Rest Stop
written and directed by John Shiban
starring Jaimie Alexander, Joey Mendicino, Joseph Lawrence, Michael Childers, Diane Salinger, Curtis Taylor
In this rather fascinating piece of pure Terror porn, a poor pathetic girl bawls, whelps, and whines for the duration of the film. It’s as annoying as it seems and it never gives up.
Nicole Carrow (Alexander) has big dreams of making it in Hollywood. She runs away with her boyfriend Jess Hilts (Mendicino) and he drives them to California. Along the way Nicole’s bladder causes Jess to find a rest stop. She runs to use the dilapidated, thoroughly disgusting bathroom and when she emerges Jess and the car are gone. From here on out, she is terrorized by a man in a yellow truck. We never see him and all we know about him is he’s exceedingly effective at his little hobby. He turns her into a blubbering, babbling bundle of nerves and all she does for the rest of the film is cry and scream. That’s really it. He comes back periodically and she screams some more. A cop (Lawrence) shows up and is run over by the man in the truck who promptly runs over his legs again. A great portion of the film is spent with the cop as he lays in agony unable to move. He becomes a real person at this point and his plight is something worth empathizing over.
It’s a strange thing to create a film that focuses almost entirely on a young woman’s terror. The film obsessively focuses on Nicole’s fearful expressions which she displays at every turn. There is no let up in sight and the only thing to focus on is the pain in her eyes. One wonders sometimes what the purpose of these films truly are. Spending just shy of ninety minutes with such a wounded creature cannot be classified as an edifying experience. There is no poetry here, only the nagging insistence of imminent bodily harm at the hands of a sadistic maniac who comes off as a cipher more than anything else. The unpredictability of the threat, the inability to peg down the ultimate intentions of the faceless fiend–lend the film a definite chaotic element.
The film features a family of distorted personality who prove to be no help whatsoever. Lost in her torment Nicole notices that the RV that’s been parked in the rest stop’s lot is leaving. She manages to hitch a ride with them and learns quickly that they are uninterested in her plight. The Mother is not going to listen to her and the family is ostensibly religious. The father, who is driving, chatters on about God’s avenging angels, the seraphim, and how they are going to wreak terrible vengeance upon the earth. The Mother lifts her hands in some sort of cruel trance and the twin boys suck at their straws disinterestedly. Nicole suddenly leaps up and runs to the back of the RV and opens a door revealing a gnarled, misshapen boy snapping instamatic pictures from his wheelchair. This agitates the Father and Mother and she lurches into a mantra screaming “Fucking Whore” over and again. They finally push Nicole out and she finds herself at the same rest stop.
Nicole finds another girl named Tracy trapped in the bathroom stall and we learn from flashbacks that she’s been branded and carved up by the same man who is after Nicole. Also, we learn that there have been dozens of missing persons over the years and that the man’s tormenting past time goes back at least to 1971. All that can be done is to wait for the inevitable and the man in the truck doesn’t disappoint. He’s bold and determined which is what one wants in such a demented force of nature. He’s relentless and each time he comes back he makes his presence firmly felt and Nicole bursts out in a new round of tears and obvious distress. Eventually, her crying jags start to grate on the nerves and one no longer cares what happens to her. She slobbers incessantly and one cannot wait until she gets what is coming for her. It takes a while but eventually we get our wish. It’s fairly grisly but seems appropriate. At least it puts an end to her gibbering.
Non stop exercises in fear cannot sustain themselves because the audience eventually tunes out. Without worthwhile characters to get behind, all the torment loses its luster. This is readily apparent in this film as Nicole proves to be nothing more than a nuisance who does two things throughout the film and neither of them enhance whatever story is being attempted here. She screams and she cries and that is all she has to offer. I suppose we are meant to identify with her in some fashion or another but victims are never worth caring about because all they do is exhibit signs of absolute weakness bordering on hysteria and that’s no fun in the end. Granted, only a real sadist could identify with the man in the truck but at least he has a mission and is driven forward by a conviction. He has a purpose in life even if this purpose is simply to torment and kill as many vulnerable humans as he can get his hands on. Also, if it is true that he has been doing this for thirty five years then he’s obviously competent and somewhat ingenious. In the end he’s much more alluring because we never see him. He’s shrouded in mystery and remains an enigma for the duration of the film.
Terror porn celebrates a deliberate, pressing mayhem upon the flesh of ostensibly innocent victims. The key to it is that the audience be allowed to watch key individuals suffer at the hands of a tormentor. There is good torture porn and bad but I don’t think I can tell the difference. It’s most likely good when there is absolute debasement and will destruction and the person is reduced to a truly pathetic state. It is bad when it doesn’t quite reach this point and the victim is left with some of their dignity intact. Yet there are shades in between and that’s where this film fits in. The girl in this film certainly suffers but she could have suffered a whole lot worse. Indeed, there are so many more things that could have been done to her over the course of the film. Still, it’s the psychological torment that makes this into a rather effective inclusion in this genre. She is brought low and her humanity is reduced to almost nothing. She becomes something of an animal who exists purely on instinct as everything else has been stripped away. Nevertheless, she isn’t broken and very easily could have been. We get but a taste of what the man in the truck is capable of and it is not pretty.
Overall, this film is designed to demonstrate what abject terror can do to a person who is thrust into a mightily dangerous situation when their personal autonomy is threatened and this threat is reinforced over time. The girl is psychologically brutalized to the point that she can hardly act to save herself. She finally manages one last ditched effort which turns out to be spectacular in its composition. Otherwise, she’s utterly helpless and spends most of her time in hysterics. It’s possible that her reaction to her situation is supposed to have a specific impact on the audience. How much of the target audience revels in Nicole’s pain and gnashing of teeth? There has to be a certain percentage who are stimulated by the machinations of her grief. There is always the possibility that this is the driving force that encourages people to watch these films. What is the age/sex demographic? Is the viewing of these films a “healthy” pastime?
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Film Review--Underworld (2003)
Underworld
directed by Len Wiseman
written by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, Danny McBride,
starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy, Erwin Leder, Sophia Myles, Robbie Gee, Wentworth Mille, Kevin Grevioux, Zita Görög
It’s war between Vampires and Lycans in this crisp, temperamental and exquisitely crafted horror film that brings both mythologies clearer into focus than just about any film ever has before.
It’s clear the Lycans and the Vampires don’t care for each other and this has been going on for at least fourteen hundred years. There are outbreaks of violence including early on when Lycans open fire on a subway station. Selene (Beckinsale), a death dealer who hunts Lycans, determines that they are tracking a human which is highly uncharacteristic of them. Selene finds the human, a medical intern named Michael Corbin (Speedman), and struggles to protect him. Selene has a special hate in her heart for the Lycans because she firmly believes they slaughtered her entire family when she was small. Her zeal is fiercely made manifest at every opportunity to shed Lycan blood.
The film relates substantial aspects of the Lycan and Vampire histories including the origin of the feud. The mythologies are worked out quite precisely and the subsequent framework is useful for building up workable knowledge of the creatures. The film seems to cast the Lycans as more aggressive in terms of facilitating the war whereas the Vampires are more reactionary. This tends to create in the viewer’s head a sympathy for the Vampires which proves to be problematic as the film progresses. Regardless, the emergence of Lucian (Sheen) is a glorious thing indeed and it’s impossible to take one’s eyes off of him once he appears on screen.
At the core of this film is the methods employed to treat a human whose blood the Lycans desire in order to make something manifest that comes into play later in the film. He is but a plaything batted about by both sides of the divide and finds himself in great peril at every turn. He doesn’t know where to turn or who to trust and his plight is always at jeopardy throughout the film. He’s the key prize in the battle and Kate can’t help but fall hard for the boy. She wants him desperately and one wonders if her pursuance of him is entirely personal or if it really does have to do with the integrity of the coven.
There are two Vampire covens in this film and they are supposed to come together and unite under one banner. Amelia (Görög.) is supposed to wake up Marcos in order to usher in a new age with him as leader. However, a gang of Lycans assassinate Amelia and her entire party on the subway. The death scene is rife with erotic energy as the bodies lie soaked in matter and blood. This is perhaps because of the brief scene with Amelia walking across the frame wearing a magnificent necklace and looking all the world as bored as the rest of her kind.
Indeed, we are introduced to the bulk of the Vampires in a most decadent setting. They are all sitting around on expensive antique furniture consumed with ennui and sighing. They are dressed to kill but there is no legitimate energy in the room. They are all sucking it out with their pouting and insouciance. Still, it’s quite a scene with an entire room of impossibly pale, delicately featured Vampires all dressed up for the great blood letting.
Kraven (Brolly) is the de facto leader of the Vampires and he is harboring a terrible secret that changes everything within the Vampire world. He has made an agreement with Lucian which according to Vampire orthodoxy is perverse and vile. The actual leader of the Vampires is Viktor (Nighy) and he has been on ice for hundreds of years until Selene raises him from the dead because she desperately needs his help to solve the terrible dilemma her kind is facing. Once Viktor is awake, the entire game changes. He proves himself to be utterly exclusionary regarding Lycans and as feverishly oppressive of their kind in every way imaginable. His hatred supercedes that of all others and he has dedicated his life to eliminating as many of them as possible. Late in the film we learn what this truly means and the implications attached to it; we learn the truth about Viktor as well as where and why the war started and it’s a revelation. It puts the earlier parts of the film into an entirely different perspective which adds a genuine layer of necessity to the story as well as a fundamental primacy.
