Daybreakers Review

The end is nigh, or so many on the planet believe. Whether it be terrorism, climate change, plague, or war, many people believe the human race has not long to live. Unless we adapt and fast, we’re pretty much screwed. Is it even possible for us to adapt? And should we adapt to suit the society we have created (inadvertently or not), or should we try to change that society presumably for the better?

In Michael and Peter Spierig’s second feature film Daybreakers, the year is 2019 and due to a plague ten years previous, 95% of the human race have become vampires. The few remaining humans are either in hiding or farmed for blood. But that blood is running out and fast. Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a hematologist working for a large blood corporation in search of a blood substitute. They have discovered that if vampires do not get regular doses of human blood (or an appropriate substitute), they will become strange human-bat hybrids with purely animal instincts. Most of the vampires are content with the way things are (after all they are now immortal), but Dalton is not. His sympathies align him with one of the large groups of humans, who believe they have found a cure for vampirism.

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Sherlock Holmes Review

When I was a kid Young Sherlock Holmes was one of my favourite movies (it still is). The young detective cut his teeth not on finding the family jewels, but on cults and devil worshippers. I have a feeling the screenwriters of the new Sherlock Holmes may have been as well. Which is not a necessarily a bad thing; the majority of the original Holmes stories would not be big enough for the big screen (the main exception being The Hound of the Baskervilles, another supernatural tale).

In director Guy Ritchie’s foray into the Holmes canon, he presents a detective (played with immense glee by Robert Downey Jr) who is pompous, filthy, dismissive of official authority, conniving, and a desparate genius. His right hand man, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) is soon to leave him for quiet married life. There’s only one problem: Lord Blackwood, whom they thought had been hung for his crimes on their last case, apparently has risen from the grave and plans to take over the world.

Purists are not going to like this Holmes, though. While many of them ignore the darker aspect of the original Holmes (mainly his drug addiction), they insist upon Holmes as an intellectual rather than physical genius. But that kind of genius usually comes with a price: a kind of madness, often strange obsessions, a reluctance to observe the niceties of day-to-day life and society. The screenwriters and Ritchie have updated Holmes as this kind of genius madman. One whose understanding of the world is so unique and intricate it makes it almost impossible for him to live in.

Not that I wish to grant the film deeper meaning than it has. This is a popcorn film; A better than average one, of course. Ritchie might be a one-note director, but he plays that one note very well. His strength lies in director scenes with clever dialogue in such a way that the camera is part of that dialogue; his action sequences make excellent use of slow motion; and he knows to give his actors room to breathe. His style works well with the script, which is, while perhaps not the most engaging story, interesting and fun enough to sustain the film.

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James Cameron and the Test of Time

James Cameron on the "set" of Avatar

What makes a film (or any work of art for that matter) memorable for years after it first appears? What are the films that we go back to again and again? The ones with the amazing special effects? The big stars? Or the ones with the great stories that still resonate?

James Cameron makes blockbuster hits. He didn’t necessarily set out at the beginning of his career to do so, but that’s what it has become. From Terminator to Avatar, most if not all of his films have engaged the most up to date effects and techniques and have made (and cost) substantial amounts of money. Despite lukewarm reviews (for the story at least), I expect Avatar will end up being the hit of 2009 (though even its substantial tickets sales will probably barely be enough to cover the costs).

So his movies are popular in the moment. And a few of them have continued to be popular years later. Terminator and Aliens are considered (rightly so) classics of their genre. The Abyss has a loyal following, and even True Lies is shown on television now and again (and personally I do like it).

But with the exception of the first two mentioned above, what will Cameron be remembered for? Mention Titanic, and mostly you will hear about what it cost to make and the ‘King of the World’ Oscar speech. And considering the praise for Avatar has been about its effects, will that be remembered much in the future? Better special effects always come along and the old ones are forgotten (remember the fuss over Tron or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)

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Shelagh’s Top 10 Movies of the 2000’s

I was asked to pick just one top film of the past decade. Such a task is impossible. Even choosing just ten was a monumental task, and lord knows I am probably forgetting some movie (when you see as many as I do that happens a lot). So below is my list, in chronological order, of what I consider the top 10 films of the 2000’s. My criteria was pretty simple: Make me change the way I think about film. All of these films succeeded.

1. Beau Travail, directed by Claire Denis,  2000

If you ever want a lesson in semiotics, watch this film. Denis continues to be one of the best directors in France and the world. This loose adaptation of Melville’s Billy Budd, set among French Legionnaires in northeast Africa, is sublime, haunting and beautiful, with a gorgeous soundtrack. One man’s struggle with his own jealousy and frailty, the strange man in a strange land, and the dry wide terrifying desert. Not for the faint of heart or frail of mind.

2. Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, 2000

This really doesn’t need explanation. Original in narrative, format, with a spot-on cast and inflicting a fear of tattoos.

