Movie Reviews (Theatrical Release)

 

CH=Chris Hill

BW= Ben Wheatley

CH: How are you doing?

BW: I am doing good man, how are you doing?

CH: Good thanks for asking, Thanks for taking time to speak with me. I watched Kill list last night for the second time, I was really hoping you could shed some light  on some of the film for me, first off how did you come up with the story and the concept?

BW: It had been something we had been thinking of developing, we’ve been thinking about a couple of other movies that didn’t come off. It had come about from kind of a weird place. The film has come through from ideas about casting first, rather than actual plot, With Neil Maskell and MyAnna, and I wanted to work with Michael Smiley. I wanted to see how those guys fit together and what kind of shape that would make. I developed a film that was going to be with Neil, it was kind of  a fish out of water thing, it was going to be a criminal who has gone to a foreign country to rescue his friend who has gone missing on a camping holiday or something. It was going to be where a bad person gets involved with worse people. Kind of an H.P. Lovecraft style of thing, And a lot of elements from that got turned into Kill List. Like the hand being slashed and got infected that kind of stuff. And then for some reason or another it didn’t happen. And then we were developing a short film where Neil and MyAnna played a couple called “NO” which is about a hidden recession. They both work and then get laid off, they got all this debt and they don’t know what to do and they can’t get another job so they turn to crime, again that didn’t happen. And then I worked with Michael Smiley on “Down Terrace” and I really wanted to work with him again. And I thought it would be interesting to team him up with Neil. And then out of that all those elements swirling together was kind of how Kill List came from that.

 

CH: It said on the credits that additional dialogue by the cast. How much was improvised and how much was written out in the script.

 

BW: The additional dialogue credit is slightly misleading. What it means is that, a lot of the time we used paraphrasing. So we take the script and instead of improvising they will put it in their own words. what we tend to do is do a take that is exactly as the script, then do a take that is paraphrased and then a take back on the script again and you get this, It’s kind of good, it makes each take different from the next one.  And it helps keeping it alive so the actor’s don’t settle in. So it doesn’t become slightly repetitive or wrote. we did kind of start the scene a minute or two before the dialogue so they would have to build up into the dialogue and then the actual scripted dialogue would happen, then I wouldn’t call cut until a minute or so after that to see if they had anything else to add to the sequences. And then we did other stuff. The dinner party scene was a real dinner party with the food being served and then it ran for the full 50 minutes of the dinner party and we shot it documentary and then we picked the bits out that we liked. There a lot of different strategies to keep the film as alive as possible.

 

 

CH: In the beginning there is an extensive amount of arguing that is not typical of a standard film, typically they shy away from having the protagonist not really get along with his wife, it was a bold move there.

 

BW: I don’t know if you see Cassavetes films they don’t usually shy away from that. They usually start with a load of shouting. For my life, my only experience is that arguing isn’t as unhealthy as might be seen in movies. Movies existed where it rarified moralistic worlds. Good or bad are pretty binary. If people are having arguments they usually split up, but that’s not what life is like people argue all the time. Relationships are a negotiation the whole time I think, they are not completely on the level. in a way what we wanted to make sure was that the film was populated with living breathing contradictory people and you don’t get that when you use that kind of slightly anodyne mainstream view of what  human relationships are like. Smooth arcs of characters are nothing what life is like.

 

CH: In the movie there are multiple points that could be described as ambiguous, whether it’s the carving on the back of the picture, the issue with the priest smiling, the librarian thanking. Were those specifically meant to be ambiguous to create conversation or was there something I should have picked up that would have made them more..

 

BW: I don’t know? Why were they smiling? That’s the thing. There is probably a pretty reasonable reason behind that, I know there is, when I think about it. It’s not ambiguous, in a way it’s kind of, there is an answer to it. No one character says, you don’t get a scene where Jay goes “why the hell are they smiling” and gal says “I think they were smiling for this that the other” and its spelled out. But as you have that conversation and you watch on the screen you are coming up with an idea as to why. And I feel when I read online and the various theories as to what they are coming up with they tend to be pretty much on the money, Which makes me feel the readings that people are getting from this movie are pretty universal and therefore not quite ambiguous. I think for me a lot of the stuff is straightforward. All the information is there, what’s missing is just a summary at the end, no one would thank me for putting a summary at the end.

