MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009
4th Aug 09
ZERO-G AT THE 2009 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The 2009 Melbourne Film Festival cranks up to speed on July 24th, running until August 9th and as is Zero-G’s tradition I've picked the genre brainnnssss out of the hundreds of splendid films on offer. And yes, by the way, there is at least one Zombie movie being screened, the Norwegian production, Dead Snow, which features, Nazi Zombies....now how could you go wrong? No prizes for guessing that it’s a bit of a send up Zom com, though not quite as amusing a one as Shaun of the Dead or indeed, or rather undead, as slyly satirical as the Canadian zom-com, Fido.
Dead Snow is part of the Night Shift focus that usually provides a core of offbeat genre films for Zero-G’s horripilation. From the over the top sicko family of British gross out horror movie, Mum & Dad, to the 'underground' monster Western, The Burrowers. There’s also some toothsome nasties scattered throughout the other festival strands, such as the definitively creepy U.S American horror Home Movie, which stars Heroes own Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli) and is quite the scariest devil children story since the 1956 movie The Bad Seed with perhaps a little bit of the more overt unpleasantness 2006 Eurohorror film Ills (Them) stirred into the mix for truly bad measure...I can already see Home Movie as one of the genre highlights of the festival,
But there plenty of other pictures to whet Zero-G’s appettite. A spotlight on French New Wave actress Anna Karina means that we’ll be treated to a screening of Jean Luc Goddard’s classic science fiction techno-noir film, Alphaville, and of course the Australian premiere of Quinton Tarantino’s World War 2 pastiche, Inglourius Basterds, complete with a visit from the director himself, is taking place at the MIFF. Howzat for Ozploitation! Speaking of premieres there’s the animated version of Neil Gaiman’s darkly cautionary children’s tale, Coraline. Much anticipated!
To riff through some other Le Jan style MIFFS I note the presence of a South Korean vampire film called Thirst, a couple of the increasingly vigorous Thai martial arts actioners, one which parodies the Drunken Master school of biffo with a woman who owes her prowess to the chocolate of its title. The other is set in the 15th century and is a prequel to 2004’s splendid Ong Bak, again with a bleedin’ obvious title, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning.
Duncan Jones, yes, Mr Bowie’s son, is the director of a lunar based science fiction movie called, simply, Moon, which stars Sam Rockwell and i creating a bit of a stir. Which we’ll have a chance tp see for ourselves at this year’s MIFF.
One of the star turns in animation is the splendid Brendan & The Secret Of Kells which 'illuminates' the embellishment and preservation of the famous text in fine fashion...
Documentary wise I found a sobering expose of the slaughter of dolphins on the coast of Japan far more grim than my beloved fictional horror genre flicks....The Cove is simply heart rending.
That’s only a sample of the genre feast awaiting us, which we’ll sink our fangs into on Zero-G.
Films are listed alphabetically according to what dominant genre I think they best fit into...try not too get too raw about it if my guess isn't as good as yours...after all, I'm only inhuman!
(I'LL BE UPDATING THIS LIST REGULARLY THROUGHOUT THE FESITVAL)
The bracketed information below each production's title and country of origin is the MIFF programming strand that it's part of.
DOCUMENTARY
-COVE, THE-
USA
(DOCUMENTARIES)
The 1963 film Flipper spun off a popular 88 episode t.v series plus sequels. Flipper, played by five different dolphins originally, was king of the sea. Between commercials he smartly led his human posse of naked apes, while bubbling in cetacean, "Come quick! Sandy's trapped by a giant rubber octopus!"
Director Louis Psihoyos' new documentary, The Cove explains how, in the real world, on-set dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry eventually realised that the highly social mammals were more complex than mere aquatic 'Lassies', and that they possessed, it seemed, genuine sentience. Not long after his epiphany O'Barry began campaigning to free what many regard as probable fellow sapients from captivity in dolphinariums and other facilities.
Flipper inspired world-wide dolphin awareness; translated into lucrative international merchandising. In Japan, the general public loves cute, smiley faced dolphin imagery; especially in the coastal town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture. A shore based whaling town from the 17th century to the late 1980s when the International Whaling Commission moratorium came into effect (and had yet to be subverted by 'scientific whaling') Taiji celebrates its heritage with sculptures, graphics, architecture and a museum, all of which generate substantial income.
As does the brutal annual slaughter of a couple of thousand dolphins in a secluded Taiji cove, carefully guarded and fenced off from prying eyes.
The fishermen of Taiji have set their caps at smaller cetaceans not protected by the I.W.C. Herded together by an acoustic barrage produced by fishing boats, the dolphins are driven together in the netted cove where they are, adults and young alike, bloodily harpooned to death by lances. Save a few 'lucky' dolphins that are profitably sold to dolphinariums, where they can are exhibited for several millions of dollar per annum. The rest are butchered and sold for meat.
We know this partly because a handful of concerned activists have, at considerable risk, mounted covert operations to document the hidden massacre. Several such missions are chronicled in The Cove, culminating in sound and vision that you won't soon forget. Although high profile protests by, for example, Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere, certainly helped raise the profile of the campaign against the dolphin drive, it's The Cove that captures the trade in full red handed 'gory '.