The Lycans are best represented by the incredible bulk of Raze (Grevioux) who seems to be the sort who would rather blast his way through than waste valuable killing time negotiating. He’s a central figure to this drama and a terrible force to be reckoned with at every turn. Whenever there is trouble he is most certainly to be found lurking about. Selene is usually out front of the hit squads and her shooting skills are unassailable.
It’s quite a joy to watch Kate Beckinsale shoot a gun. A sexy woman (perhaps the sexiest to ever handle a weapon on screen) who is able to maintain such control is an aesthetic and erotic pleasure that is exceedingly rare in cinema. It’s the perfect combination of power and ballet and it always elicits a bona fide reaction out of me whenever I am afforded the opportunity to witness it. In this case, the vinyl skin tight outfit (shades again of Pfeiffer) and perfect bone structure lends itself to a series of immaculate shots where Ms. Beckinsale is staving off the enemy with a series of extraordinary firearms. It’s supreme and quite delicious.
The transformations into Lycans are gloriously wrought and effective; they look terrifying and very real in their rendering. They are orchestrated by a true artist who understands subtlety and the importance of serving the form of the creature instead of getting too carried away with an orgy of pointless style. These are streamlined wolves who truly look like they could rip out a person’s throat without even thinking about it. They are in fact some of the most frightening creatures to ever be cast upon a screen. They look menacing, they sound perfectly dreadful and they move with such lightening speed it seems they can never be subdued. One hopes they continue to enjoy their autonomy and that they do not succumb to the Vampire’s bullets.
It’s interesting who the audience roots for. Are Vampire fans necessarily opposed to Lycans?; is this a war that has resonance in the actual world or is it made up strictly for this film? It seems that it would make perfect sense if this were a legitimate antipathy between the two creatures at least it makes the mythologies more relevant and pressing. Still, are Vampire freaks simply long to see the Vampire’s succeed in this war or can they find sympathy with the Lycans and their actual plight over the generations? Can werewolf afficionados see the Vampiric point of view? Of course there are many who remain on the fence unwilling unable to effectively choose between one or the other. They may be more objectively to let the film play out without forcing their judgment onto the material.
The performances in this film are as good as can be expected. Kate Beckinsale gets to show off her fabulous form and shoot guns; she provides a gritty, intense aspect to the film and is highly charismatic throughout. She’s tough and feminine which is always a lethal combination in my book. It’s probably more thrilling because she is a woman who could kick most any man’s ass and being a man I tend to revel in the prospect of being brutalized by such a divine creature. Michael Sheen is simply magnificent as the Lycan leader who knows how to make an entrance and how to put the fear of death into his adversaries. Sheen is completely on top of this character and drives him forward with alacrity and great precision. Scott Speedman holds his own as the sole human in this film. He’s strong and steadfast and despite being bound for much of the film he radiates a tremendous amount of charisma throughout.
Overall, this film captures all the vitality one can hope for from a story mining these two mythologies for material. It’s startling at times, it looks amazing, and the narrative is consistently fascinating. The important thing is it never lags whatsoever. It’s easy to get into and it’s difficult to shake from one’s mind. The characters are all vivid, and realistic as far as such creatures go. They are precisely how one imagines Vampires and Werewolves to be if they lived in the modern world with up-to-date weapons and cell phones. It’s a timeless story that is succinctly updated and it works on just about every level. It’s a very physical film and it’s not difficult to understand the dimensions within which each creature navigates itself. Perhaps the only caveat is that there aren’t enough scenes with sexy Vampires swooping down and draining the necks of their hapless prey. Otherwise it’s a top notch horror film that delivers the goods most effectively.
directed by Len Wiseman
written by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, Danny McBride,
starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy, Erwin Leder, Sophia Myles, Robbie Gee, Wentworth Mille, Kevin Grevioux, Zita Görög
It’s war between Vampires and Lycans in this crisp, temperamental and exquisitely crafted horror film that brings both mythologies clearer into focus than just about any film ever has before.
It’s clear the Lycans and the Vampires don’t care for each other and this has been going on for at least fourteen hundred years. There are outbreaks of violence including early on when Lycans open fire on a subway station. Selene (Beckinsale), a death dealer who hunts Lycans, determines that they are tracking a human which is highly uncharacteristic of them. Selene finds the human, a medical intern named Michael Corbin (Speedman), and struggles to protect him. Selene has a special hate in her heart for the Lycans because she firmly believes they slaughtered her entire family when she was small. Her zeal is fiercely made manifest at every opportunity to shed Lycan blood.
The film relates substantial aspects of the Lycan and Vampire histories including the origin of the feud. The mythologies are worked out quite precisely and the subsequent framework is useful for building up workable knowledge of the creatures. The film seems to cast the Lycans as more aggressive in terms of facilitating the war whereas the Vampires are more reactionary. This tends to create in the viewer’s head a sympathy for the Vampires which proves to be problematic as the film progresses. Regardless, the emergence of Lucian (Sheen) is a glorious thing indeed and it’s impossible to take one’s eyes off of him once he appears on screen.
At the core of this film is the methods employed to treat a human whose blood the Lycans desire in order to make something manifest that comes into play later in the film. He is but a plaything batted about by both sides of the divide and finds himself in great peril at every turn. He doesn’t know where to turn or who to trust and his plight is always at jeopardy throughout the film. He’s the key prize in the battle and Kate can’t help but fall hard for the boy. She wants him desperately and one wonders if her pursuance of him is entirely personal or if it really does have to do with the integrity of the coven.
There are two Vampire covens in this film and they are supposed to come together and unite under one banner. Amelia (Görög.) is supposed to wake up Marcos in order to usher in a new age with him as leader. However, a gang of Lycans assassinate Amelia and her entire party on the subway. The death scene is rife with erotic energy as the bodies lie soaked in matter and blood. This is perhaps because of the brief scene with Amelia walking across the frame wearing a magnificent necklace and looking all the world as bored as the rest of her kind.
Indeed, we are introduced to the bulk of the Vampires in a most decadent setting. They are all sitting around on expensive antique furniture consumed with ennui and sighing. They are dressed to kill but there is no legitimate energy in the room. They are all sucking it out with their pouting and insouciance. Still, it’s quite a scene with an entire room of impossibly pale, delicately featured Vampires all dressed up for the great blood letting.
Kraven (Brolly) is the de facto leader of the Vampires and he is harboring a terrible secret that changes everything within the Vampire world. He has made an agreement with Lucian which according to Vampire orthodoxy is perverse and vile. The actual leader of the Vampires is Viktor (Nighy) and he has been on ice for hundreds of years until Selene raises him from the dead because she desperately needs his help to solve the terrible dilemma her kind is facing. Once Viktor is awake, the entire game changes. He proves himself to be utterly exclusionary regarding Lycans and as feverishly oppressive of their kind in every way imaginable. His hatred supercedes that of all others and he has dedicated his life to eliminating as many of them as possible. Late in the film we learn what this truly means and the implications attached to it; we learn the truth about Viktor as well as where and why the war started and it’s a revelation. It puts the earlier parts of the film into an entirely different perspective which adds a genuine layer of necessity to the story as well as a fundamental primacy.
The Lycans are best represented by the incredible bulk of Raze (Grevioux) who seems to be the sort who would rather blast his way through than waste valuable killing time negotiating. He’s a central figure to this drama and a terrible force to be reckoned with at every turn. Whenever there is trouble he is most certainly to be found lurking about. Selene is usually out front of the hit squads and her shooting skills are unassailable.
It’s quite a joy to watch Kate Beckinsale shoot a gun. A sexy woman (perhaps the sexiest to ever handle a weapon on screen) who is able to maintain such control is an aesthetic and erotic pleasure that is exceedingly rare in cinema. It’s the perfect combination of power and ballet and it always elicits a bona fide reaction out of me whenever I am afforded the opportunity to witness it. In this case, the vinyl skin tight outfit (shades again of Pfeiffer) and perfect bone structure lends itself to a series of immaculate shots where Ms. Beckinsale is staving off the enemy with a series of extraordinary firearms. It’s supreme and quite delicious.
The transformations into Lycans are gloriously wrought and effective; they look terrifying and very real in their rendering. They are orchestrated by a true artist who understands subtlety and the importance of serving the form of the creature instead of getting too carried away with an orgy of pointless style. These are streamlined wolves who truly look like they could rip out a person’s throat without even thinking about it. They are in fact some of the most frightening creatures to ever be cast upon a screen. They look menacing, they sound perfectly dreadful and they move with such lightening speed it seems they can never be subdued. One hopes they continue to enjoy their autonomy and that they do not succumb to the Vampire’s bullets.
