Coffee: The First Chinese-Italian Co-Production

It happened under the radar, but Pu’er and the surrounding Yunnan region have made China one of the world leaders in boutique coffee harvesting. Coffee roasting and distribution is still an important industry in Trieste, Italy, so the kind bean somewhat logically supplies common ground for the first ever Chinese-Italian co-production. So how does that relate to Antwerp? Maybe if they drank more coffee there, they would have the energy to find a job, instead of resorting to looting during riots. Regardless, these three not-really-connected stories are like Babel, but with more caffeine. Coffee plays an important role in the lives of all three protagonists in Cristiano Bortone’s Coffee (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Hamed is a naturalized Belgian pawnbroker, who treats all his customers with unprofitable compassion. Alas, the ugly Occupy-style mob could care less as it tears through the urban center of Antwerp. Hamed is understandably distressed to find his shop has been completely looted, including the antique coffee pot that has been in his family for generations. However, the unemployable Vincent left behind his wallet. The inevitable confrontation will not go well for anyone.

Meanwhile, Renzo and his pregnant girlfriend Gaia move to Trieste, hoping to find specialized employment in the coffee industry. Although is buddy fixes him up with a warehouse job, Renzo soon falls in with the wrong crowd, particularly Enrico, who hatches a ridiculous scheme to steal a shipment of ultra-exclusive beans.

That exotic coffee originally hailed from Yunnan, as did Ren Fei. He has since found corporate success in Beijing, especially after his engagement to the chairman’s daughter. After years in the capitol, Ren Fei must now return to assure the Pu’er factory quickly returns to production after a minor accident. Rather inconveniently, he discovers the facility is a ticking time bomb that could potentially contaminate the whole valley if more extensive repairs are not made. He has his orders, bur his conscience is pricked by A Fang, an artist and boutique coffee entrepreneur, who might just be his long-lost childhood friend.

By far, the best strands of Coffee are those set in Yunnan, which are wistfully lyrical. The Antwerp segments also have a gritty, naturalistic intensity to them. Rather oddly, Bortone’s Italian sequences are the weakest of the film, largely because Renzoi and Gaia are dull, uninvolving characters, but the stupidity of the would-be caper does not help either.

Hichem Yacoubi is terrific as Hamed, in a harrowingly intense kind of way. Zhuo Tan truly lights up the screen as A Fang, developing some sweetly chaste chemistry with Lu Fangsheng’s Ren Fei. Alas, Dario Aita and company in Trieste just don’t measure up to their Antwerp and Pu’er colleagues.

On the plus side, the production values are first-rate. Teho Teardo’s score is distinctively melancholy, while maintaining a buoyantly propulsive mid-tempo. Likewise, cinematographer Vladan Radovic gives it all a lush, sparkling look, fully capitalizing on the cinematic potential of Pu’er’s verdant vistas. As a work of cinema, it is definitely inconsistent, but there is enough good stuff to leave viewers craving a rich cup of Joe. Recommended on balance, Coffee opens tomorrow (2/9) in LA, at the Laemmle Royal.

Berlin & Beyond ’18: That Trip We Took with Dad

Ceauşescu was a brutal dictator, but he really did make a public speech on August 21, 1968 condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. It was designed to establish his independence from Moscow and garner good PR, both at home and abroad. The speech was certainly a success in terms of image, but it left Romanians traveling as tourists within the Eastern Bloc in rather awkward positions. This is especially true of the German-Romanian Reinholtz family in screenwriter-director Anca Miruna Lazarescu’s semi-autobiographical That Trip We Took with Dad (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Berlin & Beyond in San Francisco.

Medically trained Mihai Reinholtz has not driven his father William and irresponsible younger brother Emil all the way to East Germany to see the sights. He has secretly arranged for his father to have life-saving surgery in a Dresden clinic—the only place where such treatment is available in the Soviet Bloc. Unfortunately, they headed west just as the East German tanks started heading east. When the columns roll into Wenceslas Square, East Germany puts all Warsaw Pact tourists on lock-down, jeopardizing their appointment.

On the plus side, Mihai meets Ulrike von Syberg, a well-heeled West German leftwing activist, who had come to the GDR to study Marxism (but to his dismay). Ironically, he will have an opportunity to continue the relationship when the Romanian embassy arranges safe passage home through West Germany. Cantankerous old William will most likely be able to receive his treatment there, as well. However, if Mihai permanently defects, it will make life a living Hell for his father and brother, should they return without him.

The Romanian-born, German-based Lazarescu (who also helmed the excellent short film, Silent River) absolutely skewers the radical politics of von Syberg and her clueless fellow New Left activists. Frankly, they are not just naïve morons. They are willfully ignorant to some extent, which is why the presence of the German-speaking, truth-telling Reinholtzes is so awkward for them.

Trip is not so sentimentally informed by the hard day-to-day choices families living under socialism had to make all the time, just to survive. Lazarescu also gives us the emotional grounding and context to understand why some obviously ill-fated decisions get made despite the inevitable consequences. Nothing is easy for the Reinholtzes, but it could be worse. They could be Czechoslovakian.

Alexandru Margineanu is appropriately earnest and frazzled as poor Mihai, while Susanne Bormann gives some depth to the formerly-shallow von Syberg, so to speak. However, Razvan Enciu is a standout, convincingly taking Brother Emil on the widest, most dramatic character development arc, going from an innocent rebel to a broken young man, old beyond his years.

