Saved

Films about saving are very attractive generally to a wide variety of audiences as they appeal to a sense of heroism found in all of us or at least in most of us on some level.

To be someone's hero or to be saved by one has all the elements of opposites attracting one another and surmounting their differences in order to reach a mutual level of emotional understanding and fulfilment. It's Yin and Yang, good and bad, beauty and beast, the two balancing sides of the same coin, the puzzle pieces that fit and the workings of a magnet scenario.

What it is that we like specifically about films such as Leon or Nikita, or even the Hunger Games or Twilight, as slightly differing genres of course to the first two listed but with the same 'being saved' theme.
Essentially, we identify with the dynamics which lead two very different human beings from starting out as foreign to one another to ending up becoming part of one another's life. There is mystery and magic in this journey and this cinematic formula works well. Salvo is another one of these themed films of salvation and redemption and so is the latest 'My Hero' released for the first time at the Raindance film festival this year with the support and leadership of it's instigator Elliot Grove.

The idea and plot in 'My Hero' are close enough to similar films in this genre: female and male protagonists from different worlds meet and they help each other on some level. Whilst one protects and physically defends, the other teaches love, nurtures goodness and thus saves the other 'raw' character from him/herself. This latter more savage character among the two brings the story to a successful end one way or another by taking the lead in terms of action and thrills.

'My Hero' does in fact present us with strong characters and well developed ones. They are separate well defined entities in that the actors play roles that portray very autonomous human beings with their own specific emotional profile, past background and experiences.
It does show us how they come to be who they are well enough and the dialogue and role playing are very engaging.

What I personally found lacking due to perhaps too much editing done on the film or because it is indeed a little too short (film time around 80 minutes), is the justification for how the two characters-the rough drug dealer and the young innocent girl from a broken home- actually build their relationship and begin to love one another. The emotional transition is too quick and not deeply satisfying because the relationship is not given enough incidents or time to develop.

A scene in the beginning where he finds her standing on high ground and worries about her safety is believable enough if we think of him as a big brother who is well brought up and cares for children, but then where do they go from that point on? What other incidents are brought forward to justify their growing love? How is this portrayed? They seem to be thrown in situations without emotional exploration or development. These are questions which leave us guessing and wanting more. The scenes between them are dramatic and touching but not supported enough in a linear way, exposing the relationship thoroughly enough.

On a more positive note, the acting is good, and a few violent scenes are dramatic, surprising, eye catching and are carved in the mind well enough. This is because the message in those images is about the fact that the world of drug dealing, corruption and crime is ever present in certain social circles, is perilous and creates a vicious circle of life for those who inherit this from their forefathers.

The women in the film are not overly developed and although they are only there to support and nurture, they are at least given plenty of respect and are portrayed as the positive influences on the men-even when they are absent completely or hardly there.

The criminal characters are visibly cynical or mad so quite entertaining, and the 'florist' is an especially good character if only in terms of the comical word puns he provides in the movie because of his job and surname/nickname.

The hero of course is a criminal too but is also the defender of the girl because of his redeeming features and his white soul, at the same time as being the recipient of the saving grace bestowed upon him by the little girl and her unconditional love for him.

The music in the film is well used; at the right time and the right places, with the right 'feeling' to convey the emotions in the scenes and is not overly done or overly heard.

All in all an enjoyable film, well done to the creators and executors, but again I honestly say it would have been a great one and  not just a good one, if only the emotional aspect of the relationship between the defender and the little girl were slightly better developed to justify their growing love for one another. This would need less editing and more reel time perhaps but would be worth it.

Someone at the post screening cleverly suggested a sequel and this could work very well if the second film exposes scenes from both the protagonists' points of view. This could be done as narrative perhaps or with the aid of a few voice overs, in order to tell the tale of how and why their love for one another comes into life and ultimately saves them both.

We await a sequel then in the fashion of those sequels that tell the same tale but in a strong albeit different voice.

 
   

One Way Ticket

Rom Com style films are a dime a dozen these days but with the knowledge that a really good one is harder to find on the big screen as a big hit than say an action packed special effects spoof.

'Trainwreck' is one of those rom coms that sit on the fence's edge in the sense that one can't quite make ones mind up as to whether its actually good or bad.

It is a low budget film with hazy camera lens effects and a limited setting.

The plot is easy and a familiar one: girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love, girl or boy fears love and then finally find a resolution to their relationship. This is all done in three acts in the classical scenario of the time old three act structure.
The roles are reversed which has also been done before i.e the girl is the runaway bride escaping from commitment. A few films in this model and within this genre have been seen before of course and although this could easily be a home movie it does still hold a few distinguishing characteristics.

