Category: 2012

The Last Road (2012, John Wheeler)

The Last Road refers to limbo. Literal limbo. Except it’s also a real place where the newly dead protagonist, played by Aaron Long, spent time while he was alive. Writer-director-photographer-editor-many other hats Wheeler never explains the rules of limbo very well. At times it’s a wonderfully imaginative spin on post-apocalyptic stuff. At other times, it isn’t. But Wheeler does really well during those scenes on the limited budget.

Even if he never does explain why the ghosts don’t just go back to houses and read books or something. There are books in limbo and the ghosts do read them. Doesn’t make sense they wouldn’t find more of them.

Except Long doesn’t get to limbo, problematic as it is, until thirty minutes until the film. Those first thirty minutes are about his living days, when he was a sociopathic fighter in an impoverished English town. Where he was abusive to his invalid mother.

Wheeler’s real obvious in Last Road. Long’s journey through the afterlife to find some humanity isn’t much of a surprise. And the “twist” ending isn’t a surprise.

It’s unfortunate the film didn’t start in the afterlife. By the third act, I’d forgotten how bad the living stuff got. Long couldn’t handle the role when he was the whole show. By the second half, he has sidekicks, specifically Laura Marklew, who’s excellent.

Wheeler’s direction isn’t great–he’s too stylized–but his editing and photography are fantastic.

Road’s too rocky, but there are good patches.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Written, directed and photographed by John Wheeler; edited by Wheeler and Laurence Williams; music by Mark Standing; production designer, Wheeler; produced by Williams; released by Striped Entertainment.

Starring Aaron Long (Toby), Simon Sokowlowski (Richardson), Laura Marklew (Larks) and Sarah Jane (Edith).

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Rust and Bone (2012, Jacques Audiard)

Until about eighty minutes into Rust and Bone, the film resists predictability. Director Audiard has a couple moments of Marion Cotillard bouncing back after a tragedy to pop music, but they’re punctuated with fantastic postscripts. The postscripts make up for any melodramatic shorthand.

Well, until the eighty minute mark. And then Rust and Bone becomes cloying. The film’s style doesn’t change–it’s still harsh and bright (with fantastic photography from Stéphane Fontaine)–but the storytelling changes. It stops being a character study of Cotillard, who has dominated the film, and slowly transitions back to Matthias Schoenaerts.

Schoenaerts is an amiable, if numb-skulled, single dad who just can’t seem to do right. From the eighty minute mark until the film’s conclusion, instead of being a character study, Rust becomes a redemption melodrama. A well-directed, well-acted redemption melodrama, but still a redemption melodrama. The final couple predictable moments are shockingly forecasted. Audiard and co-screenwriter Thomas Bidegain inexplicably bring in narration at the end; had they used it throughout and in future tense, the film could not be more predictable.

The worst part about the transition from Cotillard to Schoenaerts is there’s no attempt to share. Audiard and Bidegain had worked out a great balance between the two–Cotillard’s even top-billed–and then they flush it to manipulate the viewer.

Truly great editing from Juliette Welfling. Not in the montages, but in the scenes.

Cotillard and Schoenaerts’s beautiful acting make the film worthwhile. It’s just a narrative mess.

2/4★★

CREDITS

Directed by Jacques Audiard; screenplay by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain, based on a story by Craig Davidson; director of photography, Stéphane Fontaine; edited by Juliette Welfling; music by Alexandre Desplat; production designer, Michel Barthélémy; produced by Audiard, Martine Cassinelli and Pascal Caucheteux; released by Lumière.

Starring Marion Cotillard (Stéphanie), Matthias Schoenaerts (Alain van Versch), Armand Verdure (Sam), Céline Sallette (Louise), Corinne Masiero (Anna), Jean-Michel Correia (Richard) and Bouli Lanners (Martial).

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Old Stock (2012, James Genn)

The last scene of Old Stock doesn't exactly overshadow the rest of the film, but it certainly sets it apart. It's one of the more subtle finishes to a film. Without giving the viewer any guidance, director Genn and writer Dane Clark close the picture with a silent reference to a line in the dialogue. Hopefully the viewer gets it, because it's a fantastic pay-off.

The film concerns Noah Reid, the Stock of the title, who ends up hiding out in a retirement community (at the ripe old age of twenty) with his grandfather (Danny Wells), after an initially vague personal tragedy. The film manages to make it forty-five minutes before explaining the situation; when it finally does so, Genn goes with a full flashback. After hinting at it in dialogue–it's a small enough town Reid's famous for it–the flashback's the easiest way to get the story told.

Old Stock is short and to the point. Clark's script gets in a full subplot involving Wells and his estranged wife, Corinne Conley, and implied subplots for Melanie Leishman and Meghan Heffern, as the girls in Reid's life. Heffern is the girl involved with that vague personal tragedy, Leishman is the one who appears in the retirement community and causes Reid to reexamine his seclusion.

