Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake and adaptation of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” remains one of the most resounding arguments for the purpose of remaking films. Often times like the case of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” directors can rework certain ideas and add something to the mythology, allowing for a starker and very bleak vision that helps a film stand on its own. John Carpenter achieved that with “The Thing,” and Philip Kaufman succeeds in adding his own layer of dread and futility with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” A lot of horror movies are filled with some tinge of hope that perhaps humanity or our heroes will prevail over the unusual menace threatening to consume a portion of Earth.
Tag Archives: Drama
The Best Thing I’ve Seen in 2016
Netflix’s “Stranger Things” is the best thing I’ve seen all year. TV show, Movie, Web show, et al. The Duffer Brothers “Stranger Things” season one is eight episodes long at fifty five minutes each and it’s the easiest eight hours I’ve ever spent watching a series. There’s no filler, no flab, no pointless segues in to a sub-plot that wanders aimlessly. Every element of every episode is crucial and important and The Duffer Brothers have no time to fuck around.
Seoul Station (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
“If I had a place to go… I wouldn’t have stayed at Seoul Station.”
Yeon Sang-ho’s animated prequel to the excellent zombie action film “Train to Busan” is every bit as terrifying as its successor, and occasionally much more intelligent and biting in its social commentary. While “Train to Busan” is a very emotional look at class warfare and how the society divides in the time of crisis, “Seoul Station” is a very evocative commentary on the poverty crisis in the world. This horrific zombie virus is able to thrive thanks to the massive homeless population in South Korea, and it’s confronted more than once in how the government views its homeless as animals and sub-human even before the flesh eating ghouls appear.
Mother’s Day (2016) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
Sadly, ever since “Love Actually” became a standard of the holiday, Hollywood has enlisted hokey melodrama director Garry Marshall to give us a new holiday based ensemble piece of garbage almost every year. “Mother’s Day” is the latest insidious melodrama about a group of very rich, very healthy Caucasian people bickering about how hard their lives are. One character played by Jennifer Aniston, even decides to throw a humongous party for her sons, just because. Man, can you imagine what would happen if these people ever stepped out of their bubbles? “Mother’s Day” is about mother’s day, the mother of all holidays, everyone seems to be obsessed with mother’s day, and they talk about mother’s day because, mothers!
The Alchemist Cookbook (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
A man trying to survive in a shack in the woods plays with alchemy to discover an ancient secret to a better life. Inadvertently, he summons a dangerous being who doesn’t take too kindly to his dealings. The Alchemist cookbook is written and directed by Joel Potrykus who is known for independent horror films shot in Michigan and who considers his style in the vein of Jim Jarmusch which is something each viewer can judge for themselves, but this reviewer did not really see that.
Here he crafts a fairly slow boil of a film. It starts with an alchemy cooking sequence set to a great track, giving the impression that it might be an upbeat, fast moving film, but it soon becomes clear that the lead, Sean, is a paranoid man playing with forces he doesn’t fully understand. Unfortunately, past that opening scene, the film feels slow and like it might need some extra oomph or perhaps to be edited differently. It’s not boring but it’s not enthralling either.
The cast for this small budget is, well, small. The lead of Sean is played by Ty Hickson who does great as the paranoid, perhaps desperate, man trying his hand at alchemy. His performance here is good and worth seeing and he proves he can carry a complete movie on his own as the only other actor has only a few scenes and those scenes are always with him. In the only other human role in the film is Amari Cheaton as Cortez a typical gangbanger who tries to help his friend Sean while also getting himself into trouble. His performance feels more exaggerated and caricatured while less on point than Ty Hickson’s. The last cast member listed is Fiji as Kaspar (the cat), as is usually the case with cats, he does a fabulous job while remaining rather nonchalant about the whole thing.
The film has some nice bits of science alchemy and some good effects. The last third does amp up the horror factor and what can be seen is well done and executed. These special effects are by Jeffery Husselman with visual effects by Scott Baisden and Daniel Falicki.
Also worth noting are the cinematography and the soundtrack. The cinematography by Adam J. Minnick does a great job at making all outdoors images feel desolate in their settings while the indoors shots feel cramped to go with small shack the lead lives in. This adds to the atmosphere here and is very well done.
The soundtrack for this film is mostly provided by way of an old tape deck that the lead character uses. The song choices and what is fast forwarded tell a lot about the character, which makes him feel real, more like the crazy, paranoid version of someone every viewer knows. His musical choices also reflect his internal turmoil, by letting him “choose” those songs, something so few films do.
The Alchemist cookbook is not a bad film but it has issues with pacing and with sections of the story feeling like filler. The acting by the lead is good and he carries the film well. The music is his best supporting character, but it’s not enough to make this reviewer want to see it again or be able to fully recommend it.
Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016.
I, Olga Hepranova (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
What pushes someone to once day decide they have had enough and that the only solution to be understood is to commit mass murder?
In 1973, in Prague (Czech Republic), 22 year old Olga Hepranova drove a truck into a waiting crowd, hitting 25 people and killing 8 of them. The film is the story of how Hepranova got to this massacre. Taking on the hard task of writing this story for the screen without falling into sensationalism or exploitation, writers Roman Cilek, Tomas Weinreb, and Petr Kazda, they took a delicate subject and turned it into a touching and beautiful story of a girl who feels as though she is being bullied and who has a long period of bad luck.
