Mini-Review

Mini-Review: Kauwboy

Posted on by bernardovillela

This year, as I did both last year and in 2012, I am engaging in something I like to call the Year-End Dash. Basically, its the scramble to get as many eligible titles viewed as possible before the end of the year for the forthcoming BAM Awards.

The extemporaneous reactions to late viewing will be short, but they will be logged. So I thought it would also be a good idea to re-post in standalone form some of the more memorable films I’ve seen in the first few jaunts.

Kauwboy (2011)

The Netherlands’ entry into the Best Foreign Language Film fray is quite a wonderful one indeed, and for the second year running the Netherlands could have a major player at the BAM Awards. Kauwboy is tale that’s simply told and all the more beautiful for it. It artistically expresses the wonderment of childhood, how a child can keep himself occupied, but also how a child can retreat and hide away from a difficulty. There’s great tension at times, and also laughs. The world is small containing few players, but all of them are well played; including the very expressive debutant Rick Lens. A most excellent film.

Kauwboy did indeed have quite an impact on that year’s BAM awards.

10/10

Mini-Review: On the Ice (2011)

Posted on by bernardovillela

This year, as I did both last year and in 2012, I am engaging in something I like to call the Year-End Dash. Basically, its the scramble to get as many eligible titles viewed as possible before the end of the year for the forthcoming BAM Awards.

The extemporaneous reactions to late viewing will be short, but they will be logged. So I thought it would also be a good idea to re-post in standalone form some of the more memorable films I’ve seen in the first few jaunts.

On the Ice (2011)

This is a slice of neo-neorealist cinema (if you can follow that) set in a native community in Barrow, AK. As opposed to something like Before Tomorrow, which dealt with traditional living in Canada, this film deals with the clash of modern times and tradition in the US. This is a low-key thriller very well executed that features shocking twists and turns.

9/10

Mini-Review: A Christmoose Carol (2005)

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

In an ongoing effort to give each film its own post I decided that some films previously featured in Holiday Viewing Guides should also get their own post.

Specific to this post: A new remake is a newly reviewed film today.

A Christmoose Carol (2005)

This is one of the films I picked up after getting a region-free player. I saw a trailer for it and it just seemed like the kind of thing too silly not to give a shot. What’s refreshing is that the film is playing comedy throughout. Yes, there are overtures of schmaltz and warm-fuzziness, it is a Christmas film after all, but it’s eminently more watchable and enjoyable than I ever thought it would be – and really should have any right to be. Part of this has to do with just a different perspective. Heaven forbid an American film try and get away with a Santa getting drunk and distracted, yet still trying to make a positive film, much less having it actually be Santa and not a mall employee or a psychopath. What the film deals mostly with is a thankfully practical and rather well-crafted Moose character (It seemed rather Falkor-like, I wonder if there is any connection to NES) and adds its own spin, and a rather cloistered tale that is neither a retread or earth-shattering in its repercussions as “disaster” is being avoided. A funny anecdote is that when I was younger I’d always insist on writing the original title of the film. However, seeing Es ist ein Elch entsprungen plastered on the box and being unable to record it to memory made me learn the English title, as silly and punny as it is.

6/10

Mini-Review: The Other Son

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This year, as I did both last year and in 2012, I am engaging in something I like to call the Year-End Dash. Basically, its the scramble to get as many eligible titles viewed as possible before the end of the year for the forthcoming BAM Awards.

The extemporaneous reactions to late viewing will be short, but they will be logged. So I thought it would also be a good idea to re-post in standalone form some of the more memorable films I’ve seen in the first few jaunts.

The Other Son

Sometimes themes develop very unexpectedly throughout the year. One that has occurred this year is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This film, which oddly was a co-production but not selected by either nation for the Oscars, uses perhaps the most effective vehicle possible to examine the issue (children switched at birth) and examines it very well.

9/10

Mini-Review: Deep Dark Canyon

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This is a post that is a repurposing of an old-school Mini-Review Round-Up post. As stated here I am essentially done with running multi-film review posts. Each film deserves its own review. Therefore I will repost, and at times add to, old reviews periodically. Enjoy!

