Month: August 2013

A Supernatural Shaft: LFM Reviews Abandoned Mine

By Joe Bendel. There are bureaucrats at the Interior Department who will have nightmares after watching this film. The rest of us should sleep pretty soundly. Four college-aged knuckleheads will indeed follow through on their wildly ill-conceived subterranean Halloween plans in Jeff Chamberlain’s Abandoned Mine, which had special one night only screenings in fourteen select cities and also kicked off a week long Hollywood engagement set for this week.

Brad is a former high school quarterback who never left his sleepy home town. His ex-girl friend Sharon temporarily left for college, but now she is back. While she was gone, he took up with her best friend, Laurie—and why not? Laurie is the one that is afraid of spiders, while Sharon is the one played by Alexa Vega from Spy Kids. Aside from that, they are pretty much interchangeable.

From "Abandoned Mine."

Brad has the really clever idea to get the old gang together and party Halloween night away in the old Jarvis Mine. Of course, he plans to punk his friends and videotape the results. The mine’s notorious history should have them primed for his pranks. Old man Jarvis and his two young daughters were murdered there by his own miners, doing the bidding of his partners in San Francisco. Considering everyone knows what happened, it clearly was not a well executed crime. Nonetheless, they say the spirits are restless in the Jarvis Mine.

Without question, the creepiest part of Abandoned are the eerie old photos of evil looking miners seen during the opening sequence. They set quite an evocative tone. Unfortunately, it is impossible to care about the dull, clueless characters, who really ought to know better – particularly our protagonist, Brad, who deserves a swift back-handed slapping. Only Charan Prabhakar projects any sense of an individual personality as Ethan, the first generation Indian honors student tagging along.

Mercifully, Abandoned is not a found footage film, per se. Chamberlain only occasional shows the audience flashes of their surviving video in befuddling snippets. To his credit, he also largely avoids the graphic gore, gratuitous nudity, and explicit language often found in horror films. Perhaps the audience is supposed to provide it instead.

Regardless, it is impossible to get around how jaw-droppingly stupid Brad’s plan is. Kids, you should never play around in deserted mines, even in broad daylight. It is especially foolish to do so during Halloween night, when emergency services are always stretched thin. Just sort of generic, Abandoned Mine will underwhelm genre fans. For diehard Vega fans, it screens for a week (8/15-8/22) at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood, U.S.A.

LFM GRADE: D+

Posted on August 19th, 2013 at 5:55pm.

LFM Reviews Blue Exorcist: The Movie

By Joe Bendel. True Cross Academy is sort of like Hogwarts, but with guns. That is definitely an improvement. While some of the senior exorcists wield ancient magical weapons, an automatic still has its uses against rampaging demons. Young exorcist-in-training Rin Okumura will face a rather different sort of supernatural troublemaker as well as the traditional city-leveling variety in Atsushi Takahashi’s Blue Exorcist: the Movie (trailer here), which screened this past weekend in select cities nationwide.

Marvel fans who remember Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, will be able to relate to Okumura. They both have the same father, but have renounced his infernal ways. As fans of Kazue Katō’s manga and the subsequent anime series already know, Okumura and his brother Yukio are the half-human, half-demonic offspring of Old Scratch. However, only Rin inherited the old man’s powers (and some of his features). Rin enrolls in True Cross to become an exorcist in order to avenge Father Shiro Fujimoto, the kindly priest who raised the two boys. Much to his surprise, he found Yukio had a head start on him. Already a full-fledged exorcist, his brother even teaches courses at the elite exorcist school.

Taking place sometime in between episodes, the staff of the academy is gearing up for the eagerly anticipated festival their town celebrates every eleven years. This fateful night, Yukio Okumura will be leading an operation to exorcise a haunted train traveling between our world, Assiah, and Gehenna, the demon plane. It does not go according to plan. As a result, a lot of oozing monsters start lumbering through the city—and it is mostly Rin’s fault. Suspended from exorcisms, the teen with a tail is forced to babysit Usamaro, an impish demon who resembles a young boy. When Okumura and the young scamp start to bond, it leads to all kinds of complications.

