Outside the Law (2010) theatrical review

Outside the Law aka Hors la loi is to represent Algiers at the nearest Oscars. Two years ago I saw the then Oscar nominee, Masques, a lovely comedy of errors. Don’t remember coming across other Algerian films since, and it’s a shame – looks like they have good cinema there.

The film centers on three brothers who suddenly find themselves at the heart of Algiers’ struggle for independence in the late 1950s. Yet this is rather the Algerian version Once upon a Time in the West or The Godfather: Part II (a number of scenes are borrowed directly from there) than The Battle of Algiers or Bloody Sunday. It’s a crime epic complete with long coats and dark streets, rather than a film chronicling political demonstrations and police brutality (though there is some of that too).

Outside the Law begins great, yet loses focuses as it progresses. The beginning plunges us into a chaotic world where justice is nowhere to be found, and the lead characters who oppose the law are no saints either.  Some of them act like bastards on more than one occasion. Too bad that it soon grows stale and clichéd. The production itself is impressive, and it shows that much talent went into it, but lack of cohesion and focus in terms of script and ideas work to enfeeble this film.

Unter dir die Stadt (2010) theatrical review

The best thing you can say about Unter dir die Stadt aka The City Below is that it goes all the way with its concept. The film depicts a sterile, alienated and emotionless universe. It is written, filmed and directed in a sterile, alienated and emotionless manner. And I’m not being sarcastic here – the design of the film mirrors its thematic content in an impressive and consistent manner. It is a world of offices and suites, aseptic and ordered, behind the clean walls of which absolutely nothing even remotely vital or exciting takes place.

It really could’ve been a great movie if it wasn’t so utterly boring.

The creators of the movie do not steer an inch away from this concept, and they lost this viewer as consequence. Not that I imagine they’d mind or try to win me back. The film is a thriller that doesn’t want us to know it’s a thriller and its coldness and alienation never let me become engrossed with it for one moment.At times it reminded me of American Psycho, which is set in the same world beset by the same evils, the difference being that that film is American and hence rather communicative. Unter dir die Stadt is a German film, and consequently it’s subdued and muted almost to the point of autism.

And yet, I must something in this film didn’t let go of me. It was a very frustrating viewing as I sensed that perhaps there is something truly special in this film that I cannot cognize. It’s as if it encodes something that you need to parse, and once I read between the lines, I’ll be in for an epiphanic experience. So that didn’t happen, but it’s not like I had a moment’s rest watching it.

Honey (2010) theatrical review

This is the third part of the Yusuf trilogy of the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu; the two opening parts, Egg and Milk were screened in the Haifa and Jerusalem film festivals respectively. The film was awarded the chief prize of the Berlin Film Festival, yet following last year’s fiasco with The Milk of Sorrow, I don’t really trust the Golden Bear anymore. The two films have much in common at first glance: both lack a clear and coherent narrative, are short on dialogue and long on atmosphere and centered on the inner world of a reclusive and/or troubled individual; are not without an anthropological streak; and both are “visually impressive”, to reiterate a phrase I’ve applied to so many films during this festival. Yet while The Milk of Sorrow, nominated for Oscar in the Foreign Film category, bored me to death, Honey bewitched me almost from beginning to end.

First of all, of all the films I’ve seen in this festival, this is by far the most visually stunning. Some shots look as if Vermeer himself took them: each and every frame is state of art. In addition the child who plays Yusuph is so adorable that as when the film was loosing me, a close-up on his face made me once again look with anticipation.

It is a coming of age story full of nuances so subtle that blink and you’ll miss something. Since I haven’t seen the other films (the reception of Milk last year in Jerusalem wasn’t particularly warm), I can attest it stands on its own. Beautiful and worth seeing.

Un homme qui crie (2010) theatrical review

And yet another import straight from the Cannes Film Festival, this time the winner of the Jury Award. This is a French/Chad co-production, centered on an old pool attendant in a hotel, against the backdrop of military turmoil. Un homme que crie aka A Screaming Man has left me ambivalent. On the one hand it was a fascinating anthropological experience: watching closely the lives of people in far away lands to realize they are just like you is – and forgive me the Romanticizing – one of the great things the art of cinema had introduced into our lives.