It’s interesting who the audience roots for. Are Vampire fans necessarily opposed to Lycans?; is this a war that has resonance in the actual world or is it made up strictly for this film? It seems that it would make perfect sense if this were a legitimate antipathy between the two creatures at least it makes the mythologies more relevant and pressing. Still, are Vampire freaks simply long to see the Vampire’s succeed in this war or can they find sympathy with the Lycans and their actual plight over the generations? Can werewolf afficionados see the Vampiric point of view? Of course there are many who remain on the fence unwilling unable to effectively choose between one or the other. They may be more objectively to let the film play out without forcing their judgment onto the material.
The performances in this film are as good as can be expected. Kate Beckinsale gets to show off her fabulous form and shoot guns; she provides a gritty, intense aspect to the film and is highly charismatic throughout. She’s tough and feminine which is always a lethal combination in my book. It’s probably more thrilling because she is a woman who could kick most any man’s ass and being a man I tend to revel in the prospect of being brutalized by such a divine creature. Michael Sheen is simply magnificent as the Lycan leader who knows how to make an entrance and how to put the fear of death into his adversaries. Sheen is completely on top of this character and drives him forward with alacrity and great precision. Scott Speedman holds his own as the sole human in this film. He’s strong and steadfast and despite being bound for much of the film he radiates a tremendous amount of charisma throughout.
Overall, this film captures all the vitality one can hope for from a story mining these two mythologies for material. It’s startling at times, it looks amazing, and the narrative is consistently fascinating. The important thing is it never lags whatsoever. It’s easy to get into and it’s difficult to shake from one’s mind. The characters are all vivid, and realistic as far as such creatures go. They are precisely how one imagines Vampires and Werewolves to be if they lived in the modern world with up-to-date weapons and cell phones. It’s a timeless story that is succinctly updated and it works on just about every level. It’s a very physical film and it’s not difficult to understand the dimensions within which each creature navigates itself. Perhaps the only caveat is that there aren’t enough scenes with sexy Vampires swooping down and draining the necks of their hapless prey. Otherwise it’s a top notch horror film that delivers the goods most effectively.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Film Review--Azure et Asmar
Azur et Asmar
written and directed by Michel Ocelot
In this French animated fairy tale, a young boy falls prey to fantasy and dreams of rescuing the fabled Djinn fairy from her captivity. When he matures he struggles in his quest and eventually end up employing all the requisite magical elements to save her from bondage.
Azur is a blue-eyed, fair European boy whose mother has died mysteriously. As the film opens he lives with his friend Asmar and Asmar’s mother, Jénane. Asmar and his mother are darker skinned and come from the land on the other side of the raging sea. Azur’s father begins to train him in various skills including Latin and horse riding; ultimately he sends him away for schooling and kicks Asmar and Jénane out into the world. Azur grows into a man with one thing on his mind. He maintains that all he wants to do is rescue the Djinn fairy and subsequently leaves on that quest. He shipwrecks unto the island where Asmar’s people are from and quickly learns they are terrified of his blue eyes because they bring great catastrophe. He pretends to be blind and is accosted by a lumpy, frivolous and exceedingly jumpy man who agrees to guide him on his quest for the silken panties of the Djinn fairy.
The rivalry between Azur and Asmar is pronounced and goes back to their childhood where they would repeatedly get into arguments and fights over some triviality. When Azur is sent away for schooling Asmar and his mother are forced out into the streets by Azur’s father an entirely new dynamic is set into motion. Azur is deemed worthy with his light skin and blue eyes of a further education and the dark skinned, brown eyed Asmar must learn to survive in a wilderness of terror. Fortunately for Asmar fate smiles upon him and his mother becomes a notable and feared merchant with a colossal residence and many clients. He himself becomes a soldier in the Royal Guard and is well respected in his regiment.
Azur is fiercely determined driven by a phantom which strikes him hard as he makes his way through the tumultuous arena that nearly costs him his life on several occasions. He is nearly devoured by a massive lion but he has been provided with lion’s voice by Princess Chamsous Sabah and is subsequently able to communicate with the giant cat. Tamed, the lion takes him further into the mystery and he finds himself on the cusp of discovering his great love at last.
The tale is one of brotherhood and selflessness. Both Azur and Asmar display these characteristics with eagerness and fine temperament and of course both are ultimately rewarded for their virtues. It wouldn’t be a fairy tale (literally) without infinite success at the end of the quest. Still, it’s the journey that is featured here and throughout it’s truly magical in every sense of the word.
The color scheme alone makes the film worthy of great interest. It’s so incredibly vibrant and forcibly alive with a resonance rarely accomplished in animation. The characters are drawn fairly realistically but off just enough to give the film its hypnotic and surreal quality. What stands out is the boldness of the lines and the intensity they are able to effectively convey as the great journey is undertaken by both Asmar and Azur.
Overall, this film is a highly energetic, satisfying film about staying true to one’s peculiar vision even if it means tremendous risk that may not in the end be rewarded. It’s the fight, the film says, that matters and any reward is but a lucky side effect of it. Purity of form and ease of movement are essential ingredients in tackling any problem that might manifest itself throughout life and anything worth doing is potentially very costly to the one undertaking the quest. Azur and Asmar are both strong, vital presences who represent two sides of the psyche as well as two distinct approaches to finality and grace. They come from distinctly different worlds; one world is superstitious and wary of strangers, the other is more accommodating and less harsh in judgement at least in theory. It’s clearly a division between the “enlightened” West and the still backwards East. In many ways the film is a fantasy about the ability of each kind to work together to accomplish great things. Thus far this thinking hasn’t worked out altogether and the struggle for understanding continues.
written and directed by Michel Ocelot
In this French animated fairy tale, a young boy falls prey to fantasy and dreams of rescuing the fabled Djinn fairy from her captivity. When he matures he struggles in his quest and eventually end up employing all the requisite magical elements to save her from bondage.
Azur is a blue-eyed, fair European boy whose mother has died mysteriously. As the film opens he lives with his friend Asmar and Asmar’s mother, Jénane. Asmar and his mother are darker skinned and come from the land on the other side of the raging sea. Azur’s father begins to train him in various skills including Latin and horse riding; ultimately he sends him away for schooling and kicks Asmar and Jénane out into the world. Azur grows into a man with one thing on his mind. He maintains that all he wants to do is rescue the Djinn fairy and subsequently leaves on that quest. He shipwrecks unto the island where Asmar’s people are from and quickly learns they are terrified of his blue eyes because they bring great catastrophe. He pretends to be blind and is accosted by a lumpy, frivolous and exceedingly jumpy man who agrees to guide him on his quest for the silken panties of the Djinn fairy.
The rivalry between Azur and Asmar is pronounced and goes back to their childhood where they would repeatedly get into arguments and fights over some triviality. When Azur is sent away for schooling Asmar and his mother are forced out into the streets by Azur’s father an entirely new dynamic is set into motion. Azur is deemed worthy with his light skin and blue eyes of a further education and the dark skinned, brown eyed Asmar must learn to survive in a wilderness of terror. Fortunately for Asmar fate smiles upon him and his mother becomes a notable and feared merchant with a colossal residence and many clients. He himself becomes a soldier in the Royal Guard and is well respected in his regiment.
Azur is fiercely determined driven by a phantom which strikes him hard as he makes his way through the tumultuous arena that nearly costs him his life on several occasions. He is nearly devoured by a massive lion but he has been provided with lion’s voice by Princess Chamsous Sabah and is subsequently able to communicate with the giant cat. Tamed, the lion takes him further into the mystery and he finds himself on the cusp of discovering his great love at last.
The tale is one of brotherhood and selflessness. Both Azur and Asmar display these characteristics with eagerness and fine temperament and of course both are ultimately rewarded for their virtues. It wouldn’t be a fairy tale (literally) without infinite success at the end of the quest. Still, it’s the journey that is featured here and throughout it’s truly magical in every sense of the word.
The color scheme alone makes the film worthy of great interest. It’s so incredibly vibrant and forcibly alive with a resonance rarely accomplished in animation. The characters are drawn fairly realistically but off just enough to give the film its hypnotic and surreal quality. What stands out is the boldness of the lines and the intensity they are able to effectively convey as the great journey is undertaken by both Asmar and Azur.
Overall, this film is a highly energetic, satisfying film about staying true to one’s peculiar vision even if it means tremendous risk that may not in the end be rewarded. It’s the fight, the film says, that matters and any reward is but a lucky side effect of it. Purity of form and ease of movement are essential ingredients in tackling any problem that might manifest itself throughout life and anything worth doing is potentially very costly to the one undertaking the quest. Azur and Asmar are both strong, vital presences who represent two sides of the psyche as well as two distinct approaches to finality and grace. They come from distinctly different worlds; one world is superstitious and wary of strangers, the other is more accommodating and less harsh in judgement at least in theory. It’s clearly a division between the “enlightened” West and the still backwards East. In many ways the film is a fantasy about the ability of each kind to work together to accomplish great things. Thus far this thinking hasn’t worked out altogether and the struggle for understanding continues.