Although the manga and anime series are known for their religious symbolism, the movie downplays the allegorical for the sake of narrative compactness and Usamaro’s comic relief. Frankly, it gives us more than enough of the latter. Still, the stand alone feature quickly brings new viewers up to speed on its well developed fantasy world and offers some entertaining supernatural mayhem. The background cityscapes are unusually lush and detailed, while the big festival looks like an awful lot of fun.

From "Blue Exorcist: TheMovie."

When Blue Exorcist gets down to action, it nicely blends elements of the kaiju and martial arts genres. The scope and stakes of the film are rather large, even if it does not advance the overall series mythology. The way it incorporates an old children’s book into the narrative is also quite clever and visually stylish. In fact, the whole film looks quite impressive. There is just a little too much demon cuteness and the self-contained resolution is somewhat unsatisfying for reasons that would be spoilery to explain.

Those familiar with the series might be disappointed to hear that there is no service involving Shura Kirigakure, aside from her regular wardrobe. At least she gets a fair amount of screen time fighting. The fans it is intended for should enjoy this new adventure, while receptive new folks ought to find the world-building detail intriguing. Recommended for older teens who dig manga and anime, Blue Exorcist: the Movie screened this past weekend in New York and San Francisco.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 19th, 2013 at 8:10pm.

Hold That Cough: LFM Reviews Flu

By Joe Bendel. It is easy to understand why pandemic thrillers might strike a chord with Korean audiences. Watching a few SARS and Bird Flu outbreaks rip through our hemisphere would grab our attention, too. A year or so after unleashing Park Jung-woo’s Deranged, CJ Entertainment breaks out the hazmat suits again with Kim Sung-su’s Flu, which opened last week in Los Angeles.

Dr. Kim In-hae ought to have been more gracious when daring fireman Kang Ji-koo pulled her out of the massive sinkhole that gave way beneath her car. Unfortunately, infectious disease specialists are not always very warm and fuzzy. Her bedside manner will not improve when she learns what a human trafficking ring inadvertently smuggled into the country: a highly contagious mutated strain of avian flu.

From "Flu."

Through an unlikely set of circumstances, Kang befriends Dr. Kim’s adorable but demanding daughter, Mi-reu, in hopes that will pay dividends with her mother. As a result, when the health authorities lock-down the bustling Seoul suburb of Bundang, Kang becomes Mi-reu’s protector. Unfortunately, she seems to be developing a cough.

As in Deranged, human nature takes a nasty turn when confronting a virulent form of microscopic mortality. However, Deranged’s parasitic McGuffin manifested itself in a more intriguing way than this titular flu. Those afflicted in Bundang simply start to cough, break out in rashes, and die—except for the mysterious survivor of that fateful human cargo container.

It is all kinds of manipulative, but the relationship between Kang and young Kim is still highly effective. As the former, Jang Hyuk nicely balances grit and swagger, while Park Min-ha is cinematically cute and surprisingly natural on-screen as Mi-reu. Superstar Soo-ae is also appropriately intense as Dr. Kim. Alas, most of the authorities are just cardboard cut-out villains. Regrettably, this is especially true of the distinctly anti-American portrayal of various Yankee military and medical advisors, most notably the ruthless Schneider (not uncommonly a Jewish surname, adding an additional layer of awkwardness to the film). Only Ma Dong-seok’s Jeon Kook-hwan, a military officer turned rogue provocateur, is a worthy heavy.

Flu operates on an impressive scale, incorporating some big set pieces and a way-over-the-top climatic stand-off. In contrast, Deranged more trenchantly explores the perils of the mob mentality running riot. (Indeed, it is the superior outbreak movie.) A better melodrama than a viral thriller, Flu is just sort of okay overall. Mostly for Soo-ae fans and hot zone junkies, Flu opened last Friday (8/16) in Los Angeles at the CGV Cinemas and opens September 6th in New York (Queens) at the AMC Bay Terrace.

LFM GRADE: C

Posted on August 19th, 2013 at 8:06pm.

A Woman’s Plight in Afghanistan: LFM Reviews The Patience Stone

By Joe Bendel. For a woman in Afghanistan, an incapacitated husband is both dangerous and liberating. The unnamed man was never much of a husband, at least as westerners would understand the term, but he will finally become a good listener in Afghan expatriate Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone, which opens this Wednesday in New York.