On the other hand, this was NOT the swiftest hour and a half of my life, let’s put it thus. The film is not consistently interesting, and certain sections made my mind wonder very far from the cinema hall.

The first part of the film was by far the most interesting: the scenes at the hotel, the little moments between the protagonist and his wife and child, small gentle tableaux of humanity and vulnerability. While the more dramatic scenes appeared weaker to me. Something about them was not entirely convincing, and I was left with a few nice moments that were drowned in too many inconsequential ones.

Indigene d'Eurasie aka Eastern Drift (2010) theatrical review

Film editing is a notoriously tricky thing. In the classic conception of editing (i.e. one that values dramatic coherency as opposed to experimental and postmodern features), you shouldn’t be able to know it’s there. A good editor should make sure the transitions between scenes or from one angle to another are smooth and seamless, so that the viewer’s state of illusion will not be interrupted. The viewer should not be reminded that s/he is staring at moving pictures. There are always exceptions to the rule, but that’s the basic principle. In addition to that, editing should determine the rhythm of the sequences, emphasize the tone and focus the attention of the viewer, all in a way that don’t draws attention to itself. If the viewer becomes aware of the editing, it means something’s not working right, and the problem can lie with acting or direction just as well.

The Lithuanian film Indigene d’Eurasie aka Eastern Drift, dir. Sharunas Bartas, is one of those rare films during which I caught myself asking time and again “who the hell did (NOT DO) the editing in this film?”.

However there’s little doubt that if other aspects of the film would’ve worked, the problem would be less prominent. It’s the severe problems with the acting and the script that made me become aware of the unnecessary intercuts, bad takes that ended up in the movie (the number of extras staring into the camera is ridiculous), the weird camera positioning, and the problematic sense of space. Yet the problem with the film lies not only with the micro but with the macro as well.

The film tells the parallel stories of two couples increasingly entangled in crime and corruption. Neither of them works on its own account, and the juxtapoition doesn’t help. The stories simply do not support one another thematically or in any other way, and the film feels muddled.

Barney's Version (2010) theatrical review

Certain films should just be enjoyed. No, let me put it another way: there are films that only want to be loved. Such is Barney’s Version, an adaptation of Mordechai Richler’s book starring Paul Giamatti. It is a film that desperately wants to loved and attempts just about everything to succeed in the task.

The film revolves around Barney, a TV producer with quite a few personal problems, as his life is chronicled beginning with his first marriage and up to his last days. The plot jumps back and forth in time in a manner reminiscent of 1982’s The World According to Garp. Barney’s Version is a reasonably moving and not unfunny film. It is visually inviting and the actors all do a solid job. Other than its excessive length, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t lay the critical half of your brain to rest, and let Barney and co take you for a safe ride.

Giamatti is impressive as ever, yet those who saw him depict lovable yet damaged character with yet greater brilliance in American Splendor and Sideways will experience déjà vu. Dustin Hoffman provides a number of magic moments as Barney’s father, and Minnie Driver and Scott Speedman make for a strong supporting cast. Yet best of all is Rosamund Pike. Since her wonderful role in An Education last year, I’m craving to see her in a big and meaningful role. Here she gets this opportunity and seizes it with both her hands.

Barney’s Version does a good job within the strictly limited scope it set for itself: a funny, emotional, well-made drama that does not leave a profound impression, but does provide quite a few lovable moments.

How I Ended Last Summer (2010) theatrical review

There is no easy way to say this. It’s much easier to review the downright terrible or the mediocre. Coming to a film festival you are prepared to digest the odd patchy mockumentary or an eclectic pastiche; neither can you escape your share of good old Hollywood dross. Yet a genuinely new film that unveils something you haven’t seen before, will always catch you unawares. Nothing prepared me to how astonishingly good is How I Ended Last Summer.

How I Ended Last Summer chronicles a couple of days in the life of two meteorologists at an isolated Apollo station at the Northern Pole: the young, straight-out-of-college Pasha (Grigoriy Dobrygin) and the curmudgeonly senior meteorologist Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis). The plot – if the term is applicable to this slow-paced film – revolves around Pasha’s inability to break a terrible piece of news to his senior colleague, resulting in, well, some very serious unpleasantness.

