Hereditary

Hereditary; psychological drama / horror, USA, 2018; D: Ari Aster, S: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd 

Annie is devastated: not long after her erratic mother Ellen died, her daughter Charlie (13) is decapitated in a freak car accident when the car was driven by her brother Peter (16). Annie and her husband Steve try not to blame Peter, but strange things keep happening in their house. Annie is caught sleepwalking at night, and contacts Joan, a woman who teaches her how to ostensibly summon the ghost of Charlie. Steve thinks the ghost summoning seance is nonsense. When Annie discovers her mother's dead body in the attic, covered with Satanic symbols, she throws Ellen's book into the fire, and Steve burns out in a flame. Annie is possessed by a demon and attacks Peter. The demon crosses into Peter's body, where Joan and other demon-worshipers worship him in the treehouse.

Ari Aster's feature length debut film is an effective psychological drama, at first coping with the issue of Annie losing both her mother and her child, and is thus symbolically suddenly left without her legacy and her future, yet slowly morphs into a different kind of genre, the one of a horror, which is not that effective since it rehashes some already seen motives from "The Witch" and "Rosemary's Baby", failing to create something new. For all the hype surrounding it (some websites reported exaggerated stories of audiences being so scared by the film that they fled the screenings), "Hereditary" is rather calm in its first hour, even boring save for the two unpleasant-eerie moments (Charlie using scissors to chop the head of a dead pigeon; only for her losing her own head when she sticks it out in a speeding car), whereas its inspiration is not that high and is burdened by stale dialogue. The final 30 minutes are were the movie engages the most, since the suspense really kicks in, abounding with some scary moments (Peter spots a reflection of a light traveling across the hall), except that the plot twist near the end is not that well prepared: some of the characters seen early on were on it the whole time, but it was not that well shown, making the ending seem almost abridged, though it does connect to the element of split personality, indicating that some of the characters already showed signs of demonic possession. Two undoubtedly great plus points are the two main actors: excellent Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne as the married couple stuck in a series of bizarre paranormal events, and their performances are top notch. 

Grade:++

One from the Heart

One from the Heart; romantic comedy, USA, 1981; D: Francis Ford Coppola, S: Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Lainie Kazan, Harry Dean Stanton

Las Vegas, the 4th of July. Hank, a car mechanic, and Frannie, a store window decorator, are a couple celebrating their anniversary. However, they argue and break up, with Frannie leaving the house to stay at her friend. Out of spite, Frannie goes out with singer Ray, and Hank with circus performer Leila. They spend the night with their respective lovers, but then Hank has a change of heart and wants to return to Frannie. He breaks into the hotel room and interupts Frannie in bed with Ray, kidnapping her in his car. Frannie still leaves him and boards a plane with Ray for Bora Bora. Hank returns back home, and Frannie returns to him, too, unexpectedly.

After his exhausting filming with "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now", the director Francis Ford Coppola rightfully decided to make a light, relaxing film for a change, "One from the Heart", but it seems he had trouble switching from a monumental-epic style of the said two films to that of an intimate storyline about two ordinary people in everyday situations, without any danger or stakes. As such, this film looks somewhat lukewarm, almost as if Coppola lost his sense for crafting an engaging storyline. The story is nice, yet it often feels as if something is "off", probably due to a lack of inspired writing or the overindulgence with the overloud jazz music playing too often, forcing it even to play over the characters while they are talking, which makes it difficult to hear what they are saying. However, the two leading actors are in top notch shape, especially the excellent Teri Garr, who is very charming and sweet as Frannie. One of the funniest moments is a dinner sequence early on, where Frannie admits to Hank that he was not her ideal "prince charming", but that he was "nice", and hoped that he would change into something better, but then this gradually morphs into her admitting: "But you haven't changed. And you're not even nice anymore!" This slowly escalates into an argument, with several silly insults ("Hey, if I was putting on a few pounds, why didn't you say something?" - "Because you never listen to anything I say, anyway!"). It is a pity the movie did not focus on more of such funny sequences, since it loses itself in the meandering story without a clear point, though Coppola has a few interesting moments of visual style: one of them is the impressive scene where Hank sits at the apartment of his friend, and then the projection of Frannie and her friend is screened on the wall, as the camera drives to the right and then switches to the latter across the wall.

