Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Having waxed ecstatic yesterday about the charms of John Cusack, I decided to revisit the above movie in which he shines.  It's a black comedy which for once is both dark and funny.  The title is a pun recalling the Lee Marvin noir "Point Blank" combined with the name of the wealthy Detroit suburb where our hero Martin Blank grew up.  Having deserted his high school sweetheart ten years previously on prom night, he returns for the school reunion which fits in with his latest assignment as a hired assassin; try explaining that to your old school friends as to what you do for a living!  The old girlfriend in question is played by Minnie Driver during her brief period as a star (as opposed to the many awful films she has made since), and her chemistry with Cusack is remarkable.  Concurrent with the above we have a number of killers trying to dispatch Cusack because he doesn't want to join forces with another totally unlikely killer played by Dan Aykroyd; one of those after him is Hong Kong favourite villain Benny Urquidez of whom I have written previously.  For someone who was an undefeated world kickboxing champion, he never wins out in his film appearances and Cusack manages to finish him off with a freebie advertising pen.  Meanwhile in the background we have some nice turns from Cusack's sister Joan as his office manager/Girl Friday and Alan Arkin as his extremely reluctant psychotherapist, all blessed with a sharp, clever script. 

Un Soir, Un Train (1968)

I wrote as few days back of the season of "lost" films from previous London Film Festivals now being shown at the NFT and how disappointed I was with my first selection.  I therefore wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing the above -- another French movie from the same period and another one set on a train.  At first my wariness seemed justified as the first half of the film verged on the boring as one followed the story of a linguistics professor (played by Yves Montand) at a university in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium and his somewhat strained involvement with a Frenchwoman (played by the very handsome Anouk Aimee) who continually feels like a duck out of water in his world.  The only compensating factors were some rather splendid landscapes straight out of the old Flemish Masters.  However when she joined him on a train journey, events took an 180 degree turn and we were suddenly in a scenario like something out of the paintings of Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux (no relation I think to the director Andre Delvaux).   Montand surfaces from a nap to find all the other passengers asleep, bar an older professor whom he recognises and a young man who was once his student.  When they disembark to discover why the train has stopped, they are immediately abandoned when the train suddenly pulls away.  They have no idea where they are or how to get back to their worlds until they eventually stumble on a strange village which initially appears deserted.  When they find its inhabitants who speak in an unintelligible language, we just know that they must be in a half-world between life and death.  Finally Montand finds himself back at the train which has been in a spectacular crash, but the film ends with his discovering that nothing can ever be the same for him again.  Perhaps some lost films do deserve to be rediscovered.

Volcano High (2001)

This is one very weird Korean movie and one which neatly defies categorisation.  Set sometime in the future at a high school for powerful misfits -- kind of an oriental X-men story -- we follow new student Kim as he tries to keep a low profile and fit in, however with his bleached blonde shock of hair he sticks out, and he finds it hard to play down his not inconsiderable fighting skills and Chi.  While it is not based on a manga, it plays like one with fantastic wire work and probably an over-reliance on special effects.  We follow the showdowns between Kim, another alpha male student Jang, the pretty Kendo star that they both fancy, and one of the teachers who tries to dominate them all.  The movie is absolutely gorgeous to look at, shot nearly exclusively in primary blues and reds on a black-and-white background -- which helps to further remove the action from any semblance of reality.  It's not really the kind of film that makes much sense, especially since the lead actor feigns a gormless naivete at times -- but this too adds to the fun.

Max (2002)

I went to see this film in the cinema when it was first released and have just returned to it on DVD; meanwhile it has very unjustly faded into obscurity, while far less thoughtful movies have mined gold.  It stars John Cusack who like Jeff Bridges is a sorely underrated actor and one who brings a professional intelligence to all of his roles.  He was an associate producer on this film and took no salary to ensure that such a controversial picture could be made.  Set in Munich in 1918, Cusack plays an ex-soldier who has lost an arm in the war, which means he can no longer paint, but coming from a rich Jewish family he has the means to start an expressionist art gallery in an old foundry and to continue his urbane and somewhat debauched life.  Here he meets another veteran who believes he has an artistic gift -- his name: Adolf Hitler!  Played by quirky character actor Noah Taylor, this Hitler might have found quite a different future were he not so embittered and if he possessed just a wee bit more talent. 

The film is not based on a true story, but it is a fine example of the "what if" genre.  Cusack tries to be kind and can even see an artistic showing for Hitler's fascistic sketches, but the gulf between the two men is too great and the temptation for the latter to use political demagogery as his escape proves too easy.  In a brilliant bit of montage, the director cuts between Cusack at prayer with his father and Taylor rabble-rousing.  How these two scenes merge is the nub of the story.  A Hungarian/Canadian/UK  production written and directed by Dutchman Menno Meyjes -- his first released film to date -- the movie deserved to make more impact, since it is a brave and sincere portrait of how the quirks of fate can affect the world. 

