I had “Boy Wonder” listed as a comic put to film, so I expected a bit of comic-like action. Actually “Boy Wonder” is more of a drama. Sean was in the car when his mother was killed and for the last nine years he has been searching for the killer. He turned in some kind of vigilante, but it is not entirely clear to me if he kills candidates for his mother’s murderer of more at random.
In any case, “Boy Wonder” is quite a ‘normal’ film. Not a boring one, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Boy Wonder * Michael Morrissey (2010)
Dharmaga Tongjoguro Kan Kkadalgun * Yong-Kyun Bae (1989)
When I mention the international title for this film, you might have heard of it: “Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East?”. It is a quite well-known film in which three people in a small monastry are followed over a period of time. There is an old monk, an orphan that the monk raises as a monk and a young man who left society to seek enlightenment. The film does not have a story or a plot and seems to jump locations (other monasteries) and time (flashbacks?), but what you get is 137 minutes of extremely slow and very minimalistic filming portraying the daily life of nowadays Zen monks. The nice thing about this project is that no Westerner seems to have been involved, so it is most likely authentistic.
Hodejegerne * Morten Tyldum (2011)
Roger Brown is a slick businessman whose job is get the best candidates for top functions. He is a “headhunter”, hence the title. He also has an occupation on the side in order to enable him to support his wife’s expensive taste. Then his two jobs come together in Clas Greve who proves to be an opponent of too big a size. A quite typical story unfolds in which things go from bad to worse for Roger.
“Headhunters” might be somewhat predictable, but it has some nice humour, current-day bloody scenes and a well-enough atmosphere to remain entertaining. I predict a remake.
Sheitan * Kim Chapiron (2006)
“Sheitan” is a teen horror with a typical story, but all the Hollywood variations to the theme look like teen films in comparison to “Sheitan”. After a varying successfull Christmas evening in a disco, a group of youngsters drive from Paris to some remote village where one of the girls lives. As soon a they get near the village, it is obvious that this village is pretty weird. You can almost fill in the rest of the story, but let me say that the youngsters spend Christmas with Vincent Cassel at his most maniacal and when you have followed the carreer of the good man, you might have an idea of what that means. The boys try to get laid, the girls are somewhat interested, but all the attention goes to Joseph (Cassel) who makes himself he middle of all events. Slowly but surely “Sheitan” becomes a horror.
However Cassel is brilliant, I do not particularly like “Sheitan”. I am not much into teenagers in films. The village’s inhabitants are funny though and there is enough horror-humour to make the film enjoyable.
Intelligence (series) * Chris Haddock (2005-7)
I find “Intelligence” a very interesting, Canadian show. There have been two series, but the end of the second is so open that a third can always follow. After six years, I do not suppose that this is going to happen. If you like high-speed and especially high-information series, “Intelligence” may be for you. It is a crime-series with shows the view of all involved parties, government, criminals, etc. All these different groups have enmities, but also contact; everybody tries to build a network that is most benificial for their own goals and it is hard to keep up with who is who and what is what and what everybody is upto and that exactly is the charm of the series.
We have Mary Spalding of Organised Crime who is trying to set up an international intelligence network by catching criminals and recruiting them for information. Additionally Mary goes at lengths to move ‘up the ladder’ and becoming head of CSIS (I think this is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service) for which she has to manipulate things. Mary has a couple of employees and colleagues who also try their best to get rid of Mary and other people for their own carreers. According to the cover, the spider in the series is Jimmy Reardom, a crafty businessman working both upper- and underground with his close pal Ronnie Delmonico. Two two run a stripclub the Chick A Dee, Jimmy has a cargo fleet and a lumber business. Together the two smuggle and sell weed, but no harddrugs. Jimmy is an informant for Mary trying as much to get information out of her as she out of him.
Espionage, counter-espionage, rivalling criminal groups, rivalling government agencies and all that on the Canadian/USA border (the series play in Vancouver and Seattle). The acting is great, the stories wonderfull, the characters interesting. “Intelligence” remains a big-audience production in the sense that it is ‘just’ a well-produced crime thriller, but if you like the genre, you might want to look out for these series.