Genn's direction is fantastic, both composition and direction of actors. No one really gets a big scene, just quietly devastating ones. Reid, Leishman, Heffern, all outstanding.

Great editing from Kye Meechan too.

Stock is a notable success.

3/4★★★

CREDITS

Directed by James Genn; written by Dane Clark; director of photography, Arthur E. Cooper; edited by Kye Meechan; music by Dave Genn; production designer, Rosanna Lagace; produced by Geordie Sabbagh; released by E1 Entertainment.

Starring Noah Reid (Stock), Melanie Leishman (Patti), Meghan Heffern (Dhalia), Corinne Conley (Gloria), Anna Ferguson (Millicent), Gene Mack (Wendel), Jason Weinberg (Jason Weaver), Anand Rajaram (Dr. Anand), Jacob Kraemer (Tristan) and Danny Wells (Harold).

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Taken 2 (2012, Olivier Megaton), the unrated version

Besides a truly excellent real time (or very close to it) sequence where Maggie Grace avoids being kidnapped in order to help already kidnapped parents Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen, there's not much to Taken 2. Even the action-packed finale is a disappointment. I had been hoping it'd match that long sequence–which goes from a foot chase to car chase, with action moments throughout–but it's like everyone gave up and truncated the ending.

Maybe Neeson had it in his contract the movie could only run so long. A major part of his performance is his visible distain for the film; he incorporates the world weariness into the part well, but one can't help notice he doesn't run very often and many of the complicated action choreography happens when he's offscreen.

Still, director Megaton does a perfectly adequate job. Taken 2 is fast and dumb, no one seems to disagree. Writers Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen don't even try to fill the runtime with action and intrigue–there's a long first act setting up Janssen and Grace visiting Istanbul with Neeson. The writers pretend spending time with the characters will make the audience care, but really… no one cares. Not the writers, not the actors. They all do okay enough–even Grace, who looks about twenty-two as a teenager (which isn't bad, considering she was twenty-eight or so during filming).

Maybe it'd be better if Rade Serbedzija's villain weren't so lame, but why bother caring. Like I said, no one else does.

Flight (2012, Robert Zemeckis)

There are so many easy targets in Flight. Not really the acting, even though a lot of the supporting cast is phoning it in. They’re good actors–Don Cheadle, John Goodman (doing a riff on Big Lebowski)–and they’re capable at phoning it in.

It’d be impossible for them to do anything else, however, given director Zemeckis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a feature film where the famous songs playing in the background always directly inform the action. It’s either incredibly condescending to the audience or it’s just supposed to be the most obvious movie ever made.

Occasionally, because the acting from Denzel Washington and Kelly Reilly is so good, I thought there might be a chance it was all a ruse and Zemeckis and writer John Gatins were lulling the audience into a false sense of security. Flight isn’t about a happy ending, it’s about Denzel Washington, movie star and good guy, playing a fundamentally decent human being who has a lot of problems. But he can overcome those problems… because he’s Denzel Washington, good guy.

The film savors each moment of Washington’s failed attempts at redemption, every time he goes lower into the depths–it’s telling Flight skips ahead during what would have been its most difficult section dramatically.

Ignoring the trite foreshadowing, the manipulative writing, the general cheapness of the film overall, Flight is incredibly watchable. Both for Washington’s performance and, sure, to bemusedly regard Zemeckis’s vapid pseudo-sincerity. It takes major hits in the third act before going down.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Directed by Robert Zemeckis; written by John Gatins; director of photography, Don Burgess; edited by Jeremiah O’Driscoll; music by Alan Silvestri; production designer, Nelson Coates; produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey and Zemeckis; released by Paramount Pictures.

Starring Denzel Washington (Whip Whitaker), Don Cheadle (Hugh Lang), Kelly Reilly (Nicole), John Goodman (Harling Mays), Bruce Greenwood (Charlie Anderson), Brian Geraghty (Ken Evans), Tamara Tunie (Margaret Thomason), Nadine Velazquez (Katerina Marquez), Peter Gerety (Avington Carr), Garcelle Beauvais (Deana) and Melissa Leo (Ellen Block).

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Deadpool (2012, Tim Miller)

Deadpool is an effects test by Miller to prove a feature is possible. It’s unclear, in terms of a narrative, if the ninety second short answers that question in the positive but it doesn’t much matter. These ninety seconds of a strange masked comic book character directly addressing the viewer are phenomenal.

There’s a certain smugness to Ryan Reynolds’s performance–the titular, very skinny character is CG, but Reynolds did the motion capture and voice–but Miller makes it work. The comic timing of the test footage is what’s so spectacular.

A feature length version would probably be tiresome unless it was just one high quality action scene after another.

Miller gets everything right–the bad guys, the mood, the music–he’s proposing the idea of a superhero action movie, with lots of CG, but on a human action movie scale.

