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Magic in the Moonlight (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : She does something to him~

Posted on August 22, 2014 by kaist455

“Magic in the Moonlight” is as lightweight as you can expect from a minor Woody Allen film. Although it is not as impressive as “Midnight in Paris”(2011), it is a nice fluffy diversion from his previous work “Blue Jasmine”(2013), and its pleasant mood and performances compensate for its rather thin story which becomes less interesting especially during its second half.

It is 1928 in London, and the opening scene shows the magic show of renowned Chinese illusionist Wei Ling Soo, who is actually a British guy named Stanley Crawford(Colin Firth). As a lifelong skeptic who does not believe in ghosts and afterlife, Stanley has debunked a number of spiritualists, and now it seems he finally comes to face someone who may be more than a match for him. His colleague illusionist Howard Burkan(Simon McBurney) met a young medium who has been impressing a rich American family with her psychic ability, and Stanley becomes intrigued when Burkan confides to him that he could not find any evidence to debunk her.

After cancelling his trip to the Galapagos Islands with his fiancée, Stanley immediately goes down to Côte d’Azur in France with Howard, and he is introduced to Sophie(Emma Stone) and that rich American family in question. While Grace(Jacki Weaver) believes that Sophie really can communicate with her deceased husband, her daughter Croline(Erica Leerhsen) and her son-in-law George(Jeremy Shamos) think Sophie is a fraud, and they are naturally worried about Brice(Hamish Shamos), Grace’s only son who is apparently smitten with Sophie and is probably going to marry her sooner or later.

After meeting Sophie and her business-minded mother(Marcia Gay Harden), Stanley becomes more suspicious about her, but it looks quite possible that Sophie really has psychic ability as she claims. She senses Stanley’s disguise right from their first encounter(he is introduced as an importer friend of Howard), and then she soon sees through the motive behind his visit. During her séance, Stanley witnesses a seemingly improbable happening right in front of his eyes, and then he finds his skeptical view being further shaken by another happening at the house of his aunt Vanessa(Eileen Atkins).

The movie could be more fun if it toyed more with this interesting conflict between belief and skepticism, but it takes a mellower route instead as Stanley quickly changes his adamant view on spiritualism and then finds himself drawn to Sophie more than ever in spite of the fact that she stands for everything he did not believe in at all. As Sophie points out correctly, he and his fiancée look like a good, rational match, and the same thing can be said about Sophie and Brice, but Stanley’s heart does not feel so – and neither does Sophie’s heart, perhaps.

This is a familiar trouble we already observed from many other characters in Allen’s works, and the movie strolls lightly with its two contrasting main characters while immersing itself into the warm, sunny atmosphere of the south region of France. The cinematographer Darius Khondji, who previously collaborated with Allen in “Midnight in Paris” and “To Rome with Love”(2012), fills the day scenes in the film with the soft, bright light of summer days while nicely capturing gorgeous locations on the screen, and that carefree mood of the 1920s is recreated well through handsome production design and costumes while several well-known period songs such as Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me” are effectively used in the soundtrack. As watching many dancing guests and a big jazzy orchestra band during one party scene in the film, you may expect to encounter F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, who were incidentally two of the significant supporting characters in “Midnight in Paris.”

As the lead performers, Colin Firth and Emma Stone play off each other well during their scenes. Firth has a fun with his character’s lofty and acerbic aspects during the first half of the film, and Stone, who is currently working with Allen in his next film, gives a breezy performance fueled by her own charming screen presence. There is a lovely scene in which their characters happen to spend some time together at an observatory during one evening, and it does not take much time for us to sense what is going on between them.

The other actors surrounding Firth and Stone do not have lots of things to do in comparison, and that is another weak aspect of the film. Hamish Linklater looks goofier whenever he appears with his ukulele, and it is a bit disappointing to see talented actresses like Jacki Weaver and Marcia Gay Harden playing thankless roles in the film – but they were probably glad to get a chance to work with Allen at least. In the case of Eileen Atkins, she has juicier moments as Stanley’s wise aunt, and she is especially good when Vanessa has a private conversation with her nephew on the current matter of his heart; she does not say what he should do, but she subtly lets him make a choice while maintaining the attitude of your average prim British lady.

I have some reservation on “Magic in the Moonlight” because of its several flaws including its weak ending which is less successful than intended, but I also found it likable enough to recommend it to you despite that. Sure, maybe I am a little too kind to this minor work from a director who made great films such as “Annie Hall”(1977) and “Manhattan”(1979), but I can assure you that you can enjoy this movie if you have been generous with his recent minor works like me(Yes, I was even entertained by “Scoop”(2006) – but I was bored by “Cassandra’s Dream”(2007)). Now approaching to 80, Woody Allen has already moved onto his next project as usual, and I’m willing to go along with that after this small fun.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Comedy, Illusionist, Medium, Romance | Leave a comment

Cats on a late summer day(08/18/14)

Posted on August 18, 2014 by kaist455

It became a little cooler with rain, so they were all out there…

Posted in Photos | Tagged Cats, KAIST | Leave a comment

Begin Again (2013) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Starting over with music

Posted on August 17, 2014 by kaist455

Around its beginning, “Begin Again” has a key moment which shows us how some songs can mean a lot to us at the right time and the right place in our life. It is just a simple song performed with a bit of reluctance, but its music and lyrics particularly come close to one guy who happens to be there. He instinctively recognizes the potential in her music as a sudden inspiration sparks in him, and that is the start of their accidental relationship which eventually helps them starting over from their respective problematic lives.

The guy in question is Dan(Mark Ruffalo), a seasoned music producer who was once successful but is now nearly close to hitting the bottom in both his private and professional life. While living alone in his small, crummy apartment in New York after his recent divorce from his wife Miriam(Catherine Keener), he frequently drinks without much money, and he is not exactly in good appearance when he is supposed to spend a day with his teenager daughter Violet(Hailee Steinfeld). In the record company he founded with his partner Saul(Yasiin Bey, who is also known as Mos Def), he does not show much interest to business matters while not having any notable success in discovering new talents to watch, and Saul is not so pleased about his friend/partner who has merely been occupying a space in their company.