Grade:++

Wheels on Meals

Kuai kan che; comedy / action / crime, Hong Kong, 1984; D: Sammo Hung, S: Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Lola Forner,  Benny Urquidez  

Thomas and David are two Hong Kong expatriates who work in Barcelona as a waiter and a cook in a food truck. At the same time, Hong Kong expatriate Moby, a private detective, is hired by a gentleman to find the long lost daughter of a nobleman, Sylvia, who is supposed to inherit a large inheritance from a count. It turns out Sylvia feigns working as a prostitute to steal the money from people. When Thomas and David give her refuge, she robs their apartment. When Moby finds them, they team up to protect her from Sylvia’s evil uncle, since she will lose her inheritance if she does not show up in three days. The uncle kidnaps Sylvia in his castle, but Thomas, David and Moby save her. She gets the inheritance, but renounces it to work as a waitress with Thomas and David.  

One of Jackie Chan’s most sympathetic films, from the ‘golden age’ of Hong Kong cinema, “Wheels on Meals” is assembled more as a straight-forward comedy and amalgamation of typical archetypes of heroes helping a damsel in distress or princess in regaining her royalty status, than as an action film, though it still has several virtuoso martial arts fights near the end. The sheer audacity of the Hong Kong cinema is already displayed in the opening credits, where the Chinese script is showed over the Sagrada Familia basilica during night, yet it is overall exotic and cozy watching the two Hong Kong expatriates working in Barcelona, showing the nature of immigrants from their perspective. The story abounds with wacky ideas and amusing jokes: geek David uses his computer program to activate the food truck into opening and assembling its kitchen and seats, and later even uses its sprinkler to spray juice all over an enemy car during a car chase. Another funny moment is when the bad guys are searching for the heroes in a sewage, and Moby is hiding by lying low, but cannot stand the stench anymore so he has to emerge out, thereby revealing his hideout. Thomas sneaks in into the dinning room of the villain by hiding under the giant dress of a lady who sits at the villain’s table. All good jokes, except for the episodes of the two madmen, who are unnecessary and should have been cut. The three main actors work as a good team of friends, and Sammo Hung stands out as the chubby Moby. Jackie Chan plays the role of Thomas untypically as a comedian, though he switches to his martial arts persona in the finale, especially in the painstakingly choreographed fight with the thug in a white tuxedo, where at one point the thug swings his arm just above Chan, extinguishing a row of candle fire in the process. “Wheels” is a feel-good film, an unusual slice of cinema from Asia. It is sometimes clumsy and naive, with some lame gags, but it has some irresistible positive energy.  

Grade:++

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse; documentary, USA, 1976 / 1991, D: Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, George Hickenlooper, S: Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen, Eleanor Coppola, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, John Milius, George Lucas

In 1 9 7 5, director Francis Ford Coppola starts the casting audition for his new planned movie, "Apocalypse Now", written by John Milius. It is about the Vietnam War, so Coppola decides to film it in the jungles of the Philippines, settling there with his wife Eleanor, who records the events, and their three kids, including Sofia and Roman Coppola. Insead of the planned 16 weeks, the filming will drag on for 34 weeks, and will be plagued by problems: a monsoon; a typhoon; the main actor Harvey Keitel is fired and replaced by Martin Sheen, who on the other hand suffers a heart attack; the helicopters are borrowed by the army, but they are sometimes diverted to fight the rebels; the budget skyrockets, and thus Francis has to sell his rights from "The Godfather" to complete the movie. Finally, Marlon Brando threatens to take the million $ and not show up since Francis needs more time to rewrite the ending. Brando does show up, but overweight and bald, and does not listen to Francis, who has to invent a new ending. In spite of all this, "Apocalypse Now" is hailed by the critics and is a hit. 