 

CH: One of the things I liked was. A lot of times you see movies that connect all the dots for you. It’s just pure escapism and once it’s done you don’t think about the movie at all, While with Kill List that is not the case, when you’re done, your thinking back onto it.

 

CH: I heard there are a lot of comparisons to the Wicker Man, does that bother you?

 

BW: No, what can you do, there are some things that are undeniable such as setting a trap. The protagonist is in a trap which he doesn’t know about which is Wicker Man-ish, I would be childish to deny that. But equally I like to think of like the Manchurian Candidate which is probably more on the money. Both are about assassination and large organizations controlling people. It’s an easy association like there are cults in one so it’s like the other. There not totally off beam. It makes a nice hash tag. WTF #Wickerman, #Bullshit. But it doesn’t really matter.

 

CH: In the beginning when they are playing with the foam swords was that intended to be a bit of foreshadowing to the end?

 

BW: What, that I coincidentally shot it.

 

CH: No I meant, how you said that you continue to film without cutting. I didn’t know if they were just having a bit of play.

 

BW: No, Its intentional, it’s inevitable. Its what’s going to happen to this guy. He is a fly in a web. Since the beginning he’s got no chance. It’s also got to do with the structure of the film. On the surface it’s structured with kind of 3 acts. The dinner party act, the hits, and the final confrontation with the cults act.  Equally the film is structure symmetrically where you can fold the film in half and see that the scenes cross over. So the hunchback kill matches the beginning and end. Finding and killing of rabbits is in there, jay and gal rolling on the floor fighting is in there. On one reading of the movie I think of as a curse and it starts with the mark with the beginning of the film and ends with the mark at the end and everything in between is a curse on the audience.

 

CH: When coming up with the concept it sounds like you had bits and pieces from different projects, how does that come about in terms of being able to take different aspects of different films where it can come together to become a circular film.

 

BW: I think you can’t help but think of things and thematic ideas all the time, trying to get in your own head how to work out feelings that are going on in your life. In one project I might tackle it one way and in another project tackle it another. A lot of themes in Kill List are in “Down Terrace” as well. The Karl character is not dissimilar to the Jay character. There are strong women in charge of the organization. You can’t help that, having themes in your work, working through your concerns in different ways. when you have a couple of projects that get smashed up they are all the same building blocks your just building a different model with the same pieces.

 

CH: Did you have any idea that it would be such a polarizing film. The response I have seen is people either love it or they really, really don’t.

 

BW: I was happy that people liked it. People that don’t, nothing I can do about that. I sympathize with them. It’s one of those things. I often don’t like lots of stuff. I just don’t find myself twittering about it to be fair, But maybe that’s just me. You won’t be finding me calling people idiots on line in print forever. That’s the modern world though isn’t it?

If you make stuff that specifically doesn’t run the risk of upsetting loads of people, you become more and more restricted in the way you can work. Some has to do with money. If you have taken a 100 million off someone you better get it back. and you’re not necessarily going to get it back off the five friends that have the same taste as you in films. So therefore you might have to be a bit broader in how you make your movies. But if you’re making something like “Kill List” which doesn’t cost that much money, you can afford to be a little more true to your own voice.

 

CH: I appreciated that you went for it and you didn’t create a vanilla film. I like a movie that I am going to think about afterwards and have repeat viewings. And have an opinion. There is nothing worse than a movie that doesn’t strike a nerve.

 

BW: Yeah, Yeah, don’t get me wrong I am a big fan of Rambo 4 there is no ambiguity in that, that’s for sure but equally I am a fan of Tarkovskiy’s stalker so Different strokes for different folks.

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Kill List

Starring: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, and Michael Smiley

Director: Ben Wheatley

Rated: R

 

A year after a botched job in Kiev a hit man takes a new assignment for a quick pay day to get his family back above water. Soon he realizes he is in for far more than he signed up  for.

