Month: June 2013

Bad Hair Day: LFM Reviews Maniac

By Joe Bendel. In its 1980’s heyday, Times Square was the place to find hipsters and lowlifes in close proximity. Today, if you need a similar ambiance for a remake of William Lustig’s grindhouse fan favorite Maniac, there is only one place to go: Los Angeles. You might well ask why someone would want to remake Lustig’s schlocker, but Franck Khalfoun has, so here it is, opening this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.

In Khalfoun’s reboot, Frank Zitto still has a thing for mannequins and mother issues that would give Norman Bates pause. No longer a schlubby apartment super, he is now the nebbish proprietor of his family’s mannequin supply company. Business is about as brisk as it is at the Bates Motel, allowing Zitto plenty of time to prey on women. For Zitto, it is all about the hair. When a coif strikes his fancy, he stalks the owner, killing and scalping her.  He brings his trophies home to adorn his personal stash of mannequins.

Despite all logic, Zitto develops an ambiguous friendship with a woman. Anna, a French expat and experimental photographer, shares his fascination with mannequins. Instead of killing her, he starts to have relationship notions. However, his homicidal urges continue unabated.

While Elijah Wood receives top billing, he is mostly heard rather than seen throughout Khalfoun’s Maniac. In a dubious attempt to be provocative, Khalfoun shows the grisly events unfold through Zitto’s eyes. Initially, this gimmick is only moderately annoying, but it becomes progressively more so as the film slogs along.

From "Maniac."

Casting Wood as the psycho killer is a bit problematic, because most of his victims could keep him at bay simply by palming his forehead. Regardless, the film’s misogynistic impulses are far more troubling. It is not content to dispatch Megan Duffy’s inked-up Lucie in typically gruesome fashion. It first forces her to voluntarily relinquish her dignity. Frankly, the cheap thrills in this Maniac are better described as cheap rather than thrilling. Yet, somehow Khalfoun’s Maniac has arthouse pretensions, even bringing the classy Nora Arnezeder aboard as Anna. Unfortunately, her winning screen presence is undermined by the character’s profoundly poor judgment.

One could raise a host of issues with the film, but the bottom line is that it just isn’t any fun. Still, in their way, both Maniacs 1.0 and 2.0 are a tribute to the Giuliani transformation of 42nd Street. The fact that such grubby exploitation is now at odds with the City is a good thing for those of us who live here. Not recommended, Khalfoun’s Maniac opens Friday (6/21) at the IFC Center for its built-in grindhouse fan base.

LFM GRADE: D-

Posted on June 19th, 2013 at 1:21pm.

The Human Cost of Piracy: LFM Reviews A Hijacking

By Joe Bendel. They do not teach you how to negotiate with pirates in MBA courses, but perhaps they soon might. After all, this film is inspired by two real life incidences of Danish cargo ships taken hostage by Somali pirates. The negotiation process will be an ordeal both for the captive crew of the MV Rozen and their CEO in Tobias Lindholm’s edge-of-your-seat thriller, A Hijacking, which opens this Friday in New York at Film Forum.

Mikkel Hartmann is retiring from seafaring to spend more time with his family. Ordinarily, he serves as the ship’s cook, but when hijackers commandeer the vessel, they use him to communicate with the corporate office. He will be talking to Peter C. Ludvigsen, a media darling CEO with a knack for negotiating hard terms. However, bringing back his crew will be the greatest challenge of his career.

The company would willingly pay the ransom demanded, but according to their consultant (played by real life hostage negotiator Gary Skjoldmose Porter) it is not that simple. If they immediately pay-up, the pirates are likely to thank them for the “down  payment” and promise to get back to them regarding the full balance. Instead, Ludvigsen must convince them they are getting every last cent they can possible extract from the company. Counter-intuitively, protracted negotiations are in the best interests of the men and the firm. Of course, it will not be a pleasant experience for any of the Danes.

