FIVE FILMS - LET THE FIRE BURN, SPARKS, WER, 13 SINS, MARA

LET THE FIRE BURN

The best documentaries allow the stories to tell themselves through archival material (interviews etc.) and whatever framing devices are necessary for the audience to understand what they are being shown.  The best documentary filmmakers are those that stay out of the way of the story.  On these grounds, LET THE FIRE BURN succeeds admirably.  Told through hearings held after the fact, interviews new footage etc., we get the complete picture of what happened in 1985 when the city of Philadelphia overreacted while attempting to remove the cult-like organization MOVE from the neighborhood where they were staying ending in a bombing and a fire that killed people and destroyed property.  It’s a riveting story well told and I like how the filmmaker will show the testimony of someone and then show evidence that contradicts it – Something great documentary filmmakers do.

SPARKS

Superhero noir, a SIN CITY/WATCHMEN type mash-up that never goes too far as far as explicit sex (some violence though).  The complex, well thought out story (from a graphic novel source) drives this film and makes it an in interesting watch despite the relatively low budget.  Lots of crazy characters doing crazy things in funny outfits.  Good fun.

WER

I had high hopes for this film as I’ve always felt that there are not enough good werewolf films.  For every THE HOWLING, THE BEAST MUST DIE!, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is a hundred other dumb b movies.  Sadly, despite a few exciting and scary scenes, this film is a disappointment ruined by a combination of irritating found footage sequences and SPOILER a new look for werewolves that involves people becoming the creatures without physically changing much (how cheap is that).  Also why this film takes place in France with American characters I have no idea.

13 SINS

Yet another watered down American version of a foreign horror film.  Here it’s the Thai film 13; GAME OF DEATH that gets the commercialized USA treatment.  The original is not a masterpiece but is quite fun in a rough, gross, nihilistic way.  The American version is weak.  The challenges the protagonist must undertake to win money are not as bad (or as interesting) as the original film and the ending is a huge cop-out.

MARA

The relatively short running time of this Swedish psychological horror film (70+ minutes) makes this feel more like an episode of a horror anthology show than a film.  Completely unremarkable in every way with a confused ending.  Only thing worth mentioning is the attractive female lead Angelica Jansson.     

SNOWPIERCER

There is so much going on in Bong Joon-ho’s SNOWPEIRCER that I feel it is hard to do it justice in a review.  The idea of a perpetual motion train travelling around the world continuously carrying the survivors of an accidental freezing over the world (that happened when combating global warming) as a microcosm of class struggle is a clever one but to fill this idea with great performances, bizarre visuals, and the train as a perfectly realized set piece turns a clever idea into a great, great film.

Ostensibly about a revolution of the poorly treated people in the tail section, the poor, who are abused by the police force working for the wealthy in the front of the train led by the mysterious Wilford, the man responsible for building the train, SNOWPIERCER has a number of great action sequences but they are not the main focus of the film.  A serious Marxists dialectic is at work here and the film does not water it down or throw in too much Hollywood fluff to obscure it.  It helps that this film was not made by a big Hollywood studio.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the main ingredients of this film which is the great performances.  There are a number of good supporting turns by John Hurt, Octavia Spenser, Go Ah-sung, and Ed Harris but they are secondary to three even bigger greater performances.  Chris Evans , who one might write off as a pretty boy Captain America, as the leader of the people from the tail section is given more to do than just action scenes.  A monologue he gives towards the end of the film about why he hates the people in the front of the train and Wilford in particular is amazing.  Tilda Swinton as an evil, duplicitous representative of the front compartment committing all sorts of evil acts and made up with thick glasses and false teeth and a thick Yorkshire accent, and the great Korean actor Song Kang-ho who is his usual inscrutable, slightly menacing, slightly heroic self also chew up the scenery with wild abandon.

This film works because it’s able to do a lot of different things without sacrificing the plot and the flow of the film.  I liked everything about this film – Good meaning, good action scenes, and good visuals (Especially liked how they go from car to car as they head towards the front of the train and the engine and each car is something new like an aquarium, a bathing room, a club with music etc.). Truth is  I don’t think Boon-Joon-ho has ever made a bad film.