Film Review--Frost/Nixon
Frost/Nixon
directed by Ron Howard
written by Peter Morgan
based on the play by Peter Morgan
starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Kate Jennings Grant, Andy Milder
As author and reporter James Reston Jr. (Rockwell) says in this film, the entire Frost/Nixon interviews can be reduced to a single image. That image is a closeup of a deeply troubled Nixon (Langella) who has been pinned up against a wall and his face reveals that he has lost access to all the escape mechanisms that served his career so effectively. It’s a moment of pure poetry among many that provide this film with an elegance as it relates what was at the time the most viewed news program in American media history.
Nixon remains one of the most difficult public figures to grasp. Langella plays him with all the complexities that have always been associated with the man and the portrait seems ultimately to be both sympathetic and revealing of numerous personality flaws. What it doesn’t do is demonize Nixon or fully blame him for all the untoward actions he will forever be associated with. It merely sets out to shed light on a singularly famous series of interviews in which each actor plays his part with precision and skill.
The interviews themselves are staged as a battle of wits in which each participant brings their A game to the proceedings as they go toe-to-toe for a massive international audience of 400 million people. Nixon for his part considers the interviews to be something akin to a war between two worthy adversaries out for blood. He prepares himself therefore for such a furious contest and it’s evident in his eyes that he takes the event very seriously indeed. After all, it’s a chance for redemption in the eyes of the general public although one gets a clear impression that Nixon does not believe clarification is necessary.
The entire film is crystalized in the one question that is on everyone’s mind from the beginning. It’s the same question that disturbed anyone who was paying attention once the Watergate story exploded to sear everyone’s consciousness for ever and all time. It overshadows every accomplishment that has been attributed to Nixon and will forever smear his name in the minds of a considerable aspect of the population. Nixon is Watergate to his enemies and this fact is what Nixon attempts to undermine by even agreeing to the interviews. Or he merely wants to opportunity to reflect on his life and isn’t concerned with whatever fastballs David Frost (Sheen) might attempt to get past him. One is left with an impression that Nixon is ready for the onslaught and has prepared himself by nearly three decades of public service for any attempts by a mere talk show host to unnerve him.
The film is most certainly a personality contest between two men from greatly differing aspects of society. Nixon is a career politician who has made his name on enforcing specific delusions. Frost is a tested tv personality who is attempting to jack up his career even further and make his own name even more viable internationally. Both have certain things to lose although Nixon can’t exactly lose much more than he already has. He can only hope to rescue his name from the dregs of history although it seems through Langella’s performance that he’s resigned himself to a much less sanguine reality.
Michael Sheen plays Frost as manically charismatic presenter who always seems to be “on” and ready to face the cameras. Frost is almost a caricature of the slimy performer who lives their entire life as if they were being filmed. Yet it comes across as entirely genuine as if he truly does revel in all the commotion that is a necessary part of the lifestyle he has chosen for himself. He’s the dire opposite of Nixon who professes in this film to abhor social gatherings of any sort. He says he prefers the quietude of study to social interaction. It’s a telling expression of Nixon’s basic point of view. He fell out of favor with an age of youth and frantic physical activity and never quite reorientated himself to the new age.
This is not a sentimental film in any shape or form. It tells a simple story about one of the most scintillating moments in television history from the perspectives of those who were there to witness the carnage. Reston Jr., along with Bob Zelnick (Platt) have been hired to research and study Nixon’s career leading up to his ignoble political end. They are matched by Nixon’s post-presidential Chief-of-Staff Jack Brennan (Bacon) who ably readies Nixon for the interviewing process and scoffs whenever he feels Nixon might be being misrepresented. Specifically after Frost asks the seminal question Brennan bursts into the room and quashes the interview because he rightly senses that Nixon is about to allow his emotions to reveal too much information. Indeed, Nixon looks pained and slightly relieved and during the subsequent consultation with Brennan Nixon admits to being tired of lying.
This film hinges on the performances and they are all pitch perfect. Frank Langella perfects the tired, hunched over physiognomy of Nixon as well the subtle hypnotism of his voice. It’s a clearly defined portrait and it also manages to establish Nixon’s obvious intelligence and his felicity with language. This is an exceedingly complex subject replete with great emotional turmoil and grave uncertainty. Langella creates a character of great depth who cannot be reduced to a single event, no matter how personally damning it turned out to be. Nixon is flesh and bone here and as conflicted as one imagines the real man to be. Michael Sheen captures the essence of pure charisma coupled with occasional moments where his character seems rather lost. His Frost is clearly dedicated to uncovering a truth that no previous interviewer has managed to muster. It’s clear in his eyes as he zealously approaches his subject with full intent on coming out on top upon completion of the exchange. Sheen presents Frost as a solid, monumental talent who is a worthy adversary for his much maligned foe. Kevin Bacon demonstrates a tenacity that his character employs to great advantage throughout the film. Brennan is a bull dog and Bacon ensures that his toughness be prominently articulated at every turn. Sam Rockwell is excellent playing the grand sceptic who just wants to see Nixon fall flat on his ass. Rockwell has a smarmy quality throughout the film yet its relatively easy to take his character’s perspective from start to finish.
Overall, this film does everything it sets out to do. It creates two central characters who have more in common than it would initially appear. They are both exceedingly driven men with an overarching desire to win. Neither one wants to come out on the short end of their interaction nor to lose any ground. The film posits a Nixon who does seem tired of all the subterfuge that has plagued him ever since his involvement with the Watergate break in was questioned. The film makes a point about Nixon’s personal sense of guilt and the heaviness of the weight he carried around with him throughout his political career. Both Michael Sheen and Frank Langella give us portraits of two distinct trajectories. Frost’s star continued to ascend and Nixon dedicated himself to a writing career which saw him publish six books. As mentioned by Nixon it does seem that perhaps they should have switched places although It’s difficult to imagine Richard Nixon exuding the kind of indomitable energy required to successfully sell a tv chat show.
directed by Ron Howard
written by Peter Morgan
based on the play by Peter Morgan
starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Kate Jennings Grant, Andy Milder
As author and reporter James Reston Jr. (Rockwell) says in this film, the entire Frost/Nixon interviews can be reduced to a single image. That image is a closeup of a deeply troubled Nixon (Langella) who has been pinned up against a wall and his face reveals that he has lost access to all the escape mechanisms that served his career so effectively. It’s a moment of pure poetry among many that provide this film with an elegance as it relates what was at the time the most viewed news program in American media history.
Nixon remains one of the most difficult public figures to grasp. Langella plays him with all the complexities that have always been associated with the man and the portrait seems ultimately to be both sympathetic and revealing of numerous personality flaws. What it doesn’t do is demonize Nixon or fully blame him for all the untoward actions he will forever be associated with. It merely sets out to shed light on a singularly famous series of interviews in which each actor plays his part with precision and skill.
The interviews themselves are staged as a battle of wits in which each participant brings their A game to the proceedings as they go toe-to-toe for a massive international audience of 400 million people. Nixon for his part considers the interviews to be something akin to a war between two worthy adversaries out for blood. He prepares himself therefore for such a furious contest and it’s evident in his eyes that he takes the event very seriously indeed. After all, it’s a chance for redemption in the eyes of the general public although one gets a clear impression that Nixon does not believe clarification is necessary.
The entire film is crystalized in the one question that is on everyone’s mind from the beginning. It’s the same question that disturbed anyone who was paying attention once the Watergate story exploded to sear everyone’s consciousness for ever and all time. It overshadows every accomplishment that has been attributed to Nixon and will forever smear his name in the minds of a considerable aspect of the population. Nixon is Watergate to his enemies and this fact is what Nixon attempts to undermine by even agreeing to the interviews. Or he merely wants to opportunity to reflect on his life and isn’t concerned with whatever fastballs David Frost (Sheen) might attempt to get past him. One is left with an impression that Nixon is ready for the onslaught and has prepared himself by nearly three decades of public service for any attempts by a mere talk show host to unnerve him.
The film is most certainly a personality contest between two men from greatly differing aspects of society. Nixon is a career politician who has made his name on enforcing specific delusions. Frost is a tested tv personality who is attempting to jack up his career even further and make his own name even more viable internationally. Both have certain things to lose although Nixon can’t exactly lose much more than he already has. He can only hope to rescue his name from the dregs of history although it seems through Langella’s performance that he’s resigned himself to a much less sanguine reality.
Michael Sheen plays Frost as manically charismatic presenter who always seems to be “on” and ready to face the cameras. Frost is almost a caricature of the slimy performer who lives their entire life as if they were being filmed. Yet it comes across as entirely genuine as if he truly does revel in all the commotion that is a necessary part of the lifestyle he has chosen for himself. He’s the dire opposite of Nixon who professes in this film to abhor social gatherings of any sort. He says he prefers the quietude of study to social interaction. It’s a telling expression of Nixon’s basic point of view. He fell out of favor with an age of youth and frantic physical activity and never quite reorientated himself to the new age.