Martin (1977) and some other fellows

Talking about humour transplants, let me admit that I lasted about 25 minutes into "The League of Gentlemen Apocalypse".  I did manage to watch all of "Green Street" (known in the US as "Hooligans") which was hardly my cup of tea.  We have angelic-looking Elijah Wood being thrown out of Harvard on a frame-up and escaping to England to visit his married sister, Claire Forlani.  After being fobbed-off on her football-mad brother-in-law, young Frodo learns all about street violence (hence the American title) and how to be a better man -- as if this follows.  The film was actually watchable and reasonably well put together and acted, but with an unappetizing and depressing subject.

So I'll write instead about the above little-known movie from George Romero, which I hadn't seen recently and which still holds up as one of his best.  Rather than dealing with the walking dead or zombies, this film deals with vampirism -- or not, depending on one's reading of the story.  The eponymous lead, nicely played  by John Amplas (who has appeared in only a few films) is a shy young man who truly believes that he is a 90-year old vampire.  He does in fact stalk victims to drink their blood, but he has no fangs and has no fear of sunlight, garlic or mirrors; more likely his is some form of psychological disorder, reinforced by persistant family myths.  He leaves his home to live in a depressed city area with his uncle, a nice performance by Lincoln Maazel (father of the conductor) in his only film role; he is warned that any local blood-sucking will be dealt with by the traditional stake in the heart.  His obsession with what he believes himself to be is somewhat alleviated when he starts doing "the sexy thing" with a local frustrated housewife and when he vents his fantasies on a talk-radio show, but his fate is predestined.     

A History of Violence (2005)

The Canadian director David Cronenberg is best known for his "body-horror" films, and at first glance this movie seems far more commercial than his previous ones -- but that is not a criticism in this instance, as he has turned out something of a masterpiece.  Based on a graphic novel, the story concerns clean-cut Tom Stall, played by Viggo Mortensen, who is a small-town diner owner and a loving husband and father.  That the family has its own minor problems -- the young daughter has nightmares, the teenaged son is bullied at school -- is only the tip of the iceberg when one discovers what lies beneath Stall's easygoing manner.  When some thugs come into Stall's cafe and threaten his customers, he instinctively unleashes lightning-fast violence to deal with the situation,  This makes him a local hero, but attracts the attention of heavily-scarred thug Ed Harris, who turns up with his henchman to suggest that Stall is really Joey from Philadelphia with whom scores must be settled.  As the violence escalates the backlash affects Stall's wife, nicely played by Maria Bello, who, while hating what she now suspects is the truth about her husband, is also sexually turned on by this change in him.  Similarly the son finds something within him to deal with not only the school bullies, but also the threat to the family.  Finally Stall returns to Philly to thrash things out with his older mobster brother, dubiously cast and improbably played by Willaim Hurt.  The movie is extremely raw and graphic, but the audience becomes complicit with the violence on display, as despite its ugliness, we really like the man behind it;  I can find no faults in Mortensen's portrayal.  The ending is left deliberately open, since although the genie is well out of the bottle, the strength of the family may well be able to embrace it.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

I wonder if I can get a humour transplant on National Health since I seem to be increasingly out of joint with what is meant to be funny nowadays.  This film was a surprise hit and the breakout feature for its lead, Steve Carell, but I found the humour largely juvenile with only the occasional real laugh.  The story is apparent from the title insofar as we are presented with a nice enough fellow, albeit rather obsessed with collecting toy models, who has never managed to "do the deed".  When his co-workers learn what they consider to be the sorry fact, they do everything they can to make him one of their club -- the fact that they are also losers in their own way is skimmed over.  He tentatively begins a relationship with Catherine Keener without initially having to show his prowess or indeed to admit the truth to her -- and the moments between them do have a certain charm -- but hardly loud yaks.  She is a most likeable actress and the viewer does root for their future together.  The action behind the end credits is the most amusing part of this movie -- if only the overall tone had been so charming, without depending on scenes of his getting his chest waxed or not knowing what to do with a condom (to say nothing about his being vomited upon!).

