2017 movies

Film Review: IT COMES AT NIGHT (USA 2017)

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

it comes at night.jpgSecure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

Director: Trey Edward Shults
Writer: Trey Edward Shults (screenplay)
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo

Review by Gilbert Seah
 
IT COMES AT NIGHT begins with a taut medical examination of an older man later revealed to be Bud (David Pendleton) lying on a made-shift stretcher infested with lesions and boils. “Can you hear me?” is the question asked. After the examination, the patient is carted off, to the woods outside a boarded up shack where he is crudely wrapped up and burnt with gasoline.

It has all been done before. Despite writer/director Shults’s genuine effort of differentiating his film from the end of the world plaque infested survival horror flick, one cannot help but feel a certain similarity of events from start to end. Never mind the carefully planned shocks, the effective use of enclosed space (cinematography by Drew Daniels) and darkness and never mind the effective use of sound to scare the audience. It does not help that the script has no plot twists or has the addition of more human interaction.

The story first appears to be told from the point of view of the first family’s 17-year old teen son, Travis (Kevin Harrison Jr.) But the view shifts later on the film as Travis has less screen presence. The only survives on display appear to be his family. Order is kept in the home by his father, Paul (Joel Edgerton who also co-produced the film). His mother, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) is present and also an assortment of farm animals and dog, who are allowed in the house, apparently to prevent them from catching some deadly virus. When they venture outside, they wear gas masks. It is a test of survival. When they hear a noise from outside, Tom carefully opens the door to find another man, (Christopher Abbott) looking to find his family, in this case his wife, Kim (Riley Keough) and baby some food.

Shults does not make any effort or even need to explain his film. After the first scene (described above), the audience can correctly deduce that the apocalyptic film is in the near future. A plaque has deserted most of civilization. The family on display is surviving at all costs. As expected there are intruders from the outside. The two families ave something to share or trade. But mistrust exists and survival takes place with sacrifice of their human souls.

It is easier to make a faultless minimalist horror film like this one that a complex film with flaws. IT COMES BY NIGHT falls into the first category.
It does not help that the film does not have a happy Hollywood ending or a closed one at that. Despite all the film’s plusses, IT COMES AT NIGHT does not succeed at all as an original or absorbing drama or horror film.

Schultz, whose first feature KRISHA secured Shults some fame, which resulted in a two-picture deal with A24 films, IT COMES AT NIGHT being the first one. The film had its premiere in April this year at the The Overlook Film Festival. The film has so far, garnered favourable reviews.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YOYHCBQn9g

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Film Review: ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (USA 2017) ***

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abacus.jpgA small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States’ 2008 mortgage crisis.

Director: Steve James
Stars: Neil Barofsky, Ti-Hua Chang, Margaret Colin

Review by Gilbert Seah

 ABACUS is an old Chinese adding machine that was commonly used by Chinese shopkeepers who needed to do some accounting or simple addition. It is also a Chinese treasure now made obsolete with the introduction of the calculator. Abacus is thus chosen as the appropriate name for the bank founded by a well-intentioned Chinese lawyer turned banker, who we are introduced to at the start of the film as a good man, who thinks of himself as George Bailey, the James Stewart banker character in Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. In fact when there is a run on Abacus, Mr. Thomas Sung is likened to Bailey giving a sincere speech to the queue of customers assuring them that the bank is ernest and hat their money is safe.

Why a documentary of this bank and on the man Mr. Sung? The reason, according to the director is that this small Chinese bank has been unfairly singled out by the NYC District Attorney’s Office as a fraudulent bank who with its owners had committed a crime in misappropriating funds for personal and illegal gain.

But the D.A. Office picked the wrong man to pick a fight with. Mr. Sung is a fighter. The documentary is an account of the fight between the small guy and the bully, a David vs. Goliath story where the slingshot weapon used was the team of Mr. Sung’s lawyers and family.

Director gets the audience on Mr. Sung’s side by using a variety of means. The first is to connect the audience with Mr. Sung’s immediate family. Besides the analogy of George Bailey, the honest and best example of a banker, one cannot help but root for the Sung family, especially watching scenes where the family sit together to argue the facts and to fight back against the D.A. Office. Interviews are also conducted with reporters who take the side of the bank. The bank is also shown to have done good to help the Chinese community to obtain loans, which no normal bank would normally grant.