Dan is eventually fired by his friend, and, drunken and dispirited as usual, he goes into a bar where Gretta(Keira Knightley) comes to perform one of her songs. The reaction of the audiences at the bar is mild on the whole, but her song resonates with Dan’s melancholic feelings, and his mind suddenly flies with the bright ideas on how her music can be presented more effectively. The movie shows his imaginary arrangement of her song as he adds several instruments one by one in his mind, and we can see from Dan’s face that his dormant passion on music is being finally awakened by Gretta’s music.

Meanwhile, we also see how things were led up to that crucial moment from Gretta’s viewpoint. When she came from England to New York with her successful musician boyfriend Dave(Adam Levine), everything looked fine at first, but then she learned about Dave’s infidelity through his latest song which was composed during his recording session in L.A. Exasperated and broken-hearted, she instantly left his place and moved to a far smaller place belonging to her old friend Steve(James Corden), a jolly, chubby musician who made Gretta perform at the very bar Dan went into.

After her performance, Dan approaches to her and introduces himself as someone who can help her music career. Gretta accepts his offer, and they soon work together on her promotional album. They do not have enough money or resource, but their work process goes smoothly mainly thanks to Dan’s resourcefulness fueled by his enthusiasm on Gretta’s music. Besides Steve, who gladly takes the position of recording engineer with his secondhand equipments, Dan manages to recruit several interested performers, and he also decides to do outdoor recording instead of usual studio recording for not only saving their budget and but also adding a raw touch of style to their recording.

The director/writer John Carney, who previously made a small precious music drama called “Once”(2006), makes the music scenes in his film look lively and vibrant enough to amuse and entertain us. Dan, Gretta, and the other performers in the movie are really having a fun with creating something good, and Dan does whatever he can do for providing his musicians with suitable recording locations. Considering their recording conditions, I have some doubt about the actual sound quality of their final product, but the songs in the movie mostly sound good on the soundtrack, and their guerilla performances around New York are accompanied with a number of small funny moments which drew some chuckles from the audiences around me during the screening.

And some of these songs actually have dramatic purposes while not just being nice songs to be included in the soundtrack album. There is a short but poignant scene where Gretta performs her latest song as her personal message to Dave, and the song clearly tells us(and Dave) how much she felt hurt because of him. Regretting his fault, Dave comes to want the second chance from Gretta, but we also sense a certain possibility between Dan and Gretta, who become a little closer to each other while occasionally spending their time together as friends and partners.

Although looking conventional in its familiar plot, the movie does not overplay the emotions slowly generated between Dan and Gretta, and it leisurely rolls along with them as observing the progress of their relationship with gentle sensitivity. Keira Knightley, who also performed the songs in the movie, has a low-key chemistry with her co-actor Mark Ruffalo, and they are surrounded by the good supporting works by Catherine Keener, Hailee Steinfeld, Yasiin Bey, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and James Corden, whose amiable performance quickly earns our affection right from his first scene.

When I watched “Begin Again” during last evening, I came into the screening room with no big expectation, and then I found myself enjoying it with smiles and laughs like the other audiences in the screening room. The movie looks a lot more generic compared to that raw charm of “Once”, and I must confess that not many of its songs stuck to my mind after it was over, but I will not deny that it felt to me like a relaxing respite from the summer blockbuster season of this year. This is not exactly a fresh music drama, but it works well enough to be an entertaining one at least.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Music, Musician | Leave a comment

Haemoo (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Voyage of the Desperate

Posted on August 16, 2014 by kaist455

South Korean film “Heamoo” feels so real at times that it did not take much time for me to get involved in its shabby main characters and their dark, harrowing drama. I could sense their gloomy life with no bright future on the horizon, and I sometimes felt like smelling something bad from the dim, damp corners of their small ship on the sea. While the plot gets thickens, their seemingly simple voyage becomes more ominous, and then they find themselves stuck in a situation more desperate than ever as it takes an unexpected turn which affects all of them in one way or another.

To Cheol-joo(Kim Yoon-seok) and the crew of his trawler ship, everyday is another struggle they have to go through. There was a time when his trawler ship usually came back to the port with heaps of fishes, but it has been hard for everyone in their area because of the economic depression caused by the South Korean financial crisis of 1997, and the owner of the ship is seriously considering selling Cheol-joo’s ship as a part of downsizing. Cheol-joo is naturally not pleased with that news, but he cannot deny that his catches are being decreased while his old ship needs to be repaired – or to be sold and then dismantled, perhaps.

To stay in the business with his crew while earning enough money, Cheol-joo eventually goes to one of his friends, who has been brokering the entry of Korean-Chinese illegal immigrants to South Korean behind his back. While there is a certain risk of being caught by the local marine coast, the job looks pretty simple with the promise of a big reward; all Cheol-joo and his crew have to do for getting paid is contacting a ship from China in the middle of the ocean and then bringing those illegal immigrants to the shore while not noticed by anyone.

His crew members follow his decision with no question. Ho-yeong(Kim Sang-ho), the boatswain of the ship, is ready to do anything for his captain, and Wan-ho(Moon Seong-guen), the chief engineer of the ship, agrees to Cheol-joo’s decision as a poor, debt-ridden guy who has nowhere to stay except Cheol-joo’s ship. Chang-wook(Lee Hee-joon) and Kyeong-goo(Yoo Seung-mok), a couple of sleazeballs on the ship, have no compunction to spare, and Dong-sik(Park Yoonchun), the youngest crew member on the ship, go along with others because he needs the money to support his aging mother.

