A Late Quartet

USA 
105mins
Director: Yaron Zilberman
Writers: Yaron Zilberman, Seth Grossman
Cast: Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ivanir.

 

Plot

The harmony of an orchestral quartets working and personal relationships are put under threat when one of it's members is diagnosed with a serious illness.

Review

A thoughtful film about ageing and coming to accept the choices made in love and career. The quartet’s problems are very adult and mature and handled with sensitivity. Peter (Walken) has to deal with the possible end of his career and face a long and lonely retirement. The shock of his announcement reverberates through the rest of quartet and threatens their 25 years together.

Gelbert (Hoffman) wants a chance at playing 1^st violin (he’s currently 2^nd violin a position which enhances the first, but does not take the kudos).  But when his wife (Keener the quartets’ viola player) fails to back his bid and Lerner (Ivanir) refuses to relinquish the post of first, Gelbert takes it as a personal slight on his talent, and sets out on a path that could break the quartet and destroy his marriage.

Quiet perfectionist Lerner laments his years of dedication which has cost him a personal life and Juliette questions her role as a mother and wife to Gelbert.

It’s all filmed in a New York bitter winter, snow on the streets and breath in the air reflecting the bitterness built up in their lives, they seem almost emotionally stuck in the snow.

The performances are as quality and subtle as you would expect, lovely to watch and emotionally delicate.

4 out of 5 stars.

King of the Travellers

Ireland (English) 
Genre: Drama 
80mins
Writer/director: Mark O'Connor
Cast: John Connors, Peter Coonan, Michael Collins, Clara McGlynn.

 

Plot

Young traveler John is haunted by dreams of his father’s violent death and is convinced a rival travelling family is responsible. Things are complicated further when a local farmer wants John’s family of his land.  A violent drama with a convoluted plot.

 

Review

On the whole watchable, but sometimes the film is amateurish with an uneven tone,  veering from violence to surreal silly comedy in a matter of minutes.  The plot is convoluted with lots of toing and froing between the caravan sites of the families (and riding horses across an angry farmers land). A little less of this could have left room for exploring the characters fully and given the audience an insight into the lives and traditions of travelers, and why family and feuds are so deeply rooted in their culture.  Also there isn't as much bare knuckle fighting as indicated in the trailer and poster.

 

The acting was on whole good, although the characterisation is 2D; the farmer is unrelenting in his viciousness and vitriol, as are his henchmen.  The councilor is only a coward. Michael, John’s best friend and brother is a relentless fun addict and rogue.  John makes a dull hero and is bull headed about taking revenge, even when he is not clear about the facts surrounding his father’s death. 

However, when Connors who plays John is let loose on a bit of role play in an old tree house with co star Clara McGlynn, who plays his potential love interest, the scene plays charmingly. A few more scenes like that could have made this a better film.

This is one of those films that could have been so much more, but wasn’t.

2 stars out of 5.

Compliance

Genre: Thriller 
90mins
Canada
Writer/Director: Craig Zobel
Cast: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy

 

Plot

The manager of a fast food restaurant receives a phone call from a prank caller who convinces her he is a police officer and that one of her employees is a thief.  He manipulates her into strip searching the employee.  During the course of the film the prankster goes on to convince various members of staff and otherwise ordinarily trustworthy individuals to abuse and humiliate the girl.  A terrifying study of oppressive corporate culture in the modern world. 

 

Review

Realistic performance from Ann Dowd (Restaurant manager Sandra) who won a National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress. Sandra, under pressure due to ruined bacon is about to have the worse day of her working life.  A man claiming to be a policeman calls accusing server Becky (Dreama Walker) of stealing from a customer.  Sandra brings Becky into the store room come office where Sandra is told by the caller to hold tight, as the the police aren't far away. 

He then talks her into strip searching Becky.  The conman makes it sound perfectly reasonable and also asks Sandra to call her superior (but she doesn’t get through)for confirmation that this kind of action is within company policy. Sandra crumbles and resorts to the same reasoning tactics as the prankster on Becky, and soon the young girl is down to her briefs.   

When the restaurant gets busy Sandra calls on her fiancé Van (Bill Camp) to watch the girl. The caller soon has Van under control, compelling the man to carry out seedy and revolting acts on auto pilot. 

 

By the middle of the film you think the plot is ridiculous until you remember the opening credits stated the story is based on true events.  A phone prankster used the same con for over a decade culminating in the abuse of a restaurant worker at a MacDonald’s in Kentucky 2004. 