As anxious local authorities shadow O'Barry and the team, director Psihoyos uses his National Geographic film making experience to coolly follow the action from planning to execution and eventual success. Hollywood prop makers tooled up fake rock housings for hidden cameras and hydrophones were deployed underwater by teams of 'free divers' (working without scuba gear) whose special single fluked swimming rigs render them cetacean like themselves. Time is given to interviews with nervous Japanese Fisheries officials and we also see depressing and exhilarating footage from I.W.C meetings. The latter has been well covered elsewhere but it's nice to see it here for balance. Speaking of which, don't expect much sympathy for the fishermen in this documentary, whom, to be strictly fair, have their current (clearly unsustainable) livelihood at stake. I doubt that the filmmakers were in a mood to be fair and who can blame them?
Dolphin meat harvested from this awful trade sometimes finds its way into supermarkets mislabelled as 'whale meat' where the packaging neglects to inform the consumer that, as apex food chain predators concentrating dietry toxins, dolphin meat is often heavily contaminated with mercury. In the television series Flipper's distinctive chattering cry was reworked from a manipulated recording of a Kookaburra's laughing song. How ironic.
Equally ironic is that of all the horror genre movies that I saw at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival that it's actually this superb but distressing documentary that left me most horrified.
Director Louie Psihoyos
2009/ 94 mins
PICTURE: THE COVE. DIRECTED BY LOUIE PSIHOYOS 2009
"CHEEKY MONKEY!"
-MURCH-WALTER MURCH ON EDITING
USA/ UK
(THE PRIMAL SCREEN)
Directors Edie Ichioka & David Ichioka
2006/ 76 mins
-YAKUZA EIGA-
FRANCE
(THE PRIMAL SCREEN)
Director Yves Montmayeur
2008/ 75 mins
FANTASY
-BRENDAN AND THE SECRET OF KELLS-
IRELAND/ FRANCE/ BELGIUM
(NEXT GEN)
Though a cheerful atheist I still have great artistic respect for the magnificently illustrated "Book Of Kells". For me, the twelve hundred year old manuscript is enhanced well beyond its religious origins by the exceptional richness of its illuminations and calligraphy.
One of Ireland's key national treasures the book is now kept at Dublin's Trinity College.
The circumstances that resulted in the survival of this artistic jewel are obscure, especially since Kells Abbey, where the book was kept and perhaps worked upon, was sacked by Viking raiders in the 10th Century.
Fiction takes root in the cracks of history, which is where director Tomm Moore and his Cartoon Saloon studio plant this perfectly rendered animated feature that sheds its own civilised illumination upon the preservation of the book, taking inspiration from it for the stylised design of the characters and backgrounds.
In a 9th century Abbey, 12 year old novice Monk Brendan (voiced by Evan McGuire) is entranced by the beauty of the book, carried to Kells by a refugee artist-Brother from another sanctuary already fallen to the sea reivers. Brendan is torn between his desire to work on the unfinished book and his duty to his uncle, Abbot Cellach, who is understandably focused on the Viking threat. Brendan is aided in his quest to keep the light of art shining in the darkness by Master Artist Aiden and his cat, which has a pretentious name and attitude to match, as well as a Puckish forest spirit that can manifest as a white wolf. That last sounds a bit curious in context but this film is inclusive in its acceptance of alternative religious fantasies. It reminds me of some of the more liberal modern Arthurian novels where Christians and 'Pagans' coexist in relative, if unlikely, harmony where normally they get on like heretics on fire. Spiritual companionship is not extended to the invaders, who are depicted as looming, brutish monsters, reminding me of similar beasties seen in Genndy Tartakovsky's classic animated series, "Samurai Jack". (Not surprising, if you've seen any of Cartoon Saloon's own children's t.v show, "Skunk-Fu".) The "Jack" comparison can be further worked, as the book's own illuminations are the inspiration for a serpentine Demonic Dark Power, reminiscent of Jack's nemesis Aku, cleverly brought to life here as animated celtic 'knotwork' and border designs.
The pitch perfect vocal cast includes Brendan Gleeson, whom genre buffs know as the cab driving survivor in 28 Days Later and also as Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody in Harry Potter.
We're used to the wonders produced by Studio Ghibli and its kin but it's cool to discover a new source of high grade storytelling where form and content are so masterfully blended. The beautiful "Brendan & The Secret Of Kells" is one of the most illuminating features at the Festival.
Director Tomm Moore
2009/ 75 mins
BRENDAN & THE SECRET OF KELLS 2009 CARTOON SALOON
"BRENDANNNN!! WHEN THE SEA GODS ASK IF YOU WANT THEM TO WAVE YOU GOODBYE YOU SAY NOOOOO!!!!"
CHI RO PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF KELLS, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, 2009
"DURING THE LONG WINTER NIGHTS THE MONKS HAD LITTLE TO OCCUPY THEIR HANDS..."
-THE CAT PIANO-
AUSTRALIA
(ACCELERATOR
As narrated by Nick Cave this People's Republic Of Animation animated short
shows that everyone is indeed a critic when a shady character stalks a city of singing cats and gives them the Blues..