They begin their voyage in the disguise of their another fishery operation, and then they meet the ship in question at night, which is filled with Korean-Chinese illegal immigrants ready to be transferred to Cheol-joo’s ship. The cinematographer Hong Kyeong-pyo, who did a terrific job in Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer”(2013), did another excellent work here in this film; the camera rarely loses its focus on the individuals on the screen as looking around the whole situation during this tense sequence, and we are gripped by the dynamic mix of confusion and suspense as the illegal immigrants attempt a risky jump from one ship to the other ship in the middle of night with the dark, tumultuous sea churning below them.

Everyone is safely transferred to Cheol-joo’s ship in the end, but the potential of another trouble is increased as the ship is returning to the shore on the next day as planned. They can be caught by the marine police at any point, and some of Korean-Chinese people do not trust Cheol-joo and his crew much. At one point, nearly all of Korean-Chinese people are forced to hide themselves in a very unpleasant place below the deck just because there is no other suitable place to hide besides that place, and Cheol-joo sometimes becomes quite ruthless to show them who is the boss on his ship.

The situation becomes a little more complicated when Dong-sik comes to have some feelings toward a young woman named Hong-mae(Han Ye-ri), whom he fortunately saved when she accidentally fell into the sea during the previous night. He sincerely wants to be nice to this young Korean-Chinese lady, but she has a good reason to be suspicious about this kindness of a stranger. In the case of one of her fellow passengers, she is willing to use her body for getting any more advantage, and some of Dong-sik’s colleagues cannot possibly say no to her as the guys who are fully loaded with a certain basic male need.

The director Sim Seong-bo, a screenplay writer who made a directoral debut with this film, previously collaborated with his co-screenplay writer/producer Bong Joon-ho in “Memories of Murder”(2003). Although “Haemoo” is not as memorable as that great crime movie directed by Bong Joon-ho, it is a solid work with a number of strong points to distinguish itself. I have not seen the South Korean stage play with the same name which the screenplay is based on, but the movie does not feel static or stagy even when it frequently emphasizes the claustrophobic environment encompassing its main characters, and it is also effective in accumulating a certain feeling of dread along with the increasing anxiety and tension among them.

While Kim Yoo-seok, who has continued to impress me since his breakout roles in “Tazza: The High Rollers”(2006) and “The Chaser”(2008), is good as usual as a man who is driven to the edge while making a number of drastic choices as the captain of his ship, the other actors in the movie are also distinctive as the parts of the story. While veteran South Korean actors Kim Sang-ho and Moon Seong-geun are dependable as the nicer crew members of the ship, Lee Hee-joon and Yoo Seung-mok are the main source of morbid humor in the film, and Park Yoochun, a K-pop singer I am not so familiar with, is believable during his scenes with Han Ye-ri, who is simply wonderful as a sole warm spot in the film we come to care a lot about.

The third act of the movie is literally filled with sea fog as announced by its title, and that is when the movie becomes less convincing than before. There are a couple of gut-wrenching moments to jolt us, but its climax part feels rather contrived compared to the organic storytelling shown during the rest of the movie, and I think some of its main dramatic moments could be more effective if the movie paid a little more attention to character development.

In spite of that visible weakness and other flaws, “Haemoo” is a compelling movie to watch, and it still could hold my attention even while it stumbled several times around its climax part. It is a smaller film than I expected, but it is packed with enough skills and emotions to engage us, and the gray heart pulsating behind its dark story is something you cannot forget easily when it is over.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Fishermen, Immigrant, Ship, South Korean Film, Thriller | 2 Comments

Robin Williams 1951 – 2014 R.I.P.

Posted on August 14, 2014 by kaist455

Not long before I heard the news about Robin Williams’ sudden death, I came across a cardboard advertisement of “License to Wed”(2007), which was somehow placed at my local theater for no apparent reason(this poorly received comedy film silently went straight to DVD/Blu-ray release here, by the way). I became a little depressed to see Williams’ cheery face in the advertisement because, as we all know, Williams was capable of many different things in his long career – and I wondered for a while when he would get a nice chance for another good performance.

Sadly, that is no longer possible now due to his death, but he has been recognized as a talented actor who could easily switch between comedy and drama since the very beginning of his movie career. I came to notice him for the first time in “Dead Poet’s Society”(1989) in 1991, and then he became a big part of my early movie years through “Hook”(1991), “Aladdin”(1992), “Toys”(1992), “Mrs. Doubtfire”(1993), “Jumanji”(1995), and “Flubber”(1997). I must tell you that not all of these movies were good, but they were more than enough for a young South Korean kid to recognize Williams as a fun actor to watch. As a matter of fact, I watched “Jumanji” and “Flubber” twice in a row, respectively(Yes, I was young, and I needed to be more enlightened at that time).

And then I came to see that he was not merely a funny actor as watching more movies. While he made a literally cartoonish debut with Robert Altman’s “Popeye”(1980), it was soon followed by his more serious performances in “The World According to Garp”(1982) and “Moscow on the Hudson”(1984), and then he found a perfect balancing spot between zany comedy and understated drama in “Good Morning, Vietnam”(1987), in which he immediately grabbed an ideal stage to showcase his rambunctious side at full throttle and then gradually modulated his performance into something more touching than expected at the beginning of the film. Although I have become less enthusiastic about “Dead Poet’s Society”(1989) than before, it goes without saying that his performance is still one of its best things, and the same thing can be said about his other performances in “The Awakening”(1990), “The Fisher King”(1991), and “Good Will Hunting”(1997).