 

The film is also based on Yale social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiment in obedience and authority.  The experiment has participants administering increasingly severe electric shocks (the shocks are fake so no patients are harmed) to patients.  Milgram’s conclusion, after discovering more than half of participants gave high voltage shocks even when patient’s were in extreme pain, was that participants shifted blame for the hurt they were causing to someone else, therefore relinquishing responsibility.

The film uncomfortably illuminates this lack of thought and responsibility in the fast food restaurant industry and also the insidious nature of control and authority. Following orders of superiors is in every part of our society from governments to corporate managers. 

 

Could this film have worked better as a documentary, I think so; the character of the prankster is only vaguely seen at the start and end of the film. He appears to be a family man, so more about how he came to be carrying out the pranks would have been interesting. Along with an exploration of  Milgram’s experiment and the history of corporate culture could have created a richer experience.

Still an interesting film well worth seeing.

3 out of 5 stars.

 

Maniac

Language: English (American) 
Genre: Horror 
Length: 89 mins

Director: Franck Khalfoun 
Writer: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, C.A. Rosenburgh, (original Screenplay) Joe Spinell 
Cast: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder 

Plot

Frank is a psycho murderer who stalks, kills and scalps women.  He takes the scalps back home and staples them to the heads of retro manikin. These are in plenty supply as Frank has inherited a shop full of them from his mother.  One day Frank meets artist Anna when she photograph’s his retro manikin’s in the shop window.  He strikes up a friendship with her, possibly his first relationship with a woman other than his mother, but his psychosis is overwhelming and Anna’s life is in danger.

Review

Beautifully filmed, especially the night shots where colours pop against black backgrounds.  The film looks very slick and glossy and I’m not sure this works with a slasher horror, but as the film is supposed to be from Frank’s point of view and Frank see’s beauty in the revolting (shop dummies with bloody human wigs transform into beautiful women in his imagination) then the director’s choices here make sense. 

 

As mentioned the director has made the interesting choice of shooting the film in the first person (like Doom), so Frank’s face is only seen when reflected in mirrors or windows. This technique has the effect of continually reminding you you are watching a film. Traditionally techniques where the film making becomes invisible and viewers forget they are watching a film may have worked better.  But still, it was interesting.

The plot all seemed a bit farfetched, even for a horror, particularly the notion that Frank’s mother is the instigator of his madness which is a bit annoying (it’s always the woman’s fault). The women are all completely stupid; Frank looks dodgy and ill when we see him in reflections, but the girls still thrown themselves at him. Very strange. And as the film is a remake of an older film could have been a great opportunity to re-imagine the role of women in horror.The slasher element is completely gory and distressing, as a horror this film really works.

Elijah Wood will always be Frodo, but he was pretty convincing as the bulging eyed, frantic and delusional Frank. Nora Arnezeder (Anna) plays well as the nice girl and then victim, but it’s not really a demanding role for her.

Overall great slasher weak on motivations.

Budget: Low budget.

2 out of 5 stars.

Beyond the Hills (Dupa Dealuri – original title)

Language: Romanian 
Genre: Drama 
Length: 150
Director: Cristian Mungiu 

Writer: Cristian Mungiu based on Tatiana Niculescu Bran’s nonfiction book Deadly Confession and Judges. 

Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Valeriu Andruita

 Plot

Voichita and Alina grew up together in an orphanage in Romania, as well as being companions they were also lovers.  But when they leave the orphanage Alina travels to Germany to work.  Soon she finds herself unbearably lonely, and returns to Romania to visit and bring Voichita back to Germany with her so they can both work on a cruise ship.  However, when Alina arrives she discovers that Voichita has given herself to God, joined a convent and intends to takes vows as a nun. Voichita asks the priest to let Alina stay at the convent, so Alina rooms with Voichita but the latter will not continue their previous intimate relationship.

Alina sees the Priest a romantic threat and she increasingly becomes violent and harms both herself and the nuns.  Unable to find satisfactory medical help the nuns and the priest, who think Alina is possessed, chain her to a board to protect Alina from herself. Finally Voichita begins to question the church and priest, and sets Alina free, but it may already be too late.

Review

Art house realism, very long, dark, stark, sad, cold, and for all that watchable.  Just. It’s the will they, won’t they love story around the two main protagonist that only just pushes the film along.  But ultimately the filmmaker could have told that story and made his argument surrounding the state of religion in Romanian society in half the time.   