A rare and fascinating documentary on the making of "Apocalypse Now", "Hearts of Darkness" shows it as basically a film depiction of Francis Ford Coppola's own anxiety while trying to achieve his dream, despite all the impossible burdens. Assembled out of archive footage of Francis' wife Eleanor, who filmed the events, it is a remarkable testament to Coppola as a filmmaker: yes, he was crazy and insane for accepting to direct this difficult task in the first place, but one has to grant him huge respect for being one of the last true cineasts who are willing to go through everything just to achieve their artistic vision. Coppola himself points out the imminent flaws in "Apocalypse Now": it is a delirious, psychedelic experience not for everyone's taste, and the anticlimactic ending is simply no good, because Brando's character Kurtz acts as if he came from a different movie that has no relation to the previous events. Nonetheless, similarly like Herzog in "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre", it is engaging just to listen to what Coppola had to go through to get this film done, and he did get it done. And it is surprisingly funny at moments, since some of the dialogues are a riot: "Did you ever consider quitting?” - “How would I quit on myself?” In another sequence, Coppola goes: “If Marty dies, I want to hear that everything is OK, until I say Marty is dead, got it? .... This is the first time I got scared on this movie.“ John Milius recounts a stunning meeting with Coppola during filming: “And they brought me back to bring the script back together... I felt like von Rundstedt going to see Hitler, I was going to be telling him there is no more gasoline on the Eastern Front, and the whole thing would fold, and I came out an hour and a half later and he had convinced me that this was the 1st film that would win the Nobel Prize. And I came out like von Rundstedt: ‘We can win! We don’t need gasoline’!” This sums up Coppola's enthusiasm and sheer energy as an artist, though with a certain toll. As he himself admits near the ending about the chaotic nature of the filming: “...this did contribute to a state of mind that was like Kurtz’s.” Certainly a wild ride, and an engaging experience that should be seen by anyone who wants to appreciate movies and the unsung heroes behind the scenes.

Grade:+++

A Star is Born

A Star is Born; drama / musical / romance, USA, 2018; D: Bradley Cooper, S: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Rafi Gavron, Andrew Dice Clay, Anthony Ramos, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle  

Jackson, a famous country-rock singer, meets the struggling singer Ally who pays her bills by working as a waitress. He falls in love with her and motivates her to perform live on stage, together with him. Ally gains a manager, Rez, who helps her establish fame as a singer. Congruent with her rise to fame and a Grammy win, Jackson stumbles due to his alcoholism and drugs intake. Jackson and Ally get married, and he decides to take up therapy to give up drugs. Fearing he might be a detriment to Ally’s career, Jackson committs suicide.  

For his feature length debut film as a director, Bradley Cooper picked the 4th adaptation-remake of “A Star is Born”, and even though this is kind of an oversaturation of the same old story by this point, he still managed to assemble an honest, quality little film that works the most thanks to the chemistry between the two main actors. In that respect, his pick of singer Lady Gaga as the leading actress was a strange, but ultimately correct choice: she has a sixth sense for harmony during her singing sessions, giving an authentic seal to the scenes, and is also a surprisingly good actress during dramatic moments, maybe because she showed her fragile, human, true self, without her trademark exotic make up or costumes. Sadly, the writing is rather routine, and the execution standard to truly give some new take on the same storyline where one artist sinks while the other ascents to fame. 

The weakest sequence is the Grammy awards moment: at first, it works because it shows how Jackson struggles to play on stage because he is either drunk or under drugs. But the sequence becomes excessive and ridiculous when Ally goes on stage to pick up the award, while Jackson falls and remains lying on the stairs, then stands up, mumbles something, stands next to Ally—and then pees his own pants on camera. The first part was subtle, all the rest was just unconvincing hammering of the same point, just dumber. Aggravating this is the problem that the viewers are never sure why Jackson is insisting on ruining everything so much: he is famous, has someone who loves him, has a future, but chooses to be a wreck for alcohol and coccaine. The sequence where Ally is in a bathtub, for instance— Jackson starts an argument by calling her ugly, but we just don’t buy it. It seems like an argument just for drama sake, not because it has real motivation. The best moments are when Jackson and Ally are infatuated with each other: he has uplifting words for her (“All you got is you and what you have to say to people and they are listening right now and they are not going to be listening forever”), or the sequence when she jokingly sings just to him, in private, only for him to later on repeat that same song on stage, in front of the audience, to “invite” her to sing with him.  

Grade:++

Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs; stop-motion animated adventure, USA / Germany, 2018; D: Wes Anderson, S: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Kunichi Nomura, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Akira Takayama, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Yoko Ono, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Fisher Stevens, Ken Watanabe  

Japan. Kobayashi, the mayor of the city of Megasaki, ordered 750,000 dogs deported to a nearby trash island, ostensibly due to a dog flu that is dangerous to people. A 12-year old boy, Atari, goes to the city defying the ban to find his beloved lost dog Spot, and is assisted by Chief, a local stray dog. He finds Spot, who is Chief’s brother, but the latter admits the cannot return since he now has puppies with his sweetheart. An American exchange student, Tracy, discovers that Professor Watanabe has a cure for dog flu, and thus pressures Kobayashi into ending the separation of dogs. The dogs return back to Megasaki and team up with humans, while Atari adopts Chief.  

9 years after his charming trip to stop-motion animation with “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, the director and screenwriter Wes Anderson returned to the said medium with “Isle of Dogs”, repeating this success more-or-less. “Isle of Dogs” is an unusual allegory on the Holocaust (the dogs are exiled on an island which is practically a ghetto, and are planned to be killed) and authoritarianism (mayor Kobayashi built his career by fermenting xenophobia and fear, tricking people into thinking only he can “protect” them from dogs), with several dark and unpleasant moments (Atari finds a dog skeleton trapped in a cage; the poisoned sushi preparation sequence with a live fish being hacked), yet wildly contrasted with moments of positive humor, oddball situations (in a perfectly gentleman manner, the dogs stop threatening each other and say: “Wait a second. Before we attack each other and tear ourselves to shreds like a pack of maniacs, let's just open the sack first and see what's actually in it. It might not even be worth the trouble.”) and delightful ideas (for instance, all inserted subtitles, including the opening credits, are spelled in both the Japanese and Latin script). As with most of Anderson’s films, his symmetrical shot compositions are exquisite, but the sole events they are showing are often bland, mechanical and artificial, and will thus not reach you on a deeper level. His stories are not grounded in reality, but are autistic art-films without real stakes or true emotions, where characters talk like robots. This is mostly obvious in the fact that only exchange student Tracy feels like a real three-dimensional character with wit, while all others act too schematic: Bill Murray’s and Scarlett Johansson’s characters are just there in two-three sequences and feel like throw-away material. Viewers more inclined towards these kind of films will enjoy “Isle of Dogs” more, and be amused by its cameo appearances (Yoko Ono!) and imaginative world-building.   

Grade:++

Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused; comedy, USA, 1993; D: Richard Linklater, S: Jason London, Wiley Wiggley, Sasha Jenson, Christine Harnos, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Michelle Burke, Christine Harnos, Rory Cochrane, Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey

Austin, Texas, 28 May 1 9 7 6. It is the last day of high school, and two groups of teenagers—the seniors, who are ending their era; and freshmen, who are just starting their path—go to attend a party in the woods during the night. Freshman Mitch uses his friends to take revenge by pouring paint over senior O’Bannion who paddled him as a “initiation” ritual. Geek Mike felt he was humiliated by a punk pothead, so he starts a fight with the latter, but is saved by his friends Tony and Cynthia. Pink, Wooderson, Don and Slater decide to smoke marijuana on the football field as a symbol of growing up.  

Despite all of its humor and youthful energy, Richard Linklater’s film still has melancholic, bitter underlying themes of passage of time and constant changes of eras in life. The viewers might feel a little bit disoriented during their first viewing, since “Dazed and Confused” has almost 30 teenage characters, constantly flipping between them, but the best way to watch it is to not worry about the names of all of them and just regard it as an example of “collective observation” of a generation on the last day of high school, a threshold of change in their lives. The episodic story is utter chaos—and yet, it doesn’t matter, since the only thing that matters is just the way it makes you feel: it is a ‘hangout’ and ‘slice-of-life’ film, and it is its own bubble of teenage experience. There is no real story or goal. Instead, it is a collection of Linklater’s experiences, filled with some incredible quotes, whether they are funny (“That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age”), weird (“All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life - remind me to kill myself”), or even wise and philosophical (“... don't you ever feel like everything we do and everything we've been taught is just to service the future?... You know, but that's valid because if we are all gonna die anyway shouldn't we be enjoying ourselves now? You know, I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor insignificant preamble to something else”). The most was achieved out of the fleeting, but genius role by Parker Posey as senior Darla, whose energy, combined with perfect choreography of her character hazing the freshman girls by pouring ketchup on them while they are lying outside of school, is a virtuoso highlight that stands out and deserves to enter the anthology of the 90s movies. This upgrade of Linklater’s own episodic film “Slacker” is flawed, crazy and chaotic, but precisely because of that it feels just like life.   