After his Oscar win for “Good Will Hunting”, William’s career became less exciting in comparison, but there were two memorable films which let Williams fully expose and utilize the darkness glimpsed behind his bouncy comic persona, and he gave two of his best performances as a result. In “One Hour Photo”(2002), he played a shy, obsessive photo lab employee growing a very unhealthy interest toward one suburban family, and Williams was alternatively sad and disturbing in his bleached appearance which further emphasizes his character’s pathetic anonymity as well as pathological obsession. In the case of Christopher Nolan’s “Insomnia”(2002), Williams was its main wild card for us, and he surely frightened us through his subdued but chilling performance as a smart, twisted killer subtly pressuring Al Pacino’s detective character to compromise for each own benefit. While “Death to Smoochy”(2002) was not very good in comparison and it may be one of Williams’ worst moments, the movie provided him at least a chance to operate on a more vicious mode than usual, and his mean-spirited performance was rather darkly enjoyable to watch to some degrees until the movie became a total mess in the end.

And it was around that time that I heard about his personal problems for the first time. While he has been frank about them, a number of articles written after his death give me a more detailed picture of his long years of struggle with addiction and depression. Like many gifted comedians, he had his own personal demons to deal with, and, according to the people close to him, there were several signs of him going down with another bout of depression before his suicide. He was indeed a classic example of the clown who cannot possibly cheer himself up as much as he can make others laugh.

Nevertheless, he was a very funny and gentle guy as remembered and appreciated by others, and he was always good at bringing us smiles and laughs. I still fondly remember how he easily made the audiences laugh at one point during the Academy Awards ceremony in 1998. I recently watched again a YouTube clip of Williams parodying John Houseman, his mentor who gave young Williams an important career advice during Williams’ early years at the Juilliard School, and his droll performance was as hilarious as I remembered. When his friend Christopher Reeve became quadriplegic after that unfortunate accident in 1995, Williams made a surprise hospital visit to Reeve with a comic disguise, and Reeve later recalled in his memoir how much Williams brightened up his mood(he also took care of Reeve’s children as he promised to Reeve).

As I thought about how to write this piece, I was reminded of that amusing word “Under Toad” from “The World According to Garp”, a misheard version of undertow. Robin Williams was caught by his own Under Toad of which he had probably been well aware throughout his life, but he tried to go on, and he was still working even while he was approaching to the point of no return. It is really sad that this colorful entertainer is taken away from his life and audiences forever, but, considering how good comedians can find humor even in the most miserable human experiences, I guess he is probably making jokes about his death now, if afterlife exists as some people believe. After all, this is a man who made a joke about his GPS which tried to lead him to the Golden Gate Bridge: “I said, ‘Why? Have you seen my movies recently?'”

Posted in Movies | Tagged Actor | 3 Comments

A Most Wanted Man (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4): It’s still cold and melancholic out there

Posted on August 10, 2014 by kaist455

“Spying is waiting.” – from “The Russia House” by John le Carré

When I read John le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” for the first time around 1993, I was not very impressed by that novel. Compared to many other mystery/thriller novels I enjoyed during my loony childhood years, the novel felt rather slow, uneventful, and depressing to me, and my attention quickly moved to other fun novels to be devoured and engulfed.

I read le Carré’s novel again through a new paperback edition I bought in 2006, and I got more understanding of his cold, melancholic world of espionage through this classic novel of the Cold War era and his others works including “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and “The Russia House”. This is a gloomy world where its denizens should be careful about every step they make toward their goal, and trusting the people who are supposedly at their side can be an unwise choice sometimes – and there is always a bitter price to pay even when they finally arrive at the end of their dirty, difficult, and dangerous work.

Anton Corbijn’s “A Most Wanted Man”, which is based on le Carré’s 2008 novel with the same name, shows us that the landscape of this shadowy world is not changed a lot even in the 21th century. They look weary and frustrated all the time, but they need to wait patiently for getting their job done, and they sometimes have to do anything for that regardless of their thoughts and feelings, which are usually held behind their detached façade as much as possible.

The center of its story is Günther Bachmann(late Philip Seymour Hoffman with grunting German accent), the leader of a German intelligence agency unit which has been secretly monitoring suspicious Muslim individuals in Hamburg. Because Hamburg was the main base of the 9/11 hijackers, many intelligence agencies around the world have been focusing on this city for detecting any signs of next possible terrorist attacks, and Bachmann, who was relegated to Hamburg after some unfortunate incident in Beirut, has been closely watching on Dr. Faisal Abdullah(Homayoun Ershadi), a well-known moderate Muslim leader who seems to have a hidden connection with an Arab terrorist group in Yemen. Though Dr. Abdullah can be instantly arrested just for extracting information from him, Bachmann wants to get bigger fishes through Dr. Abdullah, and all he wants is a suitable bait to get his target hooked.

And now that suitable bait comes into his radar in the person of Issa Karpov(Grigoriy Dobrygin), a young Russian Muslim who was imprisoned in Russia and Turkey and then recently sneaks into Hamburg for his personal matter. While he wants to have a new life in Hamburg, Karpov also wants to take care of a hidden bank account left to him by his diseased father, a shady Russian general who raped Issa’s Chechen mother and accumulated considerable wealth through his many illegal activities.

As Bachmann and his team members begin to watch on Karpov, several people come into the picture as the potential pawns to be used in Bachmann’s operation. There are a young Turkish boxer and his sweet mother who let Karpov into their home without asking him too much, and then we meet Annabel Richter(Rachel McAdams), a young, idealistic left-wing lawyer who sincerely wants to help Karpov. As his lawyer, Richter gets in contact with Tommy Brue(Willem Dafoe), a banker whose father was associated with Karpov’s father, and Brue soon finds himself in a tricky situation when Bachmann approaches to him.

The circumstance becomes more complicated as the other people on Bachmann’s side begin to show interest to his small but important operation, and one of them is Martha Sullivan(Robin Wright), a ClA official sent from US to oversee the operation. Bachmann does not welcome her, but he cannot deny that he needs her support to get his job done even though, like anyone in his world, she is probably not someone he can trust.