Kill List is the sophomore film from writer/director Ben Wheatley. Although Wheatley delivers a film with a trim running time of 95 minutes, Kill List is far from a cohesive and straightforward film. Opening up we meet Jay (Neil Maskell) and Shel ( MyAnna Buring) two former veterans who are now married with a young son, Jay had a job in Kiev that went really bad, (thought No details are ever given as to what actually took place) Now unemployed, Jay’s hot tub isn’t working and his financial problems are the result of his phantom “Bad Back” which a working Hot tub would hopefully help, soon the tension between Jay and Shel reaches explosive heights during a dinner party. Jay soon teams up with an old military buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) to complete a series of hits, (At this point the film starts to become enjoyable and hits its stride) with each successive hit completed, Jay starts to lose it a little more and raises the violence factor. The chemistry between Jay and Gal is solid and provides some amusing dialogue. When the hits are completed the film takes a huge swerve into what most are referring to as Wicker Man territory

The third act is where people are either going to love or hate the film, the tone shifts and while Wheatley tries to craft a film that will stir controversy and dialogue amongst viewers. In hindsight, he created a lot of red herrings strictly to create dialogue without any real purpose or explanation. He was so concerned with trying to craft a movie that will get people talking, that he failed to concern himself with what they would be talking about.  I don’t need every loose end tide up but to leave every possible motive up to the viewers imagination is sloppy at best.

Anyone, that hasn’t seen the highly entertaining and yet completely and utterly disturbing “A Serbian Film
(easily the most messed up movie ever made) might find the ending a bit on the shocking side. For those that have, you will think Wheatley gave it a nice try, but still has a thing or two to learn about what shocking truly is.

Grade-81

Update:  I think I had unrealistic expectations on the “shocking ending” due to word of mouth so I decided to give it another go. After a second viewing and expectations in check, I quite enjoyed it. The scene where Jay goes to work on the librarian with the business end of a hammer was awesome.

Updated Grade – 86

Enhanced by Zemanta

Adventures in Plymptoons!

Starring: Bill Plympton, Terry Gilliam, Ed Begley Jr., Mathew Modine

Director: Alexia Anastasio

An intimate look into the life of maverick animator Bill Plympton. Bill as well as friends both famous and not so famous, recount tales of Bill from his early days growing up as a loner in Oregon to running his own animation studio in New York. Interspersed between tales of Bill are clips of his unique work. Bill Plympton is many things being a magnificent artist is just part of it. Few people possess the principles of Plympton, He famously turned down a job with Disney (the mouse house is easily the most coveted job in animation) because he didn’t want to give up the rights to his work. While a majority of animation is geared towards children, Plympton sets his sights on a different audience. He has made films with sexual content as well as some of the greatest clips to feature his own unique take on violence. While some films are adult in nature they are more cerebral than exploitative. You can judge a man by the company he keeps and when one of the people to speak your praises is Terry Gilliam you know you’re dealing with someone who has a unique vision. In an era where people will sell themselves out to make a buck, it takes a man like Plympton to buck the system and do things his own way. Plympton is a legend and rightfully so he is an original voice in a sea of sameness. Adventures in Plymptoons is a must see look into the life of one of the world’s greatest artists.

Grade – 94

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Underworld: Awakening

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Early, Theo James, India Eisley

Director: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein

Rated: R

 

12 years after the events in the original Underworld, Selene is thawed out and soon realizes that humans have eradicated both the lycans and vampires, with the remaining few forced into hiding. With Selene’s(Kate Beckinsale) hybrid Lycan/Vampire daughter Eve (India Eisley) coming of age the Lycans have found a way to harvest her DNA utilizing it to make them stronger and realize there dream of being the primary species, If they can stop Selene from saving Eve.

Awakenings is high on action while being low on plot, it is streamlined more than Beckinsales deliciously skin tight leather suit. AU doesn’t bring anything new to the genre nor does it attempt to, what it does do is tighten it up. Getting rid of anything that isn’t moving the film forward, commonly referred to as a lack of plot, If you see a movie like this for plot I would explain to you the error of your ways but you are clearly not bright enough to understand. You get everything you want and no extra filler. Beckinsale might be a decade older and a mother but she still looks great as the Death Dealer, employing Solid wire work to go along with a healthy dose of action and violence. I am still not a fan of the Underworld Lycans, the use of CGI in the transformation scenes still pale in comparison to Rick Bakers ground breaking effects in an American Werewolf in London. The change process happens so quickly and without discomfort that changing from human to werewolf is more in line with a “Transformers” transformation than that of a traditional werewolf, your body is stretching and tearing, joints shifting, Skeletal structure shifting, this change shouldn’t be the equivalent of putting on your werewolf shirt, It should be a bit more painful and time consuming. On the plus side Awakenings has a running time of under an hour and a half, it’s the film equivalent of not overstaying your welcome. By the time you would tell underworld it’s time to call it a night and go home, the films been over for a half hour. The only down side to this all action concept is the film feels too much like a setup for the next one rather than a standalone film.

