, whimsical way typical of French film. Batchelor Colin is in love, life is good, and he lives in a magical house with a mouse and live in chef. The world is colorful and dancing as he woos Chlöe his future bride.
But a rare illness - a water lily growing in her lungs - strikes Chlöe on their honeymoon, and things begin to go awry. The great part of this film is how the cinematography adapts to the mood. The colorful is replaced with the grey, the animated world starts to decay, and darkness literally grows into their home and life. The sad part of the film is just how damned depressing it is to see things go so badly for this happy young couple. I think this film epitomizes French cinema - sentient mouse, claymation, live in chef, and horribly depressing ending of death and decay. No thanks.
L'écume des jours (Mood Indigo)
2013, 94 minutes, directed by Michel Gondry
Gatchaman
Like other late-FF-2013 films, I'm posting this almost a year later thanks to some lost notes and bad memory.
Suited superheros ninjas fight end-of-the-world monsters, their emotions, and regret over lost love in this over-the-top Japanese adventure film, based on a 1970s television show. Also, apparently when half the planet is in ruins, Japanese will still go shopping and to dinner parties.
I wanted a stupid action film, not a love-triangle dialog-driven drama. Sad.
Gatchaman
2013, 113 minutes, directed by Tôya Satô
Suited superheros ninjas fight end-of-the-world monsters, their emotions, and regret over lost love in this over-the-top Japanese adventure film, based on a 1970s television show. Also, apparently when half the planet is in ruins, Japanese will still go shopping and to dinner parties.
I wanted a stupid action film, not a love-triangle dialog-driven drama. Sad.
Gatchaman
2013, 113 minutes, directed by Tôya Satô
LFO
As with several other late-FF-2013 reviews, my original notes were lost and I'm writing this almost a year later. I keep a film blog to help me remember the movies I've seen, and unfortunately without my notes I struggle for details.
I seem to recall liking this film. Robert escapes life in his basement, experimenting with sound. When he finds a frequency that gives him complete control over those who hear it, hilarity ensues as he lives out his fantasies, until he realizes just how far he can go.
LFO
2013, 94 minutes, directed by Antonio Tublen
I seem to recall liking this film. Robert escapes life in his basement, experimenting with sound. When he finds a frequency that gives him complete control over those who hear it, hilarity ensues as he lives out his fantasies, until he realizes just how far he can go.
LFO
2013, 94 minutes, directed by Antonio Tublen
The Congress
Somehow my reviews of the last days of Fantastic Fest 2013 weren't saved here. I even recall going through my notes, determining they had all been posted, and consciously throwing them away. C'est la vie. This is from memory.
Anyway, The Congress started with a solid, sci-fi-worthy human dilemma. Faced with her own aging body and marketability as an actress, Robin Wright (as a fiction version of herself) is offered one last role of a "lifetime". She'll be digitally scanned - physically, mentally, emotionally - and "Robin Wright" the actress would officially become a separately-owned property from Robin Wright the person. It's a dilemma to decide if one's identity, one's external "worth", should be sold at any cost, and one I thought the film would take much of its run time to explore.
Instead, faced with a sick child, Robin makes the decision relatively quickly. Then the film devolves into an animated world, one where everyone takes pills to see the world as cartoon. Twenty years later, as "her" star power peaks, she's invited to The Congress, a New World gathering, as a celebrity of sorts. Not everyone desires such new world order, and the gathering devolves into anarchy and chaos. Robin escapes, but is hurt and in a coma.
Much later, she wakes, this time to a cartoon world entirely whimsical, where everyone is whoever they want to be. Her goal, though, is to find her son, and for that she must pierce the veil and see the world for the run-down ghettos it may actually be, and find a way to cycle around again.
As the film dove more and more into the surreal, it got harder and harder to follow. I can picture the director of the film trying to explain his vision to a studio for funding, and everyone in the room gets so confused that they decide it must be brilliant. I just thought it was confusing.
The Congress
2013, 122 minutes, directed by Ari Folman
Anyway, The Congress started with a solid, sci-fi-worthy human dilemma. Faced with her own aging body and marketability as an actress, Robin Wright (as a fiction version of herself) is offered one last role of a "lifetime". She'll be digitally scanned - physically, mentally, emotionally - and "Robin Wright" the actress would officially become a separately-owned property from Robin Wright the person. It's a dilemma to decide if one's identity, one's external "worth", should be sold at any cost, and one I thought the film would take much of its run time to explore.
Instead, faced with a sick child, Robin makes the decision relatively quickly. Then the film devolves into an animated world, one where everyone takes pills to see the world as cartoon. Twenty years later, as "her" star power peaks, she's invited to The Congress, a New World gathering, as a celebrity of sorts. Not everyone desires such new world order, and the gathering devolves into anarchy and chaos. Robin escapes, but is hurt and in a coma.
Much later, she wakes, this time to a cartoon world entirely whimsical, where everyone is whoever they want to be. Her goal, though, is to find her son, and for that she must pierce the veil and see the world for the run-down ghettos it may actually be, and find a way to cycle around again.
As the film dove more and more into the surreal, it got harder and harder to follow. I can picture the director of the film trying to explain his vision to a studio for funding, and everyone in the room gets so confused that they decide it must be brilliant. I just thought it was confusing.
The Congress
2013, 122 minutes, directed by Ari Folman
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
An American martial arts master / idiot gives his wallet to muggers, then beats them up anyway, neglecting to get his wallet back, leaving his address with them. Then he doesn't think they're a big deal, not bothering to call the cops, and doesn't take care when leaving his pregnant wife home alone. When she's murdered, he starts with the muggers and advances through a increasing sequence of murderous revenge to hunt down those responsible.
Introducing the film, the director noted that "this movie is not original and not unique. It's a ninja movie." Indeed, the action scenes are excellent; there are no wires and no CGI, just raw emotion; as the director says, "All logic goes away." Unfortunately it also reflects on the stupidity of the lead character, something I just can't shake.
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
2013, 95 minutes, directed by Isaac Florentine
Introducing the film, the director noted that "this movie is not original and not unique. It's a ninja movie." Indeed, the action scenes are excellent; there are no wires and no CGI, just raw emotion; as the director says, "All logic goes away." Unfortunately it also reflects on the stupidity of the lead character, something I just can't shake.
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
2013, 95 minutes, directed by Isaac Florentine
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