There are also the other puzzle pieces thrown into the story, and it can be confusing at times if you do not pay enough attention to its increasingly complex web between its characters. The adapted screenplay by Andrew Bovell mostly handles well the intricate plot from le Carré’s novel, and the director Anton Corbijn keeps its low-key tension on a sufficient level through the gray, moody atmosphere encompassing his characters and their environment. His previous film “The American”(2010) was about a professional killer who slowly copes with his personal/professional crisis, and his dry but stylish approach shown in that film fits well to the pessimistic worldview of le Carré’s story. The movie has a few consoling moments of humanity in this harsh background, and they mainly come from the tentative relationship between Karpov and Richter, who could become a little more warmed up to each other if it were not for their impossible situation.

The actors in the film give good performances to hold our attention to the story. While Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright competently fill their respective supporting roles as required, Grigoriy Dobrygin gradually draws our sympathy as a damaged man who simply wants to leave behind his past, and the movie also has several notable German performers including Nina Hoss and Daniel Brühl as Bachmann’s team members.

And Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance, which was one of his last works before his untimely death early in this year, is a key factor in the success of the film. His German accent is a bit strained at first, but Hoffman smoothly immerses himself into his character, and he subtly presents us a weary man driven to accomplish his mission behind his pale, slumped appearance on the screen. Bachmann is a cold, distant man who can be abrasive at times, but he also can be considerate to the people he is going to exploit, and Hoffman has a nice scene in which his character deliberately persuades one of his valuable sources to keep working for him as before. Bachmann may care a bit about a young Muslim guy recruited by him, but he does not hesitate to manipulate this conflicted young man, for it is what should be done for the success of his operation.

Like many previous adaptations of le Carré’s novels, “A Most Wanted Man” is a thriller film depending on mood and characters rather than action, and some of you may lose your patience mainly because of its slow pace, but the way how everything in its labyrinthic plot comes and clicks together in the end is worthwhile to wait for. Although the movie is not exactly one of his best moments, Hoffman is watchable in the film as he was in many of his performances, and I was sadly reminded again of how this great actor left us too early. The movie may be remembered as a minor work in his illustrious career, but it is a respectable footnote none the less.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Espionage, Spy, Thriller | 2 Comments

Tim’s Vermeer (2013) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Recreating a Vermeer

Posted on August 9, 2014 by kaist455

Whenever the camera looks closely at Johannes Vermeer’s paintings in fascinating documentary “Tim’s Vermeer”, you cannot help but marvel at their vivid colors and details – and their verisimilitude which almost approaches to the level of modern photography. This Dutch painter of the 17th century did not have a camera, but his paintings feel so vivid and realistic that they sometimes look like those fancy modified photographs, and you will naturally become curious about how the hell he acquired such awesome mastery of color and light. Is he a rare gifted genius who saw things differently unlike others? Or did he have some secret tricks of his trade?

While “Tim’s Vermeer” does not wholly prove the second possibility, its visual presentation of one attempt to give more credibility to that possibility is compelling to watch. Here is a guy who became curious about whether he can confirm the hypothesis suggested by others, and his tremendous efforts put into his personal project are as absorbing as those fabulous details observed from Vermeer’s works.

His project surely requires lots of time, money, and efforts, but Tim Jenison, the hero of the documentary, is fortunately a very affluent man who can afford all of them. While he is an inventor both experienced and talented, Jenison is also a prominent entrepreneur who is the founder of NewTek, and this hardware and software company has brought considerable reputation and wealth to him through various video equipments and softwares.

He usually spent his free time with his various inventions including a lip-synching duck robot, and then his interest was drawn to Vermeer’s works through a book written by British artist David Hockney, who suggested the possibility that Vermeer used optical devices for creating that remarkable vividness of his paintings. The optical technique at that time was still at a relatively crude stage compared to our time, but optical devices such as camera obscura, an ancient cousin of camera which can project the image of object on the wall in its dark room, were widely known during the 17th century, and they could make lenses and mirrors good enough to provide clear images to be used for painting. In addition, X-ray scanning results showed that there is not any basic sketch beneath the dye layer in many of Vermeer’s works, and there are several notable details in his paintings which, according to a neurological doctor, cannot be possibly detected by our bare eyes; this strongly implies that Vermeer might have ‘copied’ from the images projected by optical devices.

Although he was not an art expert, Jenison decided to do the research for himself, and that was the start of his long journey. After several tests, he eventually constructs a special optical device Vermeer might have used, and he succeeds in drawing a small, nice painting which looks as good as a black and white photo it is based on. He also travels to Holland to learn more about Vermeer, and he learns not only background knowledge but also Dutch for gaining more information.

And then he plans the recreation of Vermeer’s “The Music Lesson”, so he pays tons of attention to the details and components of that famous painting to recreate the same environment at his private warehouse in San Antonio, Texas. He also manages to get the permission to have a good look at the painting for no more than 30 minutes at the Buckingham Palace(Its current owner is none other than Queen Elizabeth II), and he later tells us about how amazing it was for him to appreciate it alone(the camera and the crew were not allowed into the palace, by the way).

Of course, it takes several months for him to fill the space at his warehouse step by step while meticulously checking small and big details in the painting, but the director Teller, who wrote and produced the documentary with his entertainment business partner Penn Jillette(Jillette also appears as one of the interviewees and did the narration in the film), captures well the intriguing moments of this long, arduous process. We may not understand everything shown in the film, but Jenison is a smart, engaging person to observe and listen to, and it is fun to watch him making a slow but steady advance to his ultimate goal while solving various problems he comes to face during the process.

Recreating “The Music Lesson” turns out to be as long and difficult as setting the stage for that, but it is also an equally fun part. While there was an absurd situation in which he and his friend were poisoned by carbon monoxide due to a faulty heater during one cold day at the warehouse, Jenison discovers a small but important detail in the painting which has never been noticed before, and he also pushes himself further during his painting process. We see him taking care of every tiny detail in his recreation, and, to be frank with you, it was almost awe-inspiring for me to see how detailed his recreation is in many aspects – and how vividly it evokes that unmistakable texture of Vermeer’s paintings.