Scrupulously realistic, Hijacking acts as a bracing corrective to the cathartic satisfaction of action movies. It is simply not realistic to expect Roger Moore’s Ffolkes to launch a high seas rescue mission. The logistics are too complicated and life is too cheap for hostage takers. The film is also likely to run afoul of the professionally offended, because it portrays the Somali pirates as a callous, violently erratic lot. Nor does it whitewash their Muslim faith. Of course, that is precisely the reality sailors such as the Rozen crew must live with every day.

Cranking up the tension like a vice, Lindholm puts so much pressure on his characters they almost turn into diamonds. This is an exhausting nail-biter of a film, but somehow it seems far quicker than its ninety-nine minutes, despite the agonizing nature of the drawn out months-long negotiation. That is just great filmmaking.

There is also a truly award-worthy performance from Søren Malling as Ludvigsen. It is a brilliant depiction of the mighty humbled, precisely because of his genuine humanity. Never clichéd, Malling’s work is easily the most compelling big screen portrayal of a business leader in years (if not decades). In fact, Hijacking features strong ensemble work all around, most definitely including Abdihakin Asgar as Omar, the pirates’ devilishly manipulative negotiator. He is an unforgettable villain (though “villain” might not be a strong enough term).

The pirates might come from mean circumstances, but Lindholm never apologizes for their crimes. Instead, the victims of A Hijacking are Hartmann and his crewmates. Clear headed and relentlessly gripping, it is easily the pick of the week and might be the best theatrical release of the year, so far. Highly recommended, A Hijacking opens this Friday (6/21) in New York at Film Forum.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 17th, 2013 at 12:53pm.

LFM Reviews Daphne Du Maurier’s The Scapegoat on PBS

By Joe Bendel. If her uncle had not been such an idiot, Elizabeth II never would have been Queen. Due to his dubious judgment, his brother’s daughter will soon ascend to the throne. The caddish Johnny Spence half-jokingly describes the days leading up to her coronation a period of monarch-less anarchy. It will indeed make a fitting backdrop for Charles Sturridge’s completely Anglicized adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s The Scapegoat, which airs in syndication on participating PBS stations, including Chicago’s WTTW this coming Saturday night.

John Standing has just been downsized out of a job as a boarding school teacher. With no family to support and lacking any significant ambitions or prospects, he sets out on a vaguely defined walking tour. Stopping at a seedy public house, he is startled to come face to face with his dead ringer, the wastrel Johnny Spence. After a night of imbibing with the charming but overbearing Spence, Standing is surprised to wake up and find the man has absconded with his anonymity, leaving him to take his position of wealth and privilege.

Unfortunately, Standing soon deduces that the Spence family fortunes are sagging. His doppelganger was hoping to save their glass foundry with a Hail Mary business deal, but he rather doubts the playboy pulled it off. However, he is quite charmed to meet the man’s spirited young daughter (Mary Lou, a.k.a. Piglet) and his nervous wife Frances. Conversely, he is quite uncomfortable around Nina, Spence’s sister-in-law with whom he seems to be having an affair with. Yet nobody seems to suspect his reluctant impersonation, not even his resentful brother Paul or their morphine addicted mother, Lady Spence. Frankly, the family might just be better off with the new and improved Johnny Spence, but the old one is still out there, up to no good.

From "The Scapegoat."

Produced by ITV, Scapegoat is a nifty little thriller that had a spot of film festival play before its American television run. Transferred from the south of France to post-war Britain, Sturridge’s adaptation is tightly paced and uses the impending coronation as a clever metaphor. As the director of most of the beloved Brideshead Revisited miniseries as well as the masterful A Handful of Dust, Sturridge has a keen feel for Twentieth Century British period pieces. He displays a nice touch with Scapegoat, combining a Downton-esque vibe with film noir-ish elements.