Trip looks back on the Communist era with wistful sadness for those who survived under it, but it also has caustic contempt for those who just didn’t get it at the time. Essentially, it starts out as a very personal family story, but it subtly evolves into something more epic. Very highly recommended, That Trip We Took with Dad screens this Saturday (2/10) during Berlin & Beyond 2018 in San Francisco.

The Ritual: The Horrors of Hiking

The Kungleden or “King’s Trail” is a picturesque but challenging hiking trail in northern Sweden. One character likens it to the Appalachia Trail, but with “more history and less hillbillies.” It turns out, they would probably be profoundly relieved to see a hillbilly on this lads’ outing. Something is stalking these four old college friends and it probably isn’t entirely human in David Bruckner’s The Ritual (trailer here), which premieres this Friday on Netflix.

Luke has not forgiven himself for drunkenly cowering in the back of a convenience store while junkie thugs bludgeoned his friend Robert to death. It is not at all clear whether Phil, Hutch, and Dom have forgiven him either, but he still accompanies them on the hike across the Kungleden Robert always wanted to make. It was supposed to be a tribute to their late friend, but it quickly turns into a serious struggle for survival.

First off, Dom twists or sprains something, which slows them down tremendously. Then Hutch convinces everyone to go off trail by cutting through the forest. Of course, any regular horror movie viewer knows this is a profoundly bad idea, but they do it anyway, despite Luke’s nagging misgivings. Soon they stumble across some Blair Witch-like rune markings—and things quickly go downhill from there.

To a large extent, The Ritual is exactly the film Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch sequel/reboot should have been. It is wickedly atmospheric and overwhelmingly creepy in those woods. Indeed, it is really scary watching the malevolent force toy with the four lads, especially because it is unclear for most of the film whether it is human, animal, or supernatural in nature. Eventually, it takes us somewhere pretty crazy, but because of Bruckner’s solid ground work, we continue to buy in.

Rafe Spall is terrific as the highly defensive and moderately self-loathing Luke. In fact, all four dudes are quite well-delineated, especially alpha dog Hutch, who really keeps us off-balance, thanks to Robert James-Collier, taking a radical departure from Thomas Barrow, the scheming footman in Downton Abbey. As a result, it is easy to believe these bickering and bantering fellows go way back together.

Ritual does not develop any new bump-in-the-night innovations, but it executes its genre elements at a very high level. It is also unusually well-acted for a lost-in-the-woods film. Enthusiastically recommended for horror fans, The Ritual starts streaming this Friday (2/9) on Netflix.

SBIFF ’18: A Sniper’s War

If you want to see what ethnic cleansing looks like after the passage of time, visit the Srpska administrative district of the sovereign nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At this point, most of the Serb residents refuse to acknowledge their legal central government or the war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims that soaked the ground in blood. Today, hundreds of Serbian mercenaries are trying to help Russia achieve similar results in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. Dejan “Deki” Beric is one of them. As a sniper, he has killed many Ukrainians for the sake of Russian imperialism, but he considers himself the freedom fighter. His extremist zeal never wavers in Olya Schechter’s chilling A Sniper’s War (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Deki has a long history of fighting with war criminals, but everything that happens is the fault of America or the Ukrainians. Technically, he has been disowned by his own nation, who will imprison him if he ever returns. Watching Deki go about his business coldly and calmly is a little like watching a serial killer movie, but the real touchstone is Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer. Deki truly believes in the warped world views of Putin and Milosevic. Anything to the contrary are the lies of American. When Schechter asks if he realizes the rest of the world considers him a fascist, he looks like she called him a Martian.

Following the Barbet Schroeder playbook, Schechter maintains a policy of strict neutrality, which allows Deki to reveal his true self. What emerges is the portrait of a killer, who refuses to take responsibility for any of his actions. He is a monster, with a well-defined list of grievances and a rapidly escalating body-count. Wisely, Schechter mostly avoids showing Deki’s kills, but they are numerous—and they very definitely define who he is.

Ironically, the Deki probably would take a shot at one of its editors, if he had the opportunity and knew Dmitriy Khavin’s short documentaries on pre- and post-Maidan Ukrainian life, particularly the eye-opening Quiet in Odessa. However, as a frequent editor for Vice reports, Khavin is quite experienced cutting together extreme footage. He and Dmitry Rozin never stack the deck against Deki, so he should have nothing to complain about, but Schechter’s highly cinematic fly-over shots make the extent of the damage wrought by his war starkly evident.

Sniper’s War is a disturbing film, but it was meant to be so. Schechter largely adopts a fly-on-the-wall observational perspective, but what we witness is pretty ugly and hate-filled. Highly recommended as an expose on extremism (but not as a primer on the Ukrainian or Bosnian Wars), A Sniper’s War screens today and tomorrow (2/7 & 2/8) during this year’s SBIFF and on February 23^rd at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Accident Man: Scott Adkins Goes to Work

Accidents are convenient. They usually get a perfunctory police investigation and they are nearly always covered by insurance policies. That is why Mike Fallon is such a handy guy to know. His specialty is making hits look like ever-so unfortunate accidents. However, he can get just as messy as the next assassin, if need be. That is exactly what happens when his own guild carries out a contract on his ex-girlfriend in Jesse V. Johnson’s Accident Man (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD.

