Bong Joon Ho's latest film, Parasite, is a finely crafted potpourri. It opens with the Kim family (Chung-sook (wife), Ki-taek (husband), Ki-jung (daughter), Ki-woo (son)) in their semi-basement apartment, the perfect setting for this working class household struggling to keep their heads above ground. They rely on their neighbours for free wi-fi while they sit on the kitchen floor folding pizza boxes for cash. A friend of Ki-woo's has been tutoring the daughter of a wealthy family (the Park's) and when a replacement is needed, Ki-woo, with the help of his document forging sister, fakes his way into the job. The Parks require a significant amount of help to run their household and as such need an art teacher for their son, a driver for the father, and a housekeeper to maintain their luxurious home. The Kim's are a clever clan and find a way to infiltrate each of these positions through cunning and deceit, often usurping previous help. By this point, we understand enough to see that this is a film about class conflict. The Kim's appear to be the protagonists with a grand plan, and you'd expect the Park's to be characterized as either villainous or ignorant, but they're neither. They're quite a nice family, only they're focused on their own objectives. When the Park's leave for a weekend of camping, the Kim's take over the home, boasting and toasting their good fortune. Mid soirée they're interrupted by an unexpected visitor and that's when the action really begins. The film's screenplay is too unique to be classifiable and the twists and turns too unexpected to reveal. If my recommendation isn't enough, the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, a universal festival, unlike the Oscars which Bong called "a local festival" as part of his press tour to the tittering of film lovers. The film is distinctly Korean, but broadly relatable as we all live under the zero sum game of capitalism. Bong asks, who is the parasite? The labour class who need a job to survive, or the wealthy, who can't survive without their labour?
Reviews
20 Reviews
Uncut Gems
(2019)
Literally induced my wife's labour
13 June 2020
Following up on my favourite film of 2017, Good Time, Josh and Benny Safdie are back with their breathlessly paced Adam Sandler driven project, Uncut Gems. Sandler stars as Howard Ratner, a fast talking New York City jewelry dealer and degenerate gambler whose life is spiraling out of control. With his marriage falling apart and debt collectors closing in, Howard is desperate for a big win. He's banking on the sale of a rare Ethiopian opal to clean the slate. When his assistant Demany (LaKeith Stanfield) brings in Kevin Garnett (playing himself) to peruse the shop, Howard, in his typically frenzied enthusiasm, weaves a tale so compelling that KG insists on borrowing the opal for good luck. Howard has already committed to taking the opal to auction but agrees to lend it to KG because not only is he addicted to gambling, he's addicted to volatility. In his world, the path of least resistance carries no mystique, no story. He lives on fate and parlays chaos. It's an anxiety filled existence but it's exciting! How exciting? Well, it literally caused the Chief's water to break during the closing credits, so, if you're betting on intensity, take the over.
The Lighthouse
(I) (2019)
Don't spill yer beans
13 June 2020
HAAAARK! Should ye be seekin to dredge the depth of madness, then ye be in luck. Robert Eggers new film stars the brilliant Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, a disparate pair of 19th century lighthouse keepers on a secluded island. Thomas is lead wickie and therefore mans the light, as he likes to frequently remind his subordinate. Ephraim does the fetching, fixing, and swabbing when he's not in a dispute, either with Thomas or a seabird. The men's work is challenging but maintaining their sanity more so. Amidst a cacophony of crashing waves, squawking gulls, and an incessant foghorn, the men are trapped in close quarters with an enemy they cannot escape: each other. To cope, they drink, they dance, they fight, and occasionally, they spill their beans. Their soliloquies are Shakespearian, grandiose in language and spirited in delivery, though topically crude, often focusing on their colleagues farts or lack of appreciation for boiled lobster. The pettiness of their power dynamic is exasperated by their isolation. Beset by conflict and bad omens, the men eagerly await the relief boat, but when the barometer swings, a squall socks them in. Unable to escape, they're forced to batten down the hatches and weather the storm. Yer fond of me reviews ain't ye?