While we still cannot be entirely sure about whether Vermeer was really helped by optical devices, “Tim’s Vermeer” is an engrossing and informative documentary which throws an interesting perspective on Vermeer’s works, and I enjoyed it with growing fascination. Jenison’s final result may not mean much in the end, but it is a pretty nice result generated from genuine interest and passion, and you will appreciate it more as looking back on it.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Documentary, Inventor, Painter, Painting, Recreation | 1 Comment

Miss Violence (2013) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A family secret oppressing them all

Posted on August 8, 2014 by kaist455

They look like a quiet, normal family at first, but there is something wrong about this family. Even after a terrible incident which would devastate any other normal families, they just move on with their daily life as if they have already gotten over from it, and this abnormally calm mood of their household becomes more disconcerting to us as the darker sides of their family life are revealed step by step in front of us.

Greek film “Miss Violence” works mainly due to its cold, distant attitude in its storytelling, and its disturbing scenes from this strange family are depicted with considerable power to impress us. It observes its characters’ unpleasant behaviors with clinical fascination, and it tightly holds our attention even when we are shocked and disgusted later by what is hidden behind their ‘normal’ appearance.

The movie begins with that terrible incident which happens in the middle of a birthday party. While all other family members including her mother, her grandparents, and her siblings seem to be having a good time with the party, the 11-year-old heroine of the party, Angeliki(Chloe Bolota), does not seem to be very happy, and then, for some unknown reason, she suddenly jumps off the balcony of the family apartment when no one is watching her.

After that, we see her grandparents(Themis Panou and Reni Pittaki) having a talk with a policeman on their granddaughter’s death, and we cannot help but notice how unusually calm and composed they are even though they have just lost their granddaughter. They merely insist that it was only an unfortunate accident, and her grandfather cleans and empties Angeliki’s room after that conversation – and no one in the family objects to his decision.

As the family continues their daily life as before, we get to know a little more about other family members in the household. Angeliki’s mother Eleni(Eleni Roussinou) has two other kids, but she does not tell a lot about how she came to bear her children, and now she is pregnant again. In the case of Eleni’s teenager sister Myrto(Sissy Toumasi), she is more like a sister to Eleni’s children rather than an aunt, and she sometimes shows her rebellious sides although she has probably never imagined about living outside.

And we come to see that the household has been strictly regulated by their stern, oppressive father who is also virtually a father figure to Eleni’s kids. While he seldom raises his voice, no one questions his authority when he orders, and he harshly punishes his daughters and grandchildren whenever they step out of line. When Myrto is late for family dinner, she is not allowed to have a meal with others. When he is notified by the school principle that his grandson Philippos(Constantinos Athanasiades) has been causing troubles at his school, he has Philippos slapped again and again by his granddaughter Alkmini(Kalliopi Zontanou) for his bad behaviors. Although they are living in an urban apartment building and are not completely isolated, they are not that friendly with their neighbors as shown during one brief scene, and it sometimes feels like he is the only connection between their claustrophobic home and the world outside.

As observing how this guy oppresses his family in the name of stability, we slowly begin to sense a certain dark possibility lurking inside the household, and we are more disturbed by how he takes care of his daughter’s recent pregnancy. While mostly looking stiff and nervous all the time, Eleni does not seem to want to talk about how she got pregnant, and her parents do not talk about that much either. Her father takes her to a clinic for medical examination, but then he also pays one of his friends to register himself as the biological father of the baby to be born, so we naturally come to wonder about the motive behind this suspicious behavior of his. Does he know who impregnated her? Or does he just want this matter to be taken care of in a less complicated way?

The movie eventually exposes an awful secret behind him and other family members, but it never loses its cool composure even during its most atrocious moments, and one of them is especially handled well with admirable restraint while fully delivering the shock inside it to us. I will not go into details, but let’s just say a certain character’ disturbed face right after this scene is more than enough for us to imagine what happened to that character – and guess what will probably happen next.

The director/co-screenplay writer Alexandros Avranas, who received the Best Director Award for this movie at the Venice International Film Festival in last year, maintains well the uneasy feelings surrounding his characters under his austere direction, and the actors dutifully tunes their good performances to the overall detached mood of the film(Themis Panou received the Best Actor Award at the Venice International Film Festival for his particularly chilling performance). The cinematographer Olympia Mytilinaiou’s camera ably captures the interactions between characters in uninterrupted fashion even when it is moving around them, and there is a nice longtake scene involved with the visit from a pair of social workers, who apparently sense something bad from the family during their interview but do not directly voice their suspicion for the lack of proof to confirm it.

As others have pointed out, “Miss Violence” shares several common elements with Giorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooh”(2009), another cold, disturbing domestic drama from Greece which also has a father who places his family under his cruel, heartless restraint. While that movie sort of works as a black comedy through its more outrageous premise, “Miss Violence” strikes us hard with its dark, serious moments, and then we are left with its ambiguous but haunting finale which can be interpreted in different ways. Where there is oppression, there is counteraction in the end, but then it may lead to another cycle of oppression to be repeated.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Domestic Abuse, Family | 1 Comment

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) ☆☆☆(3/4): A goofy but spirited space adventure

Posted on August 2, 2014 by kaist455

With its own style and wit, “Guardians of the Galaxy” bounces around its space opera playground with its colorful outlaw characters who are always the constant source of surprise and amusement throughout the film. While it eventually arrives at the predictable third-act action climax just like any other recent comic book adaptations, this joyous entertainment is packed with infectious charm and zany energy to be savored, and we come to see lots of genuine humor and wonder inside its goofy plot while finding its main characters more endearing than before.