The film also documents how the bank got into trouble – in fact twice with regard to fraudulence. But according to the film, the bank had fired the dishonest and despicable loan officer, Mr. Ken Lu who the D.A. Office used to testify against the bank.

The film is a sad story of the Sung family. But the film makes a hero of Mr. Sung and his family. One of the daughters who worked at that time for the D.A. Office had to reign due to, obviously conflict of interest but she did so to help her father. Not surprisingly, the wife, Mrs. Sung says on camera that she never wanted her husband or daughters to go into the banking business.

ABACUS achieves the feat of making the subject even more intriguing by hitting all the right buttons. Everyone loves to see the underdog win, especially when fighting an evil giant. ABACUS is such a tale with a smashing finish.

Trailer: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/abacus/15c410ca34696ff5?projector=1

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Film Review:DRONE (Canada 2017)

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drone.jpgIdeologies collide with fatal results when a military drone contractor meets an enigmatic Pakistani businessman.

Director: Jason Bourque
Writers: Paul A. Birkett, Jason Bourque
Stars: Sean Bean, Patrick Sabongui, Mary McCormack

Canadian director Jason Bourque directs this new thriller shot entirely in his native Vancouver, British Columbia. The film centres on a drone pilot who conducts covert operations from his hometown.

DRONE begins predictably with an overhead shot of a good kill, similar to the recent film about drones which is also called GOOD KILL. It is an effective device – the overhead shot. But the problem in this film, is that it has been used in drone films all too often already and the taut atmosphere is slowly diffused after the first segment.

An innocent girl is taken out by mistake somewhere in Pakistan. The distraught father (Patrick Sabongui), obviously seeks revenge. He is seen later on in the film, suddenly apparently a successful businessman, Mr. Shaw (without explanation) stalking the contractor that affected the kill. This contractor is Ian (Brit Sean Bean sporting an American accent in a Canadian made film) who’s father has just passed away. His wife is having an affair. His son is too quiet for comfort. Ian never visited his father regularly in the senior home. He has issues with his younger brother. Yes, Ian has family problems. Are all this necessary?

Too many incidents are crammed into an apparently what should be simple film with a solid purpose. At the funeral home, the sibling rivalry emerges but its origin is never explained. How Neil got into the drone business is also unexplained. The poor relationship between Ian’s son and wife are also left vague at best.

The constant intercutting among Pakistan and the United States is disorienting. The audience is never sure whether they are supposed to be sympathetic for be Ian or for Mr. Shaw.

The film goes about with Ian’s problem of writing his late father’s eulogy for the funeral. “Allow the story of your father have true meaning.” is the odd advice the enemy gives to Ian for the writing of his father’s eulogy.

The film is so bad, it ends up an interesting watch, but only to see how many more mistakes can be found in the film.

Performances are ordinary at best. What can one expect from a bad film with a bad script? It is also odd to phantom the reason a Canadian film would be tackling an American subject, especially when the subject of a guilty American at war (also tackled in Clint Eastwood’s AMERICAN SNIPER) has been down and done so well before.

The film has a climatic takedown at the end. But the film is confusing in whether Ian will pay for his crime.

Ian says at one point int he film to Mr. Shaw when his wife keeps talking about other matters, “We better get back to the business (selling of the boat) at hand.” This is advice the director should have taken for himself so as not to get too distract from all the too many elements in the script. This supposedly taut thriller ends up diluted with poorly executed family drama.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqxCUrT5-Y

 

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Film Review: WONDER WOMAN (USA 2017)

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wonder woman.jpgBefore she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

Director: Patty Jenkins
Writers: Allan Heinberg (screenplay), Zack Snyder (story by)
Stars: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston,
David Thewlis

Not to be confused with the two other WONDER WOMAN films made in 2009 and 2014, this updated expensive $149 million film has been marketed well and is one of the most anticipated films this summer.

Gal Gadot is WONDER WOMAN though the term WONDER WOMAN is never used even once in the film. She is known as Diana. The character played by Gadot, and reasonably well by her, combining sexiness and a certain ferocity was first introduced to excited audiences in BATMAN V. SUPERMAN. She gained 17 lbs. of muscle while training in martial arts for the role. Now audiences can see her for a full 140 minutes or so.