Deep Dark Canyon

Two things I often write about with regard to film-watching came into blissful convergence when I saw this film: first, there’s the Blank Slate Theory. Granted I read a line or two of synopsis, but up until that email from Redbox I hadn’t heard of this film. Secondly, and closely related to the first part, whatever expectations I created, over-inflated, and then guarded against in my head; were exceeded.

So why’s that? What Deep Dark Canyon does is take something that may sound like a higher concept or gimmicky set-up: two fugitives on the run while handcuffed to one another, and grounds it. What it gets grounded in is a wicked microcosm wherein one family, the Cavanaughs, calls all the shots and stacks the deck, whether inside or outside the law. When the Towne family won’t stand for it anymore things start to get complicated.

There are quite a few great turns of the plot in this tale, which coaxed audible reactions from me. This is a film that doesn’t fear going down the rabbit hole of further and greater consequences, but it never gets unreal in the given parameters.

While crimes, secrets and conspiracies bring you into the tale, it’s the human story that keeps you engaged in it. The revelations among Towne family members (uncle, father and brothers) swing the pendulum of power back and forth and the struggle is intriguing.

Of course, in a story that’s contained and stripped down, plot points can only take you so far. The performances have to keep you engaged. Spencer Treat Clark, in his first role as an adult performer that allows him to follow-through on the promise he showed as a young actor (there will likely be more to come soon like Much Ado About Nothing), and Nick Eversman, has quite a breakthrough performance (All I had seen him in prior was Hellraiser: Revelations); are captivating co-leads, who deliver incredibly raw, earnest performances.

Deep Dark Canyon delivers quite a bit of drama in the guise of a fugitive film, but delivers in both respects. It’s a fairly enthralling film that’s worthwhile viewing for sure.

8/10

Mini-Review: Silent Night (2012)

Posted on by bernardovillela

This year, as I did both last year and in 2012, I am engaging in something I like to call the Year-End Dash. Basically, its the scramble to get as many eligible titles viewed as possible before the end of the year for the forthcoming BAM Awards.

The extemporaneous reactions to late viewing will be short, but they will be logged. So I thought it would also be a good idea to re-post in standalone form some of the more memorable films I’ve seen in the first few jaunts.

Silent Night

I have not seen the film upon which this is based, but knowing that it spawned a low-budget franchise of its own makes it a candidate for examination next time 61 Days of Halloween rolls around. There aren’t nearly enough evil Santa tales, while this one doesn’t go to a “real Santa” like Santa’s Slay, this is definitely my favorite so far: good twists and mistaken identity, great turns from Malcolm McDowell with hilarious “movie cop” dialogue, and Donal Logue and excellent kills.

8/10

Mini-Review: 23:59

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This is a post that is a repurposing of an old-school Mini-Review Round-Up post. As stated here I am essentially done with running multi-film review posts. Each film deserves its own review. Therefore I will repost, and at times add to, old reviews periodically. Enjoy!

23:59

Where this film succeeds in in bringing oral history and the element of fireside horror stories into a mostly cohesive narrative. Where it finds troubles is unfortunately towards its ending. What was a very simple and straightforward story decides it’s going to take a dip into the coy and vague.

Sadly, the ending though does feel a bit of a letdown and incongruous when it first occurs is truly symptomatic of the lack of ebb and flow of the film as whole. During act one, when most of the flashbacks are occurring there are some good moments, and maybe even a shock or two, as the suspicions of what’s really occurring come to the fore the film becomes increasingly uninteresting and uninspired.

The ending is the built-to whimper rather than a necessary jolt.

5/10

Mini-Review: Deadfall

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This is a post that is a repurposing of an old-school Mini-Review Round-Up post. As stated here I am essentially done with running multi-film review posts. Each film deserves its own review. Therefore I will repost, and at times add to, old reviews periodically. Enjoy!

Deadfall

The hook in Deadfall, or what pulls you into the story, is the inevitable collision course of events and people at a Thanksgiving dinner. From the start when a bank heist escape goes awry in a blizzard and characters split up, you can feel it coming. However, what keeps you engaged throughout is the characters and their personal journey leading up to the moment.