Fallon is probably the baddest cat operating out of Big Ray’s very private public house. Accidents are his thing, whereas Mick and Mac, veterans of the US and British special forces specialize in making hits look like random street crime. There is also a poisoner, a silly inventor, an axe-wielding lunatic, and Jane the Ripper, a lethal and seductive martial arts master. There are rules to Big Ray’s place, largely to protect their weaselly business agent Milton, but Fallon chucks the rules out the window when Milton accepts a contract on his do-gooder ex and then sets him up with the Triad’s least competent assassin.

There is a narrative to Accident Man, but it is really just an excuse to have Scott Adkins’ Fallon face-off against Tim Man, Amy Johnston (from Lady Bloodfight) and twice against Michael Jai White and Ray Park (Darth Maul), simultaneously. Plus, Ray Stevenson binges on grizzled hardnosedness as Big Ray.

Johnson, the stunt performer turned helmer, who previously directed Adkins in Savage Dog, certainly knows how to stage a fight scene. Adkins’ two sessions with White and Park are real barn-burners, but his death-match with Johnston is all that and more. There is a reason why Adkins is an action movie fan favorite—and Johnson totally plays to his strengths, while also bringing his not as well-known facility for humor. We are definitely talking about Bondian one-liners and world weary snark, but that works for us.

Indeed, the entire film works like a well-oiled machine. The big fights scenes are appropriately big, brutal, and wildly cinematic, while the villains are all larger than life. A cast like this sounds like loads of fun, which they duly deliver. Highly recommended for fans of Adkins and action, Accident Man releases today on DVD and VOD.

The Casanova Variations: Malkovich Playing Valmont Playing Casanova Playing Don Giovanni

Giacomo Casanova and Don Giovanni were not the same, but it will become even easier to confuse the two after this film. It is sort of a greatest hits package, combining Casanova’s notorious memoirs with Mozart/Da Ponte arias from Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, with John Malkovich basically reprising his work from Dangerous Liaisons. He might be the most meta actor ever, because he essentially plays himself, playing Casanova. The confusion is the charm of Michael Sturminger’s adaptation of his operatic mash-up, The Casanova Variations (trailer here), which releases today on VOD.

Don’t let a little anachronism here and there throw you. Sturminger will freely switch back and forth between an ostensibly realistic period production and a semi-traditional opera staging, in which modern props and fourth-wall-breaking will often intrude. It is hard to get our bearings in this meta-meta film and even harder to keep them, so we cannot judge too harshly the doctor who rushes to the stage to treat the apparently fallen (but really just acting) Malkovich. The stage manager does not blame her either, but she will have to watch the rest of the first act from the wings.

Meanwhile, in Casanova’s life, Elisa von der Recke calls on the aging adventurer, supposedly with a proposal from a publisher. He doesn’t believe her for one minute, but there is no way he would ungallantly turn away a young lady. Her interest in his life story is genuine, but clearly it is of a more personal nature, rather than professional.

Variations has all the lush costuming and trappings of high culture, but its gender-bending, reality-problematizing narrative is uber-postmodern. Frankly, it is easy to lose your place in the film, because Sturminger does not throw down enough markers to clearly delineate each sphere. That can be baffling (and rather maddening), but if you just let go and roll with it, Variations will start to come together as a whole.

As you would hope and expect from a film starring Malkovich as Casanova (and as himself, playing Casanova), Variations is often quite witty. Of course, it sounds beautiful, since it cherry-picks the most passionate Mozart arias. Malkovich’s singing voice is so dubious, it becomes the subject of an extended in-joke, but fortunately for the audience, professional baritone Florian Boesch serves as his alternate-alter-ego. Miah Persson sort of serves the same function for Veronica Ferres’ von der Recke, while most of the rest of the cast consists of legit opera singers, including Kerstin Avemo and Kate Lindsey as Casanova’s former lovers and the great Barbara Hannigan as a contemporary.

Sturminger and company make opera weirdly self-referential, in surprisingly gossipy ways. Ever the meta-man, both Malkovich and Casanova send-up their own images, even coyly addressing rumors regarding the former’s sexuality. It is an oddly conceived film, but its compulsive risk-taking becomes quite exhilarating. Recommended for adventurous opera patrons, Casanova Variations releases today on VOD, from Cleopatra Entertainment.

Diverge: Back from the Post-Apocalypse

Time is like a river, or maybe it acts like sub-atomic molecules. A theoretical physicist like Dmitri Tarkov could explain which is correct. He has a theory about time travel that he will put into practice after a super-virus brings on Armageddon. Molecular biologist Chris Towne is the perfect subject to send back in time. His curative strain might have saved humanity and it might yet do so in James Morrison’s Diverge (trailer here), which releases today on VOD.

Towne’s wife Anna is dying, but she hung on far longer than most the infected, due to the surviving shreds of a cure-all hybrid he developed in the days leading up to the apocalypse. Unfortunately, he entrusted it in the wrong people. Therefore, nobody is better equipped to alter history. Tarkov will give him the opportunity to do exactly that, after Anna’s inevitable death. Like Towne, Tarkov is also immune, but his daughter Daisy was/is not.

Granted, Towne did not exactly sign up for this, but what does he have to lose? Tarkov even gives him personal information that will convince his earlier self to help. Yet, he is still unprepared for the skullduggery surrounding his plant.