Midsommar
(2019)
A quaint little film exploring Sweden
13 June 2020
Folklore horror meets break-up movie in Ari Aster's Midsommar, starring Florence Pugh as Dani, an emotionally fragile university student, and her insensitive boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Unbeknownst to Dani, Christian and his three friends have planned a summer trip to Sweden and when tragedy strikes her family, Christian reluctantly invites her to join. Upon arrival, the crew begins their journey in the most acclimatizing manner possible: by taking hallucinogenics! It is the most realistic portrayal of what it's like to be on drugs that I've ever seen on film. This initiation sets the tone for what will become an increasingly trippy affair. The commune's pastoral setting is quaint and the people welcoming, albeit unusual. The Harga, an isolated pagan community, are clad in white floral smocks, each uniquely embroidered. The stunning outbuildings are out of a fairytale, painted and wallpapered in dalamalning style. The visitors are treated to a formal dinner, but when the post meal walk leads to the Ättestupa, a ritual diving platform where elder members of the tribe perform senicide, we get the sense that not everything is as enchanting as the surroundings. The stakes only escalate from there. Let me tell you one last thing: no, you can't ignore the bear.
Revisionism by flame thrower
13 June 2020
Set in the throes of a bygone era, Quentin Tarantino's 9th and penultimate film is a revisionist fantasy, romanticized in a quintessentially Tarantino way, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as washed up actor Rick Dalton, Brad Pitt as Rick's stunt double Cliff Booth, and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.
His leading man days behind him, Rick's career is on the decline, relegated to playing the heavy on every primetime show needing one. Rick is cranky and pines for the days of old, lashing out at hippies and the changing times when he's not self-flagellating. Cliff has been Rick's longtime stunt double, best friend, and as the result of Rick's numerous DUI's, driver. Cliff is expertly cool as the counterbalance, content with hanging out and having beers at Rick's house in the hills. Rick's neighbours just happen to be Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, Hollywood up and comers, juxtaposed ever so perfectly for this tale. The dialogue is snappy and the production design masterful in capturing the sights and sounds of late 60's Hollywood. Our interactions with the characters are never dull, whether sitting in on Rick's line reading in his trailer, watching Cliff feed his pitbull, or following Sharon to the Playboy mansion. The film bounces along nicely for two and half hours and then skyrockets when Tarantino's screenplay conceives an alternate ending to the Tate murders, providing our protagonists the chance to rewrite history. The ending has all the markings of a Tarantino reverie and it alone is worth the runtime. Although an entertaining and loving tribute to Old Hollywood, the film is not without it flaws, most of which are in Tarantino's politics, but we don't look to him to be our moral compass. We watch his films because they're fun, and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood is as fun as a flamethrower.
His leading man days behind him, Rick's career is on the decline, relegated to playing the heavy on every primetime show needing one. Rick is cranky and pines for the days of old, lashing out at hippies and the changing times when he's not self-flagellating. Cliff has been Rick's longtime stunt double, best friend, and as the result of Rick's numerous DUI's, driver. Cliff is expertly cool as the counterbalance, content with hanging out and having beers at Rick's house in the hills. Rick's neighbours just happen to be Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, Hollywood up and comers, juxtaposed ever so perfectly for this tale. The dialogue is snappy and the production design masterful in capturing the sights and sounds of late 60's Hollywood. Our interactions with the characters are never dull, whether sitting in on Rick's line reading in his trailer, watching Cliff feed his pitbull, or following Sharon to the Playboy mansion. The film bounces along nicely for two and half hours and then skyrockets when Tarantino's screenplay conceives an alternate ending to the Tate murders, providing our protagonists the chance to rewrite history. The ending has all the markings of a Tarantino reverie and it alone is worth the runtime. Although an entertaining and loving tribute to Old Hollywood, the film is not without it flaws, most of which are in Tarantino's politics, but we don't look to him to be our moral compass. We watch his films because they're fun, and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood is as fun as a flamethrower.