You have in the tale essentially four parallel story-structures surround the manhunt. There is Addison (Eric Bana) who takes off and tries to keep on the move and get to the US-Canada border, who while on the run encounters some foes and plays out some family traumas of his own. Liza (Olivia Wilde) who sets the collision course in motion by finding Jay (Charlie Hunnam) whose troubles and complications we are introduced to early.

Then there’s the law enforcement side with another family dynamic of Sheriff Marshall T. Becker (Treat Williams) and his daughter, a trooper named Hanna (Kate Mara). Lastly, the parents awaiting Jay, and little do they know the trouble coming with them, Chet (Kris Kristofferson) and June (Sissy Spacek). What occurs in the end is a tense, though not overly-melodramatic, confrontation. There is great acting throughout, particularly by Bana, and the story takes its time so there are stakes invested on behalf of characters who we now know and understand. Some of the explosive dynamics of the climactic sequence we know will occur, just not how, are set up wonderfully; but they have even more impact with the work that has been put into these personages.

Deadfall is a beautifully photographed film that doesn’t neglect development while creating a compelling crime thriller. It delivers plenty of shocks, heart and intelligence.

8/10

Mini-Review: This Girl is Badass!

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This is a post that is a repurposing of an old-school Mini-Review Round-Up post. As stated here I am essentially done with running multi-film review posts. Each film deserves its own review. Therefore I will repost, and at times add to, old reviews periodically. Enjoy!

This Girl is Badass!

This is a film that does promise action and comedy and delivers small, portioned doses of both. Sadly, there is never really a good balance struck between the two. It usually seems to be one or the other, with comedy far outweighing the action.

The action is never overly dynamic, and the plot, which is not terribly involved, never develops at a sufficient rate to raise this above being a mere diversion into being genuinely entertaining. It’d be a passable film if it didn’t drag through certain sections, but unfrotunately it does.

4/10

Mini-Review: At the Gate of the Ghost

Posted on by bernardovillela

Introduction

This is a post that is a repurposing of an old-school Mini-Review Round-Up post. As stated here I am essentially done with running multi-film review posts. Each film deserves its own review. Therefore I will repost, and at times add to, old reviews periodically. Enjoy!

At the Gate of the Ghost

As soon as I saw that this film was an adaptation of Rashomon, I knew I wanted to see it. Now, knowing that some statements need to be made: Firstly, there mere fact that it builds its narrative on a great skeleton is not enough to make or break it. It also bears noting that even Kurosawa’s version was based on earlier Japanese texts so the opportunity to create new renditions of the tales exist all the time, and doesn’t really fit into any perceived “scourge of remakes” complaints one might have. The same goes with Hitchock’s films as he dealt almost exclusively in literary adaptations. Any other asides to these effects are likely covered in my fanboy series, so I shall proceed.

What makes a new, transplanted version of a known classic tale either work or not usually has to do with what’s done to make the story particular to the new locale and how well it embodies the spirit of the original narrative rather than how dogmatically it sticks to the script. The new locale is incorporated quite well, on the surface turning a Shinto priest into a Buddhist monk might seem a superficial change, that analysis would be too reductive. It would discount the connection between religion and national identity far too much, especially considering the period in which this film is set (16th Century Thailand).

The other thing this film does well is that it quickly inserts an artfully rendered, character-building montage so that the monk’s inner-turmoil is explained and we get a sense of him and what he sees his duties as. At the start of the film he makes a difficult decision. We then see all that factored into the aforementioned decision and the bulk of the film is about the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak.

As with any tale based on Rashomon, or of a similar construction, much of the success hinges of the perspective and execution of the varied interpretations of an incident from different points of view. The wildly variegated versions delivered here are nearly flawless told and very well-executed with fantastic acting throughout.

If you have not seen Rashomon I would, of course, recommend you see that first. However, whether you have or have not, I think this alternate take is one that is likely to find many fans of its own as it is a rather gripping, evocative and emotionally charged version in its own right.

9/10