Director Eddie White
2009/ 8 mins
-CORALINE-
USA
(NEXT GEN)
Fictional children have been finding unusual routes to exotic fantasy worlds for a very long time and many novels based on this premise have become beloved classics. Beyond Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Oz and the Secret Garden lies genre genius Neil Gaiman’s 2002 novel, “Coraline”, which has previously been adapted into a stage musical and a graphic novel. Director Henry Selick helmed the stop-motion films “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “James & The Giant Peach” as well as the underrated “Monkeybone”. The last featured a combination of live action and animation, but the point should be made here that “Coraline” is a stop-motion animated film that’s been shot in 3D. There are many additional Computer Generated effects, but essentially the film has been made using articulated figures hand animated, one frame at a time.
Coraline has dissatisfaction built into her very name, which adults constantly mispronounce, and it doesn’t help that her parents are too busy earning a living writing from home to pay much attention to their little girl. When they move into an old mansion it’s a given that Coraline will ignore the traditional Vague Awful Warnings about the place and discover a door to the Otherworld, which replicates her new home AND old family save for the fact that everything initially seems much nicer there. Her Other Parents are enjoyably cheerful, with plenty of time to devote to cooking delicious food, while cultivating spectacular gardens and friendships with their colourfully zany neighbours. Best of all, the Others are engagingly attentive to Coraline.
Coraline would gladly give her eye-teeth to stay in the Otherworld but would she trade her eyes for the disturbing buttons that everyone there has sewn over their eye sockets?
In that grand genre tradition, Things Are Not What They Seem, but one aspect of this remarkable film that isn’t too good to be true is the strength of the ensemble vocal cast. Dakota Fanning, as Coraline, more than knows her way around a fantasy script, with an impressive genre C.V. for someone her age that includes “War Of The Worlds”, “Taken”, “Charlotte’s Web”, “Push” and “Kim Possible”, where she played a pre-school aged version of the popular Disney heroine. She’s a convincing Coraline here, though played with perhaps a shade less confidence than Gaiman’s pluckily competent character, and helped along by the inclusion of a new-to-the-story character of a young male ‘sidekick’, named Wybie, who also serves as a sounding board. If there’s an ‘off note’ in the adaptation it may be here, as Coraline behaves rather meanly, at first, to Wybie; something that doesn’t feel quite right.
Former Lois Lane (“Lois & Clark”) Teri Hatcher plays both the mother and the Other Mother and I’m reminded that, as “Desperate Housewives” Susan Mayer, she actually did crack a line about Katherine, her rival in that show, being “The Other Mommy”. (Rather startling to see ‘Susan’ being praised here for her cookery!) It’s a sly note that Hatcher doesn’t have to shift gears much between Dopplegangers to make the Other Mother entirely creepy; which the point of the duality of the characters.
Curious, to me, is that father is voiced by John Hodgman, who is also known for playing the PC in Apple's "Get a Mac" advertisements. I’ve just seen his opposite number, the bloke who plays “Mac” in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell.” Hodgman also worked with band “They Might Be Giants”, who have returned the favour here with a lively song included in a spot-on Bruno Coulais soundtrack that features a number of jauntily off-kilter tunes.
As in all good children’s fantasy, there is a talking animal, a cat in this case, played by Keith David Williams. He’s got a vast genre resume stretching back to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, played Goliath in “Gargoyles”, and carried the title role of “Spawn” in that comic book adaptation.
The always irrepressible French and Saunders, along with “Deadwood”s Ian McShane, round off the formidable cast list.
First rate voice acting deserves equally adept animation, and so it proves with Coraline being one of the most impressive, well judged stop animation vehicles I’ve seen in the past decade. The 3D effect is used with deliberate restraint, while taking full advantage of the ability to add ‘window like’ depth to the many elaborate sets. The illusion of sewing needles, claws and other objects thrust out into the audience is not overused, and the actual tunnel effect linking the Otherworld to Coraline’s mundane home thematically reminds me of the change from black and white to colour in the classic film, “The Wizard Of Oz”. I vividly recall watching “Monsters Vs Aliens” thinking what a genuine cinematic breakthrough the new 3D process was, and now here it is, already being used in a much more refined, and cooly paced fashion.
Speaking of new technologies, as a sculptor myself, I was gobsmacked by the 3D printing machine reportedly used to cast the replaceable heads and other variable components for the stop animated puppets. This “Star Trek” like tech allowed the animators to have, for example, many thousands of different expressions for their characters to run through, giving them a fluidity previously more characteristic of hand drawn animation.
Adapting a great novel is difficult enough without it being an already splendidly wicked Neil Gaiman one. Coraline is a film that pulls it off, with style to spare, and will certainly push all the buttons for all you koumpounophobiacs out there.
Director Henry Selick
2009/ 100 mins
PICTURE: CORALINE MOVIE POSTER. DIRECTED BY HENRY SELICK 2009 LAIKA STUDIOS, FOCUS FEATURES
"YOU'RE GOTTA BE BUTTON ME ON?"
PICTURE: CORALINE BUTTON POSTER. DIRECTED BY HENRY SELICK 2009 LAIKA STUDIOS, FOCUS FEATURES
"KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BUTTON!"
-INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA-
SWEDEN
(NORTHERN EXPOSURE)
It takes more than magic when a wannabee Great Magacian tries to exceed his disapproving parents' not-so-great expectations in this live action, Swedish short.
Director Patrik Eklund
2008/ 22 mins
-KRABAT-
GERMANY
(NEXT GEN)
Krabat was a popular 1970s dark fantasy novel by German writer Otfried Preußler. It's been adapted both as a an animated Czech film in 1977 and as a CD concept album project in 2006.
This live action movie, directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner, follows the basic story of a young beggar who becomes a miller's apprentice only to learn that his training involves more than just grinding grain. Before he can chant "Flour power" he's up to his neck in the Black Magical Arts and inducted into a Secret Brotherhood.
Director Marco Kreuzpaintner
2008/ 120 mins
-NAK-
THAILAND
(ANIMATION)
Major 3D animated feature Thai style when a group of unlikely ghostbusters set out to rescue a child from supernatural forces.
Director Nattapong Ratanachoksirikul
2008/ 95 mins
-TEARS FOR SALE-
SERBIA
(THE END OF EUROPE: THE NEW BALKAN CINEMA)
Director Uros Stojanovic
2008/ 86 mins
-THIRST-
SOUTH KOREA
(NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH)
Director Park Chan-wook
2009/ 133 mins
-A TOWN CALLED PANIC-
BELGIUM/ FRANCE/ LUXEMBOURG
(ANIMATION GALLERY)
Created by Vincent Patar and Stephane Aubier originally, as seen on Australian television, this Aardman Animations distributed stop animation production was a series of five minute long cartoons.
“Panic” is well named, as the plot loosely revolves around the frantic consequences as the toy characters Cowboy and Indian create a last minute birthday gift for their equine house mate, Horse. It probably helps if you keep in mind that the characters have been made to look like generic plastic toys, complete with little stands attached to their feet. There’s more to it than that, as there are dozens, if not hundreds of different variations of each figure to create the illusion of comical, stylised motion.
The surreal flight of plastic fancy that the well meaning but inept Cowboy and Indian launch flies about as well as the millions of bricks they accidentally order online to build Horse’s birthday barbeque. Well, I did say it was a last minute idea! Before the surprised horse can whinny “Eponymous” he’s up to his mane in giant snowball hurling robot penguins -par for the Horse really. Horse hopes this development won’t spoil his romance with the mare of his dreams, Jacqueline. (Voiced by French actress Jeanne Balibar, just so you know!)
This 2009 spin-off movie perhaps stretches the original concept a bit too far but still manages to deliver plenty of whimsical sequences. Basic, silly fun!
Director Stephane Aubier
Director Stephane Aubier
2009/ 76 mins
PICTURE- A TOWN CALLED PANIC. DIRECTED BY STEPHANIE AUBIER 2009
"STUPID COWBOY! CAN'T YOU SEE THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL?"
HISTORICAL
-BALIBO-
AUSTRALIA
(PREMIERE FUND)
Director Robert Connolly
2008/ 108 mins
-THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT-
UK
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA)
Director Peter Greenaway
1982/ 109 mins
-INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS-
USA
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA)
Director Quentin Tarantino
2009/ 152 mins
-VAN DIEMAN’s LAND-
AUSTRALIA
(HOMEGROWN)
Director Jonathan Auf Der Heide
2009/104 mins
HORROR
-THE BURROWERS-
USA
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Set in 1879 in the Dakota 'Terror'-tories the film opens with that staple of 19th century Western lore; women being carried off after an attack on a homestead by Indian raiders. (That's the assumption. The audience is better informed!) The settlers form a rescue posse, falling in along the way with a company of U.S cavalry. As with "The Searchers" it's not just the Indians that have to be dealt with. Unlike that classic Western, it's not the posse's underlying collective prejudices that's the problem, but what lies beneath the actual ground.
As many mundane reality horror movies as I've seen, I'm more in my unnatural element if the story involves science fiction or fantasy themes. Admittedly, some of the more extreme 'mundies' are more fantastical, than not. Still, it's one more reason why J.T Perry's U.S American fantasy film, "The Burrowers", was my personal favourite horror jaunt of this year's Melbourne International Film Festival. The so-called "Weird Western" is actually a quite well populated sub-genre and in cinema contains titles like "Curse Of The Undead", "Grim Prairie Tales", "Ravenous" and even to some extent, "El Topo". Genre buffs will also recall the enjoyable "Tremors" series of four 'underground monster' movies. It spun off a short-lived television series and has a fifth movie in the works, set in Australia. It was "Tremors IV: The Legend Begins" that had most in common with "The Burrowers", as they're both set in the Old West. Not the romanticised West of the dime novel, but a deftly sketched in harsh frontier that's a realistic backdrop for the unfolding supernatural terror. Apart from "Tremors", the title monsters remind me of the rogue lions in, "The Ghost & The Darkness". The endless grasslands are an ocean through which lethal land sharks move, and it's even more threatening when it's dark! First rate sound design ramps up the night time tensions, along with a worthy score by "Xena-Warrior Princess" composer, Joseph LoDuca.
Lending credibility to the story is the performance of genre veteran, Clancy Brown. Buffs know Brown as 'The Kurgan' from "Highlander", but he's also been in "Earth II" (which also had subterranean beasties), "Starship Troopers", and is a familiar animation voice actor. Hearing Brown sing a brief hymn in "The Burrowers" made me smile as I recalled his role as the sinister 'Brother Justin' in "Carnivale". Clancy's role in the ever enigmatic series "Lost" also reminded me that William Mapother, 'Ethan' in "Lost", shows up here too. (Where's the Smoke Monster when you really need it!?) The two play a couple of experienced Indian fighters, backing up the out-of-his-depth but plucky notional hero, the Irish immigrant, Fergus (a convincing Karl Geary). Doug Hutchinson plays a brutal cavalry officer. That actor was 'Horace' in 'Lost' and long before that, the flexible mutant Victor Tooms in "The X-Files". Having them on set surely encouraged the director to plays games with the notion that 'name actors don't die' !
Fittingly, beneath the surface of this measuredly paced, often understated gem of a frightener lies a sly environmental message and some telling social commentary about the suffering of both African-Americans and Native Americans in the American West, compounded by the brutality of both Amerinds and U.S Cavalry. (That said, it's African-American actor Sean Partrick Thomas who gets some of the best lines. So that's all right then?)
As this satisfying six shooting, hard riding, horror Western fires its last round you also realise that the critters may also be partly responsible for certain other archetypal myths and legends.....
Why, a fan'd have t'be plumb loco to ask fer more than thet in a movin' picture!
Director J.T Petty
2008/ 96 mins
THE BURROWERS DIRECTED BY J.T PETTY 2008 LIONSGATE
"WELL, I'LL BE A SON OF A DITCH!"
CLAY (CLANCY BROWN) AND PARCHER (WILLIAM MAPOTHER) IN THE BURROWERS. LIONSGATE FILMS 2009
"BEST WE BREAK OUT THE VICTOR, RECKON IT'S PAST TIME WE MOWED THE VARMITS DOWN!"
-CHAINSAW MAID-
JAPAN
(ANIMATION SHORTS)
Director Takena Nagao
2007/ 7 mins
-DEAD SNOW-
NORWAY
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Director Tommy Wirkola
2008/ 91 mins
-EDEN LAKE-
UK
(YOUNG BLOOD)
Director James Watkins
2008/ 93 mins
-EMBODIMENT OF EVIL-
BRAZIL
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Director José Mojica Marins
2008/ 90 mins
-HANSEL AND GRETEL-
SOUTH KOREA
(YOUNG BLOOD)
Director Yim Phil-Sung
2007/ 116 mins
-HOME MOVIE-
USA
(YOUNG BLOOD)
Director & Writer Christopher Denham
2008/ 80 min
-HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN-
JAPAN
(EROS + MASSACRE)
-MARTYRS-
FRANCE/ CANADA,
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Director Pascal Laugier
2008/ 99 mins
-MUM & DAD -
UK
(NIGHTSHIFT)
After missing the last bus home one night, Lena, a cleaner at Heathrow Airport , steps well and truly beyond the tarmac, where she discovers that in some families rules are meant...for the broken.
British horror director and writer Steven Sheil's "Mum & Dad" has more in common with films like Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Takashi Miike's "Visitor Q" or even the obscure 1968 Lon Chaney Jr vehicle "Spider Baby, Or The Maddest Story Ever Told" (director- Jack Hill) than with more conventional 'torture porn' horror series like "Hostel" or "Saw".
The tonal difference lies in "Mum & Dad" keeping it in the family.
Across several incarnations (print, television, film) one consistently wicked joy of cartoonist Charles Addams' eponymous macabre Family was that for all their "ooky kookyness" they were essentially "ALTOGETHER", forming a genuinely functional family unit. Perversely, that's precisely why I find the family in "Mum & Dad" so horripilating. It's the jarring fact that, as a family, they 're doing their evil best to mimic mundane English domesticity. From watching telly around the breakfast table to Dad pottering about in his little workshop....it's the twisted variations that freak you out. And then.... there's Christmas.
Ye Gods, their idea of Christmas! A parody of the festive season so dark it makes "Family Christmas" and "Bad Santa" look like "It's A Wonderful Life".
As Sheils reminded me when I interviewed him, some recent horror movies like the French "IIs" ("Them") or James Watkin's "Eden Lake" bloodily explore the button pushing issue of societal breakdown as manifested by out of control "Lord Of The Flies" children. Contra wise, "Mum & Dad" is ALL about parents laying down the law...their law...in no uncertain terms.
*Whew*
Gilding the gory lily, Sheil casts an avuncular Perry Benson and buttoned down Dido Miles in the title roles. Faces whose comforting familiarity is knowingly subverted by the stunningly vile characterisations they create. As alluded to on "Red Dwarf", it's a little like taking Winnie-The-Pooh out and shooting him. Olga Fedori convincingly plays the hapless but determined Lena with Ainsley Howard and Toby Alexander making equally good fists of their thankless but pivotal roles.