Honey Boy
(2019)
Finding the love and humour in therapy
13 June 2020
Written by Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy is the semi-autobiographical output of LaBeouf's time in rehab grappling with the trauma induced by his emotionally abusive father. Building on a well-rounded script and top tier acting, director Alma Har'el brings a creative construct to the film that breaths life into LaBeouf's project. Split into two timelines, Noah Jupe is incredible as Otis, the 12 year old version of LaBeouf, living in a crappy motel, reciting lines with his gaslighting father, James, at all hours. Lucas Hedges, one of the most promising young actors in Hollywood, plays the adult version of Otis in the rehab timeline, trying to reconcile the skills that James has imparted with the abusive nature of his neglect. LaBeouf plays the role of his own father in both timelines, giving him the opportunity to dig deeply into the source of his pain and empathetically, into the source of his father's. It's a brave project and revelatory in its brutal honesty. Neither self-pitying nor castigating, Honey Boy is a celebration of the therapeutic power of writing.
A Hidden Life
(2019)
Another masterpiece from Malick
13 June 2020
Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life stars August Diehl as Franz, a Catholic farmer who refuses to serve the nazis during WWII. Franz and his wife Fani (Valerie Pancher), along with their three daughters, his mother, and her sister, live a pastoral life in the Austrian countryside; scything the fields, tending livestock, and attending church. They frolic in the tall grass and chase baby pigs. Their lives are idyllic. When Austria is annexed in 1938 and Franz is drafted in 1943, he is expected to join the war effort. He's spent these years contemplating the war and chooses to conscientiously object. Refusing the nazis is a jail sentence and Franz is spirited away from his family and bucolic existence. What's unique about a Hidden Life is that Franz's moral position is scarcely explored. What's investigated, at a nearly three hour runtime, are the consequences and resolve of Franz's decision. In true Terrence Malick fashion, the dialogue is sparse, deferring to the imagery to tell the story. The film is mostly shot on 12mm, creating an ethereal feel of the panoramic landscapes and forces the camera in very close when filming the characters. This intimacy allows the picture to illustrate his choice of imprisonment over the agrarian home-life of the pasture. We experience his resolve in the face of pressure from leaders, lawmakers, clergy, and family, witnessing the repercussions to both Franz and his family. We're reminded that Franz could be released at any time, if only he were to pledge his allegiance to Hitler. To a man of such resolve, martyrdom is the result of faith.
High Life
(2018)
Space as an existential prison
13 June 2020
Claire Denis returns with High Life, an exploration into the animalistic and mystical properties of existence. Robert Pattinson stars as Monte, a death row inmate who has deferred his execution in favour of a research mission to space. He is accompanied on his expedition by a cadre of criminals under the control of a mad scientist, played by Juliette Binoche. We meet Monte alone, caring for his infant daughter Willow. They're floating through space in a rundown pod, more dilapidated trailer than Apollo shuttle. We get the sense that something bad has happened, and as Denis propels us through the non-linear timeline, the lives that once encapsulated the pod are extinguished. We experience the prison-like atmosphere and the instinctual motives of its inhabitants. The interactions are kept sparse and focus on the more base aspects of life: blood, semen, and sweat. Although plotted as space survival, Denis' mastery comes from capturing the simplicity of mankind's perpetuation while probing the philosophical musings of survival. If these abstractions aren't alluring enough, does a nude Juliette Binoche riding a Sybian appeal to you?
Honeyland
(2019)
A sting on the soul
13 June 2020
This beautifully shot documentary about a Macedonian beekeeper named Haditze is a sting on the soul. What begins as the simple story of a quiet woman who spends her days in the countryside taking care of her mother and beehives, morphs into a microcosmic critique of capitalism and our relationship with nature. After a boisterous and uncouth family of gypsies moves in next door and begins inquiring about her beekeeping business, Hatidze explains that to maintain the hives balance, you can remove half of the honey, but that half must be left for the bees. As her advice goes unheeded and their greed overtakes them, the ecosystem she's so dutifully maintained is destroyed. The timing of this development and the observational distance maintained are crucial to the film as we experience her devastation in realtime. For the viewer, the emotional ruin is offset only by the beauty of the cinematography. Shot using natural light, the landscapes are golden and vibrant, juxtaposing the candlelit home life, which conjures Baroque era paintings. Haditze would approve of such harmony.
