Weekly Review -- After the fire

The Road (2009) -- A good dramatic piece is hard to find, particularly nowadays, in a sea of cheap, quasi-reality show thrills, CGI-inundated actioners and teen romances. As poetic as it is life-affirming, John Hillcoat's The Road is a uniquely framed narrative, revolving around the purest and most primal of relationships.

After an apocalypse has wiped out nearly all life on Earth, a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel across the desolate United States, all the while attempting to survive another day. Encountering the worst side of humanity at every corner, facing desperation with every step, they press on, hoping against hope for life after ruin. The connection between father and son is unbreakable, enduring the hardest of hardships and evolving through small miracles along the dreary journey...

Hillcoat's film is an introspective cinematic tale, differing from many other dramatic works in its representations of communication and conflict. The barely existent dialogue makes The Road play out like an internal monologue, one that gives us heartwrenching insight to a father's ultimate predicament. Had I not known that the film was an adaptation, however, I would have wanted to learn more, since the story structure was tailor-made for a medium that can delve even deeper into the narrator's state of mind and further illustrate the first-person viewpoint. Although Hillcoat has directed a thoroughly riveting saga, I am happy that the piece was based on an undoubtedly lyrical novel by Cormac McCarthy. It also has to be be said that Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography and Chris Kennedy's production design are perfection. It takes imagination and guts to create a gray, unglamorous world, which nevertheless manages to seduce the viewer into its deteriorating vortex.

The cast is excellent. Mortensen's protagonist is a picture of dogged determination, his inner fighter going beyond limits for his son. Portraying a child without a childhood, Smit-McPhee is a talent to watch, his character's natural curiosity mixing with sadness that can only have come from the loss of innocence. Charlize Theron gives a performance that is both melancholy and disturbing, while Garret Dillahunt constructs an equally unsettling picture of a ruthless scavenger. Lastly, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce have compelling supporting turns as fellow voyagers on the way to a possible tomorrow.

The Road is a contemplative version of a future that no one would ever wish to live through. It is a testament to resilience, our everlasting commitment to survival and our willingness to guard love with our lives. Above all, it is a philosophical treatise on what makes us human and what makes us retain humanity when a lack of mercy threatens to take it away forever.

9/10

Weekly Review -- The number of the beast

Burning Bright (2010) -- Creature features have been known to run the gamut from laughably campy -- hello, Earth vs. The Spider! -- to disturbingly effective, like that little shark movie that made everyone afraid of skinny dipping, or any kind of dipping, for that matter. Still, it is the union of inspiration and resourcefulness that produces the best scares, which is exactly what we get with this Carlos Brooks' film. After learning that her bank account was depleted, Kelly (Briana Evigan) returns home to confront her stepfather (Garret Dillahunt), who took out the last cent in order to purchase a tiger for a planned safari park. Having taken care of her autistic brother (Charlie Tahan) since their mother passed away and needing the funds for his tuition, Kelly finds herself in quite the predicament, but her troubles are far from over. In the middle of the night, she wakes up to discover that the aforementioned tiger has somehow entered the hurricane-ready, boarded-up house... The main reason the film works is its simple, unpretentious premise, with just enough twists and turns to surprise the viewer. The setting and issue of the hurricane season also works to the film's advantage, making the story that much more frightening and the stakes higher. Brooks generates a whole lot of suspense by using camera angles and subdued lighting, proving that a filmmaker does not necessarily need a big budget to create a juggernaut of unrelenting dread. Evigan makes for a tough yet sympathetic heroine, reminiscent of classical 1970s and 1980s horror protagonists, providing Kelly with quick wit and sharp senses, all indicative of the obvious struggles that she has gone through during the course of her short life. Tahan excels as her brother and Dillahunt does a great job as the opportunistic stepfather. Burning Bright is a good addition to the horror genre, a thrilling story that never compromises its tension and a hidden gem that might just amaze you with its ingenuity.

8/10