Admittedly, Diverge is far from a perfect film. It spends way too much time mired in the post-apocalyptic wasteland before it finally gets down to its time travel business. However, the second and third acts are cleverly plotted and hold several fresh surprises. Once again time travel lends itself to some provocative but largely special effects-free science fiction speculation. In terms of tone, think of it as a better alternative to Stasis or a more conflict driven Movement+Location.

Morrison shows he has cool ideas as a director and screenwriter, but he labors under the limitations of his budget and cast. Jamie Jackson is terrific as Tarkov, creating two very different personas for the same character in each time frame. Co-producer Andrew Sensenig (We Are Still Here, Camera Obscura) continues to be one of those constantly busy genre character actors, who is immediately credible in any role, including his turn here as creepy corporate headhunter Jim Eldon. Unfortunately, the rest of the ensemble is pretty hit-or-miss.

Using little more than a few news reports of livestock outbreaks, Morrison creates a palpable sense that the end is nigh (again). Diverge, his feature debut, is a bit messy and inconsistently paced, but it is sufficiently distinctive and inventive to make us eager to see his next film. Recommended for genre fans who appreciate emerging talent, Diverge releases today on VOD.

Victor Crowley: The 4th Hatchet

There seems to be a trend in horror movies to drop the series name and numbering, in favor of the signature villain’s name, as in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre becoming Leatherface and Saw becoming Jigsaw. The fourth Hatchet film is the latest to go down this path, but in this case, there is a little life (and plenty of gory death) left in the franchise. Indeed, for a film about the ghost of a deformed psychopath hacking people to bits in the swamps of Louisiana, it is shockingly funny. The big dude swings the hatchet again in Adam Green’s Victor Crowley (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD.

You could call Andrew Yong the “final boy.” Through sheer dumb luck, he survived Hatchet III, but the succeeding ten years were difficult. After being tried and exonerated for Crowley’s murders, he has done his best to trade off his notoriety. Reluctantly, he accepts (a deceitfully exaggerated) offer to return to Honey Island Swamp with a camera crew and his ex-wife “Sabrina,” a bargain basement Oprah. Drat the luck, their charter flight crashes right over Crowley’s old stomping grounds.

It has been ten years since Crowley was last heard from, but he is about to come back with a vengeance, thanks to Chloe’s micro-budget film crew. To film a proof-of-concept trailer about the Crowley murders, she plays several YouTube videos of freaks reciting the voodoo incantation that raised Crowley the first time around. That is what we in the horror movie business call a very bad decision.

Naturally, a supernatural psychopath like Crowley always hits the ground running. Soon the remnants the film crew take refuge in the wrecked plane’s fuselage with Yong and his party. Unfortunately, Yong the former survivor knows only too well it is only a matter of time before Crowley finds a way in.

Granted, Crowley is ridiculously over-the-top gory, but it is also wickedly sly and witty. This is honestly a funny film that mercilessly skewers the media and fame seeking behavior. Plus, there is plenty of what could be called splatterstick humor.

Parry Shen is totally on the money as the disgusted-at-himself Yong. Likewise, Krystal Joy Brown is horrifyingly spiteful as Serena. Together, they share some terrific non-Valentines chemistry. As a bonus, Crowley features three horror movie veterans doing their thing: Kane Hodder as the big guy himself, Tiffany Shepis as one of Serena’s unfortunate production assistants, and Chase Williamson as Chloe’s indulgent boyfriend.

Admittedly, VC is  built around some pretty conventional horror movie terrain. The key art certainly looks savage—and it is not misrepresentative. Yet, Green’s writing is still as razor-sharp as it is in his uber-meta mashup Digging Up the Marrow. This is a hip, snarky, and caustic film, fully stocked with mordant mirth and plenty of body parts. Highly recommended for discerning slasher fans, Victor Crowley releases today on DVD and VOD, from Dark Sky Films.

Kill Order: Introducing Chris Mark

He is like a Matthew Star for generations that have no idea who that was. Unlike most teenaged boys, David Lee is not phased by girls or academics. It is the PSTD-flashbacks that trouble him. They are so bad, there is even an empty room in his uncle’s flat for his freak-outs. However, he will have a target to vent his frustrations on when agents of the shadowy cabal come kick the hornets’ nest in James Mark’s Kill Order (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD.

Usually philosophy class is boring, but not when a squad of black-clad SWAT troopers comes crashing in. A special thanks goes out to Mr. Henderson for immediately ratting out Lee. Nevertheless, Lee manages to take down his would be-captors, once his special powers kick in. You can tell when that happens, because his eyes start glowing blue.

It turns out Lee was a subject in a series of experiments that used power from a different dimension to fuel Universal Soldier-style fighting machines. Lee was particularly amenable to the power in-take, but he was unusually resistant to the brain-washing. His supposed Uncle Andre Chan was in fact one of the researchers, who had a change of heart. He hoped to help Lee live a normal life, but it doesn’t look like that will happen anytime soon now that the bad guys are out to get him. It seems to be a rather factional conspiracy, with the titular head, Shiro Fujitaka openly suspicious of his underlings.