Logically, Sir Alec Guinness (the master of multiple parts) had first crack at the Standing/Spence role in Robert Hamer’s 1959 feature film. Yet, Matthew Rhys (now probably best known for FX’s The Americans) steps into his shoes admirably well. In fact, this might be his strongest small screen work, eclipsing his suitably brooding John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His Spence is charismatically wicked, but he also makes a convincingly confused and depressed everyman as Standing. Alice Orr-Ewing is a bit vanilla as poor Frances, but Andrew Scott (Jim Moriarty in Sherlock) adds some edgy energy into the mix as Paul Spence. Yet Sturridge’s wife and Brideshead co-star Phoebe Nicholls occasionally upstages everyone as the smart-than-her-employers housekeeper, Charlotte.

Altogether, The Scapegoat is quite cinematic by television standards. Handsome looking and intelligently written, it is definitely recommended for fans of Brit mysteries and literary dramas when it airs on select PBS stations later in the month.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 17th, 2013 at 12:52pm.

Born in a North Korean Labor Camp: LFM Reviews Camp 14: Total Control Zone @ The 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. As a child born into a life in North Korea’s prison camps, Shin Dong-huyk thought nothing was amiss when he witnessed the three hour beating of an eight year old girl caught with five grains of wheat in her pocket. Evidently Dennis Rodman, the regime’s newest apologist, has no problems with it, either. However, all viewers of good conscience will be horrified by the stories Shin and two former DPRK officials have to tell in Marc Wiese’s documentary Camp 14—Total Control Zone, which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

That poor girl died from the injuries she sustained from her “teacher.” Her case is the norm rather than the exception. Children born to prisoners (because a guard either raped their mothers or arranged a coupling as a reward for heavy toiling) have a short life expectancy. Shin beat the odds surviving Camp 14 into his teen years, but at a price. At one point, Shin’s brainwashing led him to make a decision that still haunts him today.

Hyuk Kwon was a guard at Camp 22, where he tortured and executed prisoners on a daily basis. Oh Yangnam was a member of the secret police, who regularly rounded-up and interrogated suspects on the thinnest of pretexts. Both have defected to South Korea, yet they worry they might see some of the prisoners they once tormented should the two Koreas ever unify. Their accounts match Shin’s experiences, chapter and verse.

Through their testimony, sometimes illustrated by Ali Soozandeh’s stark animated sequences, Control conveys the breadth and depth of the Communist regime’s thought control. Clearly, any notion of human rights is absolutely foreign to North Koreans. Ostensibly, Control ends on an ironic note, with Shin expressing his ambivalence about the free South. Yet his remarks really prove just how profoundly broken he is as a human being.

Wiese has assembled a riveting examination of oppression and its lasting impact on the human psyche. While he maintains an intimate focus on his interview subjects, Soozandeh’s animation is grimly evocative, adding a truly cinematic dimension to the documentary.

This is a very good film, but also a very depressing one. The picture of North Korea that emerges is truly the closest thing on Earth to Orwell’s 1984—a dystopian state with complete disregard for its citizens’ well being. However, it points viewers towards Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), a rescue and advocacy organization Shin is affiliated with. Frankly, this is exactly the sort of film HRWFF needs to program more often (instead of Occupy Wall Street polemics). Highly recommended, it screens this coming Thursday (6/20) at the IFC Center and next Friday (6/21) at FSLC’s Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 14th, 2013 at 4:48pm.

Locked in Her Home for 20 Years: LFM Reviews Salma @ The 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Evidently, Vitamin D is not a big priority in the provincial Muslim communities of southern India—women’s rights even less so. One prominent Tamil woman understands this from first-hand experience. For nine years, her family kept her locked away from the outside world until she finally consented to an arranged marriage. The poet-politician tells her story in Kim Longinotto’s documentary profile, Salma, which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

The pre-teenaged Salma (as she is simply known) desperately tried to hide the onset of puberty, because she knew her parents would pull her out of school and sequester her until marriage. She actually valued learning, making her quite the problem child. She was also disinclined to marriage, holding out for as long as possible. Finally she acquiesced, only to find her circumstances largely remained the same. Only her jailers changed.