Grade – 79

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta



Sundance 2012 official Selction, Matt Lenski brings the world This 4 minute documentary on Mike Sullivan, This film is brilliant it has humor, some shock value and a little bit of tragedy.

And yes Mike Sullivan really is creating a stop motion Robot Porn, if he can find the room.

- It is four minutes of brilliance

 

On Monday 23 January the Guardian is exclusively screening the new short film from award winning screenwriter and director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) called The Wholly Family.

Terry Gilliam said: “I’m keen to experiment distributing films online as the current method is crumbling. I’m excited by what the Guardian is doing online and this seemed like a great opportunity for this film to reach a huge number of people.”

The Wholly Family is a dreamlike journey between reality and imagination. The story is about a dysfunctional family’s holiday in Naples, Italy and the surreal visions their son experiences when he steals a Pulcinella from a street market stall.

The film plays with the symbolism and the imagery associated with traditional Neapolitan culture as well as playing on the love, tension and powerful emotions that are only felt in a family relationship.

Stephen Folwell, Business Director, Multimedia and Brand Extensions, said: “We are delighted to be one of the first to show Terry Gilliam’s new film, The Wholly Family.

“We’re extremely excited about bringing a great film like this to our audience. Over the last year we have been expanding the range and depth of our film and other arts content. In November we showed the Three Colours Trilogy, which was supported by a range of articles, reviews, videos and live blogs to engage the reader before, after and even during the film. We’re creating unique, valuable, experiences and will continue to do more in 2012, a great year of culture”

All can watch the film by logging on to guardian.co.uk from 7pm on Monday 23 January. The screening costs £1.99 and will be available to watch for two weeks. On the 23 January viewers will also see a live-streamed interview with the director, plus the chance to ask questions in a live Q&A.

To read more about Terry Gilliam and The Wholly Family visit: guardian.co.uk/thewhollyfamily or join in the conversation on Twitter by hashtagging tweets with #gdnwhollyfamily

www.terrygilliamweb.com

I had a chance to view the short and it is packed with everything that I love about Gilliam’s work, his unique visual style is unprecedented, he is one of the few directors that has such a unique look and style that regardless of the subject I am keen to view.

The Wholly Family’s utilization of Pulcinella’s is a visual stroke that is pure Gilliam. Exquisitely utilized to reign in an awfully behaved child. I just wish the figurine was real and I could hand these out to ill equipped parents all day.

Grade- 90

Enhanced by Zemanta

The Nocturnal Third
Starring: Kevin Maggard, Luke Weaver, Wescott Youngson, Rachel Brady
Director: Benjamin Stark

Eli Gottfried just started a new job helping out at a stone factory, suffering from nightmares and not able to sleep, perpetually tired Eli has to pick up the third shift to pay his bills. What should be a routine shift takes a drastic turn when Jeffrey shows up.

Poor Eli just wants to draw, He is tired and after failing to get an advance on his check to pay his bills, he is forced to work the night shift for double pay. Soon things go wrong with an injured employee, Machines break down and a mysterious stranger who ran out of gas shows up out of nowhere. Eli finds himself in a bind not knowing if he should take the injured employee to the hospital or how he can help the profusely sweating and bleeding employee without putting everyone’s  job in jeopardy. Getting an earful from the mysterious salesman Jeffrey isn’t helping anything and to top it off every time Eli falls asleep he has nightmares.

First time Writer/Director Benjamin Starks delivers a solid showing. The first thing to note is with a modest budget Starks is able to deliver a film that has the look of a much larger budgeted film, aside from the look of the film, Starks makes a strong choice in settings for a small film, The utilization of the Stone works factory immediately sets the tone. The involvement of heavy machinery leads one to immediately be cautious and delivers an imminent sense of danger. The setting almost becomes a fourth character.

Five minutes into the film your going to want to smack Eli for his lack of backbone particularly when Jeffrey shows up. If some strange guy showed up and started giving me life advice while I tried to work, I would boot his ass out to his truck without hesitation. For all of Eli’s concern regarding getting machines fixed and getting things on schedule he lets Jeffrey abuse his time, negating any benefit Eli provided by being there.
In a perfect world Eli grows some balls and Jeffrey would end up getting the business end of some heavy machinery

Grade – 80

 

CH=Chris Hill

BW= Ben Wheatley

CH: How are you doing?