Diana first appears as a little girl fiercely intent on becoming a fighter much to the chagrin of her mother, the queen (Connie Nielson). Diana’s aunt who is also the general (Robin Wright) trains her eventually to become the warrior with special gifts destined to save the world as it is written in the Book of the Gods. The film’s voiceover informs that Diana is made from clay by the God Zeus and she must destroy the evil Ares before mankind is destroyed. As such this bevy of beauties appropriately named Amazons live on a Greek-like paradise island till a World War plane crashes into the waters nearby with the pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) saved by Diana. How the two worlds collided is never fully explained.

With the world of the Gods brought into the human realm, the film grows more interesting. Diana is drawn into fight against the Germans in WW1. The trouble with all this is that Diana, Trevor and a assorted troupe of fighters kill Germans one by one to save innocent people as well as allied soldiers. This is a very simplistic look of things as German soldiers killed are people too. The script does attempt to discuss this problem but not too convincingly. Diana is shown to be naive as to the human world, with humour thrown in whenever possible.

For a $149 million production, there are as expected, lots of special effects and pyro-technics. In addition, there are a lot of sexy fighting (but ridiculous) poses by Diana.

The film contains three villains as if one is not enough. David Thewlis plays the main one, The God of War Ares in human form. The other two villains are more comical than sinister, two Germans, one a female doctor, humorously named Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya) with a disfigured face and the other a sinister German General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston) who will stop at nothing to win the war.

Business wise, WONDER WOMAN cost $149 million to make, thus requiring to gross at least $460 million worldwide to break even. The estimate for the opening domestic weekend is $100 million so it likely will bring Warner Bros. a tidy profit.

The fourth film of the DC Comic Universe after SUPERMAN, BATMAN V. SUPERMAN and SUICIDE SQUAD, WONDER WOMAN is the best of the lot with a good combination of action and tongue-in-cheek humour. But that is not saying much considering how awful the first 3 were.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSB4wGIdDwo

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Film Review: GRADUATION (Romania 2016) ****

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graduation.jpgA film about compromises and the implications of the parent’s role.

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Writer: Cristian Mungiu
Stars: Adrian Titieni, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Lia Bugnar

Review by Gilbert Seah

 
A stone is thrown for no reason at the start of the film breaking the living room window of Romeo’s house, as if serving as an omen for bad things to come to this self-serving man. Romeo (Adrian Titieni) is revealed to be a doctor, an unfaithful husband and for the most part in the story intent of doing what he thinks is right for his teenage daughter, Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) by ensuring she wins a scholarship that will have her complete studies in the U.K.

Things take a turn when Elizabeth is assaulted one day before her exams. These exams are part of the ones that will guarantee her the U.K. scholarship. As a result of the trauma, she does not do well. In desperation, Romeo sees his friends high up in administration to fix her grades.

Mungiu’s camera doggedly follows Romeo around like a parasite, tracing his every move as he manipulates everyone around him. One can believe that he is doing it for his daughter, but eventually the main benefactor is himself. Romeo is not a despicable character. Mungiu entrusts human qualities in the man – qualities that everyone has him or herself. It is universally true that the goal in life of every parent is to see the child grow up to be better than him/her. So Romeo’s goals of ‘innocently’ helping his daughter get the scholarship is totally unbelievable. Though the film is a drama, it is so absorbing that it feels as suspenseful as a horror movie.

Worthy of note is the conformation scene between Romeo and his mistress Sandra. Sandra complains that all her life she has been second fiddle to his wife and family and at age 35, she needs a plan for her life. If this segment was shot in an American film, the two would be arguing and screaming at each other at the top of their voices and making wide gestures. But Mungiu shoots the scene with the the couple arguing with low voices. With Sandra’s head down, and speaking softly with reason, the confrontation becomes even more relevant as the audience sympathizes with her.

Also Romeo and his friends illegally scratch each others back. Romeo’s police officer offers the services of his friend to up Romeo’s daughter’s grade because the friend owes the officer a favour. Romeo offers to help his friend with his kidney transplant while he helps Romeo. They insist, fooling themselves and easing their conscience that the deed does good and they refuse any monetary exchange.