Its redeeming factors as a film are its characters and their interactions and dialogue which are well defined.

The acting is fairly good and natural, with each scene almost shot only once and even with few hiccups left in there to make it look more real rather than rehearsed or re-edited. Real life is like that after all and cannot be re-shot or re-filmed.

The natural type dialogue- even with certain words mumbled at the end of sentences as though as an after thought at times- aids the humour because it makes it easy going, honest, pragmatic and gives it more of a feel of wry sarcasm as well as realism often found in situation comedy. It is a kind of sit com humour and we can imagine the characters actually having the personalities of the characters they play in the movie.

The best aspect of the film, other than the humour, is probably its character development and the film could thus easily be a very successful stage play with the right actors. Not much in terms of cinematic trickery is required, just funny dialogue and strongly developed characters.

The heroine in the story is supported by the father figure and sister, so sibling and parental relationships are developed, with the sister playing the mirror opposite of the main character and mirroring her faults to her to help her believe in herself and in her relationships. The father as the lovable rascal who initially makes his daughter commitment phobic because he does not believe in monogamy is the source of her inner conflict and she resolves this eventually through her ability to decide on committing to the love of a good man, here the sports doctor. The latter makes her face her inner demons of fear and loss or rejection as she finds her way back to long lasting love with the right person.

There are a few off the wall scenes with sports personalities playing a big role in the film, such as LeBron, as well as a known sports commentator and certain famous faces making a few minutes appearances in the intervention scene. These scenes feel forced and commercial but they do not hide the fact that they are there for advertising the film or the game or even a particular player and his home town in particular.
This did bring the film down a notch or two but didn't bother me personally since the characters are still well defined funny and likable and since I personally have a soft spot for Cleveland Ohio as it holds dear memories for me of visiting relatives who live there and it being an underestimated city generally, or at least in my opinion.
So all in all, these commercial gimmicks do not bother me as much as they may do others.

This is a film about modern relationships and the patterns of love or fear that we may or may not carry with us from our past and families or our role models growing up, so that although it may be repetitive as a plot or genre, the story stays enjoyable from a raw emotional point of view with not a voyeur's eye into an odd world nor a visceral eye in the sense of a roller coaster ride of emotions but with an eye which allows us to identify with the characters and feel with their plight as we look upon them with a cognitive eye, recognising their issues even if we do not agree with them or have experience of them ourselves.

Train tracks can be one way tracks for some in some shape or form and once on a train we cannot change track or get off it, but a train can be derailed or wrecked and this can lead to a change of direction completely in life or to a new lease on life so to speak.

This is the message ultimately in the movie: a one way ticket to a new destination figuratively speaking.

All aboard!

'Read My Lips'

Having coincidentally seen the classic and gorgeously filmed: 'Sur Mes Levres' the day before, I was struck by both the similar feel but also the completely different genre and approach in the recently acclaimed: 'La Famille Belier'.

'Sur Mes Levres' is a thoroughly enjoyable story about an odd couple who fall in love and discover each other's strengths and weaknesses through a real and pragmatic relationship, and is a beautiful visually artistic achievement in terms of the play of shadows and light on screen as well as gorgeous softly filmed scenes with a varying degree of sound and 'non sound' to portray deafness and it's emotional sensations, consequences and lived experiences.

It does feel similar at times to 'La Famille Belier because of the theme of deafness and what goes hand in hand with it. But whereas 'Sure Mes Levres' works with cinematic techniques and the dynamics of a male female relationship of boundaries and trust, 'La Famille Belier' starts from the view point of a coming of age story of a lively, passionate, talented and committed 16 year old girl going into womanhood and discovering the pains and joys of disconnecting with her immediate deaf family to pursue her vocation as a singer.

The latter film reverses the other story in a sense because it does not start with an adapted deaf woman like 'Read my Lips' does, but rather focuses on a hearing younger woman growing up among her deaf closest and dearest and coping with the roller coaster of emotions that go together with being different and having the advantages of a hearing person but also the responsibilities that come with it.
Our 16 year old protagonist has to make hard choices and try to balance her life in order to both keep her family and herself happy at the same time.

As a theme this may seem similar to many coming of age stories but of course the plot here is mainly about the conflicts between hearing and non hearing and how they differ or try to meet half way and encompass the same sounds albeit interpreting them differently and through different means depending on how we listen or we manage to hear.
Do we hear speech and music through our ears, our eyes or our touch and what does this actually entail in terms of what we hear? How does this affect our understanding of emotions and situations?