Shadow
(2018)
You do not overcome power with more power
13 June 2020
Shadow is the story of warring factions set in an ancient Chinese court during the third century. The King, having been expelled from his home city, rules a peripheral land under the auspices of peace. His commander, having suffered a serious injury attempting to retake their homeland, turns to his shadow, a near identical man that has been raised as his secret stand-in, to reclaim their birthright.
Shadow is an art house film inspired by Chinese ink brush painting and yin/yang symbology. The film's achromatic colouring creates an antiquated backdrop, desaturating everything from the palace's translucent paper walls to the decorated robes. The accompanying music, specifically the battling zither and pipa, accentuates the philosophical dualities and underscores the intensity of the action. The production design is highlighted by iron blade umbrellas, which are key implements in navigating the pounding rain. These multifaceted parasols serve as both weapons, and when sat in and ridden down rain soaked cobblestone streets, as vehicles in battle. It's these design and atmospheric choices that make Shadow so slick.
Shadow is an art house film inspired by Chinese ink brush painting and yin/yang symbology. The film's achromatic colouring creates an antiquated backdrop, desaturating everything from the palace's translucent paper walls to the decorated robes. The accompanying music, specifically the battling zither and pipa, accentuates the philosophical dualities and underscores the intensity of the action. The production design is highlighted by iron blade umbrellas, which are key implements in navigating the pounding rain. These multifaceted parasols serve as both weapons, and when sat in and ridden down rain soaked cobblestone streets, as vehicles in battle. It's these design and atmospheric choices that make Shadow so slick.
Youth
(I) (2015)
Sorrentino shines again
26 June 2016
Paolo Sorrentino continues to create exquisite works of art, and Youth is his latest offering. Retired orchestra conductor Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and over-the-hill film director Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) vacation to a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, where they postulate love and loves lost. The scenery is charming and the camera-work skilled. The supporting performances are strong, especially that of Paul Dano, who is putting a nice little career together.
The dialogue, primarily self-indulgent male existential crisis, regret, missed sexual exploits, and cultural critique, is both serious and satire. Softly floating around the edges of life's larger questions, it finds comfort in the minutiae, imparting wisdom gently without taking itself too seriously. Youth is an honest portrayal of how shallow and simple man is, regardless of station, exposing his insecurities and shortfalls in a funny, intelligent, and beautiful way.
The dialogue, primarily self-indulgent male existential crisis, regret, missed sexual exploits, and cultural critique, is both serious and satire. Softly floating around the edges of life's larger questions, it finds comfort in the minutiae, imparting wisdom gently without taking itself too seriously. Youth is an honest portrayal of how shallow and simple man is, regardless of station, exposing his insecurities and shortfalls in a funny, intelligent, and beautiful way.
The Wolfpack
(2015)
A film for dreamers
26 June 2016
The six Angulo boys, their sister and their mother live in a low-income New York City apartment with their father, Oscar Angulo, who won't let them go outside. Well, some years they get to leave their apartment and some years they don't. They are home schooled, which in the case of these kids, means watching movies all day, transcribing the scripts and then filming their own versions. These feral, Peruvian John Travolta looking teenagers have probably seen Pulp Fiction fifty times, though they most certainly prefer Reservoir Dogs. Normality, to them, is film. The world they find in film is inspiring, and, coupled with the natural tendency of the captured to escape, they break out, running down the streets of Manhattan, only to be chased down by budding documentary filmmaker, Crystal Moselle. The film begins there. Although the documentary disregards some major questions around the reasons for entrapment and isolation, the boys are fascinating and their impact is lasting. This film inspires the big dreamers; those who are looking to break their shackles.
The Salt of the Earth
(2014)
Simply stunning
26 June 2016
For anyone that has ever dreamed of travelling the world as a photographer, The Salt of the Earth is the pinnacle exhibition of that sentiment. Übermensch Wim Wenders directs and narrates an exposé of Sebastião Salgado's 40-year career as photojournalist, artist and ethnographer. Salgado's black and white photographs, taken in South America, Africa and Central Europe provide us an opportunity to accompany him on a journey, as he describes it, "to witness the human condition." The photographs are a beautiful, stark reminder of man as a beastly animal, cruel in his tyranny over the land and others. The photos from the Serra Palada gold mine in Brazil, my personal favourites, are astonishing in their magnitude, exposing man as both ant and God. Wenders' film is a stunning revelation of Salgado's works and requires your full intellectual and emotional intelligence to appreciate what you can.