BW: I am doing good man, how are you doing?

CH: Good thanks for asking, Thanks for taking time to speak with me. I watched Kill list last night for the second time, I was really hoping you could shed some light  on some of the film for me, first off how did you come up with the story and the concept?

BW: It had been something we had been thinking of developing, we’ve been thinking about a couple of other movies that didn’t come off. It had come about from kind of a weird place. The film has come through from ideas about casting first, rather than actual plot, With Neil Maskell and MyAnna, and I wanted to work with Michael Smiley. I wanted to see how those guys fit together and what kind of shape that would make. I developed a film that was going to be with Neil, it was kind of  a fish out of water thing, it was going to be a criminal who has gone to a foreign country to rescue his friend who has gone missing on a camping holiday or something. It was going to be where a bad person gets involved with worse people. Kind of an H.P. Lovecraft style of thing, And a lot of elements from that got turned into Kill List. Like the hand being slashed and got infected that kind of stuff. And then for some reason or another it didn’t happen. And then we were developing a short film where Neil and MyAnna played a couple called “NO” which is about a hidden recession. They both work and then get laid off, they got all this debt and they don’t know what to do and they can’t get another job so they turn to crime, again that didn’t happen. And then I worked with Michael Smiley on “Down Terrace” and I really wanted to work with him again. And I thought it would be interesting to team him up with Neil. And then out of that all those elements swirling together was kind of how Kill List came from that.

 

CH: It said on the credits that additional dialogue by the cast. How much was improvised and how much was written out in the script.

 

BW: The additional dialogue credit is slightly misleading. What it means is that, a lot of the time we used paraphrasing. So we take the script and instead of improvising they will put it in their own words. what we tend to do is do a take that is exactly as the script, then do a take that is paraphrased and then a take back on the script again and you get this, It’s kind of good, it makes each take different from the next one.  And it helps keeping it alive so the actor’s don’t settle in. So it doesn’t become slightly repetitive or wrote. we did kind of start the scene a minute or two before the dialogue so they would have to build up into the dialogue and then the actual scripted dialogue would happen, then I wouldn’t call cut until a minute or so after that to see if they had anything else to add to the sequences. And then we did other stuff. The dinner party scene was a real dinner party with the food being served and then it ran for the full 50 minutes of the dinner party and we shot it documentary and then we picked the bits out that we liked. There a lot of different strategies to keep the film as alive as possible.

 

 

CH: In the beginning there is an extensive amount of arguing that is not typical of a standard film, typically they shy away from having the protagonist not really get along with his wife, it was a bold move there.

 

BW: I don’t know if you see Cassavetes films they don’t usually shy away from that. They usually start with a load of shouting. For my life, my only experience is that arguing isn’t as unhealthy as might be seen in movies. Movies existed where it rarified moralistic worlds. Good or bad are pretty binary. If people are having arguments they usually split up, but that’s not what life is like people argue all the time. Relationships are a negotiation the whole time I think, they are not completely on the level. in a way what we wanted to make sure was that the film was populated with living breathing contradictory people and you don’t get that when you use that kind of slightly anodyne mainstream view of what  human relationships are like. Smooth arcs of characters are nothing what life is like.

 

CH: In the movie there are multiple points that could be described as ambiguous, whether it’s the carving on the back of the picture, the issue with the priest smiling, the librarian thanking. Were those specifically meant to be ambiguous to create conversation or was there something I should have picked up that would have made them more..

 

BW: I don’t know? Why were they smiling? That’s the thing. There is probably a pretty reasonable reason behind that, I know there is, when I think about it. It’s not ambiguous, in a way it’s kind of, there is an answer to it. No one character says, you don’t get a scene where Jay goes “why the hell are they smiling” and gal says “I think they were smiling for this that the other” and its spelled out. But as you have that conversation and you watch on the screen you are coming up with an idea as to why. And I feel when I read online and the various theories as to what they are coming up with they tend to be pretty much on the money, Which makes me feel the readings that people are getting from this movie are pretty universal and therefore not quite ambiguous. I think for me a lot of the stuff is straightforward. All the information is there, what’s missing is just a summary at the end, no one would thank me for putting a summary at the end.