The tale is told on two levels: firstly from the point of view of social differences between rural citizens vs city slickers, with the deaf family representing the hard working farmers striving for the benefit of their community against the city expansion plans of politicians. Secondly, and more importantly, the story unfolds around the dynamics of the family itself with the hearing daughter coping and balancing her strong but precarious relationship with her deaf family.

This is not a film about special effects or fancy make up or stunts and digital inventions or tricky camera work and clever editing. It is not a film about high flying action or even complex plot twists.
It unfolds easily and predictably through strong character actors and good dialogue as well as a beautiful unwinding of relationships.

The scenery and cinematic settings are pretty enough but what is compelling is the loveliness of the sounds, the affection projected through the music, and the actual voices both heard and unheard, as well as the emotions felt and shared by the excellent actors.

Both funny and sad at the same time, but always highly expressive and drawing tears from women and men alike, it would be very difficult to see this film and not be moved by the combination of the story and the performances.

An excellent piece of visual literature as well as a social exposition of the real problems facing the non hearing but also the issues faced by the hearing in a deaf environment.

'Signing' or sign language is in my opinion not only an important bridge for communication but also an artistic expression of beauty; it is in itself a beautifully crafted language of hands and body moving in such a way as to give human emotions alluring intensity and passion.
'Signing' is a voice in itself as highly piercing to the soul as a soprano's high notes are to the ears.



     

Scorch or Screech?

Faintly reminiscent of Mad Max with it's exposition of wild natural elements gone astray, the sequel to Maze Runner: the Scorch Trials, offers enough entertainment for the big screen but disappoints at times with prolonged scenes and extended reel time.

The search scenes are particularly long and saw a few people sneak out of the cinema for a break or snack refill as I observed during my visit to this particular afternoon screening of the movie.

The natural elements causing the scorching or burning -including sand storms, heat waves and lack of water- reminded me of the Mad Max dry setting where nature does not nurture and is found as a threat to our few heroes escaping the 'Wicked' organisation which imprisons and tests them in the Maze Runner.

Continuing the plot of the Runner, the Scorch does offer the same maze setting in some scenes as well as allows for continuity with the same characters having similar traits which distinguish them one from the other.
The five main characters which are mostly developed are: Thomas, Newt, Minho, Teresa and Aris.
They do balance each other quite well in their relationship although do not develop with the exception of Teresa.
Thomas the protagonist remains brave and ethical, Minho is cynical but humorous and strong, Newt is sassy and careful, Aris as a new addition and offers brain assistance and guidance, and Teresa presents us with a surprise. Mixed feelings about her are ripe towards the end of the film. The doctors are a mix of good and evil, moral and immoral and there is the right amount of supporting fighter characters on both sides with a few very unusually quirky ones added to the mix in the forms of Marcus, Brenda and Jorge.

The plot is generally similar but with an expansion because there seem to be more portals and wider settings. By that I mean the heroes need to overcome more obstacles in more settings to get to the end result which is mainly the 'Right Arm' group of protectors in the mountains.
The obstacles include Nature and 'Wicked' with their Maze testing mentality putting the 'immune' subjects through trials, but the tribulations are also caused by the virus itself and the zombie like creatures who are the personification of the infected subjects.
The cure is carried by a select few including our protagonists and this makes them both bate as well as a threat to Wicked.

The settings for all of these tribulations are mainly deconstructed cities and harsh environments.
The production is limited at times and feels like it is showing us the heroes in closed rooms with fake props, especially in the longer search scenes. The horror element is at times funny if a little bit scary. The 'zombies' seem to be created with both make up/dress up handy work in the slower scenes and through digital enhancement in the quicker 'jumpy' scenes where the images are made too blurry for us to actually see them or in fact to see what is actually happening at all.
This speed and special effect trickery is a good in a way to give realism to these infected creatures but it also makes the film unclear at times because the images fleet by too quickly and we end up screeching in horror at their effect without actually seeing them. This could be evocative at times since the horror of them is a little too gory for an action film and borders on a B horror movie simulation.

The best things about the film despite its predictable settings and repeated plot lines, as well as its redundant characters and caricature zombies, are a few twists along the way including Teresa's character which surprises and confuses.

The other redeemable factor for the movie is that some shots are cleverly taken to allude to a development in the story as well as giving emotional weight to the scenes.

An example of this is when Janson, the capturing force and 'Wicked's' henchman is seen for what he really is in one scene and this is depicted in how the shot of him speaking to the kids in the canteen is taken the second time with camera behind him aiming at his back, rather than pointing at his face as a frontal shot. This gives the impression that what he is hiding behind the door at his back/behind him is sinister and is discovered by the kids, whereas in the first shot of a similar scene in the canteen the kids don't know what he was hiding behind the closed doors at his back and therefor still do not seem him as a complete threat and only see his face or see him at face value. Cleverly done as the shot of him from the back does allude to what is behind the scenes as being important and dark, as well as making us feel that what is discovered is important and changes the dynamics of the film.