It was a loveless arranged marriage. Her grizzled old husband acquired her when she was really just a child. At least he was not around much during the early years of their marriage. Instead, he was off fighting whomever, only periodically returning to lord over her. Over time, they had two daughters, but they never “learned to love each other.” Yet, when a tawdry dust-up leads to a bullet in his neck and a subsequent coma, she loyally tends to her former tormentor.

Sending their children to live with their worldly aunt, the woman spends her days maintaining their battle-damaged home and watching over her comatose husband. She must keep him hidden from sight, lest the roving bands of warlords recognize her defenseless position. Unfortunately, a small contingent of soldiers eventually barges in, with the intent of forcing themselves on her. Understanding the perverse nature of her country’s misogyny, she claims to be a prostitute, causing most of them to lose interest. As her aunt explains, those sharing their virulent Islamist mentality take manly pride from raping virgins, but are repulsed by sexually experienced women.

However, the shy one eventually sneaks back, hoping to hire the woman’s services. She does not exactly agree at first, but they soon share intimate encounters on a regular basis. In fact, she starts to enjoy them, both as a sexually liberating experience and a passive aggressive salvo against her husband. She does indeed confess each assignation to him, as well as the rest of her deepest, darkest secrets. He has become her “Patience Stone,” the mythological vessel that retains all the sorrow the owner divulges, until it finally shatters.

What a lovely corner of the world this is. Women are treated like chattel, forced to wear burqas, and consequently blamed for the predatory behavior of men. Atiq’s film, based on his French language Prix Goncourt winning novel, quite boldly examines the pathological sexism of Islamist society. If it sounds vaguely homoerotic when the young soldier confides to the woman his commander puts bells on his feet and makes him dance in the evenings, it should. Atiq is rather circumspect in his handling of this issue, essentially using it to establish the woman’s sense of compassionate outrage. Fair enough, but there is only so much of that which can easily fit in to an intimate chamber drama such as Stone.

Essentially, Stone is a two-hander, but the second hand spends nearly the entire film in a persistent vegetative state. Fortunately, Golshifteh Farahani, the Iranian exile based in Paris (seen in Chicken and Plums and in Ridley Scott’s mullah-offending Body of Lies), is extraordinarily compelling as the woman, largely carrying the film on her shoulders. It is a profoundly vulnerable yet surprisingly sensual performance, likely to equally inspire her fans and outrage the theocrats in her Iranian homeland. Still, Mossi Mrowat has some quietly powerful moments as the young, naïve soldier.

True to the limits of the woman’s world, Stone has a two-set, four-character staginess that it just cannot shake loose. Nevertheless, it powerfully crystallizes all the anguish and rage pent-up inside exploited women like Atiq’s protagonist. He and Farahani might be exiles, but with Stone they vividly hold a mirror up to their respective societies. Recommended for those concerned about the state of women’s rights in the Islamic world and fans of Farahani, Patience Stone opens this Wednesday (8/14) at New York’s Film Forum.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on August 12th, 2013 5:31pm.

LFM Reviews The Man Who Watched Trains Go By @ The Cine-Simenon Retrospective

By Joe Bendel. Those Frenchies are always trying to corrupt their guileless provincial European neighbors. Georges Simenon certainly would have known. Technically, he was Belgian, but he was an expert on Parisian fast living. One timid Dutch clerk gets his own crash course in Harold French’s The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (a.k.a. Paris Express), which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenon retrospective.

Kees Popinga was born to be a bookkeeper. Quiet and detail-oriented, he spends his weekly night out at the chess club, where his boss, Julius de Koster, is also a member. His only eccentricity is a passion for trains, whose timetable he has memorized. One day, Inspector Lucas visits his firm from Paris as part of a mysterious investigation. It seems to involve the beautiful French woman Popinga happened to spy de Koster affectionately seeing off at the train station.