 

CH: One of the things I liked was. A lot of times you see movies that connect all the dots for you. It’s just pure escapism and once it’s done you don’t think about the movie at all, While with Kill List that is not the case, when you’re done, your thinking back onto it.

 

CH: I heard there are a lot of comparisons to the Wicker Man, does that bother you?

 

BW: No, what can you do, there are some things that are undeniable such as setting a trap. The protagonist is in a trap which he doesn’t know about which is Wicker Man-ish, I would be childish to deny that. But equally I like to think of like the Manchurian Candidate which is probably more on the money. Both are about assassination and large organizations controlling people. It’s an easy association like there are cults in one so it’s like the other. There not totally off beam. It makes a nice hash tag. WTF #Wickerman, #Bullshit. But it doesn’t really matter.

 

CH: In the beginning when they are playing with the foam swords was that intended to be a bit of foreshadowing to the end?

 

BW: What, that I coincidentally shot it.

 

CH: No I meant, how you said that you continue to film without cutting. I didn’t know if they were just having a bit of play.

 

BW: No, Its intentional, it’s inevitable. Its what’s going to happen to this guy. He is a fly in a web. Since the beginning he’s got no chance. It’s also got to do with the structure of the film. On the surface it’s structured with kind of 3 acts. The dinner party act, the hits, and the final confrontation with the cults act.  Equally the film is structure symmetrically where you can fold the film in half and see that the scenes cross over. So the hunchback kill matches the beginning and end. Finding and killing of rabbits is in there, jay and gal rolling on the floor fighting is in there. On one reading of the movie I think of as a curse and it starts with the mark with the beginning of the film and ends with the mark at the end and everything in between is a curse on the audience.

 

CH: When coming up with the concept it sounds like you had bits and pieces from different projects, how does that come about in terms of being able to take different aspects of different films where it can come together to become a circular film.

 

BW: I think you can’t help but think of things and thematic ideas all the time, trying to get in your own head how to work out feelings that are going on in your life. In one project I might tackle it one way and in another project tackle it another. A lot of themes in Kill List are in “Down Terrace” as well. The Karl character is not dissimilar to the Jay character. There are strong women in charge of the organization. You can’t help that, having themes in your work, working through your concerns in different ways. when you have a couple of projects that get smashed up they are all the same building blocks your just building a different model with the same pieces.

 

CH: Did you have any idea that it would be such a polarizing film. The response I have seen is people either love it or they really, really don’t.

 

BW: I was happy that people liked it. People that don’t, nothing I can do about that. I sympathize with them. It’s one of those things. I often don’t like lots of stuff. I just don’t find myself twittering about it to be fair, But maybe that’s just me. You won’t be finding me calling people idiots on line in print forever. That’s the modern world though isn’t it?

If you make stuff that specifically doesn’t run the risk of upsetting loads of people, you become more and more restricted in the way you can work. Some has to do with money. If you have taken a 100 million off someone you better get it back. and you’re not necessarily going to get it back off the five friends that have the same taste as you in films. So therefore you might have to be a bit broader in how you make your movies. But if you’re making something like “Kill List” which doesn’t cost that much money, you can afford to be a little more true to your own voice.

 

CH: I appreciated that you went for it and you didn’t create a vanilla film. I like a movie that I am going to think about afterwards and have repeat viewings. And have an opinion. There is nothing worse than a movie that doesn’t strike a nerve.

 

BW: Yeah, Yeah, don’t get me wrong I am a big fan of Rambo 4 there is no ambiguity in that, that’s for sure but equally I am a fan of Tarkovskiy’s stalker so Different strokes for different folks.

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Kill List

Starring: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, and Michael Smiley

Director: Ben Wheatley

Rated: R

 

A year after a botched job in Kiev a hit man takes a new assignment for a quick pay day to get his family back above water. Soon he realizes he is in for far more than he signed up  for.