At the beginning, we are introduced to a young boy named Peter Quill(Wyatt Oleff), who is about to say goodbye to his dying mother at the hospital. Right after she gives him another cassette tape mix of songs as her final present(it is 1988, by the way), Quill’s mother dies before his eyes, and then Quill is suddenly taken away from the Earth by Yondu(Michael Rooker) and his alien outlaws called Ravagers.

After 26 years, Quill(now played by Chris Pratt in a leaner appearance with six-pack abs) becomes a small-time space thief who nicknames himself “Star-Lord”, and he finds himself in a serious trouble when he succeeds in stealing a mysterious orb on the planet Morag. While Yondu, who raised Quill with his gangs after his abduction rather than, according to his very own words, eating Quill, is not so pleased about that because his gang was supposed to get there first and puts a bounty on Quill, the orb in question, which looks like a bigger version of that smelly amulet from “Rosemary’s Baby”(1968), turns out to be a very powerful object wanted by others. Ronan(Lee Pace), your average megalomaniac villain not only eager for mass destruction but also hungry for the power to rule the universe, needs the orb to wipe out the people of planet Xandar, so he sends Gamora(Zoe Saldana), the stepdaughter of another big bad guy Thanos(Josh Brolin), to Xandar for tracking down Quill and taking away the orb from him.

The things get complicated when a pair of bounty hunters also get involved in this circumstance. As soon as spotting Quill, Rocket(voiced by Bradley Cooper), a genetically engineered raccoon with considerable intelligence, and Groot(voiced by Vin Diesel), a big tree guy who is Rocket’s pet plant/partner, go after Quill like Gamora, and that results in a frantic chase sequence both exciting and hilarious to watch. All of them are eventually arrested and then sent to the space prison with maximum security, and, for escaping from the prison as soon as possible, they reluctantly form a temporal alliance along with Drax(Dave Bautista), a hulking muscular alien with lots of intricate red tattoos on his gray-skinned body.

There are many other things in the story, so you may be a bit confused as the screenplay by the director James Gunn and his co-screenplay writer Nicole Perlman is busy with juggling its many balls in the air, but the movie seldom loses its insouciant sense of fun. As the famous pop songs from the 1970s are occasionally played on the soundtrack to set its cheerful tone(I’d love to know how the hell Quill has kept his cassette tape and Walkman that fresh during 26 years, considering that he must have played the tape so many times to remember the Earth and his mom), the movie fills its delightful fantasy space with many visual details reminiscent of SF movies made during the 1970-80s. While there is a big metropolis which looks a lot like an upgraded version of the futuristic city shown in “Logan’s Run”(1976), we get a wondrous sight of a space mining colony in the middle of the picturesque space landscape decorated with stars and nebulae, and that surely recalls the romanticism of “Star Wars”(1977) and other SF fantasy movies. Usually speaking in English as if it were a galactic common language, the aliens in the movie are mostly in humanoid appearance, and some of them just look like us or Stan Lee while others are distinguished by various skin colors or other kinds of make-up on their body.

James Gunn, who began his career with B-horror movies produced by Troma Entertainment and then made a directorial debut with amusingly slimy(and disgusting) horror comedy film “Slither”(2006), frequently throws humorous moments into his movie even when the situation becomes more serious for his oddball characters, and most of them work although there are a few moments which look downright silly. It is apparent that his main actors have lots of fun with their characters, and the rapport between them is more effective and interesting than what we saw from the cast of “The Avengers”(2012).

Since I noticed him for the first time in TV sitcom “Parks and Recreation”, Chris Pratt has deftly been going back and forth between comic roles and dramatic roles in several films including “Zero Dark Thirty”(2012) and “The Lego Movie”(2014), and he brings a right mix of comedy and drama to his character. His jolly performance instantly wins our affection as Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” is played over his first scene, and you may overlook for a while Quill’s less pleasant aspects including his rather inconsiderate attitude toward many alien women in his wandering life(I guess Yondu and his feral gangs were not very good role models for Quill when he was young).

Pratt also has good chemistry with his co-star Zoe Saldana, and Saldana, whose greenish appearance will certainly take you back to her blue-skinned appearance in “Avatar”(2009), ably presents some soft spots inside her character’s toughness. Dave Bautista, who is naturally imposing as a former WWE wrestler, has his own funny moments as an alien character who is not so good at understanding metaphors, and Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel inject extra fun into their respective scene-stealing CGI creatures who look convincing as real characters on the screen thanks to excellent special effects. Cooper imbues his raccoon character with amusing manic intensity, and Diesel somehow brings emotional nuances into the same words repeatedly uttered by his wooden character who has a few good tricks under his bark(“I am Groot”). The movie also has a number of notable actors; while Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, Karen Gillan, and Josh Brolin play thankless villain characters, Benicio Del Toro and Michael Rooker have juicy moments as more eccentric bad guys, and John C. Reilly and Glenn Close do their duty as the most sensible characters in the film.

Like others, I have observed the recent over-saturation of the blockbuster films based on comic books, and I already begin to feel tired of their increasing standardization. I did enjoy some of them, but there were not many new things to talk about in many cases, and that has frequently frustrated me. While it stays inside its genre conventions, “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a funny and witty comic book film with its own distinctive flavor, and I must confess that it entertained me more than any other recent Marvel Comics movies. I was excited, enchanted, and engrossed by its goodies, and I sincerely hope it will be able to keep its offbeat spirit well in the next stories to come.

Posted in Movies | Tagged action, Adventure, Fantasy, SF | 1 Comment

Roaring Currents (2014) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4) : He still has 12 ships for his last stand…

Posted on August 1, 2014 by kaist455

“It may be proper to compare me with Nelson, but not with Korea’s Yi Sun-sin, for he has no equal.”