Mark hints at something downright cosmic going on, but that is only tease for what he obviously hopes will develop into a franchise. The whole point of Kill Order thus far, is the butt-kicking, which is quite impressive. It was also obviously conceived as an opportunity for top Canadian stunt talent to get a proper turn in front of the camera—although ironically, Alain Moussi, probably the best-known cast-member thanks to the Kickboxer reboots, remains faceless throughout his appearance, due to his SWAT helmet.

Kill Order is maybe not quite a breakout for Chris Mark (brother of James), but he shows plenty of potential as Lee. As Uncle Andre, Daniel Park holds up the dramatic end quite well, in a performance that is arguably much better than what he could have gotten away with. More to the point, Jonny Cairnes, Jennifer Li (Kelly Marie Tran’s double in The Last Jedi), and Adrian Persad all impress in their vigorously choreographed and nicely-framed fight sequences facing off against Lee.

Okay, so this is not a classic film that will be studied for decades to come. Be that as it may, you can tell the entire cast and crew is hungry to make it into something, which gives it more raw power than most of the self-satisfied indie dramedies we are supposed to take more seriously than a film like this. Recommended for action fans who can forgive a few rough edges to get in on the ground floor of what could be the start of several rewarding careers, Kill Order releases today on DVD and VOD platforms, including iTunes.

We Knew What We Had: The Pittsburgh Jazz Story

Whether you realize it or not, just about everyone has heard at least a little something from Pittsburgh’s jazz community. For instance, Erroll Garner had a monster hit with “Misty” and George Benson became the original jazz cross-over artist. Even if they do not ring any bells, virtually everyone will have heard the piano stylings of Johnny Costa, who for years scored Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. One of the richest regional jazz scenes gets its overdue ovation in Jeff Sewald’s We Knew What We Had: The Greatest Jazz Story Never Told (trailer here), which airs this week on World Channel and throughout the month on finer PBS affiliates throughout the nation.

The honor roll of Pittsburgh jazz greats will make your eyes pop: Earl “Fatha” Hines, Art Blakey, Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Eckstine, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Brown, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Clarke, and the great Billy Strayhorn. To use an academic term: “wow.” If you are wondering how Pittsburgh got so hip, Sewald and his on-camera experts offer a cogent explanation of the historical dynamics. Pittsburgh was a river town that ported riverboats that trekked up from New Orleans. It was also strategically located as the first logical stop on a cross-country tour for musicians based in New York. Plus, it had integrated schools since the late 19^th Century, which meant African American student had access to music education.

Of course, that does not explain why so many legendary musicians happened to be born in western Pennsylvania, but the presence of so many greats clearly inspired successive generations. To its credit, WKWWH also gives due time and credit to talent that largely stayed local, like former Horace Silver sideman, drummer Roger Humphreys.

It is a shame outside political and cultural factors conspired to put a damper on the Pittsburgh scene, because this film would otherwise motivate viewers to book Amtrak tickets to Steel City. Frankly, it would probably be even stronger if there were a little less of the experts talking and a little more music. However, one of those experts is the late, great Geri Allen, who hailed from Michigan, but played Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman’s Kansas City and taught jazz at the University of Pittsburgh. It is still hard to believe she is no longer with us.

Obviously, there is plenty to say about Pittsburgh jazz musicians, since at least three of them, Billy Strayhorn, Erroll Garner, and Mary Lou Williams have already been the subject of their own documentaries. Just about everyone else could also easily sustain their own profile, especially Blakey, Costa, and Hines. This is true jazz royalty, from a city of grit and industry. Clearly, Sewald gets that—and he keeps the film pacing along nicely, so he can touch all the necessary bases in the hour-long running time. Highly recommended, We Knew What We Had airs tomorrow (2/6) and Wednesday (2/7) on World Channel and next Thursday (2/15) on Pittsburgh’s WQED.

3 by Neville Pierce: Bricks, Ghosted, and Lock In

Amontillado is a sherry, whereas rioja is a fruity red, but they can certainly serve the same purpose. There have been a few adaptations of the Edgar Allan Poe story over the years, but Vincent Price and Peter Lorre still probably claim the most iconic take in Roger Corman’s Tales of Terror. However, Neville Pierce updates and crystallizes the Poe classic quite distinctively in Bricks (trailer here), one of three of his recent short films releasing today on Vimeo VOD.

Clive is a tradesman renovating the wine cellar of William, a well-heeled country gentleman. Of course, he doesn’t think that makes his employer any better than he is. Perhaps a little deference would have been advisable in this case. Anyway, enjoy the rioja.

Blake Ritson and Jason Flemyng are quite a well-known duo to appear in a shot film, but Bricks was probably too much juicy fun to turn down. Ritson is delightfully twitchy and villainous as William, fully in keeping with the Poe-Lorre tradition. Likewise, Flemyng is believably but tragically oblivious to the danger of his situation, rather blinded by his egalitarian workman’s pride. It all looks spot-on, thanks to a perfect set and Sam Renton’s darkly evocative lensing.

In the case of all three shorts hitting VOD, Pierce collaborates with scribe Jamie Russell, who has sole screenwriting credit for Ghosted (trailer here). Flemyng also returns in a supporting role, but the lead is clearly Alice Lowe, an emerging genre star, thanks to Prevenge, Sightseers, and The Ghoul. This is definitely a lighter film from her, but she is terrific as Rebecca, a widow, who has the ghost of her philandering late husband tagging along on her internet-arranged dates.