Grade:+++

Arena

Arena; science-fiction, USA / Italy, 1989; D: Peter Manoogian, S: Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Marc Alamo  

Sometime in the future, a space station is hosting a fighting tournament where all alien species fight in an arena for a Galactic championship. Steve is a cook who gets into an argument with a dissatisfied alien customer and beats him up, gaining attention of sports manager Quinn who wants Steve to fight in the arena. When Steve’s friend, alien Shorty with four hands, steals money from casino owner Rogor, Steve accepts Quinn’s offer to pay off the debt. After winning several matches, Steve is seduced and poisened by Rogor’s girlfriend, but saved thanks to the intervention by the doctors. Steve thus wins in a match against Rogor’s fighter Horn.  

Contrary to many other independent films that focus on real-life events, the director Paul Manoogian actually takes the hard way and opts for a lavishing science-fiction film with “Arena”, where he does wonders with the small budget at his disposal in this blend of “Rocky” and “Star Wars”. “Arena” is a rare example of a movie beyond ‘guilty pleasure’, since it boasts with surprisingly good practical effects of alien make-up, exotic set-designs of the space station and fairly well done camera work, which is why this small cult film should be granted more appreciation. The highlight is arguably the arena fight between Steve and Sloth, a 7 ft tall non-humanoid alien that looks like a torso of a lizard reversely attached to a rear of a giant grasshopper, and the editing is pretty good in that fight sequence. A few attempts at humor come across as refreshing, especially from cook Shorty who either argues with customers (“Easy, I only have four hands!”) up to a “Caddyshack” reference (“Last time I saw a face like that, it had a hook in it!”). Peculiarly, the film lacks the most in the character-building department, since Steve is a rather bland good guy without much personality, as well as some plot holes: for instance, why would Rogor be in such an opposition to Steve winning the tournament? Why not simply accept that and support him by betting on him? It seems the movie was more creative in its set-designs than its story and style, but even that former counts as a plus point. Micro budget, macro imagination: a small home run for Sci-Fi fans.   

Grade:++

Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again; western comedy, USA, 1939; D: George Marshall, S: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy

The Wild West, 19th century. Kent is a criminal saloon owner who basically uses rigged poker games to steal ranches of people who lost the game. He is assissted by the attractive saloon girl, Frenchy. When the drunk Dimsdale is appointed as the new sheriff, in order so that nothing can change, he surprisingly calls for help of the young lad Tom Destry who is summoned to the town to be the deputy sheriff. At first, Destry is ridiculed for being too nice, and refusing to even wear a pistol, but he slowly starts investigating how people are losing their land in the poker games, and how the previous sheriff Keogh was killed, so he starts arresting people. Kent thus orders Dimsdale to be killed. This angers Destry, who puts on a gun for the first time. In the saloon, Frenchy is shot and killed by Kent, while Destry shoots Kent. Afterwards, Destry remains in the town as the sheriff.