This is not a sentimental film in any shape or form. It tells a simple story about one of the most scintillating moments in television history from the perspectives of those who were there to witness the carnage. Reston Jr., along with Bob Zelnick (Platt) have been hired to research and study Nixon’s career leading up to his ignoble political end. They are matched by Nixon’s post-presidential Chief-of-Staff Jack Brennan (Bacon) who ably readies Nixon for the interviewing process and scoffs whenever he feels Nixon might be being misrepresented. Specifically after Frost asks the seminal question Brennan bursts into the room and quashes the interview because he rightly senses that Nixon is about to allow his emotions to reveal too much information. Indeed, Nixon looks pained and slightly relieved and during the subsequent consultation with Brennan Nixon admits to being tired of lying.
This film hinges on the performances and they are all pitch perfect. Frank Langella perfects the tired, hunched over physiognomy of Nixon as well the subtle hypnotism of his voice. It’s a clearly defined portrait and it also manages to establish Nixon’s obvious intelligence and his felicity with language. This is an exceedingly complex subject replete with great emotional turmoil and grave uncertainty. Langella creates a character of great depth who cannot be reduced to a single event, no matter how personally damning it turned out to be. Nixon is flesh and bone here and as conflicted as one imagines the real man to be. Michael Sheen captures the essence of pure charisma coupled with occasional moments where his character seems rather lost. His Frost is clearly dedicated to uncovering a truth that no previous interviewer has managed to muster. It’s clear in his eyes as he zealously approaches his subject with full intent on coming out on top upon completion of the exchange. Sheen presents Frost as a solid, monumental talent who is a worthy adversary for his much maligned foe. Kevin Bacon demonstrates a tenacity that his character employs to great advantage throughout the film. Brennan is a bull dog and Bacon ensures that his toughness be prominently articulated at every turn. Sam Rockwell is excellent playing the grand sceptic who just wants to see Nixon fall flat on his ass. Rockwell has a smarmy quality throughout the film yet its relatively easy to take his character’s perspective from start to finish.
Overall, this film does everything it sets out to do. It creates two central characters who have more in common than it would initially appear. They are both exceedingly driven men with an overarching desire to win. Neither one wants to come out on the short end of their interaction nor to lose any ground. The film posits a Nixon who does seem tired of all the subterfuge that has plagued him ever since his involvement with the Watergate break in was questioned. The film makes a point about Nixon’s personal sense of guilt and the heaviness of the weight he carried around with him throughout his political career. Both Michael Sheen and Frank Langella give us portraits of two distinct trajectories. Frost’s star continued to ascend and Nixon dedicated himself to a writing career which saw him publish six books. As mentioned by Nixon it does seem that perhaps they should have switched places although It’s difficult to imagine Richard Nixon exuding the kind of indomitable energy required to successfully sell a tv chat show.
Film Review--Nixon
Nixon
directed by Oliver Stone
written by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson, Oliver Stone
starring Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E.G. Marshall, David Paymer, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen, J.T. Walsh, James Woods, Kevin Dunn
In this sprawling, open telling of the life of President Richard Nixon (Hopkins) director Oliver Stone creates a surprisingly even-handed account that portrays Nixon as both complicit in the Watergate break-in and deeply sympathetic on a personal level.
Nixon here is a disheveled, gnarled, grumpy and charismatic force of nature who stands his ground however shifty it is beneath him against everything he loathes about contemporary life. In this film Nixon is a startled rabbit caught eternally in the headlights unsure of the proper outcome to strive for. The Vietnam--war which he didn’t start but by which many of the youth blamed him for nonetheless–is the shaky platform upon which is presidency is built. The mocks of the young people screaming and daring the sky to crash at their feet sting Nixon even if he won’t show it. Privately he’s quietly tormented and anguished.
This film digs deeply into the skull of its subject and pulls out a portrait of a man who was forever shaped by events in his early life. The film follows a number of time lines to trace the story from its roots straight through Watergate with a few stops in between including his failed presidential bid in 1960, his failed California governor bid in 1962 and his successful Presidential run in 1968. There are many stories told in this three and half hour talk fest that tries to uncover difficult truths about the President and succeeds supremely.
Stone creates a hypnotic dreamscape that can be felt in every frame of this film. It plays like a surreal, occasionally nightmarish fantasy that is nonetheless grounded in cold, bitter fact. It doesn’t emerge with any solid truths about the man because there are simply too many to consider; instead it whittles away at the persona in an effort to come away with something that is succinctly tangible. It’s a complex subject treated with great skill and care and the final result is a portrait that reveals a man who is wounded, temperamental, fiercely intelligent, comic, and scared.
All of the major players are cinematically rendered here and each one plays a vital role in the drama as it unfolds. Henry Kissinger (Sorvino) is a specter who hovers over the film as something of a sleepily sinister force who may or may not been the source of the leaks of secret, classified documents to the New York times. Kissinger is portrayed as a man as rife with dirty secrets as the primary target of this film. One also gets the impression that he is untouchable in a most frightening manner. His presence is so profoundly felt that every moment he is on screen Nixon comes off as somewhat bullied and shrunken.
Joan Allen gives a deeply moving performance as Pat Nixon, the longsuffering wife gamely puts her best face forward despite a great number of reservations that nag her as the film moves along. Allen captures a vulnerability coupled with a totemic strength that proves the adage that behind every strong man there is an equally strong woman. Only in this film, it’s clear that Pat is much stronger emotionally than her husband and that she dutifully carries much of his burden so he can scurry off and be presidential.
In this film Nixon is akin to a dog perennially chasing his tale. What he wants is eternally out of reach and he is always left disappointed at his inability to achieve his aims. Indeed, the overarching emotional state that best describes this film is disappointment. Taking this film as a cue one sees a tremendous amount of frustrated ambition in Nixon as he struggled emotionally to work his way through the political hoops. It’s literally written on Hopkins’s face–a terribly pained terrain–that Nixon exists in a realm of perpetual futility in the face of so much expectation. The result leaves him with micro-emotions that reveal tremendous discomfort and anguish. Freezing the film on his face tells a most fascinating story about a man who is routinely ill-at-ease (if he’s ever at ease) and who shows momentary flashes of disgust, fear, sorrow, hatred, grief, etc. regularly when communicating with other people.
It isn’t immediately clear in this film what is supposed to represent Nixon’s finer achievements in office. It appears that the negotiations with China and Russia are heralded as important diplomatic steps but the film treats both of them with a decisive distaste. Both play for laughs however unintentional. Actually, it’s most likely deliberate but both Mao and Brezhnev have a decided comic appeal to them that comes through as they meet with Dick Nixon. It’s obvious they don’t trust him and we’re not sure if we do either. He’s rallied against communists his whole life–even imagining that the youth rebellion is funded by the communists–and now here he sits with the two leading world communists chatting about the weather. He looks uncomfortable. His sunken shoulders sink even further and the conversations are rooted in a disconnect between what Nixon knows he must do and his fear of what Communism would mean should it be implemented fully in the United States. Nixon fears Communism, terror, disorder, mayhem, and anything else that threatens to shake up his carefully codified world. His is a staunch conservatism in the true sense. He legitimately wants to retain as much as the early post war sentiment as possible and the war protests, the youth-driven anger all send him into a tizzy because he cannot control them.
According to this film Richard Nixon held President John F. Kennedy is exceedingly high esteem despite his public rallying against the heralded Democrat. Publically he blamed Kennedy for the mess with Cuba but privately he recognized him as a vital president who won the people’s hearts. While looking at a painting of Kennedy, Nixon says “When the people look at you they see what they want to be. When they look at me they see what they are.”
Anthony Hopkins captures every dark angle here in Nixon’s character. This is a rare and serious envelopment of a man’s most taxing and grievous character flaws coupled with his tremendous will for life and power. In the final saying Hopkins gives us a Nixon of enormous import who is deeply wounded from many unsavory experiences that have occasionally waylaid his ambitions or haunted him with a startling sense of loss and betrayal. In the end Hopkins shows us the raw humanity of Nixon and at least his core goodness despite the wicked things that he has done. Joan Allen is discreetly enforcing in this film as Pat Nixon and she captures an intensity that grounds the film in an almost regal sensibility. Allen gives one of the finest stately performances in the history of film and she is much deserving of her Academy Award nomination which she unfortunately did not win. Bob Hoskins is simply diabolical as J. Edgar Hoover. He’s slimy, sexually deviant (for the time, anyway), and utterly creepy in his presentation of Hoover. Sam Waterston is not in the theatrical version but his scene with Nixon is reinserted in the DVD release and his performance as Richard Helms, the CIA head, is disturbing and exquisitely rendered. He quotes Keats’s “The Second Coming” and the links between it and Nixon’s presidency eerily resonate throughout the room. Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig, Ed Harris as the mysterious E. Howard Hunt, David Hyde Pierce as John Dean are among the numerous performances that provide the film with a sharp edge that keeps it honest and necessary.