The Danish Girl
(2015)
Come for the set design, stay for the acting
26 June 2016
The Danish Girl is a story set in Copenhagen in the 1920's about one of the first people to undergo a sex reassignment. Although I was not particularly fond of the pacing or character development, the performances of Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander were some of the strongest of the year. Redmayne's portrayal of Einar/Lili made Jared Leto's portrayal of Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club seem as believable as Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. Vikander, who had a huge year, was passionate, loving and vulnerable as Einar's wife Gerda in her strongest role to date. The location, set designs and costumes provide a gorgeous context within which to enjoy the performances.
The Danish Girl can be be criticized as Oscar bait, but that accusation infers an elite level of quality. There's no denying that it's a conservative exploration of trans-gendered issues, but it's certainly an accomplished one.
The Danish Girl can be be criticized as Oscar bait, but that accusation infers an elite level of quality. There's no denying that it's a conservative exploration of trans-gendered issues, but it's certainly an accomplished one.
The Revenant
(I) (2015)
Iñárritu + Lubezki = Oscars
26 June 2016
For the second consecutive year, Alejandro González Iñárritu has directed my favourite film of the year. His partnership with Emmanuel Lubezki, anticipated to win his record- setting third straight Academy Award for cinematography, is unparalleled in Hollywood. Their combination of artistic vision and technical capacity has produced an astonishing film.
The Revenant is a story set in the 1820's about a fur trader named John Glass, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is attacked by a bear and left for dead by his companions.
The opening scene, which took a month to rehearse, has as many moving parts as a finely crafted watch. The fur traders' camp is attacked by a band of Arikara Indians who are looking for the Chief's captured daughter. The opening salvo, an arrow through the neck, triggers a cascading battle sequence as the traders attempt to save their booty and their lives. This is when Lubezki is at his best. His technical capability is on full display as he captures the action in one uninterrupted shot, highlighted by moving the camera from a stationary position to a horse in full gallop without cutting. Lubezki's insistence on using natural light, surely influenced by his previous work with Terrence Malick, presented a unique challenge given that the film was shot in the dead of winter, but once executed, rewards the audience with breathtaking scenery.
Supported by a talented cast, including standout Will Poulter, Leo and Tom Hardy are exemplary. Leo will win his first Oscar, and not because of his body of work, but because he deserves it.
The Revenant is a story set in the 1820's about a fur trader named John Glass, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is attacked by a bear and left for dead by his companions.
The opening scene, which took a month to rehearse, has as many moving parts as a finely crafted watch. The fur traders' camp is attacked by a band of Arikara Indians who are looking for the Chief's captured daughter. The opening salvo, an arrow through the neck, triggers a cascading battle sequence as the traders attempt to save their booty and their lives. This is when Lubezki is at his best. His technical capability is on full display as he captures the action in one uninterrupted shot, highlighted by moving the camera from a stationary position to a horse in full gallop without cutting. Lubezki's insistence on using natural light, surely influenced by his previous work with Terrence Malick, presented a unique challenge given that the film was shot in the dead of winter, but once executed, rewards the audience with breathtaking scenery.
Supported by a talented cast, including standout Will Poulter, Leo and Tom Hardy are exemplary. Leo will win his first Oscar, and not because of his body of work, but because he deserves it.
Victoria
(II) (2015)
a one-take masterpiece
26 June 2016
I think one of the true skills of filmmaking is removing the boundary between the audience and the action. Victoria accomplishes this like no film I've seen in recent memory. The 138 minute moving play, shot in a single take, is truly an intimate experience.