It is a fine line between siding with Romeo and despising him. Mungiu’s direction treads the fine line. A key scene of the film occurs when Romeo is looking after Sandra’s kid in the playground. The kid throws a stone at another because the other was doing something wrong.. The kid is admonished by Romeo in the same way life has done the same to him for doing what he thought was right. This is the point where Romeo claims his redemption.
GRADUATION is a meticulously executed intelligent film by Mungiu who won the Best Director Prize for this film at Cannes last year.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hKtgrj7UXo

 

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LGBT Inside Out Film Festival Review: WOMAN ON FIRE (USA 216) ***

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

woman on fire.jpgWoman on Fire follows Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter in New York City. A character-driven documentary, the film follows Brooke as she sets out to challenge perceptions of what it means to be transgender in America today.

Director: Julie Sokolow
Writer: Julie Sokolow
Stars: Brooke Guinan, James L. Baker, George Guinan

Review by Gilbert Seah
 
Woman on Fire follows Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter in New York City. At the start of the film, Brooke tells the audience, while looking in the mirror to follow your heart.

Well, Brooke did follow her heart to become a woman, the gender he/she was comfortable with. As a third-generation firefighter, Brooke has a passion for heroism that runs in her blood. Her father George is a respected lieutenant and 9/11 survivor with a 35-year legacy in the FDNY.

The film shows Brooke transitioning from male to female in her father’s workplace, as it poses not only a challenge to a macho profession, but also to the customs of the people she cares about the most – her traditional family.

The film also charts Brooke’s boyfriend of two years, Jim, struggling to come out to his family. A wise-cracking Air Force veteran, Jim still hasn’t told his mother that Brooke is a transwoman. But besides the transgender issue, the film also reveals the life of a firefighter and their sacrifice for society.

A film that proudly celebrates diversity!

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Film Review: CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE (USA 2017) ***1/2

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

captain underpantsTwo overly imaginative pranksters named George and Harold, hypnotize their principal into thinking he’s a ridiculously enthusiastic, incredibly dimwitted superhero named Captain Underpants.

Director: David Soren
Writers: Nicholas Stoller (screenplay), Dav Pilkey (based on the epic novels by)
Stars: Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms

Review by Gilbert Seah

 
once saw a skit of Superman and Batman at an unemployment office. Superman tells Batman that they will never get a job. Why Batman asks? Because no one would hire anyone who wears underpants over their clothes – was the answer. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS the animated movie takes the joke to another level. The hero only wears underpants!
This last collaboration between Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox (before Dreamworks moves with Universal) is fortunately a huge animated comic success. As the title of the film implies, the story involves lots of goofy absurdity and toilet jokes (there is even a symphony of body fluid noises performed on the school stage in the middle of the film), but who cares as CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS is a very funny movie, almost matching the best of the SHREK films. The comic song “I Love Saturdays” at the film’s stet sets up the mood of the film.

The film is based on the children’s novel series of the same name created in 1997 by Dav Pilkey, who sold the rights to Dreamworks in 2011. The plot follows two imaginative elementary school prankster students, George Beard and Harold Hutchins (Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch) who hypnotize using a hypnotic ring from a cereal box, their mean-spirited principal, Mr. Krupp (Ed Helms), into thinking he is Captain Underpants, a hero in comic books George and Harold write together. Mr. Krupp runs all over the place trying to what he thinks he is doing, saving the world. But the story includes a villain, Professor Poopypants (Nikc Kroll) (looking like the child catcher in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG), the new science teacher who wants to rid the wold of laughter. His assistant is one of George and Harold’s fellow students, a swatter and a rotter called Melvin (Jordan Peele) with an uncanny resemblance to minions in DESPICABLE ME. Yes, as in all animated films, the world needs to be saved – but always for a good cause – as the return of laughter in this story.

There is plenty of laughter in this film, thanks to the goofy antics of the animators, the smart script by Brit Nicholas Stoller and the comedic timing of director David Soren. Writer Stoller directed the very funny NEIGHBOURS, NEIGHBOURS II and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and Toronto-own Stoller had proven his animation mettle in TURBO (the animated on snails). Kevin Hart is funny voicing George but the surprise comes from Ed Helms who voices both the principal and Captain Underpants.

The animation is 3D computer animated, with the heads of the characters rounded, similar to THE PEANUTS MOVIE. The characters have a 3D rather than a two dimensional look.

