Archive | Film Reviews RSS feed for this section

MELANCHOLIA – Film Review [TIFF 2011]

The texture of Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia” is not unlike his other outings yet it stretches with a little more complacency despite its dark material. Unlike his earlier and slightly more accomplished “Antichrist”, the approach here is less sex-driven than morality and mortality driven. The difference molds into the separation of a more narrative driven piece. Like “Antichrist” though, the severity of Von Trier’s power resigns in the first couple minutes of his movie. Unlike the earlier-in-the-day seen screening of “The Artist” which understands this balance throughout, Von Trier, with the exception of “Dancer Of The Dark”, truly likes to begin big and end big. “Melancholia” is no different in this regard. Where it does stray in many ways is within the lack of a sub-cutting in style which always gives his films an unbalanced but utterly unique cadence.

Here, the story is filtered into two separate parts: “Justine” and “Claire”. As normal for the director, he has an undeniable fascination of the would-be maternal figure and her ability to fail at her maturity. Not as pronounced as Charlotte Gainesbourg in his slightly earlier film (“Antichrist”), Kirsten Dunst plays thr metaphor of a girl who might have everything in certain aspects but puts on a smile to make it all go away. The first part of the movie takes place at a wedding. The second half at the estate of her sister. One specific detail that tends to populate the first half of the film and less of the second is the use of humor, specifically with the forced but still effective humor of John Hurt as Dunst’s dad and Kiefer Sutherland (to a lesser degree) as her brother-in-law. The second part of the film takes a much more somber darker turn.

The background narrative of the film involves the near flyby of another planet that may or may not collide with Earth. This scale element is reflected in the intense first couple minutes as described before the title. The bombastic nature of this ode to space utterly outweighs the similar pretension that Terrence Malick attempted with “Tree Of Life” because, unlike that personification, this one has consequences. However to put things in perspective the Texas Family segment of “Tree Of Life” in terms of acting, naturalism and structure still shines brighter than the ample and able cast of “Melancholia”. This might or might not have to do with Von Trier’s apparent more hands-off structure with actors. The first few minutes of “Melancholia” however kill with a vengeance that makes you want to watch to the end while repeating a music theme that sounds similar to certain tones of “Trip To Jupiter” from “2001″.

“Melancholia” shows a Von Trier more adept at exploring a narrative based element and bordering out from his more sex-violence tinged notions of life simply in terms of trying to shock the audience instead settling in for certain ideas of context that sometimes can be more scary. That is not to downplay its originality and undeniable Von Trier structure because it still has merit that stays with you.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Film Festival Coverage, Film Reviews
Author insidereel

THE ARTIST – Film Review [TIFF 2011]

10 Sep

The resounding impact of “The Artist” is the perception of how retro it is in its personification. Similar in some tones to some other films using pure score, the film here works its magic by simply playing at many times to the metaphor of the silent films in terms of the mindset and psychology that manipulated their production. With a magnificent and inherently English/American supporting cast including John Goodman and James Cromwell, the brunt of the film rests of the shoulders of Jean Dujardin who plays the silent matinee idol George Valentin.

The film uses the notion of silence as an emotional barometer. The score itself seems purely built as sort of an emotional soundwave of what is going on. This is not necessarily different from the perspective of modern cinema to be sure but because it approaches the film from the stylistic perspective of that era and barely strays is what gives it its charm. It never oversteps its boundaries using the parlance of the day against it (which in many ways haunted a little bit of “Melancholia” later in the day because of its intrinsic use of metaphors in dialogue). The emotions never feel forced because they are real for what they are. The narrative itself follows the fading of a star and the rising of another one (again not unlike the literal narrative of “Melancholia”) but is done so with a texture that a star’s life is only reflective of their popularity and the choices they make.

The decision to shoot the film in the 16mm framing format from the early days of film is a very specific one and is used to great perspective especially during a stair scene that is purely and wonderfully structured, written and composed. While many of the narrative devices used are expected in their consequence, it still brings about a sense of nostalgia. John Goodman playing the Louis B. Mayer (or would-be Harvey Weinstein for that matter) has a jovial persona with a business mind that understands the mainstream for better or for worse which here reflects in the transgression of silent films to the talkies. Bernice Bejo (also seemingly a French actor like Jean) has a definitive look that defines a bygone era. With ours such a fast cutting world, the notion of a look held or a moment raised sometimes goes unoptioned in the current film vocabulary.