Victoria, a Spanish girl who has recently moved to Berlin, meets some young men on their way out of a club at 4am. The camera follows them in real time over the next two and a half hours. What begins as a post-party boy meets girl story spirals into an unexpected heist film when her flirtatious friend Sonne asks her to accompany them on an errand. The plot would work fine as a traditional film, but when you add the proximity of the camera and single take aspect, the experience of the characters and the viewer is contiguous.
Through 22 set changes, including moving vehicles, chase scenes, dance clubs, intimate moments, piano playing and dialogue, cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen steadies his camera and places us in the middle of the action. The intimacy of joining the characters as they traverse the streets of Berlin not only removes any barriers that the audience would otherwise experience, it becomes hypnotic. What results is one of the most intense and compelling films of the year, a totally raw experience that left me trembling.
Victoria, a Spanish girl who has recently moved to Berlin, meets some young men on their way out of a club at 4am. The camera follows them in real time over the next two and a half hours. What begins as a post-party boy meets girl story spirals into an unexpected heist film when her flirtatious friend Sonne asks her to accompany them on an errand. The plot would work fine as a traditional film, but when you add the proximity of the camera and single take aspect, the experience of the characters and the viewer is contiguous.
Through 22 set changes, including moving vehicles, chase scenes, dance clubs, intimate moments, piano playing and dialogue, cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen steadies his camera and places us in the middle of the action. The intimacy of joining the characters as they traverse the streets of Berlin not only removes any barriers that the audience would otherwise experience, it becomes hypnotic. What results is one of the most intense and compelling films of the year, a totally raw experience that left me trembling.
Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015)
Witness!
26 June 2016
Nominated for 10 Oscars, George Miller's post-apocalyptic chase movie Mad Max: Fury Road is one of those rare summer blockbusters that lives up to the hype. That may be because the movie literally has its own hype man.
The main characters, Max (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), bolt across the wasteland of their dying world with the captured brides of ruthless warlord, Immortan Joe. Furiosa believes that returning to her homeland can provide salvation, and the drifter Max has been caught up in the ride. Immortan Joe, and his army of insane followers, will stop at nothing to retrieve his war brides.
Amid the literal beat of war drums secured to tricked out dune buggies, the action catapults forward at an unyielding pace. The preposterous villains chase Furiosa and her posse through the desert, atop motorcycles and monster trucks, shooting guns, spikes, fireballs and themselves at our protagonists in an effort to slow them down. These dim- witted steampunk zombies are on a kamikaze mission to Valhalla, and die they do, each one in a more hilarious manner than the last.
Are we surprised when the villains fail? I guess I forgot to care with all of the endorphins firing in my brain. This movie was designed solely to entertain you. It is an absurd production that is pure spectacle. So get some popcorn, sit back and WITNESS!
The main characters, Max (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), bolt across the wasteland of their dying world with the captured brides of ruthless warlord, Immortan Joe. Furiosa believes that returning to her homeland can provide salvation, and the drifter Max has been caught up in the ride. Immortan Joe, and his army of insane followers, will stop at nothing to retrieve his war brides.
Amid the literal beat of war drums secured to tricked out dune buggies, the action catapults forward at an unyielding pace. The preposterous villains chase Furiosa and her posse through the desert, atop motorcycles and monster trucks, shooting guns, spikes, fireballs and themselves at our protagonists in an effort to slow them down. These dim- witted steampunk zombies are on a kamikaze mission to Valhalla, and die they do, each one in a more hilarious manner than the last.
Are we surprised when the villains fail? I guess I forgot to care with all of the endorphins firing in my brain. This movie was designed solely to entertain you. It is an absurd production that is pure spectacle. So get some popcorn, sit back and WITNESS!
The Lobster
(2015)
Wonderfully weird
26 June 2016
Colin Farrell leads a large cast of talented performers (Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, Angeliki Papoulia) in the offbeat, dark comedy, The Lobster.
In the world of The Lobster, single people are taken to a hotel where they are given 45 days to fall in love, or they are turned into an animal of their choice. Why you ask? Because single people are inherently worse than the partnered. At this hotel, all single people seem to have some sort of ailment, because single people are intrinsically broken. There is a constant threat of random violence, but because single people don't have emotions, they hardly notice. They are desperate to conform, but receive no pleasure in it and even if they could find love, they wouldn't really know what to do with it. In summation, single people are brainless animals.