The nastily clever thing about "Mum & Dad" is that it's not so much outright scary as relentlessly disturbing, and, of course, jaw droppingly (let me pick that up for you and staple it back on!) disgusting. All legitimate emotions for a horror film to play with and ones which Sheil bricks the audience in with like some monster mason as he grosses us so far out that we find ourselves back in. By then, of course, it's too late.
"Mum & Dad" is the kind of film that gives Parental Guidance a very, very bad name. Do NOT watch it with...your family.
Director and Writer Steven Sheil
2008/ 85 min
ZERO-G'S INTERVIEW WITH "MUM & DAD" DIRECTOR STEVEN SHEIL IS HERE:
http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=508531#
PICTURE: MUM & DAD PERRY BENSON AND DIDO MILES. STEVEN SHEIL 2008
"BLOODY PARENTS!"
-THE WHITE RIBBON-
AUSTRIA
Director Michael Haneke
2009/ 144 mins
MARTIAL ARTS
-ACTION BOYS-
SOUTH KOREA
(THE PRIMAL SCREEN- DOCUMENTARY)
WARNING: MAY “STUNT” YOUR GROWTH!
I’m fascinated by the spectacular skills of stuntmen and women so after watching a movie or television show on DVD, I go straight to any bonus featurettes showcasing stunt or fight choreography.* So primed, I really enjoyed South Korean director Jung’s jaunty doco about the Seoul Stunt School Class of 2004. Himself a graduate, Jung is by turns engagingly candid and knowingly tongue-in-cheek as he chronicles his personal survival in the gruelling meat grinder of Asian action films following six months of ‘vomit inducing murderous training’.
It’s unsurprising that Jung was eager to attempt such a punishing career given that actor/director Stephen “Kung Fu Hustle” Chow is his hero. Speaking of ‘heroes’, there’s a nice scene where the stuntmen perform their arts at a local school, to the evident delight of the children. Given Chow’s reputation for balancing humor with action it’s equally appropriate that the witty tone of this documentary is underlined
by the satirical soundtrack and occasional showboating freeze frame.
Along the way Jung treats us to his pragmatic observations about practical stunting from the fine art of ‘String Fu’ wire work to crashing cars.... with style! He also notes that a stunt director’s concept of creating the best shot can tangle with the prime director’s need to keep the big picture in mind. Jung explains how stuntmen are reluctant to back out of stunt once its been set, both because of professional honour and because they don’t want to delay the production. Adding to the tension is the blunt reality that it’s worse for a production to have a star actor injured than a stunty as one is more easily replaced than another.
No documentary about stunting would be complete without a catalogue of injuries and Jung delivers the usual litany of ligament ruptures, knee surgery, metal pinned bones, and so on. (Though not an X-Rated film “Action Boys” has more than its fair share of X-Rays!) The narrator, who reveals herself to be Jung’s girlfriend, admits that whenever she calls Jung he’s in hospital and you can tell it’s only half a joke when a young relative pleads, “Don’t die Uncle!” Mortality, soberingly, does intrude as the stuntmen react to the reported death of Stunt Director Ji Joong-Hyun who was killed while filming in China. He was 34. (I don’t, incidentally, know if Ji died in an on set accident.)
Whilst I appreciated “Action Boys” matter-of-fact wit and genuine warmth it’s a bruising experience to learn that of the 36 trainees who began the course only a handful completed it and of those 3 are now left in the industry, and one of those wants to move on to become a singer. A satisfyingly solid doco about a key aspect of film and television production. More hit than miss, which in a stunting context is probably a bit of a worry!
*By the way, this documentary would make a nice companion piece to “Double Dare” Amanda Micheli’s 2004 film about New Zealand stunt woman, Zoe Bell.
Director Byung-Gil Jung
2008/ 107 min
PICTURE- ACTION HEROES. DIRECTED BY BYUNG-GIL JUNG 2008
"WARNING: MAY “STUNT” YOUR GROWTH!"
-BLACK DYNAMITE-
USA
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Director Scott Sanders
2009/ 83 mins
-CHOCOLATE-
THAILAND
(NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH)
With Thai cinema getting more international play I've become a fan of its vigourous enthusiasm and inventive stunt choreography, as well as the ever present cheeky humour which can snap into a pratfall in a eyeblink. I'm mightily entertained by the Thai's rapid semi-satirical cross-genre colonisation, that's resulted in movies like "The Eye" (Japanese style horror), "Bang Rajan" (Chinese like historical epic), and "SARS Wars" (Zombie comedy!)
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew this latest spiffing Thai action comedy begins with a Yakuza gangster, played by popular Japanese actor Hiroshi Abe, revealing that as a boy he was always interested in the abnormal. (Hiroshi is known to genre buffs for his role in "Godzilla 2000", as a voice actor in the anime "Fist of the North Star" and as the male lead in the science fiction film, "Sword of Alexander" aka "Taitei no Ken".)