"Destry Rides Again" is a good western comedy, yet demonstrates that not every James Stewart movie is always a classic: it lacks more inspiration and tighter writting to feel more complete or to satisfy the viewers on a higher level. Stewart plays the title character well, who arrives 20 minutes into the film, traveling in a stagecoach and saying some of the darnedest lines ("I had a friend once. His name was Stubbs. He was always going around threatening to blow people's heads off. One day a fella came along and took him up on it. Well, folks say that now Stubbs' forehead is holding up the prettiest tombstone in Greenlawn Cemetery"), and then takes on a role of a seemingly naive guy who later on turns out far more competent than expected in solving a problem, in this case as a deputy sheriff. Marlene Dietrich is excellent as the sleazy saloon girl Frenchy, especially in the opening act where a man brags how he has an ace in a poker game, so she ostensibly "falls" and spills her drink on him, after which his card conveniently disappears and he loses his ranch. However, Frenchy practically disappears from the story after Destry appears, so their love story thus feels shoehorned in the finale, since she simply wasn't around the protagonist. The story has some sharp observations about the exploitation of people through gambling and rigged games, yet a fair share of it is too slow, too long, and does not always feel genuine. This anemic approach dates the film, as well as the abrupt ending, but one sequence is simply brilliant: in the shootout, two groups of men shoot at each other across the street, until a mass of women marches between them. The men have to stop, since they cannot shoot at the women. And then, the women march into the saloon, and start beating up all the men inside, ending the "Mexican standoff" their own way.

Grade:++

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist

Kung Pow! Enter the Fist; parody / comedy, USA, 2002; D: Steve Oedekerk, S: Steve Oedekerk, Fei Lung, Ling Ling Tse, Hui Lou Chen

While he was a baby, the Chosen One's family was killed by the evil Master Pain. The Chosen One is now grown up and enlists into a martial arts school run by Master Tang, in order to train for his revenge. However, Master Pain, now calling himself "Betty", and his henchmen storm the city, beat up citizens and kills Master Tang. Thanks to the love by Ling, the Chosen One, using his superpower, a tongue with eyes and a mouth, defeats Master Pain and destroys the evil alien flying pyramids.

"Kung Pow" is a stupid film, but it is howlingly hilarious, one of the funniest ones of the decade. Similarly like Allen's parody "What's Up, Tiger Lily?", author Steve Oedekerk here also took an old Asian movie, "Tiger and Crane Fists", removed its sound, and then completely, deliberately mis-synchronized it into a comedy, even using visual effects to insert himself into the archive footage. Spontaneously inserting dialogues that give a new context, he achieved some irresistibly comical situations. For instance, the henchmen of the evil Master Pain beat up people on the streets, and one of his adherents is lisping him: "Master Pain, it is a great honor having you beating random people in our town. Welcome!" Master Pain brags with his plan at how ridiculous of a villain he is: "It is so evil! It is a bad, bad plan, that will hurt many... people... that are good!" During the fight where Master Pain injures Master Tang and throws a metal claw at him, the frame freezes, and Tang has this line of thought: "Ok, so here were my options: A) quickly duck left, dodge the claw and take him out with a spinning back kick, or B) take the claw in the face, roll on the ground and die." And then Tang gets hit by the claw and falls down, concluding: "Hmm, should have gone with A." 

This goes even further, where the Chosen One finds the mortally wounded Tang, and instead of saying something useful, his dying words are: "Listen, and listen well... I really like the band N-Sync. My favorite member is Harpo. I think there's a Harpo? If not, there should be!" Not even the Monty Pythons would have been ashamed of such moments of pure humor, but they would have still been much more skilful in filming new, modern sequences in the opening and closing act, which are a debase of the middle, dubbed segment of the film: pointless, dumb scenes of the Chosen One showing eyeballs on his fingers after he defeated his adversaries, or the whole trashy idea of his tongue with eyes and a mouth, reveal that there were too many vile and crude moments which should have been cut or written in a better way. It is a pity that Oedekerk did not prop up those bad moments to be on the same level as the dubbed one: one of the most pointless scenes is the CGI fight of the Chosen One with a cow. "Kung Pow" is kind of like a 'guilty pleasure': you will rarely laugh so hard at a movie you disapprove of. 