After long enough of asking for help and not receiving it, she decides to take drastic measures. They do not build Hepranova as a martyr or anti-hero but simply as a complex human being in need of help. Directors Petr Kasda and Tomas Weinreb took this script they co-wrote and turned it into a beautifully sad tale of a woman who possible could have been saved. The way they shot the film, in tandem with cinematographer Adam Kozakl in black and white and with very somber tomes is sublime. It takes this very heavy subject matter and make it bearable to watch. They craft a film that mesmerizes its audience while making them just a bit uncomfortable.
As so much of the film rests on her shoulders, the part of Olga Hepranova had to be cast perfectly. Actress Michalina Olszanska (mesmerizing in The Lure) was chosen and she is perfectly gloomy and fantastic. She clearly understood the depth and seriousness of the part, never over acting, always giving her all and stepping in Hepranova’s shoes, no matter how uncomfortable the process looks. She loses herself in the part and shows tremendous talent, proving that she is a start to keep watching. The rest of the cast is also very good to great with one stand, Klara Meliskova, as Olga’s cold, unloving mother.
She shows how one woman can be there and take care of basic needs for her child while showing absolutely no love or affection toward that child. Most characters are played as cruel or cold, except for the character of Miroslav, a man who tries to help Olga but has his own problems. This part is played by Martin Pechlat who brings a bit of light to the film by not being as serious as the rest of the cast. However, this is not in a funny or goofy way, but by showing just the right amount of light, even though highly flawed, to Olga’s life and the film.
The film is a must for fans of 70s Eastern Europe. The costumes by Aneta Grnakova and the art direction by Alexandr Kozak are perfectly on point. They give a great idea of what Prague and its people looked like in 1973. They do a very detailed job, bringing the era to life. I, Olga Hepranova is a somber film with a dark subject that is a part of Czech history. It was important that filmmakers behind the film pay attention to details and that they be careful to not over-dramatize the story. They do this while creating a perfectly gloomy film that should make any audience feel something.
The very timely subject matter of a mass murderer running people over with a truck is unfortunate but it should not keep people from seeing this film when the genre, style, or subject matter is something they would like to watch. This is not a film that is a feel good one; on the contrary, it’s depressing, sad, and beautiful.
Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016) [New York Asian Film Festival 2016]
In 1940s Korea, Japanese colonialists were banning Korea culture and the use of the Korean language in an effort to unify their territories and become a stronger world power. In this struggle, a young man named Yun Dongju starts writing poems in Korean while attempting to survive the assimilation of his people, reluctantly becoming a fighter in a battle to preserve Korea’s identity.
This historical film was written by Yeon-Shick Shin and directed by a new master of the genre, Joon-ik Lee. They create here a subtle and fairly easy to understand representation of what is considered a hard period in Korea through the eyes of a talented poet. The film takes its time showing the young life of Dongju as well as the societal shift that the Japanese colonizing brought. The poems read on black and white images of Korea are personal and real, they create a center for the story, an emotional anchor. These were carefully chosen amongst Dongju’s work to best suit the film and they bring a solemnity to the proceedings.
The casting for this film is pivotal as so much rests on how the lead of Dongju is interpreted. Kang Ha-Neul takes this character and develops him into a fully fleshed out human being, giving a voice for his soft yet emotional poems. He shows a wide range of emotions with subtle variations, giving life to this man whose story is mainly untold, especially to Western audiences. Supporting this performance are Jeong-min Park as Dongju’s cousin Song Monggyu who is someone who likes to stir the pot and possibly cause trouble for himself and those around him.
His performance is less subdued and a bit more in your face as time passes and the character requires the actor to be bolder. Also supporting Kang Ha-Neul is Moon Choi as Kumi, the girl who believes in him and does all she can to get him published, Her performance is also held back but stands out amongst the mostly male cast, showing a calm and strong female presence in a time when women were still encouraged to take a backseat to men’s dealings.
Shot in black and white, the look of the film is very serious which fits with the story and its developments. The way the Korean countryside is shot is absolutely beautiful, the images convey the seriousness of the situation the Koran people faced during that period. The pairing of filmed sequences with the reading of the poems is perfect. Unfortunately, a credit for cinematography could not be found online (in English or French) at the time this was written.
The black and white images and style in which the film is shot make sense for this film and its subject but they do make it feel slower and made it harder for this reviewer to concentrate on the story and the poems. The style is hypnotic but can also be sleep inducing if reading a lot of subtitles on a calm series of sequences is not one’s passion. The slowness here is deliberate to give the viewers time to absorb the emotions and pay attention to the poems.
Poet Yun Dongju led a tragic life, like most artists about whom movies are made, in the time period that was anything but easy. His story is worth watching for the quality of the film and the emotionality of his poems. Viewers will (should) also learn about a tumultuous time in Korea’s history, which can be considered a bonus. It’s a bit long and slow, but absolutely worth looking for and watching.