The premise is reminiscent of Robert Mulligan’s under-appreciated Kiss Me Goodbye, but it has a really endearing twist at the end. It also looks great, thanks to Flemming Jetmar’s stylish black-and-white cinematography.

That leaves the competent but disappointing Lock In as the weakest of the trio. Pregnant Lucy is alarmed when an agitated young man barges into her former teacher father’s public house at closing time, accusing him of unspeakable abuse when he was a student. They go into full barricade mode fearing an attack from his mates outside, but in cinema today, an accusation of molestation is tantamount to proof, so we know it is just a matter of time before Lucy starts to suspect the worst. It is all pretty predictable, but at least Lucy Boynton, from Blackcoat’s Daughter and Murder on the Orient Express is quite good as her namesake.

So, two out of three is pretty good, especially when the third is sure to have its kneejerk defenders. Fortunately, the two with the most genre appeal really are a lot of jolly fun. Bricks will delight old school fans of Vincent Price, while Lowe’s fans and general audiences will be charmed by Ghosted. Very highly recommended, they both launch on Vimeo today, along with the comparatively less interesting Lock In.

The Music of Silence: The Andrea Bocelli Story, Sort of

For his novelish memoiry thing, pop-tenor Andrea Bocelli chose not to write about himself, but his alter-analog, Amos Bardi. Based on the subsequent film adaptation, we can readily see why he would want to maintain a layer of separation between himself and the treacly story. It is especially trying to spend so much time with Bardi as a sickly child, seeing precious little of the opera world most fans presumably came for. Indeed, the balance is all off throughout Michael Radford’s The Music of Silence (trailer here), which is now playing in New York.

Cheers to Bocelli (and Bardi, whoever he might be) for overcoming adversity to become one of the most successful tenors in the world. Granted, he has cut some purist-rankling pop sessions, but he can still land “Nessun Dorma” as well as anyone. Unfortunately, we only hear it over the closing credits of Silence. Instead, we sit through two full acts of Bardi’s childhood surgeries and years spent in a boarding school for the blind.

Music really isn’t in the picture until Bardi’s bachelor uncle takes him to a talent contest, which he nails. Yet, just as young Bardi develops a reputation, his voice changes, prompting years of silence. However, under the tough but protective tutelage of “The Maestro,” twenty-something Bardi once again finds his voice, but can he find fame too?

Frankly, it is hard to care about the wooden Bardi and his by-the-numbers success story. If anything, this portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man is bizarrely passive, largely revolving around whether or not Italian rock star Zucchero would ever call him for a vaguely promised joint-performance. Right, so let’s just keep watching the phone.

Most of the cast is blandly boring, in a TV movie kind of way, including Toby Sebastian as the Bardi fellow. However, Antonio Banderas brings a bit of flair to the film as the unnamed “Maestro.” He has definitely been scuffling the last few years, but his work ethic has not flagged (apparently, quite the contrary) and he has livened up a number of almost direct-to-DVD movies (but honestly, Bullet Head and Acts of Vengeance are really good). Alas, there is not much that he can do here.

The blandness of Silence is a bit surprisingly, considering it was helmed by a refined craftsman like Michael Radford, who directed Il Postino, 1984, White Mischief, and a documentary about the late, great Michel Petrucciani. Maybe he just wanted a holiday in Tuscany. At least there is nothing really terrible or otherwise objectionable about the film. It is just boring. Not recommended, The Music of Silence is now playing in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Animation First: Renaissance

Life is cheap in the dystopian future, but it still has value. Not much, but some. However, the tenuously balanced social order faces a threat to its equilibrium. Brilliant genetic researcher Ilona Tasuiev has been kidnapped, presumably by shadowy forces who want to control the questionable “playing God” technology she has developed. Dogged copper Bathélémy Karas will do his best to rescue her in Christian Volckman’s Renaissance (trailer here), which screens during FIAF’s Animation First: New York’s French Animation Festival.

Due to childhood trauma, Karas is not inclined to stand on ceremony, or search warrants, when innocents are endangered. The Tasuiev Sisters had similarly chaotic childhoods, before Ilona’s scientific genius was recognized and scooped up by the pharma-chemical multinational Avalon. Bislane Tasuiev had been her protector while they lived in the anarchic Eastern European region, but she was living off her sister in Paris, like a parasitic club kid.

Feeling a kinship based on their comparable backgrounds, as well as a mutual attraction, Karas pledges to Tasuiev he will recover her missing sister, safe and sound. As he pursues the investigation, the cop will interview her venerated mentor at Avalon, Dr. Jonas Muller, and their scummy boss, Paul Dellenbach. Clearly, the road to Tasuiev will criss-cross Avalon several times over.

Employing rotoscope mo-cap techniques that were pretty cutting edge for 2006, Renaissance is a strikingly noir work of animation that is even more visually distinctive than Alois Nebel. Unfortunately, the narrative is mostly just a string of loosely connected dystopian clichés. (If you think a corporate behemoth like Avalon is a dubious trustee of potentially dangerous technology, then just try the government.)

Still, in terms of world-building, Renaissance is amazing. You can clearly see elements of Metropolis in the design of 2054 Paris. Even French auto giant Citroën contributed, by projecting how their cars would look fifty years into the future. This is truly auteurist animation, so it is rather depressing Volckman has yet to release a proper new feature during the nearly twelve years since its initial theatrical opening.

