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archer1949
Reviews
Mama (2013)
Decent production cannot overcome problematic ending.....
Mama is one of the most recent in a spate of decent and atmospheric supernatural horror movies that have been coming out for the last few years. Along with Insidious, it shows that you do not need a ton of gore and violence to make a good horror film.
Mama is the story of Annabel (Jessica Chastain), a rather aimless young woman who has no great plans in life except to bum around the apartment of her boyfriend Jeffrey (Nicolas Coaster-Waldau), an aspiring artist and play bass in a garage punk band.
This all changes when Jeffrey gains custody of his two nieces, who had disappeared in rather lurid circumstances. Jeffrey's twin brother, Lucas (Coster-Waldau again in a dual role) murdered his co-workers and estranged wife, abducting his daughters and disappeared on a mountain road.
Five years later, a pair of professional trackers find the two girls living feral in a deserted cabin with Lucas after Lucas died under mysterious circumstances.
The older Girl, Victoria, was found to have retained her speaking and socialization skills, while the younger girl, Lilly was almost totally animalistic. When questioned about their living conditions, Victoria states that they were cared for by a mysterious entity that they referred to only as "Mama".
The film is told completely from Annabel's point of view and Chastain does a good job portraying her ambivalence in suddenly becoming a defacto Mother while showing her frustrations in her attempt to bond with the girls.
Spanish writer/director Andres Muschietti does a deft job of ratcheting up the tension when Annabel realizes that Victoria and Lilly weren't the only beings that were in the cabin.
All in all, I found this film do be a decent attempt to take a hoary old story (caretaker of children in a haunted house) and update it with emotional realism and gravitas. The feral children scenario is unique and fascinating and when the movie sticks with that theme, it's nearly flawless
Unfortunately, the entire story seems to derail in the last act and becomes a ludicrous concoction of plot holes, overwrought melodrama and morally problematic decisions.
***SPOILERS***
The ending consists of Annabel being faced with a "Sophie's Choice" situation of sacrificing one child or both to the vengeful spirit of Mama. Finally, she basically accepts the situation as a no-win and gives one child over to Mama.
I applaud the filmmaker's gutsy decision and have no problem with such a downbeat ending on principle. I just find the actual EXECUTION of such an ending to be so ham-handed, it left me dissatisfied with a rotten taste in my mouth.
That aside, I think the movie was well worth at least a look. If one can overlook the rather silly ending, I think fans of ghost stories might find it diverting.
Faust: Love of the Damned (2000)
Yawn....been there, done that
I rented this video due to the presence of Jefferey Combs, who was the guy who played the demented Federal Agent in the Frighteners. The fact that one of the creators of the all time B-movie "Re-Animator" was directing it. Boy, was I wrong.
I have not read the original comic book this film is based on. But judging from the acclaim it got, I have to assume that this film is an inferior adaptation. This film is a dull, shoddy mess, filled with every comic book you can think of.
The script is skeletal, a ramshackle construction that rips off many of the most popular recent comics and comic based films. Take a little bit of Batman and Darkman, mix in large dollops of Spawn and the Crow, add some cheap effects and bad acting and presto! you have this thundering bore of a film.
Not even the performers can save it. Mark Snow, who plays the lead, is so wooden and ridiculously self-serious, there isn't even any good camp value in his portrayal.
Jeffery Combs, who should have been the best part of this, is wasted as a stalwart cop. Why use this guy if he's just going to play the straight man?
The rest of the cast are just plain amateur hour. They appear to be foreigners of various nationalities, so the already silly dialog is made even worse by their wooden readings in a babel of thick, impenetrable accents.
I can't see how this film can appeal to anyone. It's not bloody or sexy enough for gore and T&A hounds, the comic book elements are nothing you haven't seen in better films and the special effects are laughable.
It's not even good for MST-style humor, because the cast and crew seem to be taking themselves far too seriously. It's more boring than inept.
Skip this turkey.
The Claim (2000)
melancholy beauty
The Claim is a story of family tragedy and the inevitability of fate set in 1867 California. It is apparently based on a novel by Thomas Hardy, but I cannot attest to the faithfulness of this film to the novel except to say that it undoubtedly had a change of setting.