Trans-Europ-Express (1966)

Well now that I've ploughed through FrightFest, I can go back to reviews of my regular viewing and it's a pity in a way that I am starting with the above French film -- only because it is freshest in my mind, having seen it at the National Film Theatre last night.  They are doing a season of so-called lost masterpieces from earlier London Film Festivals -- movies that made a splash at the time but have been little seen since.  In the case of this one by director Alain Robbe-Grillet I can understand why.  In a word it was pretentious; in two words it was very pretentious (but should I expect otherwise from the director of "Last Year in Marienbad" -- a film whose appeal I have never understood).  We have the director himself playing a director on a train journey with some friends, throwing out possibilities for a potential film script on drug smuggling between Paris and Antwerp.  As each idea is refined, the story is acted out by Jean-Louis Trintignant playing the would-be smuggler and interacting in various scenarios with whore/spy Marie-France Pisier.  It's meant to appear ever so clever as the characters engage and disengage into some kind of Chinese box puzzle, but each variation of the film-maker's reality became less and less involving.  There was also a sub-theme of the protagonist being fixated with bondage which allowed for some purely gratuitous and largely unerotic semi-nude poses.  All something of a disappointment.

Memorable Monday at FrightFest

To compensate for yesterday's disappointments, I decided to brave all five films today with a positive attitude.  Well, that nearly worked:

H6: Diary of a Serial Killer (2006): I had originally planned to skip this Spanish entry on the grounds that one had seen sufficient similar films, but it was better than expected.  After his release from gaol for killing his girlfriend in a fit of jealous rage, the now 40-something protagonist finds he has inherited a dilapidated boarding house-cum-brothel.  After marriage for appearance's sake to a nurse who works nights and who has been carrying on an affair with a married doctor both before and after, he makes it his life's calling to "save" fallen women by strapping them to a table in room H6 and, after various deprivations, dispatching them with his trusty chainsaw.  He is finally apprehended after eighteen such encounters (fortunately most not shown), but is clever enough to limit his incarceration on the grounds of assumed nuttiness and to presumably resume his vocation on his next release.

The Ghost of Mae Nak (2005): The next feature was meant to be the latest from the Bangkok-based Pang Brothers, but it was pulled at short notice to be replaced with this Thai film, based on a bit of traditional folklore.  Written and directed by Brit Mark Duffield but with a Thai cast, it follows a newly-married couple's problems when the bridegroom has been possessed by the spirit of a vengeful ghost and how his bride and her friends manage to appease its wrath.  There were a few OTT deaths of neighbourhood baddies, but otherwise a fairly unhorrific narrative and the expected happy ending.

Puritan (2005):  Again, I didn't expect much from this British occult thriller starring Nick Moran as a writer/fake spiritualist dealing with a mysterious badly disfigured man who predicts his future and a treacherous femme (Georgina Rylance) who seems to be using their relationship for her own ends.  We also have David Soul (what did we do to deserve this?) as her tycoon husband.  Moodily photographed and determinedly puzzling, we are presented with a somewhat unexpected twist to reward our attention.  We are also presented with the unnecessary appearance of Aleister Crowley in whose former home our hero now lives -- a complete irrelevance. 

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006):  I had higher hopes for this film which had a pretty high IMDb rating (obviously voted upon by people with less expectations than I).  It was a so-called mockumentary on how a would-be serial killer plans to achieve his immortality a la Freddie Krueger et. al.  So as in "Man Bites Dog" we have a film crew following his activities in what rapidly becomes an all-too-knowing and fey approach to the genre.  However when it comes to the start of the blood-letting, they realise that they can not condone this and therefore find themselves part of the proposed victims.  The kicker is that the killer's chosen "virgin" who is meant to survive turns out to be a full-blooded slut and it becomes necessary for the sole female on the film crew to assume the role.  Very droll I'm sure, but just a little too tongue-in-cheek to work.

The Host (2006):  The closing film was this Korean creature-feature which was a cross between monster mayhem and lowish humour.   Deliberate pollution of Seoul's main river breeds a mutant monster -- a sort of ginormous lizardy fish that rapidly terrorizes the population and which American busybodies decide is spreading a horrible virus.  The action takes place via one family -- an elderly food-stall owner, his sleepy son and another feckless son, his daughter who is a would-be archery champion, and his brave grand-daughter who is believed to be one of the first victims.  When they get proof that she is still alive, despite being carried off by the thing, they break quarantine to try to save her.  That they don't all survive proves something of a disappointment, but one can't really fault the non-stop action and clever special effects that serve to maintain the romp.

Well that's another FrightFest weekend until next year, but I understand some special Halloween celebrations are planned in the meantime -- and if I find out what these are, so will you.

Sleepy-time Sunday at FrightFest

I guess there are days when I should cut myself some slack and take a break from obsessive film-watching, if I am really not up to it, for one reason or another.  This day proved one of them and while I had every intention initially of sitting through all six movies in the programme, after the first four, I had all I could do to stay awake -- which possibly says more about me than about the films in question (although they were to some extent pretty questionable):

Broken (2006): This was a singularly unpleasant British effort in which women are snatched and subjected to various indignities such as having to slice open their stomachs to get at a razor blade that's been left there in order to free themselves from hanging.  The film mainly focused on one such woman who was not particularly attractive nor a particularly good actress (but she was the director's wife!) who needs to free herself from "The Man" in order to establish what he has done with her young daughter.  Low-budget junk.