From "Salma."

Secretly, at great risk of physical abuse or worse, Salma starting writing poetry, which a sympathetic family member furtively submitted to a publisher (not completely unlike Jafar Panahi’s This is not a Film, smuggled out of Iran in a cake). Her powerful verse became a sensation, scandalizing the village and outraging her family. However, it also made her a celebrity, forcing her in-laws to let her out into the world, setting the stage for an unlikely political career.

Salma is an eloquent advocate for reform and her experiences are almost unfathomable for the Twenty-First Century. She is well worth listening to, but Longinotto allows her to leave obvious 800 pound gorilla questions unanswered. Most notably, just about every viewer will wonder why she remains silent on the nature of the religion used to justify her oppression. In fact, she is still outwardly quite devout. Is it all for the sake of her political career? Longinotto never pushes her on the issue, despite all the fundamentalist misogyny expressed by her grown nephew, among others.

Nonetheless, reality speaks for itself in every frame of the film. Indeed, the implications of Salma’s personal history are inescapable. Longinotto nicely incorporates Salma’s verse, adding a literary dimension to the film. Informative and bravely intimate in a burqa-less way, Salma screens today (6/14) at the IFC Center and tomorrow (6/15) at the Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 14th, 2013 at 4:47pm.

Rewinding the VHS Revolution: LFM Reviews Rewind This! @ Awesome Fest 2013

By Joe Bendel. The classic 1980’s movie hero was a commando who could inexplicably bury himself in mud, yet spring up at exactly the right time to ambush an enemy army. Today’s prototypical protagonist is a man-child who tries to win back his elfin girlfriend by working in an organic food coop. How did we go so far wrong as a culture? Back in the ’80s, the best way to watch a bunch of crap blow-up was on VHS. It still is for some die-hards. Josh Johnson profiles the VHS tape and the people who love it in Rewind This, which screens during the 80’s themed Awesome Fest in Philadelphia.

There are scads of oddball films that were released on VHS, but have yet to get the DVD treatment. Partly this is because the big studios were late to the party (like they were right on time for the digital download thing), leaving the field open to bargain hunting independents. More importantly, the voracious demand of mom-and-pop rental stores across the country required a constant stream of new product, regardless of good taste or logic. Those zero budget wonders are a major reason why some collectors bitterly cling to their VHS tapes.

Johnson gives a good overview of VHS’s origins and its triumph over Betamax. While he covers the love affair between VHS and porn, he does not belabor the point, preferring to focus on the old school action and horror movies that became mass market commodities thanks to home video. In addition to a motley crew of blogger-collectors, Rewind features commentary from legendary grindhouse director Frank Henenlotter, Cassandra “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” Peterson, Lloyd “Troma” Kaufman, David “The Rock” Nelson, and dudes from SXSW, Something Weird, Twitch, Severin Films, Cinefamily, and Alamo Drafthouse. There is also a Japanese contingent, including Shinji Imaoka, the director of Underwater Love, probably the most endearing Pinku Eiga film ever.

Rewind does not skimp on the vintage clips, reveling in the aesthetics of direct-to-video exploitation movies with lushly painted pre-Photoshop covers. Unfortunately, the not infrequent whining about big media corporations quickly grows tiresome. It is also rather off the mark. No distributors were bigger cutthroat capitalists than Golan-Globus, yet they brought us VHS milestones like the American Ninja franchise. Sadly, viewer tastes just shifted from red meat to vegan comfort food.

Despite the occasional eye-rolls, Rewind This offers some heartfelt nostalgia for some of the scrappiest films ever haphazardly released. Good, kind-of-clean fun overall, Rewind This! is recommended for all cult cinema fans when it screens Monday night (6/17) as part of Awesome Fest, which also totally deserves your support for their 30th anniversary screening of The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew on July 8th.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 14th, 2013 at 4:47pm.