Grade:+

The Untamed

La región salvaje; erotic fantasy drama, Mexico / Norway / Denmark / France / Germany / Switzerland, 2016; D: Amat Escalante, S: Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesus Meza, Eden Villavicencio, Andrea Pelaez  

Alejandra is unsatisfied with her marriage with macho brute Angel, with whom she has two kids. Angel surprisingly starts a secret affair with her gay brother, Fabian, even though he feigns he is homophobic. When Fabian is found beaten into a coma, lying naked on a meadow, Alejandra suspects it was Angel, and contacts the police who arrest him. In the meantime, Veronica finds orgasmic pleasure when she has sex with a tentacle alien living in a basement of a barn run by an elderly couple. She recommends Alejandra to try it, and the latter complies. Alejandra flees with the kids to start a new life, but Angel is released out of the prison and threatens her, but accidentally shoots himself in the leg. Alejandra drags him to the alien creature. Veronica and Angel are found dead, while Alejandra returns to the kids. 

The unusual cult art-film extravaganza “The Untamed” seems to be comprised out of two incompatible segments, one a standard drama, and the other a fantasy where an alien tentacle creature—a homage to Zulawski’s “Possession”—unleashes the ultimate desires, and the result is a hypnotic, aspirational, moody, but also confusing film. The said octopus-like creature that lives in the basement is an allegory on the subconscious instincts deep inside of people, the hidden id that suddenly emerges in its presence: for Victoria, who is injured by the creature on her hip, but enjoys returning to it anyway, this might symbolize her repressed sadomasochistic urges; while for Angel, who pretends to be a macho man yet secretly starts a gay affair with Fabian (the sequence where Angel is “doing” Fabian from behind, and then Fabian gets behind him to switch the sides during sex), this might symbolize his unacknowledged homosexual urges. However, the movie falls apart with Alejandra (excellent Ruth Ramos), who does not fit into this theme at all—she remains curiously calm and unaffected by any passion. In the opening scenes, we only see a tentacle retreating from Veronica, sitting naked in the basement, and then the movie turns into a normal drama, until the creature makes its second appearance 60 minutes (!) into the film: instead of being scary, its “sex scene” with Alejandra is kind of sensual, its tentacles embracing and tickling her, while she sucks one tentacle as if she is giving it a blow job. Unfortunately, no major unleashing of strong passion is detected in Alejandra afterwards (except maybe her courage to break away from her macho husband), and this skewed detour seems like an intruder in the storyline, especially in the incomplete and abrupt ending, where it is not clear what happened. Sadly, this inconsistency brings the film down, yet Amat Escalante should still be congratulated for delivering a well directed and daring experimental film, a dichotomy between warm and bubbly, yet dark and psychological.  

Grade:++

News of the World

News of the World; western-drama / road movie, USA, 2020, S: Paul Greengrass, S: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Tom Astor, Mare Winningham, Andy Kastelic, Ray McKinnon, Jeffrey Ware

Texas, 1870. Jeffrey Kidd is a former Captain of the Confederacy who now works as a reader who goes from town to town to read newspaper stories to illiterate people at meetings. He finds a blond girl, Johanna (10), who was abducted by Indians as a baby and cannot speak English, and is now an orphan. He takes the girl on his carriage to transport her to her nearest relatives in Castroville. After a lot of obstacles, he returns Johanna to her distant relatives, but upon returning home, finds out his wife died from cholera, so Kidd returns to Castroville and adopts Johanna to accompany him.  

Paul Greengrass’ untypical western road movie is a meditation on some of the lowest, worst traits of the American South—brutes, bullies, primitives, xenophobes and racists, including uneducated masses—as opposed to the idealistic, literate hero Kidd who symbolizes hope in the form of enlightenment, yet just like many ‘social issues films’, it is only able to be preachy and show the said issues, but not to incorporate them invisibly into a story with a function. “News of the World” thus feels didactic and dry, with a rather overstated notion of Kidd as a “holly” savior of the little girl Johanna. Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel play these characters well, but it is detrimental that Johanna does not speak English, and thus Kidd just speaks to himself most of the time, which makes their bonding feel as if it was not earned at the end. Some of the obstacles are kind of far-fetched, such as the three outlaws that chase Kid because they insist on buying the girl. Why would these outlaws risk their lives precisely on this little girl when they know she is guarded by an armed man? It makes little sense, except that the movie needed some bad guys to be more exciting. As such , the movie is good, well filmed and acted, but routine and too standard to stay in a better memory of the viewers. 

Grade:++