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Girl Number 9 Review

To slightly skew Marshall MacLuhan’s famous saying “the medium is the message”, I think it’s also fair to say that art should be designed for the medium for which it was intended. For example, a film like Where the Wild Things Are is meant to be seen on a big screen, where it is arguable that a movie such as Love Happens has no real big-screen advantage. I’ve always considered it plus when a story comes to be through whatever medium by utilizing that medium to the story’s advantage. And such a story is Girl Number 9, that latest work by Dan Turner and James Moran (writer of various Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes, as well the brilliant horror-comedy Severance).

According to an interview with Scott Weinberg, Moran and Turner decided on the format first and built the story around it. They built it around the internet, which was a good move considering the viral marketing that can get your work seen by millions in the blink of an eye. Girl Number 9 is told in six episodes coming to a total of a little under thirty minutes. So about the length of a TV show, or a longish short film. Gareth David-Lloyd (who played Ianto Jones on Torchwood) is Detective Matheson; he and the police has finally caught a serial killer they believe is responsible for the horrible deaths of seven girls. Apparently the killer only wants to talk to Matheson, for reasons that turn out to be core-chillingly frightening. I won’t give away any  more of the plot, considering the length of the film. The key to writing for the internet seems to be to keep it tight, keep it fresh, keep it to the point and don’t meander, lest you loose the attention of your audience. And keep that attention tightly in your grasp.

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Breathless Review

I met Breathless director Yang Ik-June over dim sum in Montreal when his film played at the Fantasia Film Festival. He seemed such a nice, quiet, unassuming young man. Who knew that behind the modest exterior lay a writer-director-actor who pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, with his first feature length film. I heard praise for the film for months before I saw it this past Sunday at the closing night of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, and the praise is certainly well earned.

Yang plays, Sang-Hoon, a thug who uses his fists as his employment, extorting protection money from hapless victims for his friend, and occasionally doling out his own brand of fist-vengeance on those he feels deserve it (both perpetrator and victim alike). He is constantly aggressive, no matter how good or kind those around him are, including a half-sister, to whom he gives most of his income to look after his nephew. Sang-Hoon one day meets a schoolgirl who is just as rough as he is. It’s no wonder why, for they both come from violent homes where the only response is violence and screaming. Growing up in such an environment, whether physical and emotional violence are bread and butter, it seems almost impossible that anyone coming out of that would not automatically function in the same manner.

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Sitges ‘09 Reviews Part Two: Doghouse, Macabre, Heartless

To see Shelagh’s first batch of  reviews from the 2009 Sitges Film Festival, including Splice, Amer, Cargo and TiMER be sure to click here.

Probably the best night I had at Sitges was not at a film, but at a party (like all good festivals, the parties are great). This one was set up by the Film Festival Mafia, a group of film festival hounds of which I am now a proud member. But this was no ordinary party – it was karaoke. You have not lived until you’ve seen the guys from Fantastic Fest in Austin tear their shirts off and rock some Guns ‘n Roses. Oh, such memories. But back to the movies.

Doghouse – Directed by Jake West. Starring Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke

The British have a knack for combining horror and comedy. And while this zom-rom-com is not in the same league as Shaun of the Dead, it certainly adds a fun new twist to the becoming-tired-at-lightning-speed zombie subgenre. A group of male friends, in an effort to cheer up one of their lot as he heads for a painful divorce, go to a small town in rural England where the population is 75% female. But as they arrive, it turns out that that 75% have turned into zombie-like creature who will attack anyone with an excess of testosterone.  Politically correct, this film is not; but that’s a good thing. Indeed, it makes as much fun of the way men stereotype and generalize female behavior as much as exposing some of that behavior, which I can say as a woman, is accurate and embarrassing. While the film strays into certain cliches (all the men represent a type, and you couldn’t see these varying types actually hanging out together for example), there are enough laughs and originality to sustain the 90 minutes.  Apparently there’s a “cathouse” script in the works. Now that I will see.

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Sitges ‘09 Reviews Part One: Splice, Amer, Cargo, TiMER

Last February when on holiday in Spain, I was fortunate enough to meet Mike Hostench, co-director of Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, the largest fantastic film festival of Europe and one of the largest and most important in the world. His enthusiasm convinced me to attend the festival last month. Believe me, when you’re sitting on a resort restaurant patio surrounded by some of the biggest names in genre cinema it can be hard to motivate yourself to go to a movie; but it was not hard at Sitges considering the plethora of offerings.

Europeans have a very different attitude towards genre film (by genre I mean science fiction, horror and fantasy). Rather than being a niche market that caters to a certain type of individual, genre film is welcomed and watched by a hefty portion of the population. It is not cult; it is (almost) mainstream. This also leaves the field of what is considered genre very wide open. This can be detrimental, but in Sitges case it works very well. Here is a sampling of some of the strange and wonderful (though not always both) films I saw.