Fear X * Nicholas Winding Refn (2003)
Waiting for the upcoming “Only God Forgives”, I got myself an old film of Refn. “Fear X” has the Refn style I guess, a very slow-paced thriller. Security guard Harry’s wife got killed, apparently without reason. Obsessed with finding the murderer, just to ask: “why”, Harry spends all his time watching security tapes which certainly will contain the man he is looking for. Then the police puts him on the trail of a place where Harry and his wife spent holidays and Harry sets out with a few good leads.
“Fear X” has, like I said, a very slow pace, a minimalistic story, little dialogue, nicely dark ‘Lynchian’ scenes, a wonderfull minimalistic soundtrack created by Brian Eno and a couple of great hallucinary scenes.
Indeed, a good film of Nicholas Winding Refn.
Mononoke-Hime * Hayao Miyazaki (1997)
I do not see a whole lot of “anime”, but I heard some interesting things about “Princess Mononoke”. Ashitaka kills a demon that attacks his village, but he gets cursed and has to set out into the wide world to lift it. He runs into a battle between man and nature. A village and its leader Lady Eboshi intend to destroy nature for wealth and prosperity. Nature is represented by mythological Gods/beasts. Not knowing whether to choose between mankind of nature, Ashitaka tries to reconcile the two parties. Of course some romance is thrown in to make things a little more complicated. The films seems to balance between Japanese folklore and ecological awareness. The story is quite moving and the message pretty clear. “Princess Mononoke” is a nice and interesting ‘cartoon’.
Suspiria * Dario Argento (1977)
Am I correct when I assume that “Suspiria” is Argento’s most famous film? I was wondering if is it would be better than “Tenebrae”. It is. There is still the corny slasher with bright-light blood, silly-looking dying-scenes, an awfull English overdub and most of the time, but film is not very scary, but what makes this much more interesting than “Tenebrae” is the magnificent soundtrack of the Italian progrockband Goblin, the wonderfull stages (Jugendstill or Rudolf Steiner buildings) and the beautiful colors and camera-work. Goblin has managed to create music that sounds scary in itself and nothing much has to happen in the film to create a great atmosphere. Argento and Goblin cooperated on other titles too I believe, so I guess I am going to look up these films.
This Must Be the Place * Paolo Sorrentino (2011)
‘Tragicomedy’ is not really my genre, but I was curious about this film. Cheyenne (Sean Penn) is a retired rockstar who has been living on his past success for two decades. Judging the cover, he used to be some kind of gothrocker who never changed his style, so what would a large film make of a gruftie? Cheyenne suffers a heavy burden of his past success, so he left the USA for Ireland where he lives with his wife Jane (Frances McDormand) and a few close friends in a tiny vilage. His strange appearance and extremely modest way of talking often makes Cheyenne victim of pestering and surprise. When his father dies in the USA, Cheyenne travels there and finds a form of distraction that he needed badly.
I already expected a ‘tragicomedy’, but “This Must Be The Place” has higher peaks and lower depths than I thought. The film is pretty dramatic, but there is also nice humour both for people like Cheyenne and people who like to make fun of people that do not fit in. Especially during Cheyenne’s trip through the USA some serious life’s questions pass, perhaps even somewhat overdone here and there. A nice quote I find when a young, female fastfood restaurant server says: “That’s life”, Cheyenne replies something in the vein of “There is a time that you will say “this will be my life” and suddenly this becomes “that’s life”". This also seems to be the underlying ‘Leitmotiv’ of the film, a theme about which I have mixed feelings. Sorrentino seems to say that people who do not fit in, never grew up and when they do, they will be a good member of society.
“This Must Be The Place” is an interesting drama with wonderfull camera work and characters and situation that makes you think about life and society.
Beyond The Black Rainbow * Panos Cosmatos (2010)
Somewhere between David Lynch, early David Cronenberg, 80′ies scifi and “The Cube” comes this o far the only film of Cosmatos. I heard about it a while ago but it took some time before I had the chance to see it. Some people complain about the lack of story, but the way I see it, the film is about doctor Barry Nyle who has an elaborate psychological hospital in which one patient has his special interest: Elena. There is something about Elena and Nyle found a way to control her. Not entirely though…
The first three quarters are brilliant. The film is very minimalistic and is more like a visual soundscape with a great soundtrack than a film. Weird colourly overflowing scenes, almost no dialogue, just an overlighted videoclip. Not for the average filmwatcher for sure. In the last quarter the level drops somewhat as new elements are brought into the film, but overall “Beyond The Black Rainbow” is a very interesting psychedelic experience.