Weekly Review -- Selling souls

The Girlfriend Experience (2009) -- I was looking forward to seeing this film for several reasons. First, the trailer displayed a very somber aesthetic, something that mainstream Hollywood does not utilize often. Second, I was intrigued by a new perspective of the oldest profession from the man who explored human character and desire in the brutally frank Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Finally, I was wondering about the stance that the film would take toward women who decide to enter this perilous world. Unfortunately, the film poses many questions and leaves the audience with few answers. Chelsea (Sasha Grey) is a high-end New York City escort, operating her own business while trying to expand it during the 2008 economic crisis. Her personal trainer boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) is having financial troubles of his own, being unable to keep clients in the recession and looking for greener pastures himself. The story follows the couple as their emotions and vices traverse the mostly unsavory proceedings. The problem with The Girlfriend Experience is that it never finds its point of view. It wanders aimlessly around its realm without offering up arguments that support, justify or even attack the protagonist's choices. The film moves along in a vague, dispassionate tone, achieving the rare feat of being detached from itself. If ever there was a topic for discussion, it would be the underground world of the escort industry, and Soderbergh squanders the chance he has to make a taboo debatable. Several interesting issues arise -- the central relationship and the principal character's motivation are among them -- but they are never explored within the decidedly unusual context. Grey, an adult film celebrity, lends a hint of poignancy to Chelsea, suggesting a well hidden truth behind the shrewd facade. She provides some earnest moments, making it difficult for the audience not to find a grain of sympathy for the character. The rest of the actors do well within the experimental framework, but are often drowned out by the style, which overwhelms the story. I loved the dark, subdued cinematography, which corresponds perfectly to the gloomy themes, but style does not a masterpiece make. In the end, The Girlfriend Experience is as vacuously pretentious as the life of its protagonist. It does not draw the viewer into its universe; rather, it leaves the audience stranded, searching for a meaning in a narrative that should never have been meaningless.

5/10

Weekly Review -- Happiness, the most cryptic of choices?

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) -- Why is hope such a rare cinematic gift? Gems like Amélie, Little Miss Sunshine, Watching the Detectives and other occasional delights break through the bleakness of many a reel, but a rich and life-affirming piece still seems to have become a needle in a haystack. Fear not, for here is a movie that will make you smile, laugh and maybe, just maybe dance around your house. Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a vibrant London school teacher with an unbeatable zest for life. She spends her days discovering and re-discovering the beauty of simple things, inhaling experiences and being herself, despite obstacles presented by "reality". Throughout the film, we see this eternal optimist's relationships with her family and friends, as well as the people she meets along the way. Director Mike Leigh's realism is not as present in this work as it is in many previous ones, like Meantime, Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake; then again, the subject matter itself calls for more freedom in improvisation and, on a somewhat technical level, a more inviting type of cinematography. Colors abound, whether we are peering into Poppy's apartment, her classroom or her flamenco lesson. Indeed, they seem to be a character unto themselves, an ever-present entity that saturates Poppy's world inside and out. Hawkins is incredibly expressive as the principal character, playing Poppy as an anomaly in a universe of "adults" which, of course, is where the beauty of her enthusiasm lies. The scenes which allow for the character's happiness to align with her keen perception and a deeper sense of altruism merely enhance her humanity, and Hawkins hits all the right nuances with her portrayal of emotions brimming underneath the surface. The screenplay gracefully shifts gears from a bubbly poignancy to somber themes like free will, life choices and abuse, staying well away from preachy or apathetic extremes of the dramatic spectrum. Leigh's trademark dysfunctional family theme enters the film in a few places, but this time its purpose is to confirm Poppy's joie de vivre, without the dysfunction sharing a symbiotic relationship with the other aspects of the narrative. Happy-Go-Lucky is a unique movie in its depiction of joy, showing that happiness is always within our grasp, if only we place faith in our perception and learn where to look.

9/10

Happy Halloween!

I hope that everyone is having an exceptionally scary night! Have fun watching a new gem like Paranormal Activity, or a classic like Halloween, natch, or trick'r'treating around the neighborhood!

Happy scares!

Weekly Review -- Camera Enigma

Surveillance (2008) -- The anatomy of a crime is a strange thing to dissect, indeed. However, once you give the task to Jennifer Lynch, not only do you get impressive results, you are also left scratching your head in bewilderment whilst reconfiguring the past two hours in your mind. FBI agents Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Hallaway (Bill Pullman) have just arrived at a small-town police station to investigate reports of a murder and kidnapping. They start interviewing witnesses that include a little girl (Ryan Simpkins) and a drug addict (Pell James), but soon realize that there are numerous pieces missing from this puzzle... Lynch builds a world that is merciless in its inhumanity, with merely shades of white sneaking through the clearly divided black and grey. The screenplay makes some great points about evil that some people can be capable of; one scene presents a wonderful example of wordplay, while some others weigh different levels of brutality within the story's context. The cinematography -- chosen specifically by the filmmaker to suit each of the eyewitnesses' narrative -- is one of the film's most exceptional elements, ranging from ominously grainy to luminously colored, each of the sequences drawing on both its aesthetic and its momentum. Although it would be unfair to compare Lynch to her filmmaker father, I believe it is fair to note that his influence here is undeniable. From the quirky supporting characters like the absentminded soccer mom and the inquisitive receptionist, to the police officers that would rather wax philosophical than analyze a crime scene, this movie is a slice of the unlawfully bizarre. Ormond and Pullman are authoritative as the leads, deftly maneuvering through the screenplay's layers. James is excellent at portraying her character's evolution, while Simpkins is a revelation as the child survivor. While Surveillance starts off somewhat -- somewhat relating strictly to the Lynchian sense of the word -- as a mystery thriller, it grows into a narrative that defies convention at every turn. On the surface, it is an excitingly unpolished question mark, drawing us deeper and deeper into its puzzles; at its core, it is a study of good versus evil in a world that often disregards the former and glorifies the latter, sometimes through the very lense that our gaze penetrates.

8/10

Weekly Review -- No smoking, vandalizing or eventual recording, please

Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2008) -- We all knew it was coming. As soon as Nimród Antal's 2007 chiller Vacancy became a moderate success, a sequel or prequel or some other addition would undoubtedly be in the works. A couple of years later, here we are, with a movie so inferior to the original that it is instantly forgettable. Jessica (Agnes Bruckner), her boyfriend Caleb (Trevor Wright) and his best friend Tanner (Arjay Smith) are on their way to Jessica's parents' farm. After realizing that they cannot quite show up at the dead hour of night, they decide to stay at the Meadow View Inn, unaware that dirty bathrooms and bad reception will soon be meaningless when compared to the motel employees' proclivity for snuff... The entire movie feels obligatory and forced, mostly due to one-dimensional characters, boring acting and cheap, plasticized cinematography. Vacancy's characters had a poignant background that made them resilient and gave them survivor potential, whereas the prequel's leads are not sufficiently thought out to make us care. The entire expository set-up for the characters' situation seems to be propelled by the screenplay's need for one, rather than serving the purpose of being one of the story's key aspects. Bruckner is a pretty tough heroine at times, but also bland on occasion, generally bringing nothing new to the slasher genre; Wright is convincing for what he has to work with, while Smith hits all the right notes with the juiciest role of the bunch. The villains are threatening when they are not being stereotypically over the top and when they are not stealing the Strangers' disguises. The movie looks as though someone had shot it with a personal video camera, which might not necessarily be a bad thing, but which is far from good if the method overrides the story's own effectiveness. All in all, Vacancy 2 is your run-of-the-mill horror film. Stick with the original and give this one a miss.