Well, he finds plenty to interest him in Thailand, where his strange preferences lead him into a dangerous relationship with Zin, a beautiful Thai woman (played by Ammara Siripong) immersed in the hazardous world of Thailand's gang culture. When her Japanese lover is forced to leave the country Zin raises their autistic daughter, Zen, alone, but for the aid of a street urchin whom Zin adopts. The latter, a boy named Moom (artful dodgingly played by Taphon Phopwandee) has an entrepreneurial bent and craftily exploits the budding martial arts skills of his adopted sister, learned by watching Muay Thai kickboxing students and action movie DVDs.
Zen is played by Nicharee Vismistananda (also known as JeeJa Yanin) in her film debut. A taekwondo black belt, Jeeja trained for years with the film's stunt choreographer, Panna Rittikrai, but here also puts in a fine performance outside of the film's many battles with her affecting characterisation of Zen's autism. In fact, she reminded me of the notionally similar character of River Tamm, played by Summer Glau in Joss Whedon's "Firefly" space opera Western. Prachya Pinkaew along with martial arts choreography Panna Rittikrai gave us the Tony Jaa actioners "Ong-Bak" and "Tom Yum Goong". As you'd expect, "Ong-Bak" is one of the DVDs that Zen absorbs signature combat moves from, but action film buffs will have great fun picking her comic takes on other well known cinema fighters, as well as the locational homages to several classic biffo movies.
It's not all feet, fist, knee and elbow work either. Jeeja has a way with two sword scabbards that the historical "Sword Saint", Miyamoto Musashi would perhaps applaud even as he knocked you down.
How does Zen go from street performer to literal battler? Leave that to the movie's rather touching subplots to explain. I had, incidentally, madly assumed from the movie's title and some comments I'd read that Zen would be a sweet toothed "Drunken Master" fighter, powered by chocky instead of booze. No such thing, it's just a charming detail, like Zen's fear of buzzing insects. In any case, since it's a martial arts movie you know the time when some hard chocolate rain will fall on Zen's hapless foes is only a montage away.
As for the villains, expect the usual players in Thai cinema: lots of suspiciously athletic butchers, factory workers and of course, transgender 'Ladyboy' posses.
Supported by a never overdone soundtrack that features some sweet music box like riffs, the crisp film editing takes no prisoners while cleanly showcasing the amazing stunts, especially a terrific climactic stoush on a building facade that gives new meaning to the term "hangers on"!
Speaking of which, hang on for the standard blooper reel played under the closing credits where you find out that the stunt and star performers are certainly not in-wincible, though this has become such a common industry cliché that I half wonder how much of that is piss-take and how much actual out-take.
I 'licked' "Chocolate very much!
Director Prachya Pinkaew
2008/ 90 mins
PICTURE: CHOCOLATE, DIRECTED BY PRACHYA PINKAEW, NICHAREE VISMISTANANDA AS ZEN 2009
"I AM TO MISBEHAVE!!"
PICTURE: CHOCOLATE, DIRECTED BY PRACHYA PINKAEW, NICHAREE VISMISTANANDA AS ZEN 2009
"I CAN LICK ANY TWO M & MS IN THIS LOUSY JOINT!!"
-ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING-
THAILAND
(NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH)
Director Tony Jaa
2008/ 97 mins
SCIENCE FICTION
-ALPHAVILLE-
FRANCE
(ANNA KARINA)
Director Jean-Luc Godard
1965/ 99 mins
-THE ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS FROM NEBULA 5-
SPAIN
(SHORTS)
Director Chema Garcia Ibarra
2008/ 7 mins
-EDEN LOG-
FRANCE
(NIGHT SHIFT)
Director Franck Vestiel
2007/ 101 mins
-EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP WAR-
JAPAN
(EROS + MASSACRE)
Director Shuji Terayama
1971/ 27 mins
-MOON-
UK/ USA
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Zowie! Let’s get that out of the way. Yes, Duncan Jones, co-writer and director of the British Science Fiction movie “Moon” is David Bowie’s son and if you want to think of the film’s plot as revealing the ultimate fate of Major Tom, go right ahead I won’t stop you.
Budgeted at five million dollars, “Moon” cost a lot less than a NASA lunar mission, or indeed a NASA moon shot toothbrush but, as with the slightly more pricey genre hit, “District 9”, provides an astonishingly big bang for its paltry space-credits.
Well, perhaps not so much literal pyrotechnics, as this is more cerebral Science Fiction, rather than space war, super hero slugfest or giant robot rampage. (Which is not to say that they can’t be brainbusters as well.) Rather, “Moon” is set on the title satellite within futuristic spitting distance of today. We’re mining dear old Selene naked (Down lads! Naught to do with the star of "Underworld"!) essentially raking through the moon dust for Helium 3, celebrity isotope of the century because of its potential use in nuclear fusion reactors. Here splendidly realised (in a tidy montage at least) and providing 70 percent of Earth’s energy needs. Korean based Lunar Industries Ltd. is a big mining concern that maintains a semi-automated one-man station on the moon station. Why they don’t shift over to total mechanisation given the high level of sophisticated robotics otherwise on display is one of the film’s few sticking points. Never mind, perhaps there’s a property rights derived legal necessity that requires the base have an actual human living and working on site. If so, you’d think that Occupational Health And Safety wouldn’t let them get away with a lone operator! With good reason too, as solo Astronaut Sam Bell, very near the end of a gruelling three year contractual tour of duty, is looking and acting increasingly seedy. Taking his character on what turns out to be an existential quest to find himself is actor Sam Rockwell, who's shaping up into a rather noteworthy genre star.