This wonderfully weird satire on love and coupling is social deconstruction at its finest and another masterpiece by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps).
In the world of The Lobster, single people are taken to a hotel where they are given 45 days to fall in love, or they are turned into an animal of their choice. Why you ask? Because single people are inherently worse than the partnered. At this hotel, all single people seem to have some sort of ailment, because single people are intrinsically broken. There is a constant threat of random violence, but because single people don't have emotions, they hardly notice. They are desperate to conform, but receive no pleasure in it and even if they could find love, they wouldn't really know what to do with it. In summation, single people are brainless animals.
This wonderfully weird satire on love and coupling is social deconstruction at its finest and another masterpiece by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps).
Ex Machina
(2014)
Say it with me: Ex Machina.
26 June 2016
Say it with me: Ex Machina. That should clear things up forever (*shakes head and continues to pronounce it differently each time).
Ex Machina, a sci-fi chamber play written and directed by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine). Dohmnall Gleeson plays Caleb, a coder in a large internet firm, that wins a trip to spend a week at the company owner's secluded mountain retreat. Once he arrives he meets Nathan, the owner of the firm, played by Oscar Isaac, who wants Caleb to perform a Turing test on his robot Ava, played by Alicia Vikander, to determine if she is "human." The question seems simple until confronted with Ava.
Elegantly minimalist in style, Ex Machina is grand in philosophical pondering. This film is not just an exploration of man's relationship with Artificial Intelligence. It explores traditional male-female dynamics, the beauty myth, the God complex, and self- determinism, while masking itself in applied science.
Oscar Isaac offers a richly diverse performance, but it's Vikander's portrayal of Ava that is superb, balancing vulnerability and manipulation. The script is well-written, consistently building intelligent, thought-provoking scenes, while creating an atmosphere of doomed inevitability, which when it comes, is deeply satisfying.
Ex Machina, a sci-fi chamber play written and directed by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine). Dohmnall Gleeson plays Caleb, a coder in a large internet firm, that wins a trip to spend a week at the company owner's secluded mountain retreat. Once he arrives he meets Nathan, the owner of the firm, played by Oscar Isaac, who wants Caleb to perform a Turing test on his robot Ava, played by Alicia Vikander, to determine if she is "human." The question seems simple until confronted with Ava.
Elegantly minimalist in style, Ex Machina is grand in philosophical pondering. This film is not just an exploration of man's relationship with Artificial Intelligence. It explores traditional male-female dynamics, the beauty myth, the God complex, and self- determinism, while masking itself in applied science.
Oscar Isaac offers a richly diverse performance, but it's Vikander's portrayal of Ava that is superb, balancing vulnerability and manipulation. The script is well-written, consistently building intelligent, thought-provoking scenes, while creating an atmosphere of doomed inevitability, which when it comes, is deeply satisfying.
The Tribe
(2014)
Shocking, disturbing and truly unique
26 June 2016
The Tribe is one of the most unsettling films of the year. It is set at a boarding school for the deaf in Kiev, where anarchy prevails. There are no words, subtitles, or even a score. The hearing viewer is left to interpret the violent chaos without auditory clues, presenting a unique challenge in understanding the narrative and the motivations of the characters. We are left to confusedly construe scenarios by their actions, and as such, are provided some insight into the helpless isolation of the deaf.
As a film, The Tribe may be interpreted in various ways: as a political allegory for the Ukraine, as a discourse on communication through violence, as an allegory to the impotence experienced by minority groups, or as an exploration of enactivism in film. Regardless, there are scenes that are shockingly disturbing, and the direction is unflinching. My only conclusion is that I'm sorry deaf people, but I don't trust you anymore.
As a film, The Tribe may be interpreted in various ways: as a political allegory for the Ukraine, as a discourse on communication through violence, as an allegory to the impotence experienced by minority groups, or as an exploration of enactivism in film. Regardless, there are scenes that are shockingly disturbing, and the direction is unflinching. My only conclusion is that I'm sorry deaf people, but I don't trust you anymore.
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