The ever-so ironically titled Renaissance is a fitting selection for the celebration of French animation, because it is worth seeing, just to see its amazing visuals. Arguably, Volckman dramatically utilizes reflections and odd POV perspectives more than just about any prior animated film. It is actually fair to call it “visionary”—imperfectly plotted, but visionary in its execution. Highly recommended for animation connoisseurs, Renaissance screens tomorrow (2/4) as part of Animation First, which also includes the excellent Red Turtle and Day of the Crows, as well as the classic Fantastic Planet.

Till the End of the World: Love Never Dies, It Just Freezes Solid, Like a Popsicle

It might sound exotic, but Antarctica is not a romantic place. The temperatures regularly hover around negative sixty and the accommodations are pretty Spartan. Nevertheless, a man and a woman stranded on the icy continent will still manage to fall in love during the course of Wu Youyin’s Till the End of the Word (trailer here), which opens today in New York.

The rich but obnoxious Wu Fuchun had a ridiculous idea for an Antarctic luxury wedding agency. He is partly responsible for the crash that left them in the lurch, but Jing Ruyi will not have the luxury of guilt tripping him. The experienced polar scientist understands only too well the gravity of her broken leg. After the crash, Wu manages to find refuge for them in a remote cabin, but its stores of can goods and generator fuel is limited. Eventually, he will have to venture out in search of food, but if his misadventures turn fatal, it will just as surely kill Jing too.

TTEOTW is rightly billed as a romance, yet there is virtually no romancing in the entire film. Frankly, Wu and Jing are too busy trying to survive to spend much time gazing into each other’s eyes. Wu’s narrative, adapted from his own novel, is much more concerned with the one-darned-thing-after-another threats to life and limb, as well as the mental challenges of their extreme situation.

Technically, Till the End is a somewhat mixed bag. It really was filmed on location, spitting-distance from the South Pole. That meant many scenes often had to be iced on one take, but co-leads Yang Zishan and Mark Chao were up to the challenge, acing just abut all of their icy, windswept takes. Cinematographers Lai Yiu Fai and Lau Chi Fai fully capitalize on the expansive ice-shelf vistas. The opening plane crash sequence is also crazy enough to fit in Tsui Hark’s The Taking of Tiger Mountain. Unfortunately, the CGI penguin is just a big, distracting mistake.

Yang and Chao really are terrific together. He totally transforms Wu from a nauseatingly shallow fuerdai-esque embarrassment into a gaunt and haunted shell of his former self, much more devoted to Jing’s survival than his own. Likewise, Yang’s portrayal of Jing’s slow, forgiving fade-away will rip your heart out. The makeup team also deserves tremendous credit for making them look alarmingly weathered, chapped, and frost-bite blackened. Chao and Yang are huge stars thanks to smash hits like So Young, but to their credit, they took a bit of a risk here, because there is nothing vain or remotely glamorous about their work as the ice-bound almost-lovers.

You could say Till the End is a movie romance for people who don’t like romance. It is unabashedly sentimental and emotive, but not at all “mushy.” Joe Hisaishi’s supportive, yet eerily distant score reinforces that fateful vibe (isn’t it time someone programmed a retrospective of his film work?). Given the production challenges, it is also one of the few boy-meets-girl movies that could spawn a genuinely interesting “making of” featurette. Recommended for fans of sweeping, destiny-driven dramas, Till the End of the World opens today (2/2) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Tragedy Girls: Dying for Followers

In the 1976 classic Network, the idea Howard Beale could be killed due to low ratings was a shocking punchline. Forty-some years later, the notion of murdering multiple victims for the sake of social media numbers seems self-evidently logical. Oh, what progress. High school seniors Sadie Cunningham and McKayla Hooper aspire to be something like the My Favorite Murder podcasters, but they are much more “hands-on.” Their suspicion a serial killer is stalking the good citizens of Rosedale would be good for business, so they naturally try to promote his work in Tyler McIntyre’s Tragedy Girls (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD.

Suspecting a Rosedale Ripper is stalking the oblivious town, Cunningham and Cooper lay a trap for him, using a horny (soon-to-be-late) classmate as bait. When the troglodytic Lowell strikes, the girls lower the stun gun and chloroform boom, holding him captive in an abandoned water tower. Initially, they were hoping he would mentor them in serial killing, but when he turns out to be too crude and hostile to be any use, they just keep his chained up, so he can escape late in the second act.

As their serial killing confidence grows, the two besties start offing their campus rivals and then they post pseudo-journalistic commentary on the crimes under their combined social media handle: “Tragedy Girls.” They are particularly contemptuous of Sheriff Blane Welch, whom they accuse of misleading denials, even though he is the father of their oblivious webmaster, Jordan, who has long carried a torch for Cunningham.

Arguably, Tragedy Girls is exactly the film Assassination Nation, the most over-praised dog at this year’s Sundance, should have been. Instead of suggesting the Tragedy Girls are victims of a rigidly judgmental culture, McIntyre empowers them as master manipulators of a generation addicted to likes and over-shares. Cunningham and Hooper are horrifying, because they are the logical extension of us.