Kill List is the sophomore film from writer/director Ben Wheatley. Although Wheatley delivers a film with a trim running time of 95 minutes, Kill List is far from a cohesive and straightforward film. Opening up we meet Jay (Neil Maskell) and Shel ( MyAnna Buring) two former veterans who are now married with a young son, Jay had a job in Kiev that went really bad, (thought No details are ever given as to what actually took place) Now unemployed, Jay’s hot tub isn’t working and his financial problems are the result of his phantom “Bad Back” which a working Hot tub would hopefully help, soon the tension between Jay and Shel reaches explosive heights during a dinner party. Jay soon teams up with an old military buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) to complete a series of hits, (At this point the film starts to become enjoyable and hits its stride) with each successive hit completed, Jay starts to lose it a little more and raises the violence factor. The chemistry between Jay and Gal is solid and provides some amusing dialogue. When the hits are completed the film takes a huge swerve into what most are referring to as Wicker Man territory

The third act is where people are either going to love or hate the film, the tone shifts and while Wheatley tries to craft a film that will stir controversy and dialogue amongst viewers. In hindsight, he created a lot of red herrings strictly to create dialogue without any real purpose or explanation. He was so concerned with trying to craft a movie that will get people talking, that he failed to concern himself with what they would be talking about.  I don’t need every loose end tide up but to leave every possible motive up to the viewers imagination is sloppy at best.

Anyone, that hasn’t seen the highly entertaining and yet completely and utterly disturbing “A Serbian Film
(easily the most messed up movie ever made) might find the ending a bit on the shocking side. For those that have, you will think Wheatley gave it a nice try, but still has a thing or two to learn about what shocking truly is.

Grade-81

Update:  I think I had unrealistic expectations on the “shocking ending” due to word of mouth so I decided to give it another go. After a second viewing and expectations in check, I quite enjoyed it. The scene where Jay goes to work on the librarian with the business end of a hammer was awesome.

Updated Grade – 86

Enhanced by Zemanta

Adventures in Plymptoons!

Starring: Bill Plympton, Terry Gilliam, Ed Begley Jr., Mathew Modine

Director: Alexia Anastasio

An intimate look into the life of maverick animator Bill Plympton. Bill as well as friends both famous and not so famous, recount tales of Bill from his early days growing up as a loner in Oregon to running his own animation studio in New York. Interspersed between tales of Bill are clips of his unique work. Bill Plympton is many things being a magnificent artist is just part of it. Few people possess the principles of Plympton, He famously turned down a job with Disney (the mouse house is easily the most coveted job in animation) because he didn’t want to give up the rights to his work. While a majority of animation is geared towards children, Plympton sets his sights on a different audience. He has made films with sexual content as well as some of the greatest clips to feature his own unique take on violence. While some films are adult in nature they are more cerebral than exploitative. You can judge a man by the company he keeps and when one of the people to speak your praises is Terry Gilliam you know you’re dealing with someone who has a unique vision. In an era where people will sell themselves out to make a buck, it takes a man like Plympton to buck the system and do things his own way. Plympton is a legend and rightfully so he is an original voice in a sea of sameness. Adventures in Plymptoons is a must see look into the life of one of the world’s greatest artists.

Grade – 94

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Underworld: Awakening

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Early, Theo James, India Eisley

Director: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein

Rated: R

 

12 years after the events in the original Underworld, Selene is thawed out and soon realizes that humans have eradicated both the lycans and vampires, with the remaining few forced into hiding. With Selene’s(Kate Beckinsale) hybrid Lycan/Vampire daughter Eve (India Eisley) coming of age the Lycans have found a way to harvest her DNA utilizing it to make them stronger and realize there dream of being the primary species, If they can stop Selene from saving Eve.

Awakenings is high on action while being low on plot, it is streamlined more than Beckinsales deliciously skin tight leather suit. AU doesn’t bring anything new to the genre nor does it attempt to, what it does do is tighten it up. Getting rid of anything that isn’t moving the film forward, commonly referred to as a lack of plot, If you see a movie like this for plot I would explain to you the error of your ways but you are clearly not bright enough to understand. You get everything you want and no extra filler. Beckinsale might be a decade older and a mother but she still looks great as the Death Dealer, employing Solid wire work to go along with a healthy dose of action and violence. I am still not a fan of the Underworld Lycans, the use of CGI in the transformation scenes still pale in comparison to Rick Bakers ground breaking effects in an American Werewolf in London. The change process happens so quickly and without discomfort that changing from human to werewolf is more in line with a “Transformers” transformation than that of a traditional werewolf, your body is stretching and tearing, joints shifting, Skeletal structure shifting, this change shouldn’t be the equivalent of putting on your werewolf shirt, It should be a bit more painful and time consuming. On the plus side Awakenings has a running time of under an hour and a half, it’s the film equivalent of not overstaying your welcome. By the time you would tell underworld it’s time to call it a night and go home, the films been over for a half hour. The only down side to this all action concept is the film feels too much like a setup for the next one rather than a standalone film.