– Tōgō Heihachirō(1848-1943), Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy

One particular behavior of mine during the screening of South Korean film “Roaring Currents” can tell you a lot about my ambivalent reaction toward this movie. Around 40 minutes after it started, I checked the time because I felt bored by its many problems. Around the time when its second act began, I checked the time again to see that there was still an hour to pass. When its climax was almost over, I checked the time for the third time, and I was rather surprised to see that the time went faster than expected during this part.

As a period drama film about one of the most remarkable naval battles during the Japanese Invasion of Korea, a.k.a the Imjin War(1592-1598), the movie did not particularly enlighten me much on that famous battle about which I heard many times during my history classes, but it delivers its climax as promised, serving us with a long but spectacular naval battle sequence worthy of ticket price. This sequence is well-made indeed and the cast and filmmakers behind the movie deserve praises for their efforts, but I also noticed its deficiency in storytelling and characterization, and I could not help but think that it could have prepared itself better before delivering its rousing climax.

It is 1597, and the second invasion of the Japanese Army begins with the devastating news for the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. Like it was at the beginning of the first invasion in 1592, the country faces another serious threat as the Japanese forces are ready to occupy most of the country again, and the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chilchonryang, in which the whole Korean naval fleet was nearly destroyed as a consequence, makes the situation all the more hopeless. It seems that there is almost no chance to stop the Japanese navy, and that means Japan can have a far more chance to win the war than ever.

When Yi Sun-sin(Choi Min-sik), a legendary Korean admiral who made a dramatic turning point for his country through his four campaigns in 1592 but was unfairly mistreated by his king and others despite the long, uninterrupted line of victories he achieved during this war, is back in his commander position, he clearly sees an undeniable disadvantage in the grave situation of him and his men. With a little time available to him, he has tried hard to assemble his army and ships for the upcoming battle with the Japanese navy, but all he can get are a small band of army and the 12 warships which survived from the Battle of Chilchonryang, and there is even not much support from his king, who orders to him to retreat and then join the ground forces instead.

But Admiral Yi is determined to stop the Japanese forces by any means necessary(he responded to King Seonjo in his famous letter: “I still have twelve warships under my command and I am still alive.”), and the first half of the movie focuses on how he and others under his command prepare for the battle to come. He gets his warships repaired while sending out a scout for reconnaissance mission. He applies strict martial rules for tightening his generals and soldiers and reminding them that they have no choice but to fight along with him(His motto: “Those willing to die will live, and those willing to live will die.”). Above all, he spots an ideal location for the battle; Myeongnyang Strait is a rough, precarious strait with wild tides and whirlpools, but this place can be a huge advantage for his small naval army – if his highly risky strategy works.

Meanwhile, we also see what is going on the other side. Although they are alarmed to learn that their arch-nemesis is now back in action, most of the Japanese admirals are confident that they will finally defeat Admiral Yi in this time, and Kurushima Michifusa(Ryoo Seung-ryong) is particularly eager for that due to his personal matter with Admiral Yi. Right from his first pompously sullen appearance, the movie pulls out all the stops to show this aggressive general as a formidable badass dude, and some of Japanese generals are understandably not that pleased to be with him, like some of Korean generals are not so happy with Admiral Yi.

I and most of other Korean audiences knew well the outcome of the Battle of Myeongnyang because it has been told and depicted many times through books, documentaries, and TV dramas for years, but the movie skillfully handles its long battle sequence from the beginning to the end without becoming dragged and tedious, and some of its high points are good enough to grip the audiences’ attention. While I must point out that there several fictional elements here and there for generating more tension and excitement, its big overall picture of the overwhelming circumstance Admiral Yi had to face is not changed much. At one certain point, only one warship is available to him, and he and his ship advance alone to the approaching Japanese fleet of more than 100 ships(believe or not, that really happened according to the history records).

But the movie does not impress me enough in case of story and characters. Choi Min-sik seems to be limited by his character’s larger-than-life image, and his performance mainly consists of looking serious or concerned or commanding on the screen. This is not a bad performance because that is exactly required to him, but, as a seasoned moviegoer, I have seen many, many military leader characters packed with loyalty, dignity, and authorities in other movies before, and Choi looks rather less distinctive compared to his other memorable performances.

On the opposite, Ryoo Seung-ryong, who incidentally played a steely Chinese general in the director/writer Kim Han-min’s another period drama action movie “War of the Arrows”(2011), is more wasted while just looking grim and brooding during most of his scenes, and many of the other actors in the movie are stuck in the flat, rudimentary supporting roles. Some of the key supporting characters are introduced with subtitles to show their names and positions, but I must confess that I did not distinguish one from another well, so it is confusing to watch at times as the movie shuffles between several groups in the battle during its climax sequence. I have no idea on how a dramatic last-minute rescue job during that sequence can be possible, and I think the last scene in the movie is an unnecessary footnote which only exists for finishing the movie with a bang before the end credits.

The best performance in the movie is probably from Myeongnyang strait. Though it is apparently depicted with CGI like many warships in the movie, the shots of its wild tides and the ominous roaring sound generated from them certainly make a big impression before and during the battle, and there is a creepy scene in which Admiral Yi is disturbed by its roaring sounds during his sleep and then dreams of the mournful ghosts of his men who died in the Battle of Chilchonryang.

I have a little too much reservation for recommending this film to you, but, in spite of the problems including its unfocused narrative and clumsy handling of numerous characters during its first half, it did its jobs as a war movie, and you may get some basic knowledge about its historical hero if you are not very familiar with a man who did so much even while cornered by his own country as well his enemy. In his book “The Influence of the Sea on The Political History of Japan” Historian George Alexander Ballard(1862-1948), an admiral of the British Royal Navy, wrote, “It is always difficult for Englishmen to admit that [Horatio] Nelson ever had an equal in his profession, but if any man is entitled to be so regarded, it should be this great naval commander of Asiatic race who never knew defeat and died in the presence of the enemy.” Not many admirals can receive such a high praise like that, you know.