The film is based on a non-fiction book which documents the case of a young woman who dies during an exorcism, and the film uses this to explores the tensions between the secular and religious : the former knowledgeable but lacking in compassion the latter ignorant but kind. 

 

Statan (Voichita) and Flutur (Alina) shared the best actress award at Cannes (2012) for their low key realist performances, and Mungiu won for best screenplay. The film was also nominated for the Palme D’Or.

Ultimately an interesting watch if you have the time and like to be reminded how shit life can be.

Budget: Low budget, shot in nine weeks in Bucharest during the winter. Mungiu is well known for his 2007 film 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days also low budget.

3 out of 5 stars.

Sleep Tight (Mientras Duermes - original title)

Language: Spanish 
Genre: Horror/thriller

Length: 102

Director: Jaume Balagueró

Writer: Alberto Marini

Cast: Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan

Plot

César is a concierge for a residential building; he’s depressed and only feels marginally better when others are suffering. He is particularly obsessed with the ever happy Clara, and takes ever increasingly creepy and violent measures to ensure her misery.

Review

The film starts with César standing on a ledge of the apartment building ready to commit suicide, by the end of this film you will wish he had, because the journey to find out why César wants to take his own life is a depressing one. He is, it turns out, a revolting human being. Lusi Toser gives a convincing performance as the sinister César who is at times thoroughly gruesome and at others completely charming.   Marta Etura also gives a fine performance as Clara but isn’t really challenged. Her job is only to be annoyingly and ceaselessly happy; Clara is the muse to César’s criminal artistry.

  

This film works well as both a horror and thriller, but the tone feels a little uneven, a gruesome murder scene in the last third of the film is unexpected and out of place as we are given no clue that César also has homicidal tendencies.

  

Sometimes the plot is unbelievable and outlandish and the use of chloroform seems useless as it will only render a victim unconscious for a few minutes (for longer periods of unconsciousness the victim must be forced to inhale the vapor often, but you didn’t read that here…). So for César to use the chemical on Clara once then spend the night sleeping with her, wouldn’t work, she would surely awaken.

  

There is a little black comedy to lighten the black mood, especially from the preteen girl who lives across the hall from Clara. She has witnessed César’s nightly comings and goings through the spy hole in her front door, and she is blackmailing him for money and porn.

  

The film is well shot with some particularly lovely compositions.  And the setting of the old residential building makes this film feel as if it were set in some other time.

In the end this film is really a character study on obsession and perversion and if you were not depressed when you started watching, this film you will be when it’s over.

Budget:   4 million pounds, shot on 35mm.  The director has previously had success with low budget horror’s Rec and Rec2.

3 out of 5 stars.

Lore

Directed by Cate Shortland.

Written by Robin Mukherjee.

Australian/German co production.

Cast - Saskia Rosendale, Kai Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi.

Plot

Lore the daughter of Hitler supporters’ is left to care for her younger sister and three younger brothers when her parents are imprisoned after the war.  Lore (Rosendale) is instructed by her mother to take the family North to Hamburg (from the black forest where they live) which means the family must journey through allied occupied Germany largely on foot as trains are not running and a curfew is in place.   

The family are joined by a young Jewish man Thomas (Malina) who brings them food and makes romantic advances toward an increasingly emotionally confused Lore, she at first belittles him then tentatively encourages his advances.

Review

A low key film about a middle class German family who have been taught to be proud of their Pro Hitler beliefs and it is only after the war has been lost, that their world begins to disintegrate.  As intimate portrait of the lives of the children the story often becomes disjointed and choppy as the children wonder what to do, and how to travel through a war torn Germany.  They are never really sure where they are or what horror they will come across, or if the evil of the concentration camps posted on billboards by the Allies is true or fiction. 

 

They are ostracized firstly because of their family’s beliefs and later because they are just more mouths to feed, and it is only baby Peter for whom the adults seem to have any care. Ultimately this is a journey in which Lore loses her innocence through the tentative romantic encounters with Thomas and as she comes to question the values of her parents.

Fine performances by all, and the performances of such young children are particularly naturalistic. The director had an assured vision however, there are lots of the tropes you would expect from an art house film; close ups of, young wheat growing in fields, ants and dried blood on corpses and dandelion snow as well a long lingering shots and slow moving drama.  But it is a wonderfully engaging film beautiful and frightening and well worth seeing.

5 out of 5 stars.

Budget - Low budget 4.3 million Euro (about 3.6 million pounds) Australian/German co production. Second feature for director Shortland the first was the award winning Somersualt (also low budget).