4/10

Weekly Review -- Empty interiors

The Informers (2009) -- Bret Easton Ellis is the type of author that generally polarizes readers all around the map with his biting dissections of isolation, greed, materialism, hedonism, sexuality, values and beliefs. The same is generally true of movie adaptations of his works. Mary Harron played with dark humor in her American Psycho adaptation, while Roger Avary's Rules of Attraction examined the jaded wistfulness and bored cynicism of 1980s' privileged youth with flashy, regretful glee. However, Gregor Jordan's The Informers is a couple of notches lower on the effectiveness scale, mostly due to its lack of creative focus on thematic resonance. The story concerns a group of 1983 Los Angeles residents, all involved in one way or another with the suck-you-dry world of show business. The group includes rich kid Graham (Jon Foster), his cheating movie producer father William (Billy Bob Thornton), pill-popping mother Laura (Kim Basinger), promiscuous girlfriend Christie (Amber Heard) and best friend and occasional lover Martin (Austin Nichols). As is habitual for Ellis's works, all of the characters live life with no thought of tomorrow, lost in the drug-fuelled chaos of meaningless sex, unforgivable crime and foggy human connections. The narrative is nestled in the context of the emerging AIDS epidemic, as well as the ever-potent and intoxicating Hollywood scene. All the ingredients are there for a drama that crosses over into serious satire of fame and its excesses, yet Jordan seems content to tell the story in a linear fashion, without using techniques that might elevate it from an unswerving narrative to a multi-layered tale of woe amid riches. Ellis's works are shrewdly unconventional; one should not try to box them into a standard of any kind, nor should one try telling them without finding overtones of bitter humor shading all of the story elements, and Jordan does find some of them using his camerawork and metaphorical details, such as the black-and-white music video that subtly places a sexually charged scene into a context of fleeting zeitgeist. The most poignant scenes are those involving an elusive stillness, a calm before yet another emotional storm; a calm that we know is deceitful, because we are well aware that Ellis's characters' soulless voracity prevents them from ever finding peace. The last scene took my breath away, both in its emotional significance and its stark aesthetic, and it suggests that Jordan might have needed only a few different artistic choices to present an extraordinary film. The acting is the most captivating part of The Informers, with most of the cast getting a chance to play out of character. Thornton is at his weaselly best as the principal character's father, while Winona Ryder shines as a reporter caught up in some unfinished business. However, it is Chris Isaak who is a revelation as a neglectful playboy father, and whose character's exchanges with his son border on highly disturbing. All in all, the movie is a miss, when it could have been a clear hit. The Informers has potential, but it needed to be slightly more controversial, slightly more cynical in the face of its obvious absurdity, in order to get to its boiling point.

6/10

Summer Review #3 - Gamer

I went into Gamer very happy to finally watch a movie that I have been wanting to see for more than a year; I came out of the cinema pleasantly surprised. Yes, this movie with Gerard Butler shooting stuff up, Michael C. Hall going all megalomaniac on us and at least one explosion in every second frame actually has something to say. It is a great satire on a possible futuristic version of our already reckless society -- a corporate playground that has crossed the line between impulse and action a long time ago, where human decadence has overflown into all aspects of life and where cheap thrills and short-term gratification are priceless.

In 2034, Kable (Butler) is a popular participant in the worldwide game phenomenon called Slayers, invented by eccentric billionaire Ken Castle (Hall), who had revolutionized the business a few years back with his role-playing game Society. Whereas Society feels like a spoiled offspring of this decade's Second Life, Slayers places death row inmates in blood-curdling battles, giving them freedom after a certain number of wins, and putting them at the mercy of their human controller. Kable's controller, Simon Silverton (Logan Lerman), is a teenage superstar who enjoys his cushy spot in the world, his life revolving around his secure virtual reality domain, without the need to question any single pixel. Kable has four battles to go until his release, but Castle, who is counting on Kable to keep up his media power, intends on preventing the duo from winning. All the while, Kable's wife Angie (Amber Valetta) is dealing with her own exploitation issues, and the Humanz resistance movement is planning to break Kable out.