Daniel Dillon is the ruler of Kingdom Come, a small mining town high in the California Sierras. Dillon is rich, powerful but fair, and has won the favor of a beautiful young mistress. But he has secrets that that makes contentment elusive. Twenty years before, Dillon committed an unspeakable act to gain his fortune and has been marking time ever since.
When two mysterious women, an older woman and her twenty-year old daughter, arrive in Kingdom Come with a railroad survey party, the sins of the past come back to affect everyone in the town. Although I haven't read the source material, the plot and tone of this film has an almost palpable sense of impending tragedy that is a hallmark in all of Hardy's works. The harsh winter and forbidding mountains of the American west fits very well with this theme.
Although this is ostensibly a western, there are none of the standard western cliches in this film. There are no heroes nor villains. The sporadic scenes of violence are confused and pointless, as violent situations are apt to be, and the pacing of the film is very deliberate. It is an intimate epic, more concerned with character than grand vistas and set pieces. Nevertheless, the visuals are stunning. I wish could have seen this on a big screen.
Watching this film, I couldn't help thinking to myself how this is what it must have been like, living in those times. Many critics have complained how muted the performances are, but in a time when death was so close and a person's fortune was so transitory, not investing a lot of emotional stake into something seems a pragmatic choice. Besides, without a modicum of restraint, this film could have devolved into melodramatic camp. As far as I am concerned the choices were perfect.
The standout cast includes Scottish actor Peter Mullan as Dillon. He is the center of this film. His performance brings both gravity and vulnerabitlity to this complex character.
The always watchable Natassja Kinski plays Elena, the mysterious, dying woman who has returned from Dillon's past. Sarah Polley plays Hope, Elena's innocent daughter who serves as a catalyst for Dillon's search for redemption. Polley's character is sketchier than the others, serving more as a plot point, but Polley does what she can with this ultra virtuous Victorian throwback.
But the real casting surprise is a nearly unrecognizable Milla Jovovich in the small but intergral role of Lucia, Dillon's mistress. Lucia is Dillon's opposite in every way: tough, smart and running from a regretful past. It's a tough role and Jovovich pulls is off beautifully. I had previously dismissed her as a bimbo model dilletante, but this serious sympathetic performance sheds a new light on things. Hopefully she will be given similar down to earth roles in the future.
People compare this film to Robert Altman's 1970's anti-western, McCabe and Mrs. Miller. This might be accurate in a superficial way, but I found the Claim much more satisfying. I found Winterbottom's objective, detached storytelling more effective than Altman's gimmicky, painfully self-conscious direction. I was never a fan of that film (or Altman in general) in the first place, so almost anything would be an improvement.
A better comparison would be Ang Lee's 1999 masterwork, Ride With the Devil. Both portray a little known facet of American history in an authentic and unsentimental fashion. They take the settings of a Western without wallowing in convention. They were also both buried by the public. It's sad to think that when garbage like Pearl Harbor are splattered all over multiplexes in the country, a beautiful film like this is ignored. It does not reflect well on modern American culture.
The Claim was definitely the best movie that was released in 2000 that I have seen. And I feel confidant that it will be recognized as one of the best films of this new decade.
See it. Now.
Winterschläfer (1997)
Better than Lola
I really can't understand the indifferent reactions this film generated from both critics and audiences. I must have lower standards than most, for I found it to be a hypnotic, beautiful piece of work.
Although the director, Tom Tykwer, has gained international attention for the film he made after this, "Lola Rennt", I think this film is a better showcase for Tykwer's talents as a filmaker.
Yes, the flashy and visuals, editing and score that made Lola such a fascinating experience are present in this film, but the pace of the film is slowed down significantly to concentrate on the various characters which are spread across the vast, ambitious, canvas of the film. While Lola was a minimalist experiment in technique, Winter Sleepers is a mural. It is this added human dimension that makes it such a satisfying experience.
No, it is not perfect. The ambition of the director sometimes overtakes the script, and the ending is rather silly and melodramatic, but the performers do their best to keep it down to earth.