Despite all the toilet humour, the film contains a decent message of genuinely doing good in the world.

There is a fine line between stupidity and goofiness. Animated films often have to tread this fine line between success and failure. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS succeeds in this respect while another cent animated feature THE LEGO BATMAN failed because it was too manic and incomprehensible. It should be a worthwhile wait for CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE SECOND EPIC MOVIE

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDm_2m-Hg6c
 

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Film Review: CARGO (Netherlands)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

Poster cargo small

On a lonely ship, in the middle of the North Sea, fourteen men work together for a month. Day and night they sail around oilrigs to provide them of supplies. In this world of fellowship, waves, storms and containers, Frans, an Amsterdam sailor, seems to be at his best. However, the longer the journey lasts, the more it becomes apparent that something essential is missing in this male microcosm at sea. A small film about loneliness and the importance of love.

 

Review by Kierston Drier

CARGO a documentary about love, family and men at sea, will pull on your heart. It follows the 14 men that make up a deep sea water crew, and their time away from their families while out. Gone for long stretches of time, the crew make peace with themselves by reliving their youth, their young loves, talking of their families, their children, their birthdays.

Like any good documentary, the filming team captures moments of the crew where they take no notice of the bulky machine recording their lives. Instead, the camera floats among them like a phantom, seeing the moments they hide from the rest of the world- a birthday shared at sea, a long-lost love, a phone call home to one’s’ children: Daddy will be home soon.

Another remarkable thing about CARGO and to director Marina Meijer’s credit- is the spectacular B-Roll in this piece. Bright colors, remarkable shots and beautiful moments litter this film like gems along the ocean floor. They elevate this piece to a mastery level.

You may never have spent a day at sea, but you will feel the ocean mist on your skin while you watch CARGO.


cargo_2.jpg

Film Review: THE ARK (France)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

Affiche10

A rhino is walking into the ruins of a cathedral under a heavy rain.

 

Review by Kierston Drier

A two minute animation directed by Jean-Baptiste Aziere, The Ark is a powerful, riveting and emotionally provocative piece. Highly symbolic and deeply moving, it follows a Rhino slowly making its’ way to a dilapidated Christian altar where it bows with it’s final breath, then falls to its’ knees. It gives us no answers, asks us no riddles- it is simply a sharp, dramatic piece that will take your breath away.

You may argue that this is a piece about religion, or a piece about spirituality and the animal kingdom, or that it is about environmentalism, you may even argue it has no deeper meaning that what is visually there. But it cannot be denied- this is a film so hauntingly beautiful and so visually rich that once it begins, it demands your attention. Perhaps that is the most symbolic and meaningful part of the entire piece. In a world run by humanity, where things that not human are often ignored in favor of the things that are, there is not a single person in this film. Yet our hero bows like a praying human being, and dies soon after. You cannot help but be moved at the sight, interpret what you will.

THE ARK is a brave cinematic piece. Short, stunning and impactful, this is a piece that carries itself with beauty and deep meaning.


the_ark_1.jpg

Film Review: FAREWELL (Switzerland)

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Played at the May 2017 EUROPEAN Short Film Festival

Plakat

What happens if you want to say goodbye to a loved one but this suddenly no longer find ? The short film “Farewell” tells how want to accompany a group of friends with different characters their deceased friend and brother on a last trip and so much goes wrong.

In bizarre and comical way this short satire will pull you in its spell – and what, if such a thing happened once to me?

Review by Kierston Drier

When we love something, we let it go. Right? It is certainly something we have all been taught. But when you have your buddy’s urn with his ashes in it, you might want to keep it where you know you can find it- just in case. But for five friends charged with the task of caring for their dead friend’s ashes, things don’t go so smoothly.

Enter FAREWELL, a comedy with a curious mixture of strange happenings and humor styles. The dialogue is punchy, the action is raucous and outlandish and the tone is similar to Analyze That with it’s back to back escalation of unbelievable stakes.

Our heroes lose their friend while out to dinner before delivering him to have his ashes scattered. Where they find him? Well they need to backtrack through their steps, stopping at the restaurant, tracking down the waitresses, going through the kitchen and…well things only get more complicated from there.

Boasting some hilarious twists and turns and some great recurring humor, every character in the piece is bright, sharp and full of life. A great piece about learning not to take life too seriously.