It’s a neat idea… but probably wouldn’t work out.

3/3Highly Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Tim Miller; based on a character created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld.

Starring Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool).

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In Heaven There Is No Beer (2012, David Palamaro)

Watch In Heaven There Is No Beer with a notebook handy, because you’re going to want to write down some of the band names. A lot of them. And waiting for the end credits doesn’t help unless you’re quick with the pause button.

Beer is the story of the Kiss or Kill “club,” which was a weekly music event in L.A. in the mid–2000s. Mid-aughts, not 2050s. While he doesn’t draw attention to his participation, director Palamaro was in one of the bands playing. Occasionally he’ll pop up in interview footage to bridge a couple ideas, but it’s always sparing and always on target.

The documentary is a gentle tragedy–none of the wronged people refused Palamaro an interview–as the club gets more and more popular, then thing start to fall apart. The causes for its decline are shockingly mundane but seem very dramatic as the viewer has spent about an hour with the people describing these personally difficult periods. Palamaro never comes down on one side or another and never really encourages the viewer to place blame either. The film’s lucky to have interviewees with a good sense of perspective.

Palaramo mixes historical footage, music videos, modern interviews. He shows how L.A. needed this kind of communal event, where bands supported one another–it’s sort of shocking to see how communal it got, with band members in the audience for the fellows, hanging out with fans.

The documentary’s outstanding; Palaramo guides a narrative but allows seepage.

3.5/4★★★½

CREDITS

Written, produced, photographed and directed by David Palamaro; edited by Curtis Bisel, Rebecca Gillaspie, Rick Levy, Patrick Nagy, Palamaro, Erik Rosenbluh and Mike Schnee; released by Modern Distributors.

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Kubrick // One-Point Perspective (2012, kogonada)

In a couple minutes–less, actually–kogonada takes the films of Stanley Kubrick and one of their shared elements, the titular One Point Perspective, and runs a bunch of them together. The short is of particular interest for what’s missing and, assuming kogonada is thorough (after watching Perspective there should be no doubt), one can see the technique is one Kubrick developed. Of Kubrick’s early films, Paths of Glory gets the only memorable inclusion.

But the short doesn’t just work as an examination of Kubrick. It could just as well be a brilliant advertisement for a new Blu-Ray set, as kogonada goes both for the emotions (the betrayal of The Shining) and the iconic (the monolith figures in often and effectively).

kogonada takes the viral film clip video, easily made and distributed, to a new level. Art about someone else’s art, made with recombinations of their art.

It’s spectacular.

3/3Highly Recommended

CREDITS

Edited by kogonada.

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Passion (2012, Brian De Palma)

Moody lightning, false endings, a Pino Donaggio score–Passion is De Palma’s return to his overcooked Hitchcock homages and a gleeful one. More, De Palma’s aware of its place in his filmography–the film opens with a playful piece of music from Donaggio, preparing the audience for a pitch black comedy. And, for a long while–even through some unexpected developments–De Palma lets that impression continue.

Most of the film is Rachel McAdams behaving badly. She alternately grooms and torments one of her subordinates–Noomi Rapace–which soon sets the two women against each other. Throw in a shared love interest (Paul Anderson) and Rapace’s admiring assistant (Karoline Herfurth) and De Palma has his lurid setup.

There’s also the setting–Passion takes place in Germany, apparently. It’s unclear and just European for a while, but then a lot of the cast starts speaking German, just not the leads. And then all of a sudden Rapace starts speaking it and the setting is just another thing De Palma didn’t make clear for the audience.

The last third of the film is De Palma daring the audience to guess how he’s messing with them. Even when he makes things completely clear, he’s only doing it to further twist things.

Passion has good acting from Rapace and McAdams and De Palma is having a great time. His only ambition–besides giving his actors good scenes–is toying with the audience. Great editing from François Gédigier.

It’s far better than it should be.

The Comic King of Guatemala (2012, George Clipp and Jonathan Barnes)

The Comic King of Guatemala is about the first comic book shop in Guatemala. It opened in approximately 2012, there’s no exactly date, but let’s say 2012. It’s not just the first comic shop, it’s the first place to buy comic books in Guatemala. Why can you not get comic books in Guatemala? Sadly, filmmakers George Clipp and Jonathan Barnes don’t explain.

They also don’t explain how the shop owners–Americans–got there. Or why all of the interviewee’s are foreign nationals except one. It’s a commercial for a comic book shop most people cannot visit. It doesn’t actually even fulfill the implications of its title.

There are funny parts–the store owners apparently disagreeing on what literacy means is sort of funny and should have been edited out–but nothing insightful. It’s fluff but not even fluff with a purpose.

King means well, but lots of things mean well.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by George Clipp and Jonathan Barnes; edited by Clipp; music by Abbas Premjee, Driss El Maloumi, Ballake Sissoko and Rajery; produced by Clipp and Matthew Cleaves.

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