Overall, this film is as good as one could possibly expect about a slippery subject who simply cannot be effectively nailed down. He’s just too complex both emotionally and intellectually for a simple treatment and this one captures many angles that make up the man as he quests for greatness but falls just short with every striding. He’s a man who cannot quite make the team despite his intense preparation and struggle to learn the play book. No matter what he does he will forever fail to grab the brass ring and will always slip back down into oblivion before rising once again to make the effort anew. That’s what defines Nixon and he says it during one of his later speeches: “I am not a quitter” and he certainly wasn’t. In this film, Hopkins captures this aspect of his character through gestures mostly. His Nixon is a fighter who nevertheless could never quite land the knockout blow. Still he always hung around long enough for the decision which he routinely and quite unfortunately lost.
directed by Oliver Stone
written by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson, Oliver Stone
starring Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E.G. Marshall, David Paymer, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen, J.T. Walsh, James Woods, Kevin Dunn
In this sprawling, open telling of the life of President Richard Nixon (Hopkins) director Oliver Stone creates a surprisingly even-handed account that portrays Nixon as both complicit in the Watergate break-in and deeply sympathetic on a personal level.
Nixon here is a disheveled, gnarled, grumpy and charismatic force of nature who stands his ground however shifty it is beneath him against everything he loathes about contemporary life. In this film Nixon is a startled rabbit caught eternally in the headlights unsure of the proper outcome to strive for. The Vietnam--war which he didn’t start but by which many of the youth blamed him for nonetheless–is the shaky platform upon which is presidency is built. The mocks of the young people screaming and daring the sky to crash at their feet sting Nixon even if he won’t show it. Privately he’s quietly tormented and anguished.
This film digs deeply into the skull of its subject and pulls out a portrait of a man who was forever shaped by events in his early life. The film follows a number of time lines to trace the story from its roots straight through Watergate with a few stops in between including his failed presidential bid in 1960, his failed California governor bid in 1962 and his successful Presidential run in 1968. There are many stories told in this three and half hour talk fest that tries to uncover difficult truths about the President and succeeds supremely.
Stone creates a hypnotic dreamscape that can be felt in every frame of this film. It plays like a surreal, occasionally nightmarish fantasy that is nonetheless grounded in cold, bitter fact. It doesn’t emerge with any solid truths about the man because there are simply too many to consider; instead it whittles away at the persona in an effort to come away with something that is succinctly tangible. It’s a complex subject treated with great skill and care and the final result is a portrait that reveals a man who is wounded, temperamental, fiercely intelligent, comic, and scared.
All of the major players are cinematically rendered here and each one plays a vital role in the drama as it unfolds. Henry Kissinger (Sorvino) is a specter who hovers over the film as something of a sleepily sinister force who may or may not been the source of the leaks of secret, classified documents to the New York times. Kissinger is portrayed as a man as rife with dirty secrets as the primary target of this film. One also gets the impression that he is untouchable in a most frightening manner. His presence is so profoundly felt that every moment he is on screen Nixon comes off as somewhat bullied and shrunken.
Joan Allen gives a deeply moving performance as Pat Nixon, the longsuffering wife gamely puts her best face forward despite a great number of reservations that nag her as the film moves along. Allen captures a vulnerability coupled with a totemic strength that proves the adage that behind every strong man there is an equally strong woman. Only in this film, it’s clear that Pat is much stronger emotionally than her husband and that she dutifully carries much of his burden so he can scurry off and be presidential.
In this film Nixon is akin to a dog perennially chasing his tale. What he wants is eternally out of reach and he is always left disappointed at his inability to achieve his aims. Indeed, the overarching emotional state that best describes this film is disappointment. Taking this film as a cue one sees a tremendous amount of frustrated ambition in Nixon as he struggled emotionally to work his way through the political hoops. It’s literally written on Hopkins’s face–a terribly pained terrain–that Nixon exists in a realm of perpetual futility in the face of so much expectation. The result leaves him with micro-emotions that reveal tremendous discomfort and anguish. Freezing the film on his face tells a most fascinating story about a man who is routinely ill-at-ease (if he’s ever at ease) and who shows momentary flashes of disgust, fear, sorrow, hatred, grief, etc. regularly when communicating with other people.
It isn’t immediately clear in this film what is supposed to represent Nixon’s finer achievements in office. It appears that the negotiations with China and Russia are heralded as important diplomatic steps but the film treats both of them with a decisive distaste. Both play for laughs however unintentional. Actually, it’s most likely deliberate but both Mao and Brezhnev have a decided comic appeal to them that comes through as they meet with Dick Nixon. It’s obvious they don’t trust him and we’re not sure if we do either. He’s rallied against communists his whole life–even imagining that the youth rebellion is funded by the communists–and now here he sits with the two leading world communists chatting about the weather. He looks uncomfortable. His sunken shoulders sink even further and the conversations are rooted in a disconnect between what Nixon knows he must do and his fear of what Communism would mean should it be implemented fully in the United States. Nixon fears Communism, terror, disorder, mayhem, and anything else that threatens to shake up his carefully codified world. His is a staunch conservatism in the true sense. He legitimately wants to retain as much as the early post war sentiment as possible and the war protests, the youth-driven anger all send him into a tizzy because he cannot control them.
According to this film Richard Nixon held President John F. Kennedy is exceedingly high esteem despite his public rallying against the heralded Democrat. Publically he blamed Kennedy for the mess with Cuba but privately he recognized him as a vital president who won the people’s hearts. While looking at a painting of Kennedy, Nixon says “When the people look at you they see what they want to be. When they look at me they see what they are.”
Anthony Hopkins captures every dark angle here in Nixon’s character. This is a rare and serious envelopment of a man’s most taxing and grievous character flaws coupled with his tremendous will for life and power. In the final saying Hopkins gives us a Nixon of enormous import who is deeply wounded from many unsavory experiences that have occasionally waylaid his ambitions or haunted him with a startling sense of loss and betrayal. In the end Hopkins shows us the raw humanity of Nixon and at least his core goodness despite the wicked things that he has done. Joan Allen is discreetly enforcing in this film as Pat Nixon and she captures an intensity that grounds the film in an almost regal sensibility. Allen gives one of the finest stately performances in the history of film and she is much deserving of her Academy Award nomination which she unfortunately did not win. Bob Hoskins is simply diabolical as J. Edgar Hoover. He’s slimy, sexually deviant (for the time, anyway), and utterly creepy in his presentation of Hoover. Sam Waterston is not in the theatrical version but his scene with Nixon is reinserted in the DVD release and his performance as Richard Helms, the CIA head, is disturbing and exquisitely rendered. He quotes Keats’s “The Second Coming” and the links between it and Nixon’s presidency eerily resonate throughout the room. Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig, Ed Harris as the mysterious E. Howard Hunt, David Hyde Pierce as John Dean are among the numerous performances that provide the film with a sharp edge that keeps it honest and necessary.
Overall, this film is as good as one could possibly expect about a slippery subject who simply cannot be effectively nailed down. He’s just too complex both emotionally and intellectually for a simple treatment and this one captures many angles that make up the man as he quests for greatness but falls just short with every striding. He’s a man who cannot quite make the team despite his intense preparation and struggle to learn the play book. No matter what he does he will forever fail to grab the brass ring and will always slip back down into oblivion before rising once again to make the effort anew. That’s what defines Nixon and he says it during one of his later speeches: “I am not a quitter” and he certainly wasn’t. In this film, Hopkins captures this aspect of his character through gestures mostly. His Nixon is a fighter who nevertheless could never quite land the knockout blow. Still he always hung around long enough for the decision which he routinely and quite unfortunately lost.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Film Review--Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters)
Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters)
written and directed by Ji-woon Kim
starring Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun,
This film poses too many questions that can never be answered. It’s a film that is never what it seems and often feels to convoluted for its own good. It doesn’t make strict sense unless one looks at it through the prism of dreams and fantasies. In the end it’s ultimately confusing which isn’t such a bad thing. It’s very ambiguity is its central strength even if there is nothing particularly solid to grasp hold of. Still, the characters are richly drawn and the acting is impeccable. It’s a gorgeously shot film and every movement is meticulously performed with great precision and care.
The story begins with a girl named Soo-mi (Su-jeong) who is residing in a mental institution. A doctor is interviewing her and attempts to get information out of her about what happened on a specific day. The scene shifts and the girl and her sister Soo-yeon (Geun-yeong) have arrived back home with their father Moo-hyeon (Kap-su) and his new wife Eun-joo (Jung-ah). The film focuses mainly on the relationship between Eun-joo and the girls. There is tremendous attention and soon very strange things begin to occur in the house which Eun-joo attributes to the girls. For starters there is a strange creature, seemingly female, who lives under the sink and haunts Soo-yeon’s dreams. This being is never emphatically explained and the audience is left to wonder about its origins and meaning vis-a-vis the other characters in the film. It is an exceedingly creepy creature who radiates a definite malevolence that the film exploits quite expertly.
The film builds up tension by concentrating on the simple mannerisms and behaviors that make up any particular day. Early on as the girls get settled the film is a reflection of the often too quiet daily routine. This quickly shifts as seeming inexplicable events begin to seep through the immaculately constructed edifice and begin to haunt the central characters. Soo-yeon is troubled in her dreams and is accosted by a form that appears in her room. She is terrified and remains so for much of the film. She is jostled about and cannot quite manage to extricate herself from the tyranny that routinely accosts her.