This film is very reminiscent of Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter", both in terms of plot (the aftermath of a traffic accident and it's effect on a small group of people) and the use of winter landscapes to mirror the "frozen" state of the characters in an emotional sense. Although I think that Egoyan's film is more a more successful film in using this metaphor, this film is nearly as compelling.
I have never been a big admirer of contemporary German Cinema, but Tykwer's work is an exception. I look forward to his work in the future and highly recommend this film as an example for those who think that Lola was a one-time fluke.
Great film.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
The Best
As the fifth season passes on this television show, I am amazed on how they have kept the quality consistent through it's run. Though it may have it's ups and downs, Buffy will go down as one of the greatest TV shows in history.
As you probably already know, this show is the story of Buffy Summers, a young woman chosen by fate to confront and destroy the supernatural evils that lurk just underneath the thing we so prosaicaly call "reality". Each episode is a wonderful cocktail of ironic humor, supernatural intrigue, comic book melo-drama with dollops of real-life conflict thrown in. It is not a show that can be easily characterized, which makes it rather difficult viewing for some of the more literal and serious minded of the audience. I do not recommend this show for those who don't want to leave their passive "comfort level" when it comes to TV viewing. The show works on so many levels it's mind boggling.
But it's not just about Buffy. Besides the aforementioned good writing, there is the cast of characters. No show since the late, lamented Homicide:Life on the Streets has used an ensemble cast so deftly. Unlike shows like Law and Order, whose revolving door cast of characters serve to simply forward the plot, Buffy's ensemble is truly an organic structure of personality and inter-woven relationships.
Every character serves a purpose and when they leave (as they occasionally do) their loss is felt in the fabric of the show. And Executive Producer Joss Whedon's eye for casting young talent is without peer. Contrary to popular belief, the cast is not made up of vapid teeny-bopper pinups. They are true professionals to the last individual.
Some long-time fans have complained about the last (fifth) season was a real letdown from the Buffy of the past, but I disagree. Although it never reached the unattainable heights of the defining, second season, I thought this past season was Buffy at it's best. Ignore the naysayers. This show is still great and still well-worth watching.
In a land of trashy, tacky "reality" TV, aging dramas and vapid sitcoms, Buffy (and it's sorely underrated spin-off Angel) are the only worthy products to come out of the wasteland that is commercial network TV in a long time.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Not camp, not ironic, just stupidity
The people who defend this piece of refuse by bandying around terms like "Camp" and "irony" obviously have no clue as to what these terms actually mean.
Using irony as a source of humor is actually a very hard thing to do. I t requires performers who are willing to act like idiots but still remain dignified and detached. Irony has the performers winking at the audience. This movie is has no such control. It's just idiocy for it's own sake.
I tried to avoid comparing the excellent TV show with this film, but I don't think this pathetic bore deserves such respect. If they were trying to go for "clueless" style camp, they failed miserably. The cast seems to be taken the storyline and characters at face value. This is a fatal mistake, since there is little storyline to work with and the characters are two-dimensional brainless cartoons. I am sorry, but I am not amused by stupid people acting stupid.
I was never a fan of Kristie Swanson. She always seemed a true lightweight when it cames to performing. The only thing she has on on Sarah Michelle Gellar is a bimbo-ish sexuality. But when it comes to creating an actual person, SMG wins hands down. I know that a series has more time to develop a character, but Swanson doesn't even seem to care about even hinting at a deeper life to her Buffy. She acts like she's reading her lines from cue-cards.
Rutger Hauer, who should have made a great vampire king just seems bored by his role. This was a low point in his career and he seems to just want to collect his paycheck and go home.
I am not even going to mention the cardboard-like abomination known as Luke Perry. Seth Green did this kind of character much better in the show.
The only high point in the film was Donald Sutherland as a Watcher, which is the only concept which carried over to the TV show. He was the only character I didn't actually want to see killed off. As good as he is, he is working in a vacuum. The indifference of everyone involved is most apparent in his scenes. It's a real pity.
If you want to see this exact story told right, pick up the video tape of "Welcome to the Hellmouth" which is the pilot episode of the TV show. Unlike what a lot of people say it doesn't take itself Too seriously at times, but it's humor comes from TRUE irony and doesn't insult the viewers intelligence. The TV show is this movie with a brain transplant. No contest.