Grade – 79

 

 

 

Enhanced by Zemanta



Sundance 2012 official Selction, Matt Lenski brings the world This 4 minute documentary on Mike Sullivan, This film is brilliant it has humor, some shock value and a little bit of tragedy.

And yes Mike Sullivan really is creating a stop motion Robot Porn, if he can find the room.

- It is four minutes of brilliance

 

On Monday 23 January the Guardian is exclusively screening the new short film from award winning screenwriter and director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) called The Wholly Family.

Terry Gilliam said: “I’m keen to experiment distributing films online as the current method is crumbling. I’m excited by what the Guardian is doing online and this seemed like a great opportunity for this film to reach a huge number of people.”

The Wholly Family is a dreamlike journey between reality and imagination. The story is about a dysfunctional family’s holiday in Naples, Italy and the surreal visions their son experiences when he steals a Pulcinella from a street market stall.

The film plays with the symbolism and the imagery associated with traditional Neapolitan culture as well as playing on the love, tension and powerful emotions that are only felt in a family relationship.

Stephen Folwell, Business Director, Multimedia and Brand Extensions, said: “We are delighted to be one of the first to show Terry Gilliam’s new film, The Wholly Family.

“We’re extremely excited about bringing a great film like this to our audience. Over the last year we have been expanding the range and depth of our film and other arts content. In November we showed the Three Colours Trilogy, which was supported by a range of articles, reviews, videos and live blogs to engage the reader before, after and even during the film. We’re creating unique, valuable, experiences and will continue to do more in 2012, a great year of culture”

All can watch the film by logging on to guardian.co.uk from 7pm on Monday 23 January. The screening costs £1.99 and will be available to watch for two weeks. On the 23 January viewers will also see a live-streamed interview with the director, plus the chance to ask questions in a live Q&A.

To read more about Terry Gilliam and The Wholly Family visit: guardian.co.uk/thewhollyfamily or join in the conversation on Twitter by hashtagging tweets with #gdnwhollyfamily

www.terrygilliamweb.com

I had a chance to view the short and it is packed with everything that I love about Gilliam’s work, his unique visual style is unprecedented, he is one of the few directors that has such a unique look and style that regardless of the subject I am keen to view.

The Wholly Family’s utilization of Pulcinella’s is a visual stroke that is pure Gilliam. Exquisitely utilized to reign in an awfully behaved child. I just wish the figurine was real and I could hand these out to ill equipped parents all day.

Grade- 90

Enhanced by Zemanta

The Nocturnal Third
Starring: Kevin Maggard, Luke Weaver, Wescott Youngson, Rachel Brady
Director: Benjamin Stark

Eli Gottfried just started a new job helping out at a stone factory, suffering from nightmares and not able to sleep, perpetually tired Eli has to pick up the third shift to pay his bills. What should be a routine shift takes a drastic turn when Jeffrey shows up.

Poor Eli just wants to draw, He is tired and after failing to get an advance on his check to pay his bills, he is forced to work the night shift for double pay. Soon things go wrong with an injured employee, Machines break down and a mysterious stranger who ran out of gas shows up out of nowhere. Eli finds himself in a bind not knowing if he should take the injured employee to the hospital or how he can help the profusely sweating and bleeding employee without putting everyone’s  job in jeopardy. Getting an earful from the mysterious salesman Jeffrey isn’t helping anything and to top it off every time Eli falls asleep he has nightmares.

First time Writer/Director Benjamin Starks delivers a solid showing. The first thing to note is with a modest budget Starks is able to deliver a film that has the look of a much larger budgeted film, aside from the look of the film, Starks makes a strong choice in settings for a small film, The utilization of the Stone works factory immediately sets the tone. The involvement of heavy machinery leads one to immediately be cautious and delivers an imminent sense of danger. The setting almost becomes a fourth character.

Five minutes into the film your going to want to smack Eli for his lack of backbone particularly when Jeffrey shows up. If some strange guy showed up and started giving me life advice while I tried to work, I would boot his ass out to his truck without hesitation. For all of Eli’s concern regarding getting machines fixed and getting things on schedule he lets Jeffrey abuse his time, negating any benefit Eli provided by being there.
In a perfect world Eli grows some balls and Jeffrey would end up getting the business end of some heavy machinery

Grade – 80