The animosity between Eun-joo and the girls is readily apparent from the onset. They still cling to memories of their dead mother and refuse to allow her into their lives in any manner whatsoever. This proves to be a harrowing arrangement as Eun-joo begins a course of torment that is directed at Eun-joo including locking her in the wardrobe. We are led to believe that Eun-joo ultimately murders Soo-yeon as she drags a large sack that leaves a slick track of blood in its wake. Soo-mi, becoming progressively more hysterical, believes it is the body of her dead sister and struggles to open the sack with a grim determination.
At one point in the story Moo-hyeon tells Soo-mi that her sister is dead and this revelation utterly dislodges the narrative and forces the audience to question everything that has come before it. It leads to a series of flashbacks that attempt to shed light on events but they only prove to confuse matters further. Nothing is particularly clear by the end as one is unable to fully extract fantasy from reality let alone deduce any meaning from the narrative. Still, there is an elegance that is maintained throughout the film despite the lack of full coherency. It’s a film that does not attempt to solve its core dilemma and the result is a series of agonizing questions that are never answered.
Once the story shifts and fantasies effectively take over the narrative, great confusions abound which only add to the puzzling nature of the story. Are we supposed to take what we are seeing as real or are they delusions harbored by one of the characters? Is anything in the film actually happening? It becomes difficult to fully grasp the import of any of the scenes in the second half of the film because they are quite incredible yet possible in the overall lexicon the film is projecting. The end result is a film that possesses the capacity for a multitude of meanings any of which are plausible but hardly clear.
The film’s great implausibility is central to its effectiveness. Like all horror films there is a basic conceit upon which everything else is built upon. There is a final point of view and it attempts to explain the terror and difficulties that have developed over the course of the film. It’s a strange and almost mystical take on events but comes off as legitimate and vital.
The film completely guts everything we witness with a very sharp blade that leaves us reeling in the end. Essentially the entire film is reconstructed from an entirely different point of view from the one we become familiar with throughout most of the film. Indeed, everything must be figured anew and one must scramble to make any effort to “solve” the great dilemmas the film poses as it pushes on.
Overall, this is complexly constructed story that seems mostly to be about the psychological impact of greatly traumatic events on the minds of the vulnerable and impressionable. It leaves itself open to numerous interpretations which provide it with an urgency that is readily made manifest. The characters are exquisitely drawn and fully believable within a story that is constructed out of dreams and phantoms. It insists on a certain acceptance of at least one reality but even this is undermined by later events that offer no legitimate ground to stand upon.
written and directed by Ji-woon Kim
starring Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun,
This film poses too many questions that can never be answered. It’s a film that is never what it seems and often feels to convoluted for its own good. It doesn’t make strict sense unless one looks at it through the prism of dreams and fantasies. In the end it’s ultimately confusing which isn’t such a bad thing. It’s very ambiguity is its central strength even if there is nothing particularly solid to grasp hold of. Still, the characters are richly drawn and the acting is impeccable. It’s a gorgeously shot film and every movement is meticulously performed with great precision and care.
The story begins with a girl named Soo-mi (Su-jeong) who is residing in a mental institution. A doctor is interviewing her and attempts to get information out of her about what happened on a specific day. The scene shifts and the girl and her sister Soo-yeon (Geun-yeong) have arrived back home with their father Moo-hyeon (Kap-su) and his new wife Eun-joo (Jung-ah). The film focuses mainly on the relationship between Eun-joo and the girls. There is tremendous attention and soon very strange things begin to occur in the house which Eun-joo attributes to the girls. For starters there is a strange creature, seemingly female, who lives under the sink and haunts Soo-yeon’s dreams. This being is never emphatically explained and the audience is left to wonder about its origins and meaning vis-a-vis the other characters in the film. It is an exceedingly creepy creature who radiates a definite malevolence that the film exploits quite expertly.
The film builds up tension by concentrating on the simple mannerisms and behaviors that make up any particular day. Early on as the girls get settled the film is a reflection of the often too quiet daily routine. This quickly shifts as seeming inexplicable events begin to seep through the immaculately constructed edifice and begin to haunt the central characters. Soo-yeon is troubled in her dreams and is accosted by a form that appears in her room. She is terrified and remains so for much of the film. She is jostled about and cannot quite manage to extricate herself from the tyranny that routinely accosts her.
The animosity between Eun-joo and the girls is readily apparent from the onset. They still cling to memories of their dead mother and refuse to allow her into their lives in any manner whatsoever. This proves to be a harrowing arrangement as Eun-joo begins a course of torment that is directed at Eun-joo including locking her in the wardrobe. We are led to believe that Eun-joo ultimately murders Soo-yeon as she drags a large sack that leaves a slick track of blood in its wake. Soo-mi, becoming progressively more hysterical, believes it is the body of her dead sister and struggles to open the sack with a grim determination.
At one point in the story Moo-hyeon tells Soo-mi that her sister is dead and this revelation utterly dislodges the narrative and forces the audience to question everything that has come before it. It leads to a series of flashbacks that attempt to shed light on events but they only prove to confuse matters further. Nothing is particularly clear by the end as one is unable to fully extract fantasy from reality let alone deduce any meaning from the narrative. Still, there is an elegance that is maintained throughout the film despite the lack of full coherency. It’s a film that does not attempt to solve its core dilemma and the result is a series of agonizing questions that are never answered.
Once the story shifts and fantasies effectively take over the narrative, great confusions abound which only add to the puzzling nature of the story. Are we supposed to take what we are seeing as real or are they delusions harbored by one of the characters? Is anything in the film actually happening? It becomes difficult to fully grasp the import of any of the scenes in the second half of the film because they are quite incredible yet possible in the overall lexicon the film is projecting. The end result is a film that possesses the capacity for a multitude of meanings any of which are plausible but hardly clear.
The film’s great implausibility is central to its effectiveness. Like all horror films there is a basic conceit upon which everything else is built upon. There is a final point of view and it attempts to explain the terror and difficulties that have developed over the course of the film. It’s a strange and almost mystical take on events but comes off as legitimate and vital.
The film completely guts everything we witness with a very sharp blade that leaves us reeling in the end. Essentially the entire film is reconstructed from an entirely different point of view from the one we become familiar with throughout most of the film. Indeed, everything must be figured anew and one must scramble to make any effort to “solve” the great dilemmas the film poses as it pushes on.
Overall, this is complexly constructed story that seems mostly to be about the psychological impact of greatly traumatic events on the minds of the vulnerable and impressionable. It leaves itself open to numerous interpretations which provide it with an urgency that is readily made manifest. The characters are exquisitely drawn and fully believable within a story that is constructed out of dreams and phantoms. It insists on a certain acceptance of at least one reality but even this is undermined by later events that offer no legitimate ground to stand upon.
Film Review--New in Town
New In Town
directed by Jonas Elmer
written by Ken Rance and C. Jay Cox
starring Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr., Siobhan Fallon, J. K. Simmons, Frances Conroy, Mike O’Brien, Ferron Guerreiro
This fish out of water tale is charmingly rendered despite being wholly predictable and hackneyed.
Renée Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a consultant for a major cooperation, who agrees to travel from Miami to Minnesota to streamline a plant so they can start making power bars. Naturally, she does not readily take to the climate and is viewed by a nuisance by most of the employees at the factory. The film tracks her transformation into something more useful to the locals as well as her budding romance with the union representative, Ted Mitchell (Connick, Jr.).
Much of the film deals with Lucy’s discomfort and her adjustment to the earnestness of the community who gradually warm to her after a fashion. Her first meeting with Ted ends with her insulting him and reducing him to a red neck stereotype. She’s forced to eat crow when Ted visits her office the following morning and begins to address the union’s concerns. Hanging over everything is the fact that the cooperation wants to lose half the employees which Lucy finds difficult to implement. So there is tension which explodes when the order comes down that the plant will be closed. Then a set of circumstances that are truly obvious unravel and Lucy magically saves the plant and everyone’s job.
Lucy is a haughty bitch who looks downward from her lofty perch at the simpletons who make up the small community in which she is unceremoniously thrust. Naturally, she learns the error of her ways and comes to appreciate the townsfolk for what they are. There are numerous scenes where Lucy is forced to deal with life as it is lived for these regular people who are all tied to the plant in some fashion or another. Her romance with Ted is predictable and not particularly satisfying. It’s just a plot device that these sort of film always necessitate. Lucy is completed only with a man as her rabid climb to the top of the corporate ladder is deemed to reflect badly on her character. What is important here are the values of small time America against the tyrannical and systematic evil as represented by the corporations who reduce people to statistical data that can easily be shifted around without feeling.
The film is focused on a romance that doesn’t come across as particularly stimulating in the final analysis. It’s generic and unenergetic. The chemistry between the leads just isn’t apparent and their scenes together lack any discernible vitality. Still, they are intensely investigated to appease an audience that requires such relationships when they bother to drag themselves out to see a film of this nature. Regardless, the end result is a film that plays cold despite the attempt to heat things up against the bitter cold landscape.