Another instance of this is the scene were an infected hero is left to end his life before he turns, and the moment when we hear the shot he takes at himself the camera is on a long shot of the remaining heroes as they stand still facing the audience as shadows from a distance with the backdrop of the luminous sandy desert behind them, This is an emotionally charged scene and the shadows' long shot and accompanying stillness create a quiet moment in time which is much more effective than many other gory screechy moments during the movie,

This is slightly reminiscent of Spielberg's style of emotional buildups and emotionally invested shots but of course this is only felt at times in this film and not consistently enough to create continued engagement for the audience unfortunately.

These emotional moments as well as a sense of urgency and the obstacle build ups play in the film's favour, but the affective engagement could have been better produced generally with more connected dots so to speak and less prolonged search scenes or gory flippant fleeting horror fiction moments.

The upside down shot of the kids hanging by their feet is an engaging enough one because we wonder at whether they are actually being filmed upside down or if this is a clever camera trick at work.

Generally a film which could have been edited tighter and less prolonged.

Spielberg is renowned for his emotionally charged directing regardless of genre and this film has glimpses of this moving style of work but not enough to hold it together for two hours.

Every genre has it's style and strong points and this could have been better planned if more editing time was invested, although all in all the plot holds itself with enough content and action entertainment value for the big screen,

Scorch or Screech, successfully fiery or just plain old annoyingly screechy or somewhere in between perhaps..?

Quatre-Vingt-Dix

From Bond to Mission Impossible, the special agent films are heading towards us hard and fast recently and are indeed very successful because they are entertaining due to the plot intrigue they provide.

A new breed of action films is hitting the big screen recently, namely the games adapted film  productions such as pixels for instance and in this case the newly released agent hit man 47.

Although based on a video game and does hint at gaming images throughout, this film does nevertheless provide strong enough characters, story lines and plot to keep us riveted.

The idea of an agent or of a genetically engineered agent isn't new by any means, be it as a human robots (humans plugged into the Matrix) or robots turning human (I Robot), but the clever accomplishment in this film is the balance between a cinematic production of an agent style film and a reproduction of a video game scenario.

The story and plot give the film all of the elements required for a cinema going experience, such as build ups, denouements and edge of the seat twists, as well as character development through dialogue and evolving emotions and expressions (with good acting performances throughout).
The video game simulation comes through via the use of strobe lighting, faded colour motifs, quick edits of flashes between close ups and long shots during action scenes as well as settings reminiscent of game screens -including winding ladders and stairs, metallic backgrounds and car/motorbike chase scenes as well as versatile and incredible weaponry.
There is a particular scene where all these video gaming elements are present: the hit man shoots with exaggerated speed using incredible comic book like weaponry whilst turning around himself in circular motions, against the backdrop of a grayish looking busy public street; very much like a video game simulation.

The fact that the story builds and unwinds nicely as well as offers a few surprises and unexpected turns and the fact that the main characters develop both through their interaction with one another and through self discovery, provide the film with a juicy fleshy content deserving of a cinematic label and not just with a video game simulation label.

The portals for the characters allowing them to evolve are provided to them through both their interaction with one another and the use of their genetically enhanced powers which allow them to grow emotionally and physically.
Agent 47 seems to gain emotional credibility throughout the film because of his relationship with Katia and his facial expressions mirror this by becoming less cold and more humane, whilst Katia gains confidence and strength as she discovers who she really is and as she changes into a more empowered less frightened woman (hence the title 90 which I chose above, but I won't say too much here else it will be a spoiler). The father also gains credibility as a character because of his need for redemption and his love for his children.

This character development supports the film greatly as a movie production aided by story plot line and good dialogue, without nevertheless taking away from the special effects and camera tricks which remind us of a generic video game setting.

I will leave you with this one thought or question even: in the scene at the hotel where Katia and John are bonding over her injury, can you spot a mistake in dialogue? And if so do you think this is intentional? It is in relation to a name used and to me it looked like either sloppy/lazy work (no retakes or re-filming of this scene for some reason) or (could it be actually) intentional?
If this dialogue mishap is indeed intentional, is there a message in this mistaken name calling? Is this an existential question about labels being unimportant or useless especially if we view one another as engineered rather than choice making individuals with strong free wills?

I will let you decide.

And remember 47+43=90 (no value judgement attached to higher numbers by me here of course as numbers are abstract and could mean anything we want them to, but there is some reference to the superiority of higher numerals in the film so look out for that too!