Rockwell was Crewman Number Six from “Galaxy Quest”, Zaphod Beeblebrox in the “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” movie, and even played Batman in the short film “Robin’s BIg Date”. He’s also rogue industrialist Justin Hammer in “Iron Man 2”. The “Moon” role is an actor’s challenge that results in one small step for Sam, one giant leap for Samkind. Rockwell quirkily paints a ‘Dorian Gray’ portrait of an off world working stiff coming messily unglued at the space suit seams. As who wouldn’t, with nothing to do but service dust harvesters, build intricate scale model buildings and watch reruns of “Bewitched” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. Even his technical reading mater is dustily dated, I spotted a copy of the old weekly aviation encyclopaedia “Take Off” on his space bunk. What sad ubergeek would still have that? It’s issue # 15 and came out in 1988. Very interesting article on carpet bombing Germany with B-17s, as well as a spiffing reference guide to business jets, including (Tee hee) the “Rockwell” Sabreliner Series. (Sometimes, I even let Arnold J. Rimmer borrow my copy.)
There aren’t many other faces to take the focus off Rockwell’s cleverly star-crossed performance, though I did notice that Matthew Berry has a minor, as opposed to a miner, role. Berry is well known to surreal genre buffs for being in “The IT Crowd”, “Garth Marenghi's Darkplace” and “The Mighty Boosh”. Blink, and you’ll miss him here!
Poor Garth is well upstaged by the voice of Kevin Spacey, whose genre credits include: “Superman Returns”, “Seven”, “Outbreak”, “K-Pax”, “Austin Powers In Goldmember”, “Fred Claus” and the upcoming “The Men Who Stare At Goats”. It’s just as well he’s a voice actor too, (in “A Bug’s Life” at least) because he’s the calmly spoken GERTY, the base’s built-in HAL -9000 like computer/robot assistant. Actually Kubrick’s “2001” and its implacable Right Stuffy Space Rangers has a little less to do with the gritty tone of “Moon” than films like “Silent Running”, “Outland”, “Dark Star” and, at an existential stretch, “Solaris”. So, regarding rogue robots, you won’t find too many echoes of Duncan Jones’ bachelor degree in philosophy thesis: “How to Kill Your Computer Friend: An Investigation of the Mind/Body Problem and How It Relates to the Hypothetical Creation of a Thinking Machine.”
No, it’s not robot revolution that’s at the heart of Lunar Station Sarang’s (the Korean word for ‘love’) increasingly over pressurised troubles. Still, that entirely unflappable, too reasonable voice is one more reason to go over the edge and stay there. The film’s effectively evoked atmosphere is a low budget marvel and everything in the production design, from the womb like padded space suits to the cramped lunar rovers and the unyielding confines of the base itself, serve to bottle up the long suffering main character’s angst; as the human condition turns in on itself backed by a constant, air conditioned hum. (Craftsmanship like this doesn’t just happen, take a bow Production Designer Tony Noble, Costume Designer Jane Petrie and all your clever artisan Selenites!)
As an occassional propmaker myself I couldn’t help but keep an eye out for the usual recycled flotsam and jetsam being used in the sets, but for a film this low budget I was quite surprised that even I had trouble identifying the usual junk, apart from a few repainted plastic cutlery draw liners and packaging discards. I also suspect extensive reliance upon real miniatures and models tweaked with computer jiggerypokery also helped keep costs down. Oh, and Luna’s 1/6th Earth gravity is generally well depicted outside on the surface, with ‘moon hopping’ being the preferred (presumably wire rigged) mode of walking and roostertails of dust taking a long, stately time to fall. INSIDE the base, however, the filmmakers either worked around or ignored the issue. Given the questionably high level of biotechnology on display perhaps ‘The Company’ also makes artificial gravity generators?
I’m not sure if the main idea has enough juice to warrant an additional two planned sequels without serious tinkering but for the most part “Moon” is a deliberately slow paced, reflectively sturdy Science Fiction film, though veteran buffs will probably twig to what’s going on quickly enough. No real matter, the ending still feels organic to the plot, even if the ‘grand gesture’ finale doesn’t quite deliver on the measured build up. In a year that also yielded up the splendid “District 9”, “Moon” is a most impressive debut feature. You’ve really made the grade Mr Jones, protein pills all round!
Director Duncan Jones
2008/ 97 mins
"THEY GAVE ME A JOB IN SPITE OF MY RECORD..."
-THE SKY CRAWLERS-
JAPAN
(ANIMATION)
Director Mamoru Oshii
2008/ 121 mins
UM, DOESN'T QUITE FIT IN THE OTHER CATEGORIES !!
-DOUBLETAKE-
BELGIUM
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA)
Director Johan Grimonprez
2009/ 80 mins
-HOME-
SWITZERLAND/ FRANCE/ BELGIUM
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA)
Director Ursula Meier
2008/ 97 mins
-IN THE LOOP-
UK
(INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA)
Director Armando Iannucci
2008/ 105 mins