Since I’m much too overwhelmed by the power of this unforgetabble film to attempt anything in the way of analysis, let’s quickly run over the positives (superlatives, more like) of director Aleksei Popogrebsky’s second effort. The two – sole two! – actors are outstanding, the cinematography inventive and the composition of scene precise and thoughtful, and the script a marvel of psychological accuracy. Ladies and gents, a masterpiece.

La Nostra Vita (2010) theatrical review

After three days it can be statistically determined that the day’s first film is also the best one. Having seen La Nostra Vita (Our Life), dir. Daniele Luchetti, I wish to say this: allow me to congratulate once more the members of the last Cannes Festival, who  selected Elio Germano as best actor (together with Javier Bardem), on their excellent taste. Germano gives what it easily one of this year’s finest performances as Claudio, a construction contractor with a few personal complications.

I sometimes feel that it doesn’t take much more for a film – any film – than a few tones of soul to rise to greatness. La Nostra Vita is a modest drama shot with a camera resting on a trembling shoulder, without any arty farty halabaloo: it rather injects a great deal of emotion right into your heart, so effectively that when the film descends into kitsch, you don’t seem to mind. I’m positive there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. I know I cried like a little girl.

It is the second year in a row that an Italian film at the Haifa Film Festival completely disarms me, robs me of my cynicism. Last year it was Francesca Archibugi’s magnifiscent Questione di cuore that made me fall in love. Ever since then any trace of this film have been lost. It remains to hope that La Nostra Vita will enjoy a different destiny. Come to Haifa to watch this movie. I promiss you won’t be disappointed!

Additional screening: 27.9, 18:30

Animal Kingdom (2010) theatrical review

This Australian film that won the Jury Prize in the last Cannes Festival was, for me, one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the festival. I’m pleased to announce that the anticipation proved totally worth it: Animal Kingdom, David Michôd’s directorial debut, is a disquieting and brilliantly crafted drama.

Starting with the movie’s opening shot – which, while not striking or provocative, is hugely impressive – it zooms in on young Josh, whose only crime is having born to the wrong family. The plot of this mini crime saga is one we certainly had seen before, yet with minimum cinematic effects it had me glued to the chair.

Another thing –  Jacki Weaver is my favorite for this year’s Supporting Actress Academy Award. She creates one of the most electrifying maternal figures in recent memory. The film is already out in the US in limited distribution, and it remains to hope the Academy members will pay notice. I also hope it will be out in a more wide release in US, so that more people will get a chance to see this incredibly intense and interesting film.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) theatrical review

Subtle. This is one word I’ll never use to describe Oliver Stone. Most of the time, when I’m watching his films – including his better ones – I have a feeling he stands above me and shouts into my head. The man shuns subtext and nuance as if they were contagious.

It’s off to a good start, really. There’s a pretty good joke in the opening scene, great David Byrne song in the background, some huge names in the credits. It’s all very big and sweeping, in the best 90s Hollywood manner. A pleasure to behold.

As things settle down, it all grows a bit less exciting. As a complete ignoramus in all things fiscal, I couldn’t really follow any of the plot twists. Stone, clearly foreseeing that possibility, used every bludgeon in his weaponry to hit me on the head. The editing is jerky to the point of epilepsy, the dialogue is tedious in its bombast, cameos from mega-stars are just that etc. There is a number of images that today, after the cinema made the full circle to postmodernism and back to classical realism, look a bit naive at best. One instance is the You Are All Tyler Durden-style montage, where we learn that it is Gordon Gekko who’s pulling the strings. I mean, for crying out loud. Good thing I was sitting down. Surely Michael Douglas‘ charismatic character morphing into Yoda while in prison is not the FIRST thing the audience expects.

Neither are the sub-plots any good. There is the one with the young couple (Shia LaBeouf, who yet again fails to convince me that he is an actor, and Carey Mulligan in a role that makes one miss Katie Holmes) that’s at the very heart of this sequel – which, likes sequels do, tells the same story as the original film, only with more subplots. Trouble is, it doesn’t work, and eventually will embarrass even the most compassionate and easy to please.

Stone is a cinematic dinosaur and he directs accordingly. Even though there is a certain kind of pleasure to be derived from watching Oliver’s Razzle Dazzle, the original was, to put it mildly, better.

Watch the trailer: