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A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A sombre but intense noir thriller

Posted on September 23, 2014 by kaist455

Through its tarnished hero’s melancholic investigation process, “A Walk Among the Tombstones” looks into the dark, twisted face of human evil, and there are several chilling moments which will make you cringe or gasp for the horror implied during these moments. I was disturbed by its dark, harsh scenes, and I felt lots of uneasiness with what might happen in the film, but I was also gripped by its good storytelling which steadily accumulates tension in its somber, meditative tone. This is a thriller film where story and characterization come first with style and atmosphere to engage and unnerve us, and it eventually works as a gray personal drama of desolation and redemption instead of being a run-of-mill thriller movie with lots of bangs and crashes.

Liam Neeson, who gives his best performance since “The Grey”(2011) here in this film, plays Matthew Scudder, an ex-cop who is currently working as an unlicensed private detective. After an incident shown in the prologue scene, he left the police even though he was not blamed for what happened during that incident, and now he becomes a lot different from who he was 8 years ago. While still haunted by his personal demon, he looks more reserved and thoughtful in his demeanors, and he also stopped drinking. We see him attending his another AA meeting, and he humbly shows his sobriety chip to his fellow AA members who need help and support as much as he once did.

After that meeting, somebody approaches to him for help, but it is not for sobriety. A struggling young addict named Peter Kristo(Boyd Holbrook) wants Scudder to meet his brother Kenny(Dan Stevens), and Kenny asks Scudder to find who was responsible for kidnapping his dear wife. He did pay the ransom as demanded after some negotiation, but his wife was brutally murdered in the end, and he was devastated when he found what happened to her. Because he is involved in drug business, Kenny cannot possibly request the police to investigate this case, so he wants help from Scudder, who can be hired to do an unofficial investigation for him.

Scudder does not accept the case at first, but he changes his mind after learning a little more about how cruelly Kenny’s wife was tortured before getting killed. As he patiently gathers clues during his investigation, it gradually becomes clear to him that there is a duo of sadistic kidnappers preying on family members of drug business people – and Kenny’s wife was not their first victim.

We meet these two horrible guys in advance. We watch how meticulous they are in their work, and we observe how ordinary they look on the surface, and then we are horrified to see that they are ready to strike again. Maintaining their plain façade as usual, they silently go around together for spotting any suitable hostage around their potential target, and we get an insidious sequence at one point in which they search for the prey around their target’s house while not noticed by others.

The director Scott Frank, who wrote the adapted screenplay for “Out of Sight”(1998) and made a directorial debut with underrated “The Lookout”(2007), sets the tone right from the opening scene, and he never lets it slip away from the screen throughout his film. The sense of doom and dread is always around Scudder as he goes around his bleak world which does not give much comfort for him and others, and the cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr., who previously did a wonderful job in “The Master”(2012), gives us atmospheric moments which slowly draw our attention through careful scene composition and lighting. Even without the amusing mentions of Y2K(the story is set in New York during late 1999), the movie is already packed with darkness as a neo-noir film, and that feeling is further amplified especially when Scudder must save an innocent young girl from those dangerous kidnappers.

The movie is based on the novel with the same name by Lawrence Block, which is one of his 17 Matthew Scudder novels. I only read “A Dance at the Slaughterhouse”, which incidentally preceded “A Walk Among the Tombstones”, around 20 years ago, but I can say that the adapted screenplay by Scott Frank maintains our interest well with its good dialogue and solid characterization. The movie certainly disturbs us with its restrained but effective depiction of savage evil, but it also interests us as a grim but compelling journey into the darkness of human heart, and that aspect particularly reminds me of the recent TV series “True Detective”, which also vividly and hauntingly illuminates the worst sides of humanity through its disturbing crime tale.

Liam Neeson is perfectly case as a desolate tough hero with quiet intensity. There are a few moments which may take you back to “Taken”(2008) and his other recent action thriller films, but he gives a more nuanced performance which slowly reveals his complex character’s steely side along with deep remorse and guilt remaining inside him. Neeson is always good at internalizing heroes haunted by their checkered past, and his performance reminds us again that this wonderful actor is too good to be wasted in passable films like “Non-Stop”(2014).

The supporting actors surrounding Neeson give different shades to the story through their good performances. While Dan Stevens and Boyd Holbrook give human aspects to their characters, David Harbour and Eric Nelsen are utterly vile and frightening as the villains of the movie, and young actor Brian “Astro” Bradley holds his place as a bright homeless kid who becomes close to Scudder after their chance encounter.

While there are notable missteps in the film(its climax intercut with each step of the 12-step program feels more like an overkill despite its dramatic intent), “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is effective as a crime thriller, and I was stimulated by the skills and techniques put into the film. Its trailer makes it look like another action flick featuring Liam Neeson, but this is a completely different kind of film, and it will satisfy you if you are ready for a well-made film which is dark, gritty, and haunting enough to linger on your mind even after its end credits.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Alcoholism, Crime, drug, Kidnapping, Murder, Mystery, Private Detective, serial killer, Thriller | 3 Comments

The Maze Runner (2014) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4) : It runs around many familiar things

Posted on September 22, 2014 by kaist455

Running around many familiar things we have seen before, “The Maze Runner” is as much as you can expect from a film based on popular SF young adult novel. It surely has a teenager hero who will clash with the oppressive dystopian system where he is put into, and it certainly presents lots of danger in front of him and other adolescent characters who will support or inhibit him over the course of the story, and it will definitely be continued in another chapter of their futuristic coming-of-age story.

When our young(and good-looking) hero wakes up during the opening scene, he does not remember much about who he is, let alone how he happens to be put into a big freight elevator. Along with a number of supplies, he is being sent to somewhere, and the elevator soon arrives at its destination, which is a wide field surrounded by big giant walls. He is greeted by a group of adolescent boys, and they do not know why they were sent to this place either; they only know that a new boy is sent to them along with the basic supplies for them every month through that freight elevator, which they nicknamed “the Box”.

Not long after joining their small community, Thomas(Dylan O’Brien) manages to remember his own name like others did, and we see how the community has been maintained as he befriends a number of other boys. While Alby(Aml Ameen) is the thoughtful leader of the bunch, Gally(Will Poulter) and Newt(Thomas Brodie-Sangster) are two of the key members of the community, and it is shown that each boy in the community has a job to do for sustaining their community. We see several wooden constructions they built, and we see them working on the field for growing vegetables, and we also see their welcoming evening party for Thomas with their rudimentary booze. In short, this is like an alternative version of “Lord of the Flies” with better clothes and better behaviors.

Life is not bad in “Glade”, but the boys are eager to get out of their closed world. While it looks like it is impossible to climb up these towering walls, there is the opening to the maze beyond the walls, so a number of selected boys, who are called “Runner”, enter the maze to search for any possible escape route. Runners, led by Minho(Ki Hong Lee), are the most able-bodied ones among the boys because they must run around the maze as much as possible and then get out of it quickly before day is over. The opening to the maze is always closed precisely according to its schedule, and nobody has ever survived the night in the maze because of the hideous monsters called “Grievers”. Furthermore, the inner structure of the maze is constantly changed, and that makes the Runners’ mission much harder.

Of course, Thomas becomes very curious about what is beyond the walls despite others’ warning, and he soon enters the maze even though he is not permitted to do that. The maze is the most fascinating element in the movie, and the director Wes Ball imbues this big, ominous labyrinth with lots of uneasiness and menace oozing out from its murky corners and walls. While there are several impressive shots which emphasize its gray, oppressive atmosphere, the movie also looks around the rusty details inside this vast structure for giving some gritty texture to its world, and the sound effects in the film are effectively utilized along with the uneasy moments of silence. Grievers, which look like a biometallic mix of spider and scorpion, are scary CGI creatures which can frighten some of young audiences a lot, and their terrifying presence is palpable even when we only hear their noises.

While Thomas and other boys try to explore more deeply into the maze after what is probably a possible breakthrough for them, a sudden change comes into their circumstance. The Box unexpectedly goes into another operation, and it sends them a girl in this time. Although she does not remember everything, Teresa(Kaya Scodelario) remembers Thomas, and Thomas becomes more determined to find the escape route, which may provide the answer to why he and others were sent to Glade.

It will not be much of a spoiler to tell you that Thomas and some of the boys eventually stick together to go through the maze later in the movie, for I think you already have a pretty good idea about what is really happening at this point. Although the third part of the movie is packed with enough action and thrill to grip our attention, what is revealed and explained at the tame end of its climax part is too preposterous to accept, and you may wonder whether the maze is really an effective mean for an insidious plan involved with the character played by Patricia Clarkson.

The young actors in the film do their jobs as required, and we can only hope this may be a chance for better things to come for them. Dylan O’Brien is adequate as the lead actor, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Aml Ammen, Ki Hong Lee, and Blake Cooper(he played a likable chubby boy named Chuck) ably fill their major supporting roles. As the sole female character among the boys, Kaya Scodelario does not have many things to do compared to her co-actors, but her role will probably be expanded in the upcoming sequel.

The movie is based on James Dashner’s young adult novel with the same name, and I heard the book is the first chapter of the trilogy. Although how much successful “The Maze Runner” will be in the box office is not determined yet, the studio has already begun the production of its sequel, and so we will see the next story around 2015. I am not that enthusiastic about the movie because it does not have many things to distinguish itself from “The Hunger Games”(2012) and other similar films, but I observed its potential despite my disappointment, so I will keep my mind opened to that – for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged action, SF | Leave a comment

Frank (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Did he ever wash his face or hair?

Posted on September 21, 2014 by kaist455

When I saw its trailer several months ago, I wondered whether “Frank” could work, but it turns out to be better than I expected. While its distant, enigmatic title character and other oddball characters surely draw our attention, the movie does more than merely being odd; it has a story to engage and amuse us, and, despite several noticeable shortcomings, the story mostly works thank to its good actors ready for challenge.

At the beginning, we meet Jon Burroughs(Domhnall Gleeson), a young man who has been dreaming of making a music career but has been stuck in his boring daily job instead. While he still struggles to find his own creative voice without much success, Jon hopes for a good chance to initiate his career, and he gets his wish on one day. He comes across a music band named Soronprfbs(please don’t ask me how to pronounce it), and he promptly becomes the band’s temporary keyboard player because its former keyboard player happens to have a suicidal mental breakdown for some reason.

Jon goes to a town bar where the band is going to perform during that evening, and that is how he meets its band leader Frank(Michael Fassbender) for the first time. Regardless of whether he is performing or not, Frank always wears a big, round papier-mâché head, and he never takes off that head just because he does not want to reveal his real face to others. I know many of you will naturally wonder about how this guy can go through daily life while wearing that head all the time, but the movie does not go into specific details while giving some answers to our curiosity(did he ever wash his face or hair, I wonder?).

Anyway, Jon immediately joins the band when he is asked to fill the position of keyboard player, and he and Frank and the other band members go to a cabin located in some remote rural area of Ireland for the recording their album. They record various weird sounds to be used for their music during the first days, and then they move on to the next step, but it becomes apparent that they are going nowhere in their, uh, creative process. I am virtually deaf to rock music, but, boy, their avant-garde alternative music coupled with a singing style a la Jim Morrison does not sound very good even to me, though their performance itself is rather amusing to watch at least.

While privately recording his daily experience through his blog and twitter account, Jon comes to find himself being the only normal person in this nutty band. As Frank keeps being dissatisfied with his music despite their full effort, they always go back to where they started everyday, and the other band members do not help this frustrating situation a lot. Clara(Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is apparently in love with Frank, does not welcome the growing relationship between Frank and Jon, and their pathetic band manager Don(Scoot McNairy) turns out be more ineffectual than expected(seriously, I have no idea on how their band has been somehow maintained in spite of this bumbling guy).

Focusing on the dynamics between its eccentric characters, the movie brings out many of its best moments, and the actors in the film did a convincing job of inhabiting their characters. Frank is surely a challenging character to play from the beginning, but Michael Fassbender, a talented actor who has kept impressing us with his excellent acting during recent years, gives an exceptional performance as a damaged man desperately distancing himself from others, and we come to accept and believe his character even though we do not often see how exactly Frank feels inside his papier-mâché head. While he is clearly suffering from some sort of mental illness, this gifted guy is happy to write and perform his music, and Fassbender effectively conveys his character’s excited state to us through his wonderful physical performance, which deserves to be compared to John Hurt’s equally challenging performance in “The Elephant Man”(1980).

While Scoot McNairy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, François Civil, and Carla Azar bring additional eccentricities into the film as Frank’s band members, Domhnall Gleeson is also engaging as the only sensible main character in the film who functions as our viewpoint to the story. As gradually taking a different direction for him later in the story, Jon comes to believe that the band also should take a different route for moving on, and then there comes a good opportunity for that. The band becomes a little more famous than before thank to Jon’s YouTube clips, and Jon and the other band members are invited to the SXSW music festival to be held in Austin, Texas.

What eventually happens at the festival will not particularly surprise you. Frank manages to come to Austin with others(I am really curious about how the hell he went through airport customs), but he becomes increasingly agitated for a good reason. Sure, their first mainstream appearance may be good for his band, but this can be too much for a guy who has been hiding from others.

The screenplay by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan takes a predictable turn after that point, and a certain revelation scene around the ending is rather disappointing(I don’t dare to tell you why), but “Frank” has more hits than misses on the whole while generating its own charm to entertain us. The director Lenny Abrahamson maintains its offbeat spirit well throughout his film, and I cared enough about its story even though the movie becomes far less interesting during its last 20 minutes. This is a whimsey film which could have pushed its funny premise more, but it manages to find a balancing point between humor and pathos from its main character, and Fassbender’ performance is something you cannot forget easily.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Mental Illness, Musician | Leave a comment

Fading Gigolo (2013) ☆☆1/2(2.5): A little more than sex for cash, so to speak

Posted on September 21, 2014 by kaist455

As a comedy about the world’s oldest profession(and the second one), “Fading Gigolo” caresses, curdles, massages, and tickles its story and characters while not going a lot into its carnal affairs. Although it occasionally shows humor and poignancy while handling its subject with sensitivity and taste, everything in the movie passes off so lightly and mildly that we only get occasional amusements from its lightweight foreplay, and it quickly evaporates from our memory when it is over.

Anyway, the movie drew lots of attention before its release mainly because this is a rare occasion in which Woody Allen plays in a film not directed or written by himself, and the movie confirms us again how inseparable Allen is from that talky, neurotic screen persona we have encountered through many of his works. He is simply playing Woody Allen character here in this film, and I must say the movie sometimes felt like his work rather than the director/writer/lead actor John Turturro’s as I watched Allen walking around the streets of New York or delivering funny lines on the screen.

The story starts with his character’s recent economic problem. Murray(Woody Allen) has been the owner of an old bookstore, but now he has no choice but to close his bookstore because of his declining business. As talking with his close friend Fioravante(John Turturro), Murray suggests one idea which may financially benefits both of them; his dermatologist Dr. Parker(Sharon Stone) is looking for someone to satisfy her sexual need, and Murray wants to earn some money to support his family through brokering the meeting between his friend and her.

Fioravante, who already has a job to earn his living(he works in a florist shop), is naturally reluctant about being a part-time worker of the world’s oldest profession, but he eventually accepts Murray’s proposal, and we see his first trial at Dr. Parker’s nice expensive apartment in Manhattan. As satisfying her need, he turns out to be a better service worker than expected, and he gets paid more than promised as a consequence. He is soon introduced to another client, and Selima(Sofía Vergara) also enjoys her time with him, while looking forward to having a ménage à trois with him and Dr. Parker someday.

Virtually operating as his friend’s pimp, Murray continues to connect his friend with other female clients, and then he happens to meet Avigal(Vanessa Paradis), a beautiful Hassidic widow who has been going through her lonely grief since her rabbi husband’s death. Murray manages to persuade her to meet his friend despite her reluctance, so she goes to Fioravante’s residence where he is ready to take care of her body during their private meeting.

While they do not have a sex, Fioravante comes to release something inside her as he tenderly touches and massages her bareback, and they become a little more than a client and a service worker as they have more appointed meetings. They have a cozy little dinner at one point, and then they walk together alone in the park later as enjoying each other’s company. Fioravante is always sincere and generous to Avigal like he is to his other clients in his usual reserved attitude, and she finds herself crossing the line a bit to get a little closer to this kind man to whom she is very grateful for his valuable service.

Of course, there comes the point where things get more serious as personal feelings are mixed into this circumstance, and the conflict in the story is mainly generated through Dovi(Liev Schreiber), a neighbourhood watch patrol guy in Avigal’s Brooklyn neighbourhood. Mainly because they belong to an orthodox Jewish community where religion and traditions are strictly respected, the recent change in Avigal’s appearance certainly raises the eyebrows of others including neighborhood elders, and Dovi, who has been carrying a torch for the woman he grew up with, becomes curious about where she goes and whom she meets.

While giving a low-key lead performance, John Turturro imbues his film with the mildly amiable tone for his tentative tale. His scenes with his co-actresses are presented with tactful sensuality, and Vanessa Paradis is especially good as the camera calmly focuses on her face during her character’s first meeting with Fioravante. The movie does not tell us a lot about Fioravante except that he is a decent likable guy, but we see instead Murray’s busy home life with his no-nonsense girlfriend(Tonya Pinkins) and her kids, and Allen has a small humorous moment in which he tries to make Avigal’s kids play baseball with his girlfriend’s kids.

But the movie somehow never takes off from its premise while losing its way between comedy and drama. It becomes unfocused as approaching to its finale, and it resolves its emotional matters too easily without much payoff. I am also not sure about whether a certain silly scene involved with a bunch of rabbis works; the scene itself is not without fun, but it looks like belonging to a different kind of movie due to its absurd depiction which almost approaches to the level of caricature, and it becomes more distracting as it is intercut with the other scene which is more serious in comparison.

I cannot wholly recommend “Fading Gigolo” to you because of its weak aspects, but it does not entirely lack enjoyable things. Turturro and Allen work well together in front of the camera, and I think the movie could have been better if it had focused more on their amusing partnership. I understand it does not intend to be realistic as a comedy, and I can accept the artificial elements in the story, but the result is too mild and courteous to hold my attention, and now my mind is thinking about what to watch next rather than looking back on it.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Comedy, Prostitution | 1 Comment

Little White Lies (2010) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A summer vacation without their friend

Posted on September 20, 2014 by kaist455

French film “Little White Lies” starts its story with a familiar setting. With a bad news hovering over them, they spend some time together as before, but it turns out they have each own problems to deal with besides that bad news. It looks fine at first while they try to enjoy themselves, but they eventually fret over their problems while not openly talking about them in front of others, and one inconvenient truth becomes more palpable among them as the time goes by.

Its opening scene beginning at a night club during its late hour shows how their friend happens to have an unfortunate accident. Not long after getting out of the place where he probably spent the whole night with others, Ludo(Jean Dujardin, who appeared in this film before his Oscar-winning performance in “The Artist”(2011)) is suddenly hit by a truck as he is going back to his home during early morning, and we see his close friends arriving at the hospital to see him in the next scene. Concerned about Ludo’s critical condition, they consider cancelling their upcoming annual summer vacation for a while, but they eventually decide to stick to their original plan. After all, there is not much they can do for their injured friend at present, and he is alive while being on the way to recovery, isn’t he?

A few days later, they go to a beach town where they have spent their summer vacation together for years. While his friends do not see any problem with the vacation house belonging to him, Max(François Cluzet), an affluent business man with lots of petty insecurity bubbling inside him, keeps being grouchy about several trivial things including the untidy lawn in front of the house. Although he is supposed to be relaxed along with his friends, he routinely monitors his business place through his laptop computer connected to a number of CCTV cameras, and that becomes a sort of running gag throughout the film.

And he has a little personal problem with Vincent(Benoît Magimel), who confides to him that he has been recently attracted to Max. Max is not so pleased about this embarrassing confession from his close friend who has massaged him for years, and Vincent apologizes and promises that he will keep his mouth shut about this matter, but the awkwardness between them is apparent to everyone in the vacation house – including their wives.

Meanwhile, Antoine(Laurent Lafitte) has been struggling with his recent separation with his longtime girlfriend Juliette(Anne Marivin). While he still has feelings toward her, she sends a text message to him for some reason, and he does not know how to respond to that. That results in an amusing scene in which he keeps seeking advices from his friends, and then we get a hilarious moment when he gets distracted by his girlfriend’s subsequent response in the middle of his boat driving lesson.

In the case of Éric(Gilles Lellouche), he also comes to face a relationship problem of his own when his latest girlfriend Léa(Louise Monot) decides not to spend the vacation with him. He has been rather careless about his women while getting all the fun and pleasure from them, but now he belatedly realizes how much he loves and needs Léa, and he wonders whether he can get the second chance if he tries.

Like Éric, Marie(Marion Cotillard) has been living her life freely as she wanted, but there is something empty growing inside her, and she does not feel good about that. When her latest boyfriend comes to the vacation house later, it becomes clear that their relationship is approaching to the end, and she already feels hurt even before he suggests that they should end their relationship for each other.

There are many other small and big happenings in the movie as they continue to spend their summer days, and the director/writer Guillaume Canet, who previously made compelling thriller film “Tell No One”(2006), leisurely moves between comedy and drama as maintaining the unhurried pace of his film. While it takes some time for us to get used to its slow rhythm, the interactions between its well-rounded characters are interesting to watch, and a number of familiar pop songs on the soundtrack are effectively used along with those sunny beach scenes in the film.

The cast assembled for the film gives a solid ensemble performance. While relatively more notable performers like Marion Cotillard and Jean Dujardin surely draw our attention from the start, they and the other actors including François Cluzet, Gilles Lellouche, Benoît Magimel, Pascale Arbillot, Laurent Lafitte, Pascale Arbillot, and Joël Dupuch comfortably hang around together in their natural presence, and we can instantly believe that their characters have known each other for many years. Cluzet, who has always been noticed for his resemblance to Dustin Hoffman by me and others, is particularly good when his character regretfully comes to see how much he behaves like a jerk in front of others at one point, and Joël Dupuch, who plays a local oyster farmer who has known Max and his friends, has a crucial moment as a truth teller who pointedly reminds other characters of what they have been overlooking.

Since its release, “Little White Lies” has been compared to “The Big Chill”(1983), which has been the prime example for many movies wherein characters happen to gather together and then examine their relationships and lives through their interactions. The movie has enough amount of good moments to distinguish itself, and, though it feels a little too long at times(its running time is more than 2.5 hours), the chemistry among its cast members constantly holds our attention, and it steadily moves along with them until it eventually arrives at the ending which may initially feel contrived but is appropriate for what has been silently built up along its plot. It takes its time for letting us to know and understand its characters more than before, and we can all agree that the movie earns that kind of ending.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Accident, Beach, Friendship, Husband and Wife, Vacation | Leave a comment

The Two Faces of January (2014) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4) : Triangle in Greece

Posted on September 14, 2014 by kaist455

During the summer of 2009, I happened to read three Tom Ripley novels written by Patricia Highsmith, and it was one of the most entertaining reading experiences I have ever had. While it was chillingly compelling to see how its smart, amoral criminal hero got away with his crimes including cold-blooded murders, his odd relationships with other characters who unfortunately happen to get involved with him was another fascinating thing to observe in these crime novels. For example, Ripley and his dying opponent in “Ripley’s Game” hate each other’s guts from the start, but they also get closer to each other as becoming partners in crime through Ripley’s fiendish scheme, and it is intriguing to watch how mutual attraction and repulsion are intertwined with each other with no clear lines in their bizarre relationship.

“The Two Faces of January”, which is based on Highsmith’s novel with the same name, also gives another interesting example of two men who get involved with each other through crime, but it hesitates to go deeper into its characters. There are several good moments of tension and suspense as its plot thickens, but the movie ultimately fizzles around its third act, and we are only left with the impression of something which could be more interesting in a better film.

It is 1962 in Greece, and Rydal(Oscar Isaac) is a young American guy who has worked as a freelance guide for tourists. As a well-educated guy who can speak several languages including Greek, he looks like a good tour guide, but we also see his small criminal activities for earning extra money. Besides language barrier, many tourists usually have difficulty with foreign currency, and we see how he exploits that during one brief scene in which he swindles a little money from an American girl he has been getting along with.

And then he comes across one American couple, and they instantly draw his attention. Chester MacFarland(Viggo Mortensen), who looks like some wealthy financial guy enjoying his Europe vacation with his young wife, also notices Rydal, and they soon get acquainted with each other through Chester’s wife Colette(Kirtsten Dunst). Rydal becomes their helpful tour guide as they go around a local market, and he and Mr. and Mrs. MacFarland spend some good time together in the evening although Chester is a little suspicious about Rydal.

But it turns out that Chester is no better than Rydal as a guy who has been hiding something behind his back. Not long after he and his wife come back to their hotel room, he gets a sudden visit from an American private detective, and it is revealed that he and his wife ran away from US because of his financial crime. While trying to wiggle out of this difficult situation, Chester unintentionally kills that private detective, and then he happens to come across Rydal when he is trying to move away the private detective’s body. Chester lies to Rydal that the private detective just loses his consciousness, so Rydal comes to assist Chester while not realizing that he has become Chester’s accomplice, and he also lets Chester and his wife stay at his residence for a while.

Because it takes several days to prepare their fake passports for getting out of Greece, Chester and Colette go to Crete with Rydal for evading the police search. While they become a little more relaxed, Rydal and Colette come to spend more time with each other, and Chester becomes suspicious about what is possibly happening between them. As the older guy in this triangle, he becomes naturally jealous, but he only finds how helpless he is when he goes out alone for looking for Rydal and his wife. In the case of Rydal, he becomes angry about Chester after he realizes how serious their situation really is, but he has no choice but to stick to their plan for getting out of the trouble as soon as possible.

The movie did a good job of building up tension around its three main characters during its first half. The cinematographer Marcel Zyskind provides a warm, sunny Mediterranean atmosphere with the nostalgic touches to be expected from its period setting, and Alberto Iglesias’ anxious score, which is reminiscent of his works in Pedro Almodóvar’s films, effectively conveys the unsettling feelings beneath the surface during a number of key scenes in the film.

The actors in the movie are engaging in their depiction of the unstable dynamics between their respective characters. While Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Issac take the center of the story as two men increasingly opposing each other, Kirsten Dunst also holds her own place between her co-stars as another important part of the story, and she has a sad scene which reveals how much her character has felt frustrated and suffocated behind her chirpy façade.

Things eventually culminate into a certain irreversible incident which leads to more conflict between Chester and Rydal, but the movie begins to lose its steam after this point. The director/screenplay writer Hossein Amini, who previously wrote the screenplay for Nicholas Winding Refn’s “Drive”(2011), attempts to add an Oedipal element to the antagonizing relationship between his characters, but it is less successful than intended while feeling too obvious right from the beginning, and its finale is not exactly convincing because of that problem.

“The Two Faces of January” is not a bad film when being judged on technical aspects, but it is still an unsatisfying work which made me want to read the novel someday when it was over. During its end credits, Amini shows his personal thanks to Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, and that certainly takes us back to “The Talented Mr. Ripley”(1999), which was incidentally directed Minghella and produced by Pollack. That film was surely less edgy compared to Highsmith’s novel, but it was a compelling adaptation which presented an interestingly different version of Highsmith’s famous criminal hero, and you may have a better time if you watch it instead.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Fraud, Husband and Wife, Murder, Thriller | Leave a comment

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Same old dirty city

Posted on September 14, 2014 by kaist455

Welcome back to Sin City, that dark, seductive noir world where lonely tough guys walk around its mean streets and sexy but lethal ladies are ready to seduce them at its every shady corner with troubles and dangers to come. Effectively bringing us back to that memorable world which impressed me and other audiences in “Sin City”(2005), “Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” gives us more of the same style we experience before, and that was fine with me for a while, but, sadly, it looks more like a bunch of footnotes to its predecessor. It certainly looks good, but it lacks that visceral energy we experienced from the 2005 film, and that deficient aspect is further magnified by its weak stories which do not hold our attention a lot.

After its prologue sequence which shows another violent, confusing night experienced by one of its main characters, the movie begins its first story with Johnny(Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young, cocky gambler who looks quite confident about his luck and dexterity. As soon as he arrives in Sin City, he goes into a shabby strip club and then promptly participates in a high-stake poker game which is being held at a hidden room in the club building. He has just gotten enough money for the game thanks to his usual luck, and he is ready to win like he always did.

The room is full of people whom he should not mess with at any chance, but Johnny does not seem to worry about the possible danger he might get into – even when he happens to have the final showdown with Senator Roark(Powers Boothe), a corrupt politician who is also the most powerful man in the city. When he eventually defeats Senator Roarke, Johnny unwisely thinks he can handle the resulting risk, and he soon finds himself tumbled into a very serious trouble which will punish him with no mercy.

The second story is about Dwight, a private detective character we encountered in the previous film(While he was played by Clive Owen in that film, he is played by Josh Brolin in this film). Not long after he finishes one of his usual dirty jobs, he gets an urgent call from his former lover Ava(Eva Green), and our hardboiled detective hero cannot possibly say no to this treacherous woman who still can put him under her sensual spell in spite of their rocky past. While she lives in luxury thanks to her recent marriage to some rich guy, she wants his help right now, and Dwight decides to accept her alluring plea even though it does not look a wise decision to say the least.

Of course, it eventually turns out that Ava has a diabolical plan for herself as your typical femme fatale, and we are served with tons of familiar noirish shots further spiced up by sex and nudity which were surely unthinkable during the era of Hollywood classic noir film. True to Frank Miller’s graphic novel it is based on, the movie throws us into a highly stylized CGI world drenched in black and white film atmosphere which is sometimes punctuated by the striking use of primary colors, and Eva Green’s fatal beauty is effectively conveyed through her green eyes and red lips as well as the beguiling presentation of her naked body.

The third story is also connected to one of the main characters in the previous film. After Detective Hartigan(Bruce Willis) sacrificed himself to save her from Senator Roarke and his twisted yellow scumbag son, Nancy(Jessica Alba), the most popular dancer in the aforementioned strip club, is still struggling with Hartigan’s death. While desiring for the death of Senator Roarke more than ever, she also begins to drink more than usual, and Hartigan, who has been watching her as a wandering ghost, feels sad and bitter because there is nothing he can do for her.

To make the matters worse, Senator Roark, who is still quite angry about his son’s death, recently comes to know where she is, but Nancy already has a plan for her revenge, and that is where Marv(Mickey Rourke) comes into the picture. Like he gladly helped Dwight before, he is willing to help the girl he has always guarded from many unruly customers of her strip club, so they head into Senator Roark’s place while being well prepared to kill anyone standing on their way.

Like the previous film, the movie has a fair share of brutal, ruthless violence to jolt us, and you may cringe at a gruesome moment which involves with the loss of an eyeball belonging to a certain supporting character. Thankfully for us, such graphic depiction of violence in the film is filtered through its stylish approach, and the movie sometimes shows a twisted sense of humor as handling its wild, extreme moments of violence.

However, the movie did not grab my interest as strongly as the 2005 film. Although I enjoyed its style as before and I understood well that it was bound to feel not so fresh as a sequel, it is far less memorable compared to the previous film mainly due to its less interesting stories. While I was particularly disappointed with the lackluster ending of its third story, its second story is utterly predictable to the bone with no big surprise, and what finally happens at the end of its first story could be delivered more effectively if there were a little more build-up process before that.

As a consequence, I became more conscious of its artificial aspects including its broad characters, but I appreciated the performances from its actors, who must have spent lots of time in front of the green screen during the shooting but look convincing in the final product as the gray denizens of Sin City. While Mickey Rourke, whose electrifying comeback performance was one of the best things in the 2005 film, is again the most enjoyable element in the film as an urban savage who will not miss any opportunity of fight hurled at him, Josh Brolin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt acquit themselves well despite thin characterization, and Powers Boothe virtually oozes sleaze and menace while chewing his scenes as the big bad wolf of Sin City. The female characters in the film are mostly depicted as the objects of desire, but Eva Green, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Chung, Jaime King, and Juno Temple inject enough spunk into their characters, and they look as bold, sexy, and vibrant as required.

The director Robert Rodriguez, who struggled to make this film despite the critical acclaims he received for the 2005 film(the movie did not do well on the box office, by the way), does not completely fail here, but his movie merely trudges within its style which was already established a long time ago, and I was not very excited during my viewing. This is the same old dirty city we saw before, and, to be frank with you, I am getting a little bit tired of that now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged action, Dancer, Detective, Femme Fatale, Film Noir, Gambling, Murder, Politician | Leave a comment

Hill of Freedom (2014) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : A fragmented search for his love

Posted on September 11, 2014 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hill of Freedom” has everything we can expect from Hong Sang-soo, who has delighted us with his small but witty human comedies. What we have here is another amusing tale of men and women from one of the most distinctive South Korean directors, and we have a pleasant time with its lightweight stroll which is alternatively baffling and tantalizing.

The movie revolves around a personal story which is told through a bunch of letters left to Kwon(Seo Young-hwa). They were written by a Japanese guy named Mori(Ryo Kase), and we gather a few pieces of the background information about their relationship in the past as she begins to read his letters. They once worked at some language institute where they taught English, and Mori proposed marriage to her as a guy who loved her, but he was rejected by her. He instantly left for Japan after that rejection, but then he came back to Seoul for his second chance two years later.

Unfortunately, though he managed to find where she lives, he could not find Kwon because she took a long vacation due to her illness, so, as waiting for the chance to meet his love again, he stayed for a while at a nearby guest house, and the movie shows us how he got acquainted with a number of people he encountered during his short stay. While Yeong-seon(Moon So-ri), a young woman who runs her cozy cafe near the guest house(the title of the movie comes from the name of her place), becomes more intimate with Mori as they meet each other more, we also observe the growing friendship between Mori and Sang-won(Kim Ee-seong), a jolly guy who has been allowed to stay at the guest house for free by its kind middle-aged owner Goo-ok(Yoon Yeo-jeong).

This is a very simple plot, but the movie presents Mori’s story in a non-chronological fashion, for Kwon happens to get Mori’s letters dispersed with no way of finding their correct order. As Kwon continues to read the letters one by one despite that, we see Mori and Yeong-seon coming across each other as an owner and a customer at one point, and then we see when they become far closer to each other than before at the other point, and then we get more information as watching their other scenes which probably happened somewhere between these two time points.

As trying to figure out the chronological order of the scenes in the film, we are constantly baffled. Even when it arrives at the ending, a number of things in the story are not clear to us, and we come to feel the certain blanks between Mori’s letters. For instance, we are told that he had a fight with some guy during one scene, but the movie never shows how that exactly happened, and we can only guess that it might have involved with a guy whom Mori met at Yeong-seon’s cafe on one unspecific day. In addition, because we frequently see Kwon reading Mori’s letters, we also come to have a couple of questions about what is shown and told in the movie, and there is more than one way to interpret the final scene considering what precedes that ambiguous scene.

You may lose your way in this small labyrinth of space and time as a result, but the movie keeps our interest intact through its humorous moments of silly, amusing human interactions which are sometimes accompanied with drinking. While soju, Korean distilled liquor which has been one of usual props in Hong’s films, appears less frequently than before, we often see Mori and others drinking wine instead, and Mori finds himself stuck in a rather embarrassing situation as he keeps finding himself being with Yeong-seon even though he knows he should not do that considering the purpose of his visit to Seoul.

Like Hong’s previous film “In Another Country”(2012), many of the dialogues in the film are spoken in English, and that becomes its another source of fun as Mori and Korean characters try to communicate with each other through English. While the Korean characters in the film are clumsy at times with the language foreign to them, their clumsiness with English feels as natural as my own clumsiness in speaking with my foreign lab colleagues, and there is a funny moment between Mori, Sang-won, and Sang-won’s foreigner friend(Do Soo-cheon) as they spend their evening with bottles of wine. According to what I have heard, Kase Ryo and other actors really drank on the set as encouraged by the director while the camera was rolling, and the drinking scenes in the film certainly reminded me again that you should think twice about working with Hong Sang-soo if you are a recovering alcoholic.

Under Hong’s relaxed direction based on his frequent improvisations on the set, his actors look lively and spontaneous in their likable performances. Ryo Kase is amiable as the drifting center of the story, and he is nicely supported by several actors who previously worked with Hong before. Moon So-ri, Kim Ee-seong, Yoon Yeo-jeong always provide good entertainment whenever they interact with Kase, and Jeong Eun-chae briefly appears as an oversensitive girl whose personal situation leads to one of the best scenes in the film.

“Hill of Freedom” is quite short even when it is compared with Hong’s recent films(its running time is only 67 minutes), and it passes lightly as we enjoy its individual moments one by one under its leisurely mood. While seemingly staying in his usual territory, Hong Sang-soo tries a different way to present his familiar story, and I watched it with amused smiles even when I felt a bit lost during my viewing. I felt like doing the same things again whenever I wrote about his films, and this film is no exception as expected, but I will not deny that watching this small playful movie was a nice experience to end the last day of my holiday vacation.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Foreigner, Romance, South Korean Film | 2 Comments

Tazza: The Hidden Card (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : New players and some old players

Posted on September 9, 2014 by kaist455

South Korean film “Tazza: The Hidden Card” is another fun game of greed and crime with a number of new players and several old players ready to play their risky game. While it does not surpass the previous film, it knows how to deal the cards skillfully on its formulaic table, and it can hold your attention to its increasingly(and expectedly) complicated plot even though you do not know any damn thing about the rules of a Korean card game which is its main subject. I must confess that I have never played ‘hwatoo’ in my life and my head was spinning whenever the characters in the film used the terms I am not so familiar with, but the movie succeeded in making me interested enough in its plot and characters, and I was satisfied with that.

Although the movie is not about Goni, the hero of “Tazza: The High Roller”(2006), it shows its connection to the previous film through the opening scene. We meet Goni’s young nephew Dae-gil, and this boy already possesses his own potential just like his uncle, who became a legendary high roller through what happened in the previous film. When he grows up to be a young man later, Dae-gil(Choi Seung-hyeon) is still a small-time gambler operating in his neighborhood, but he is always the one who gets the money whenever hwatoo game is played around him, and he has been dreaming of going up to the next big level for him.

On one day, an opportunity comes to him through an unexpected situation. While trying to helping his family member who gets himself into a trouble with the local gang running an illegal gambling house, Dae-gil finds himself in a more serious trouble, so he has to leave his hometown at least for a while. Through the help of his hometown friend, he gets a job in some lucrative illegal gambling house in Seoul, and it does not take much time for him to be recognized as a talented gambler with lots of promise.

As Dae-gil rises in his position, we are introduced to a number of dirty rotten criminal figures operating in the world where everyone will not hesitate to use any chance to snatch away money from others. There are always people out there who cannot possibly say no to another chance of gambling, and such people are always potential targets to prey on – especially if they come with lots of money in their hands.

When Dae-gil and others begin to work on their latest target at one point, we see how they seduce their target with a number of elaborate strategies which ensure their high chance of success(“Tazza” is a Korean term for those sneaky gamblers who are expert on grifting others). I still do not understand how to play with those small plastic cards which are drawn with various colorful designs of flowers and plants and other things, but the director Kang Hyeong-cheol makes it sure that we always get a clear idea of what is going on the screen while never getting lost in mere details during the card game scenes in his film. We always see what is at stake among its gambling characters who may have one or two neat tricks under their sleeve, and then we are surprised at times by what eventually happens when the game is over with the final victor who gets all the money.

Not so surprisingly, Dae-gil learns a hard lesson from this tricky world full of danger and double-cross, but he is helped by two people he comes to care a lot about. Mi-na(Sin Se-kyeong), a girl on whom he had a crush before leaving his hometown, becomes another tarnished figure of his world when they come across each other again, but there is still a feeling between them, and Dae-gil wants to help her especially after learning how hard she has fallen to the bottom because of Dong-sik(Kwak Do-won), a cruel and ruthless gang boss who also has some history with Dae-gil.

In the case of Gwang-ryeol(Yoo Hae-jin), a pathetic one-armed gambler who once worked with Goni, he becomes a mentor to Dae-gil as teaching his young pupil several valuable professional lessons. The sequence in which he and Dae-gil work on their incidental target is one of the most amusing moments in the film thanks to brisk pace and snappy dialogues, and Yoo Hae-jin, who reprises his comic character from the previous film, brings lots of humor and life into that part as before.

The movie eventually arrives at the finale in which several main characters gather together for one big game to be played, and Kim Yoon-seok, who also reprises his role from the previous film like Yoo Hae-jin, has a relaxed fun with his expected appearance around this climax part. As a guy at the top, his character knows well the risk he is about to impose on himself and the others around him, but he takes it with amusement and some calculation while ready to strike anyone who dares to cheat him.

As shown in his previous film “Sunny”(2011), Kang Hyeong-cheol is a good director who can deftly handle story and characters, and he shows an efficient handling of many various characters to be rolled along the plot packed with a number of twists and turns for us. These characters may be broad, but they are colorful ones to remember, and they are well played by the good actors in the film. While Choi Seung-hyeon did a fairly competent job of carrying the film as its rather colorless hero, Kawk Do-won is simply despicable as the main bad guy of the movie, and Lee Honey and Sin Se-keyong are effective as two contrasting female characters around Dae-gil. Several minor but crucial supporting roles in the film are filled by a number of notable South Korean actors including Kim In-kwon, Oh Jeong-se, Lee Kyeong-yeong, and Go Soo-hee, and they also have their own moments to play something interesting.

Although it loses some of its energy and then becomes less compelling around its third act, “Tazza: The Hidden Card” is an enjoyable sequel which does not overstay its welcome despite its several weak points including a number of plot contrivances solely existing for its finale and its running time which is a bit too long. I do not think it is a better film than its predecessor, but it scores nicely in its own card-playing, so I will not complain considering a fair amount of fun I had with that.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Gambling, South Korean Film | 1 Comment

Lucy (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Bound for 100%

Posted on September 6, 2014 by kaist455

Rarely do we come across a wild, crazy movie like “Lucy”, which is utterly preposterous and ridiculous from the start but is also amusing and entertaining for its willing attitude to push a silly but interesting science fiction premise all the way to the top and then shoot it way over the top. The movie is constantly driven by its sheer nonsense during its every minute, but this is an exhilarating mind-bending joy ride if you are ready for its no-hold-barred approach. You cannot help but be amused and intrigued by its relentless parade of stylish visual moments, and they are guaranteed to excite your sensory nervous system more and more as it keeps accelerating itself along its loony plot.

As a biology major, I certainly found its premise too absurd, but I must admit that I observed it with fascination. It is said in the movie that we use only 10% of our brain, and here comes an interesting situation thrown by its plot; what will happen if a human being happens to be capable of using more portions of our brain than usual? And is it possible to reach to the level of 100%?

At the beginning, we see how Lucy(Scarlett Johansson), a young American girl who has been studying in Taiwan, happens to get herself into a very serious trouble. When her untrustworthy boyfriend Richard(Pilou Asbæk from “A Hijacking”(2012)) asks her to deliver a suspicious briefcase to some people, she does not particularly want to do that job, but she is eventually forced to do it, and then she is suddenly caught by a bunch of Korean gangs working for Mr. Jang(Choi Min-sik from “Oldboy”(2003)), a ruthless crime boss who will not let Lucy easily get off the hook.

While his purpose behind the delivery is not that clear, it is revealed that a new kind of drug is developed by Mr. Jang’s organization, and Lucy comes to face more predicament when she finds herself becoming a drug mule against her will. A package of that drug in question is put into her abdomen through surgery, and then she is thrown into a cell where she has to wait before everything is ready for her.

But then something unexpected happens. The drug package inside her gets busted by accident, and we are served with a rather hilarious CGI scene showing the blue drug particles rapidly spread inside her body. As the drug does its tumultuous biochemical firework inside her, her convulsing body behaves as if it were being possessed, and then she becomes a lot different than before when she regains her consciousness later. She shows a far quicker coordination of her body which helps her escape from the cell, and she also finds herself being capable of absorbing and processing tons of information within a short time. It is apparent that her brain becomes more fully active than before, and she can vividly feel that the degree of her brain activity is getting higher and higher every passing hour.

She needs an expert for understanding what is exactly happening to her body, and that is how Professor Norman(Morgan Freeman) comes into the picture. Although his lecture scenes mainly exist for explaining the ongoing situation in the story, Morgan Freeman is one of the great actors who can instantly grab our attention even if he merely reads a telephone book, and we come to accept his character’s ‘scientific’ theory for a while although it does not sound very plausible when you reflect on it later.

As Lucy experiences more things full of wonder and fear, the story goes wilder along with her increasing brain power, and the director/writer Luc Besson puts everything but the kitchen sink into his busy mix of dynamic actions and fun ideas. While there are impressive moments which will take you back to National Geographic documentaries, Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy, Ron Fricke’s “Baraka”(1992) and “Samsara”(2011), and Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”(2011), the movie also has lots of pulpy fun with its premise as Lucy’s power is further increased to the level of super heroine. We get a visually arresting moment when she not only sees every communication signal flowing around the city but also extracts a crucial piece of information from these countless flows of electronic waves, and then there is an intense vehicle action sequence crackling with thrill and tension. Although it is filled with lots of quick cuts and loud clashes, it rarely loses the sense of direction amid its gritty chaotic actions, and it is surely more exciting to watch than those mindless actions in Transformers movies.

And Scarlett Johansson, who gets another interesting opportunity here in this film after playing an artificial intelligence character in “Her”(2013) and an alien entity in “Under the Skin”(2013), is effective as a human center we can hold onto. Her character’s rapid transformation along the story looks convincing thanks to her good physical performance, and she also has a brief but poignant scene when Lucy talks with her mother on the phone; her change makes her feel her old memories more vividly than ever, but it is also taking her away from her former normal self, and we can sense her fear of that unstoppable process as the camera is fully focusing on Johansson’s conflicted face in its close-up shot.

The movie eventually goes into a far more overblown mode as Lucy throws herself into her own ultimate trip to behold during its psychedelic climax which is an obvious homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey”(1968). This part surely looks pretty outrageous to say the least, but it is presented with the sense of awe and grandeur, and I enjoyed it while having some laughs on its inherent absurdities.

“Lucy” is far from being perfect as being riddled with many plot holes(why are Korean gangs operating in Taiwan instead of South Korea, for example?), but it is a fun SF action movie packed with enjoyable goodies. It still looks like a silly mess on the whole, but the movie boldly leaps forward with style and confidence, and that is something we do not see everyday.

Sidenote: The Korean dialogues in the film are not translated, but I and other South Korean audiences understood them very well unlike non-Korean audiences, and that was certainly one small guilty pleasure for us.