The citizens of the small town are all an exceedingly eccentric lot which most likely isn’t very close to the truth about how such people actually live. It’s an exaggeration that does manage to provide the film with a certain amount of charm because they are depicted as essentially hard working, goodly folks with big hearts and weird, odd ways. They appear as a counterbalance to the uppity, life-draining mien of Lucy and her smarty-pants attitude regarding her new home. The film deals with her transformation and gradual acceptance of the locals as real people with real feelings. It’s a tired but true approach to such situations and for the most part they fail to elicit a terrible amount of sympathy throughout this film. Lucy remains as skittish and shy as she came only she’s got results to prove she’s important and worthy of the next step up the ladder to oblivion.
The use of absolute cold is a fine metaphor for the deep freeze that originally exists between Lucy and the rest of the town when she makes her unwanted appearance. It doesn’t help that she fires Stu Kopenhafer the foreman (Simmons) and keeps a long list of others who she has deemed worthy to be axed.
Renée Zellweger manages to convey her character’s transformation from blase iciness to blind acceptance rather effortlessly. She’s particularly good at playing confused and down which is necessary for Lucy to survive her essential conundrum. Lucy’s mocking of religion which plays such a vital role in the lives of the community, she cannot relate to the trials that afflict hard working folks every day as they attempt to keep their head above the line. She’s been ensconced in her safe, easy life for so long that she no longer knows what it’s like to stare down the barrel of a gun facing the blistering attack of deprivation and terrible loss. Harry Connick, Jr. plays a scruffy, dirty, yet genuinely true man who rescues Lucy from herself. Ted is a character who is easy to draw because his role in the film is so readily recognizable. He comes in to remind the audience of what is missing from the main character’s life and to strip away all of her conceits toward making it in the man’s world of corporate America. The message is that a woman cannot be complete without a man and that a high paying position is trumped by emotional attachments.
Blanche (Fallon) is a particular piece of work. The character is an extreme example of the small town matron who keeps everyone together. She’s the heart of the town and is consumed with a very real tendency toward maintaining order through her locally famous tapioca pudding. It’s something of an obsession with her as she metes it out on every conceivable occasion. Fallon plays her with an earnestness that is admirable. Blanche is representative of the kind of woman who lives in every small town. She is Jesus-fearing and connected to the town in a manner that is almost terminal. She is not impressed by Lucy’s hifalutin lifestyle and maintains her integrity throughout. Stu is a man who has found something he is clearly able to be master of and his firing seems particularly egregious in the overall context of the film. He’s just the man you want on the job and strikes me as someone who you want on your side when the flames are lapping at your ankles. J. K. Simmons plays him with the quiet authority that comes through years of experience doing something of merit. Trudy Van Uuden is the town busy body and Frances Conroy plays her with a terrific comedic edge. She’s a bit ridiculous but entirely endearing.
Overall, this film presents a mediocre and familiar story that does not dazzle or shine. It’s easily digestible and subsequently forgettable although there are some performances that stick out for their overall weirdness. Siobhan Fallon is particularly fine as a woman with an enormous heart who lives accordance to principles that have seen her through many struggles throughout her life. She’s a character who is worth getting to know and Fallon captures Blanche’s core gentleness and true longing to do right by other people. She’s human and greatly vulnerable and it’s sometimes heartbreaking to look into her eyes as there is a hint of loss that is belied by her effervescent manner. Most of the other characters are not so memorable and are so familiar they are ultimately taken for granted and easily disposed of.
directed by Jonas Elmer
written by Ken Rance and C. Jay Cox
starring Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr., Siobhan Fallon, J. K. Simmons, Frances Conroy, Mike O’Brien, Ferron Guerreiro
This fish out of water tale is charmingly rendered despite being wholly predictable and hackneyed.
Renée Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a consultant for a major cooperation, who agrees to travel from Miami to Minnesota to streamline a plant so they can start making power bars. Naturally, she does not readily take to the climate and is viewed by a nuisance by most of the employees at the factory. The film tracks her transformation into something more useful to the locals as well as her budding romance with the union representative, Ted Mitchell (Connick, Jr.).
Much of the film deals with Lucy’s discomfort and her adjustment to the earnestness of the community who gradually warm to her after a fashion. Her first meeting with Ted ends with her insulting him and reducing him to a red neck stereotype. She’s forced to eat crow when Ted visits her office the following morning and begins to address the union’s concerns. Hanging over everything is the fact that the cooperation wants to lose half the employees which Lucy finds difficult to implement. So there is tension which explodes when the order comes down that the plant will be closed. Then a set of circumstances that are truly obvious unravel and Lucy magically saves the plant and everyone’s job.
Lucy is a haughty bitch who looks downward from her lofty perch at the simpletons who make up the small community in which she is unceremoniously thrust. Naturally, she learns the error of her ways and comes to appreciate the townsfolk for what they are. There are numerous scenes where Lucy is forced to deal with life as it is lived for these regular people who are all tied to the plant in some fashion or another. Her romance with Ted is predictable and not particularly satisfying. It’s just a plot device that these sort of film always necessitate. Lucy is completed only with a man as her rabid climb to the top of the corporate ladder is deemed to reflect badly on her character. What is important here are the values of small time America against the tyrannical and systematic evil as represented by the corporations who reduce people to statistical data that can easily be shifted around without feeling.
The film is focused on a romance that doesn’t come across as particularly stimulating in the final analysis. It’s generic and unenergetic. The chemistry between the leads just isn’t apparent and their scenes together lack any discernible vitality. Still, they are intensely investigated to appease an audience that requires such relationships when they bother to drag themselves out to see a film of this nature. Regardless, the end result is a film that plays cold despite the attempt to heat things up against the bitter cold landscape.
The citizens of the small town are all an exceedingly eccentric lot which most likely isn’t very close to the truth about how such people actually live. It’s an exaggeration that does manage to provide the film with a certain amount of charm because they are depicted as essentially hard working, goodly folks with big hearts and weird, odd ways. They appear as a counterbalance to the uppity, life-draining mien of Lucy and her smarty-pants attitude regarding her new home. The film deals with her transformation and gradual acceptance of the locals as real people with real feelings. It’s a tired but true approach to such situations and for the most part they fail to elicit a terrible amount of sympathy throughout this film. Lucy remains as skittish and shy as she came only she’s got results to prove she’s important and worthy of the next step up the ladder to oblivion.
The use of absolute cold is a fine metaphor for the deep freeze that originally exists between Lucy and the rest of the town when she makes her unwanted appearance. It doesn’t help that she fires Stu Kopenhafer the foreman (Simmons) and keeps a long list of others who she has deemed worthy to be axed.
Renée Zellweger manages to convey her character’s transformation from blase iciness to blind acceptance rather effortlessly. She’s particularly good at playing confused and down which is necessary for Lucy to survive her essential conundrum. Lucy’s mocking of religion which plays such a vital role in the lives of the community, she cannot relate to the trials that afflict hard working folks every day as they attempt to keep their head above the line. She’s been ensconced in her safe, easy life for so long that she no longer knows what it’s like to stare down the barrel of a gun facing the blistering attack of deprivation and terrible loss. Harry Connick, Jr. plays a scruffy, dirty, yet genuinely true man who rescues Lucy from herself. Ted is a character who is easy to draw because his role in the film is so readily recognizable. He comes in to remind the audience of what is missing from the main character’s life and to strip away all of her conceits toward making it in the man’s world of corporate America. The message is that a woman cannot be complete without a man and that a high paying position is trumped by emotional attachments.
Blanche (Fallon) is a particular piece of work. The character is an extreme example of the small town matron who keeps everyone together. She’s the heart of the town and is consumed with a very real tendency toward maintaining order through her locally famous tapioca pudding. It’s something of an obsession with her as she metes it out on every conceivable occasion. Fallon plays her with an earnestness that is admirable. Blanche is representative of the kind of woman who lives in every small town. She is Jesus-fearing and connected to the town in a manner that is almost terminal. She is not impressed by Lucy’s hifalutin lifestyle and maintains her integrity throughout. Stu is a man who has found something he is clearly able to be master of and his firing seems particularly egregious in the overall context of the film. He’s just the man you want on the job and strikes me as someone who you want on your side when the flames are lapping at your ankles. J. K. Simmons plays him with the quiet authority that comes through years of experience doing something of merit. Trudy Van Uuden is the town busy body and Frances Conroy plays her with a terrific comedic edge. She’s a bit ridiculous but entirely endearing.
Overall, this film presents a mediocre and familiar story that does not dazzle or shine. It’s easily digestible and subsequently forgettable although there are some performances that stick out for their overall weirdness. Siobhan Fallon is particularly fine as a woman with an enormous heart who lives accordance to principles that have seen her through many struggles throughout her life. She’s a character who is worth getting to know and Fallon captures Blanche’s core gentleness and true longing to do right by other people. She’s human and greatly vulnerable and it’s sometimes heartbreaking to look into her eyes as there is a hint of loss that is belied by her effervescent manner. Most of the other characters are not so memorable and are so familiar they are ultimately taken for granted and easily disposed of.
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