Returning to Dujardin, he modulates the tone through his character’s up and downs using some genre underpinnings in terms of montage and would-be hallucinations of the character to provide a point. The subtleties exist and play against the structure but the film works because it has reference for its genre, love for modern perception but also a balance of nostalgia which never becomes overplayed. The final moments optimizing the one bit of film score that is recognizable fits the occasion if you know where the music comes from.

“The Artist” is a wonderful experiment that knows exactly what its purpose is. The next step becomes a notion of engaging an audience beyond the film lovers and festivalgoers who truly understand the homage that is being made and how well it has been done. The challenge of cross-engaging the consumer always depends on the emotional connection which the film has in spades.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Film Festival Coverage, Film Reviews
Author insidereel

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark – Film Review

27 Aug

The texture of “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” interestingly resides in its foreign film roots, not in its origin but in its actual overtones. Guillermo Del Toro is interrelated as being the tone within which this is based. The American perception causes problems because what transpires in a foreign language feels much more exacting when you don’t realize the actual interpretation. The problem here is that the dialogue is purely interspersed as exposition which makes the characters state the obvious which almost comes out as dumb. The parents, step or not, come out as caricatures. There is no separation from Katie Holmes, the celebity, and Holmes, the actress so it is hard to involve the idea of her character. Guy Pearce, who usually is exceptionally sharp in terms of the kind of projects he selects, seems like a smooth blank slate here but nothing to fill it with except a disinterested more interested in his business than his daughter. The little girl, who sees odd creatures in the basement of their new house, is not bad but again the narrative and obvious exposition take away any sense of foreboding and tension. Balanced within this sense is no aspect of humor creating a lack of any function to the progression.

When a keeper is attacked and killed by these little cretins, everyone thinks that someone else did it but the lack of practicality in this deduction just seems to point to the fact that everyone is at fault for failing to see the final result. When the collision of aggressive creatures and seemingly ignorant humans commences, the resulting empathy is fairly null. The paradox is that when looking at a film like “Pan’s Labyrinth” or “The Devil’s Backbone” shot and progressed in Spanish with possibly similar obvious dialogue, it becomes part of the world. Being so specific to the way that American audiences will not accept certain aspects that might be natural to other countries shows the reasoning that more and more the angle of making pictures is approaching foreign audiences and appealing directly to their sensibilities. “Don’t Be Afraid” ironically might play exceptionally well in Latin American countries simply because our language will then be foreign.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Film Reviews
Author insidereel

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes – Film Review

27 Aug

The ingenuity in the new film “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” resides in its possibility that the ape itself is the star of the story. Ten years ago, when Tim Burton was making his own film, the technology had not progressed far enough to encompass the range of emotions necessary to show the aspect of why the element of apes rising against the humans would make sense. What was required was a catalyst of sorts which was both affecting and enormously practical without requiring the overwhelming texture of a movie star to angle the project to its own end. The perfect storm of structured elements allowed this to happen.

James Franco who is always able to tweak an opportunity to his advantage (many times for the art of it) realized that he was not the star of the movie but in order to sell the idea of Caesar as embodied by Andy Serkis (in motion capture), he had to affectate the central core of the story to be able to pass it along to Caesar. You have to see the growth of intelligence, betrayal, empathy and eventually understanding to make this work. The paradox is that by saying too much it will ruin the story for anyone else. Suffice to say, the reasoning behind the progression of the apes having the ability to take over has nothing to do with an actual want or need, simply a survival of prescription created by man’s own ignorance. The ability of the storyline to be mythic relies on the clarity of the ideas it presents.

Seeing how the ending rolls, and the amount of information it proscribes within what the film shows, leads directly into what the next progression needs to be. One scene that defines it is the notion of a language of humans that is taught via humans that starts deductive reasoning in Caesar. Unlike the previous incarnation which dictates that the apes rebelled simply in second- hand removed settings doesn’t allow us to understand the more important reason of “why”. This narrative makes it simple and even without the major action sequence that takes place on a bridge, its power is relayed, helped also in no small part by John Lithgow who, as the father of James Franco’s character, plays a man riddled by Alzeheimer’s who shows the progression of the would- be MacGuffin that unravels and distinctifies exactly what brings about the “rise”.

The reality though is that without Andy Serkis providing a soul behind Caesar this would not work at all. He is the true movie star within this which, after Gollum and Kong, people are finally starting to get. It is not the technology (though it helps), it is the person behind it.

B+