Splice – Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Starring Adrian Brody, Sarah Polley

One of the most anticipated films of the year, Splice definitely does not disappoint. In fact, it dares to go places no American film would – but of course, it’s written and directed by a Canadian, filmed in Canada with a Canadian star. And it’s about genetic manipulation. Brody and Polley are a husband and wife scientific mastermind team who specialize in mixing up the DNA of various animals in order to create new pharmaceutical products to cure humanity’s ailments. In order to maintain funding, they secretly combine the DNA of several animals with human DNA; low and behold their experiment works and an artificial womb gives birth to Dren, a human-bird-horse-I don’t know what else hybrid. The scientists hide her, educate her and ultimately imprison her.  They bond with her as parents, but in the end they are not her parents, but her creators – and there is a world of difference between these two roles. The former is nurturing in order to allow the offspring to survive on its own; the latter is controlling, wanting their own vision to supercede any independence of the creation. Perhaps this is why Nietzsche said that God is dead; creations are more trouble than they are worth (creators too). How can you separate your emotions from your work when the thing you create is alive and sentient? How can you hope to control it? Are there things that science simply should not do? While Polley is her usual boring self (sorry, her acting has never impressed me), Brody gives a fantastic performance as a man caught between his work and his heart (and occasionally his libido). This is Natali’s best film since Cube.

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Rage Review: Sally Potter’s Venture into Mobile Territory

Any new project by veteran filmmaker Sally Potter deserves attention. Any new film project which markets itself to mobile phones and the internet almost exclusively also demands attention. Put these two things together and you have Potter’s newest and most (at least technically) daring work to date. Rage is her new film set in the precarious and arguably vain world of fashion. The premise is fairly simple: a student by the well-chosen name of Michelangelo interviews a series of important (and not-so-important) people during New York Fashion Week, filming them on his mobile phone. This particular year, murders take place and everyone is a suspect and a figurative victim of the crime.

While in the past Potter has trained her keen eye through the traditional film lens, this project was designed to be viewed on mobile phones and computer screens. For a filmmaker like Potter, whose past works (Orlando, The Tango Lesson, Yes) has been feasts for the eyes on the big screen, the decision to format her film for the mobile screen is an interesting if almost unfathomable one. How does one adjust for the change of spectrum and viewing? What is the new spectatorship and how do you account for their sensibilities? Can it be called a film if it was not designed for traditional cinema viewing?

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TIFF Review: White Material

The films of the incomparable Claire Denis are subtle lessons in semiotics.  They are like moving photographs, or graphic novels with almost no words: the viewer must (and can) put together the story from the images, like they are a fly hovering with no knowledge of past context.

The third of Denis’ African-centred films, White Material stars Isabelle Huppert as Marie, a French woman running a coffee plantation in an (deliberately) unnamed country with her ex-husband and son.  With the government in turmoil and rebels running loose in the countryside, her workers have deserted her right before the harvest. She seems to be the only one determined to stay, even after the army deserts the country and her ex-husband (Christopher Lambert) conspires to leave her behind.

This has probably the most comprehensible narrative of any of Denis’ films, and the most overtly political.  Marie is as much a part of the land as those who were born there; but her skin keeps her an outsider.  She never stops moving; if she did, she might have to realize that defeat is inevitable and the longer she waits, the less departure alive is assured.  Denis creates both sympathy for and anger at Marie.  She is not a stereotypical colonial overlord, yet her insistence on remaining borders on madness.

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TIFF Review: Enter the Void

I don’t think a title has ever been more accurate for defining a film.  Nor has a film been as divisive in recent festival memory as to whether it is a work of genius or an exercise in audience torture.  This is not necessarily a film to love or hate though.  Rather, like his earlier film Irreversible, director Gaspar Noé, Enter the Void is as much an experiment in filmmaking and ways of storytelling through the medium of film as it is entertainment.

Oscar, a young American, makes money dealing drugs to support himself and his sister, Linda (who works as a stripper) in Tokyo.  Their parents have been dead since they were children and they have only each other to rely on.  Oscar is killed by police in the small toilet of a bar, and the film acts as his spirit flying over the city, recalling how he came to the point of his death, and what happens to his friends and sister after he is gone.

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TIFF Review: A Town Called Panic

One of the few animated films to be shown at the Cannes film festival (not only this year but in the festival’s history), this strange little gem from Belgium starts at a cracking pace that it easily sustains for 75 minutes of roaring fun.  It is also the first G-rated film to be shown in the Midnight Madness program at TIFF, and it shows that you don’t need sex, violence or gore to have a subversive, “WTF” kind of film.

Giving a short synopsis of the plot is difficult, as it will probably make little sense.  But here goes: Horse, Cowboy and Indian share a house in their village.  It is Horse’s birthday, and Cowboy and Indian decide to make him a brick BBQ as a present.  Something goes terribly wrong in the ordering of bricks, and chaos for them and the rest of the town ensues.  Horse and his companions must search the over and under worlds for bricks, while the animals and people of the town eat their way through giant slices of bread and make Vladimir Horowitzes out of donkeys.

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