  

     

FOUR FILMS - VERONICA MARS, MUSCLE SHOALS, CHEAP THRILLS, HAUNT

VERONICA MARS

I review this movie more as a fan of the TV show than as a movie review(and you do need to know the TV show to fully understand the movie).  On those grounds, it is very satisfying, a success.  The whole thing felt seamless, like time had not passed, like this was just another episode of the series.  The murder mystery is credible and it is nice to see all the characters back again even if some of them had very small amounts of screen time.  The secondary plot of police corruption perhaps wasn’t fleshed out enough (there wasn’t time) but I’m hoping there will be another movie to sort that out or even better a miniseries.  Pay attention, Netflix!

MUSCLE SHOALS

This documentary on the famous recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, while entertaining, never dull, full of cool interviews and wonderful music, digresses wildly from point to point making it hard to follow.  The best parts – Muscle Shoals founder/owner Rick Hall’s ongoing description of his hard life and hard road to success, the segments on Wilson Pickett, Duane Allman, The Rolling Stones, and Traffic.  The worst parts – The part where a group of musicians open a second rival studio nearby Muscle Shoals and then it goes back and forth between the two but as far as what music is being made – I lost track of who did what, confusing.  Also too much Bono – A genuinely self-absorbed asshole who spouts gibberish about “magic mud” being responsible for the good music vibes.

CHEAP THRILLS

More like torture porn than a horror movie with scares and a flowing storyline.  Reminded me a lot of WOULD YOU RATHER? which is a much better film with a much better plot.  A so so movie.  Best part of this film was David Koechner.  Always sensed some degree of menace in the comic dumb guys he plays and he is terrifying here.  He’s actually a very good actor.

HAUNT

This film is a mishmash of horror films starting with the recent spate of haunted house movies THE CONJURING especially but also INSIDIOUS, THE OTHERS, THE EXORCIST, the list goes on.  Feels pieced together, stitched haphazardly.  The ending is jarring and makes little sense.

TWO FILMS - CHILDREN OF SORROW, NYMPHOMANIAC

CHILDREN OF SORROW

What I liked about the evil cult horror CHILDREN OF SORROW  - Bill Oberst Jr’s performance was very good.  He was creepy and manipulative but one also understands him, feels him to a certain extent and how he operates.  This was all due to a good script that introduces the characters and their weaknesses and why they would join a cult. A number of the other performances are good too especially Jacqueline Johnson.  On the negative side, the handheld camera found footage style is very annoying and detracts and distracts from the story.  The movie would have been better if it had not been shot this way.  The transition from creepy cult to murder cult is very quick – the set-up could have been better.  The ending which I assume was meant to be a surprise was pedestrian and dumb.  Still, the good parts beat out the bad parts and I would say it's worth seeing despite the fact it could’ve been a better film. 

NYMPHOMANIAC PARTS ONE AND TWO

I gave up on the first part of Lars Von Trier’s NYMPHOMANIAC about an hour into it.  What self-indulgent crap.  It’s not even good as pornography.  I tried watching the second half but it was no better.  I believe the ending might have been trying to send a LAST TANGO IN PARIS vibe only with some kind of muddled message but of course no Marlon Brando.  All of the actors even the execrable Shia LaBeouf look extremely embarrassed about being in this movie.  Every film I’ve seen from Von Trier has been shit but this is probably the worst.  Someone should lock Von Trier in a dark room and prevent him from making any more films.

THREE FILMS - ALMOST HUMAN, THE PERFECT HOUSE, IN FEAR

ALMOST HUMAN

At 80 minutes long, there is not a wasted minute in this sci fi horror.  At times the low budget is glaringly apparent but most of the time this is not a hindrance and the blood and gore is handled well.  For scares, I did jump a few times.  There is an obvious nod to John Carpenter’s THE THING and how the aliens take over people really reminds me of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.  Not a classic but a decent flick if you’re in the mood for fast paced horror with some decent effects.

THE PERFECT HOUSE

If effort was everything then this sort of anthology about an evil house and three of its past tenants being told to present day prospective buyers by a sinister realtor would really be something but the poor lighting, terrible acting, and basic inability to tell a story keep getting in the way.  There was promise here particularly in the third story and plenty of gore and cruelty but this movie looks like it was shot in one day by drug addled film students.

IN FEAR

Like cotton candy that disappears in your mouth, this movie leaves very little trace of its existence. It has some good directing and well shot scenes but the story is so old hat, a couple on a roadtrip menaced by a psycho, that even the mild twist at the end can’t save it.  Immediately forgettable.

A RECENT ARTICLE ABOUT ME AND MY POETRY

Nice article....Hits all the important points

http://www.ipohecho.com.my/v3/article/2014/03/01/ipohs-unheralded-poet