While many reviewers have compared the thematics of Gamer to that of The Running Man, for obvious reasons, this Neveldine/Taylor production is more of an adrenaline-fueled blend of A Clockwork Orange and The Matrix, both storywise and stylistically. Contrary to the filmmakers' tasteless and downright offensive Pathology, Gamer is a philosophical piece for the Twitter generation, a movie that dishes out warning after warning, all attractively wrapped up in a poisonous candy-colored pastiche of mockery amid excess. The dialogue can be weak and appear unfinished at times, hinting at much more that a particular scene can deal with; I feel like Neveldine and Taylor held back with their writing as much as they reined freely over the action, which was not a wise choice with this story, since the powerful visuals should have been matched with equally significant verbal exchanges. Butler does well as an action hero once again; the genre seems to have become somewhat of his niche, although I do feel he could have handled more of Kable's background. Hall is incredible as Castle, his twang and cocky swagger making him both captivating and loathsome. Kyra Sedgwick and Milo Ventimiglia provide memorable supporting turns as a tabloid journalist and greedy rapist, respectfully. I wish that the resistance had been explored a bit further, because it seems to be populated by all sorts of renegade genius types, some of which fit into the movie's tapestry rather nicely.

While undoubtedly offering escapist entertainment, Gamer also offers a caustic view of a world that undervalues human beings and abuses its own development potential. With its intended demographic putting more stock in the color of their iPod than an attention span, the colorful tones of the movie's derisive attitude will likely be lost on this audience; however, they are worth more than any of its wisecrack-trailed blasts and painstakingly choreographed fight sequences. Gamer scores points for being different from your usual action showdown in its innovative creative process, as well as in its choice to follow the slams with a significant bang.

7/10

Weekly Review -- Remaking disease

Quarantine (2008) -- Another remake on the horizon? Of course. Having been terrified by the original [Rec] a few months ago, I was looking forward to comparing this John Erick Dowdle movie to the one that started it all. Unfortunately, it does not measure up. Reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) are filming a show on firefighters for Angela's nightly broadcast. After a call shakes up the monotony at the station, Jennifer and Scott leave with the two firefighters they are supposed to be shadowing. When they turn up at the location, the situation grows more and more serious by the minute, and soon the group are trapped inside a sealed-off building... The movie is nearly a shot-by-shot remake of [Rec], which does not go in its favor. A film's second incarnation should either re-interpret the story in a creative manner or add its previously unexplored aspects to the mix, in order to be effective. Dowdle does not take either approach, preferring instead to cash in on the original by simply translating it and bringing nothing new to the already experienced suspense. As far as acting goes, Carpenter and Harris have the best moments, particularly Harris, who manages to add humanity to the events unfolding without ever being visible himself. Carpenter successfully alternates between high-pitched enthusiasm and sheer panic. She is at her most poignant with Angela's tough facade crumbling and the realization of doom creeping up; indeed, encountering a zombie virus on assignment is not exactly something that a reporter would ever expect. I did not find that the supporting players were given much to do, except stand around looking scared and launching into full-on attack mode when their characters became infected. The original does a much better job at utilizing documentary-style realism to show the progression of the tenants' reactions from bewilderment to fear to utter hopelessness; the remake is stuck in an attempt to do so, acting out the Blair Witch instead of narrating the Blair Witch. The last twenty minutes of the film -- a part of [Rec] that impressed me both in terms of storytelling and visuals -- are very bland here, not delivering on the potential of the idea and certainly not up to par with Balagueró and Plaza's bleak aesthetics in general and sinister camerawork used in this sequence. It is too bad that significant changes were made to the one part that should have remained the same, and that hardly any changes were made to parts that should have displayed innovation. Quarantine had a chance to be a new take on the tale, but it is merely a weak re-run with few scares worthy of your time.

5/10