The Living and the Dead (2006):  Another British effort and a far-more ambitious one from director Simon Rumley, which yearned to be a cross of art house and Eastern psycho-horror, but which verged to my mind on the "trying-too-hard" side of good with mixed time frames, shifting characters, and confusing plotting.  It was also not helped by the frenetic lead actor (Leo Bill) who began to grate early on and whose action was speeded up to express...  Your guess is as good as mine.

Them (2006):  I had hoped that this French film (set in Romania) might wake me up -- if only because there were now titles to read, but it only managed to nail my eyelids tighter.  Filmed in a documentary style, it followed the night-time horrors of a youngish couple as they are besieged in their home by  telephone threats, bumps in the night and unseen stalkers from whom there was no escape.  Yes, it was creepy and the end-title explanation somewhat alarming, but over all not particularly involving, probably because the viewer had little opportunity to empathise with the leads in their plight.

Grimm Love (2006): I particularly (in advance) wanted to see this one since it had been banned in its home country, Germany, and this showing was the World Premiere.  Big deal!  I don't know exactly why it was banned -- probably not on the grounds of being boring, but you never know.  It was a fictional recreation of the Armin Meiwes case where he surfed the net to find a lover who wished to be eaten -- the so-called Cannibal of Rothenburg.  Visiting American student Keri Russell is intrigued with the case and tries to unearth the background.  It culminates with her finding the actual "snuff" tape and playing it, all the while beginning to lose her own grip on reality.  The film was competently made and reasonably well-acted, particularly by Thomas Kretschmann in the lead, but somehow did not deserve to see the light of day.

Monday was far more satisfying and that summary will appear soon.  

FrightFest Saturday

I've decided that the only way I'll find the time to get through the remaining FrightFest reviews and to get back to the films I've viewed subsequently is to do a blow-by-blow precis for each day.  Saturday is probably the easiest to summarise, since I skipped three of the six on offer.  (Couldn't bring myself to watch a doc on the development of the Klingon language or "Adrift" -- known to the rest of the world as Open Water 2 and now on general release -- or a black compilation film of horror from the 'hood which would have made me miss the last train.)

Isolation (2005):  After last year's Irish mad-cow horror I didn't hold out much hope for another cow movie from the Emerald Isle, but this one was more ambitious and frightening -- even if it was at times hard to follow.  Farmer John Lynch allows some experimental genetic work to be carried out on his herd and the result is a mutant calf born pregnant with nasty creepy crawly embryos, kind of  bovine "Aliens", which must be destroyed before they destroy the world.  Not too many survivors nor the expected ones in this gory glory.

The Marsh (2006):  I can't say that I thought this one was much cop.  Writer Gabrielle Anwar rents an isolated house to find new inspiration and everything begins to seem frightfully familiar to her, as repressed images from her past reappear.  She hires friendly local psychic Forest Whitaker to help her unravel the pretty obvious clues.  I quite like this actor, but it did look to me that he was biting his tongue half the time to avoid bursting into fits of giggles.

See No Evil (2006):  Yet another mad slasher movie where you can start to guess who will survive, but an oddly enjoyable and inventive one.  Directed by Gregory Dark whose main outout previously has been soft-porn erotica, he shows a good eye for unusual horror.  We are given a group of petty criminals, boys and gals, who are told they can get their sentences reduced if they help to clean up a derelict hotel.  Also on hand are a handicapped cop, a female detention worker, the old biddy in charge of the restoration and an eyeball-collecting maniac, played by a wrestling superstar (not an area where I have much expertise).  The film is only 80-odd minutes, so the murders pile up rapidly, without allowing the viewer to get too bored in the process.  And for once part of the killer's pyschological past is revealed which does in fact add to the plot.  Best bits: watch out for the wild dogs!

Hatchet (2006)

After the kick-off movie reviewed below, the next film didn't stand much chance of rising to anything approaching the same standard and this one certainly didn't, although I understand that it has been well received at other festivals.  Part of the appeal might have been having Elm Street's Robert Englund and Candyman's Tony Todd in cameo roles plus having four-time Jason Voorhees, Kane Hodder, in the dual role of the unstoppable killer and his father.  The rest of it was really a load of rubbish.  A bunch of unknowns take a "Haunted Bayou" boat tour one evening during Mardi Gras (the film was obviously made pre-Katrina) and are picked off one by one in the traditional gruesome ways.  Apart from conveying very little that one hadn't seen many times before, nearly all of the characters were so gormless that it was hard to give a damn about their survival, in fact one was pleased to see the end of most of them and even more pleased to see the end of the film.