They are also quite funny. Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp chew the scenery with biting attitude and zestful energy. Hildebrand manages to humanize Cunningham to an extent, turning some almost endearing scenes with her father and young Welch, whereas Shipp goes full-on unhinged as Hooper. Once again, Kevin Durand is way too convincing for comfort as a monosyllabic serial killer, whereas Timothy V. Murphy grounds the film as the flawed but fundamentally decent sheriff.

Clearly McIntyre and co-screenwriter Chris Lee Hill have fully processed the Scream franchise, Heathers, and the original 1980s slasher spoofs, Student Bodies and Pandemonium. They pivot on a dime between black comedy and horror, but it never jars us very much, because they equally comfortable with both extremes. Unfortunately, they run out of smart snark down the stretch and just tie it off as best they can, but for the most part, the film is just a lot of shameless, gleeful fun. Recommended for horror fans with zeitgeisty attitude, Tragedy Girls releases today on DVD and VOD platforms.

Living Among Us: Interviews with Vampires

Vampires are finally getting more media savvy. They will invite a TV news crew into the home of a respected member of their underground community, so they can explain vampirism is really just a medical condition. Or maybe they will simply kill them, because nobody will miss a few media jerks. Either way, Benny the intern will be filming way more than he bargained for in Brian A. Metcalf’s found footage horror-comedy Living Among Us (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Mike, a local market prima donna broke the story revealing the network of blood banks supplying plasma to vampires, so the bloodsuckers’ sect leader naturally reached out to him for a proposed up-close-and-personal piece on life as a modern-day vampire. The blood banks’ secret distribution scheme was actually a good thing because it means they no longer need to kill to feed. The traditional vampire lore are just myths and misconceptions Andrew and his wife Elleanor insist. However, they insist on some suspicious ground rules before they allow Mike, his segment producer Carrie, and Benny, the station manager’s idiot brother-in-law to stay in their home. Of course, we’re talking about staples, like crucifixes, holy water, and wooden stakes.

As you would expect, the vampires immediately act suspicious, especially Blake, a swaggering Lestat wannabe and Selvin, a deeply warped former dungeon “dweller.” Fortunately, the nebbish Benny has a compulsive need to document everything, so he will capture some freaky business—thereby supplying viewers with our movie.

Metcalf maintains a healthy energy level and his screenplay is reasonably amusing. Still, it is hard for LAU or any subsequent vampire comedy not to suffer in comparison with Taika Waititi & Jermaine Clement’s What We Do in the Shadows, especially when LAU uses a documentary-news crew conceit. On the other hand, Metcalf recruited the character actor power trio of William Sadler, John Heard, and James Russo, as the vampire sect leader, Andrew the vampire host, and the gruff station manager, respectively. All three give any film instant credibility.

Indeed, you have to give Metcalf credit—he skewers the media quite effectively, while cranking up a sense that things are about to go very, very bad. Andrew Keegan and Chad Todhunter chew the scenery nicely as wildcards Blake and Selvin. Plus, Esmé Bianco, arguably the biggest genre star from Game of Thrones and The Magicians is suitably regal and fierce as Elleanor.

There are plenty of prior found footage mock-doc horror movies, but LAU is cleverer than most. At times, its limited budget results in some cheesy looking TV newscast sequences, but that’s forgivable. Recommended for horror-comedy fans, Living Among Us opens tomorrow (2/2) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

FGBFF ’18: Black Coat & Metamorphosis (shorts)

If you have a nightmare in Russia, what’s the point in waking up? Conscious life will be just as paranoid and hostile. Such is largely the case for the protagonist of Tatiana Vyshegorodseva’s reality-bending short, Black Coat (trailer here), one of two shorts that share clear thematic kinships with well-known genre movies, yet are still very much their own films, which screen during the 2018 Final Girls Berlin Film Festival.

Katya finds herself in a shadowy, nocturnal post-industrial world, much like today’s Russia, but even murkier. A couple of sinister babushkas insist on giving her a ride, but it is not to help her. It is to claim payment for yet another debt. She tries to find refuge in a decrepit apartment building, but they doggedly pursue her. However, she has an outside chance of achieving redemption, if she can figure out the principles of this netherworld in enough time.

As soon as viewers start watching this massively creepy head-trip, they will be reminded of several similarly feverish films. However, the rules involving matches governing this world give Black Coat an additional element of suspense. To Vyshegorodseva’s credit, even when we figure out the underlying situation, it is a massively tense and claustrophobic film.

Presumably, we should all be on the same page with respects to Elaine Xia’s Metamorphosis, if I tell you May Wong is selling more meat pies at her modest Hong Kong restaurant. She has a highly abusive husband, who flaunts his unfaithfulness, but things are about to change, in profound and complicated ways. Hence, the title.

This is a dark, gritty film that acts as a powerful appetite suppressant. It is not excessively gory, but its depiction of what goes on in the back rooms and kitchens of neighborhood greasy spoons might lead viewers to opt for a modest side salad or a bag of chips from the corner store instead. Regardless, Xia has an uncompromising vision and both Ceci Lau and Jiin Jang are terrific as Wong and the other woman.

Black Coat and Metamorphosis prove certain genre themes and motifs continue to yield rewarding results in the hands of talented filmmakers. Very highly recommended, Black Coat screens tomorrow (2/2) as part of the Mind Games shorts programming block and Metamorphosis screens Saturday (2/3) as part of the Family Dysfunction block, at this year’s Final Girls Berlin Film Festival.