Confronting the haughty de Koster, Popinga learns he has looted the company in order to abscond with his French lover. An altercation ensues, spurring the unprepossessing Popinga to take flight. Assuming one Dutchman with a suitcase full of cash is as good as another, Popinga sets out to find the femme fatale, Michele Rozier. He is right of course, but not in a happily-ever-after kind of way. Better understanding the shady characters conspiring against him, Inspector Lucas will scramble to find the naïve Popinga before his mad interlude completely spirals out of control.

Trains might not be the absolutely best noir ever filmed, but it boasts two Phantoms of the Opera: Claude Rains (star of Universal’s 1943 color remake) as Popinga and Herbert Lom (featured in the 1962 Hammer production) as the hypocritical de Koster. Future international movie star Anouk Aimée also steals all her brief scenes as the alluring Jeanne, a “professional” colleague of Rozier’s.

From "The Man Who Watched Trains."

There is also plenty of Simenon-ness to Trains, particularly the cat-and-mouse game played by Popinga and the Inspector. Indeed, Lucas is a good copper, balancing cunning and compassion in the Maigret tradition. The underappreciated Marius Goring is one of Train’s best assets, playing Lucas with considerable intelligence and flair.

Of course, Rains is perfectly dependable, if not career-defining, as the mild-mannered Popinga. His convincing slide from respectability to manic self-destruction recalls some of his early Universal work, like in Edwin Drood. Frankly, despite her greater screen time and stylish villainy, Märta “the next Ingrid Bergman” Torén’s Rozier is overshadowed by Anouk (as Train simply billed her).

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By is a presentable noir, distinguished by its tragic tone and the decency of its sleuth. Nicely representing the themes and motifs of Simenon’s “roman durs,” his psychologically complex, non-Maigret novels, it makes a good fit for Anthology’s Cine-Simenon series. Recommended for fans of Rains and noirs in general, it screens today (8/12) and Wednesday the 21st at Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 12th, 2013 at 5:28pm.

LFM Reviews The Bottom of the Bottle @ The Cine-Simenon Retrospective

By Joe Bendel. After the war, Georges Simenon whiled away some pleasant days in Nogales, Arizona. Presumably, he appreciated the charms of bordertown life. It also became the setting of a somewhat un-Simenon-like tale of fraternal dysfunction. The spirits will flow in Henry Hathaway’s adaptation of The Bottom of the Bottle, which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenon retrospective.

It rarely rains on the ranchland outside Nogales, but when it does, the Santa Cruz floods, cutting them off from the rest of the world. For Paul “P.M.” Martin and his fellow landowners, this means it is time for their traditional floating house parties. However, the sudden appearance of his brother Donald puts a damper on his mood. While they never really got along, the whole escaped convict thing particularly irks the status conscious P.M.

Of course, nobody knows about the black sheep sibling he will introduce to his wife Nora and their friends as Eric Bell. With the river running high, the Martin brothers will just have to bluff their way through until Donald can slip across to his waiting family. Unfortunately, the younger Martin brother is a recovering alcoholic, under severe stress, and about to attend his first rainy season party, which will be all about getting pie-faced hammered.

This is an odd film, but it is a big film, rather dazzlingly shot in Cinemascope by Lee Garmes. It starts out as a desert noir, segueing into Lost Weekend, then marital strife melodrama, and finally shifts into a modern day western, as the highway patrol posse saddles up, chasing the fugitive Martin into the hills.

Granted, Bottle is not a classic classic, but it is rather strange that it is not programmed more frequently. It would certainly make an interesting double bill with Touch of Evil, the classic bordertown noir directed by Joseph Cotten’s old comrade, Orson Welles. Sort of conceived as a follow-up to Hathaway’s Niagara, also starring Cotten, Bottle is nowhere near as gripping as those two films. Still, it has Dragnet’s Harry Morgan as a kindly barkeep, who plays Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” during the morning hours.

There are flashes of mordant wit throughout Bottle (the doorbell that rings “How Dry I am” might have been the work of an acerbic stagehand, but it still counts) and Hathaway makes the most of his southwestern locations. He also shrewdly manages to shoehorn in one amazingly cinematic mission church as often as possible. Indeed, this is a finely crafted production, particularly the Martin’s richly appointed ranch house, which makes the Southfork look like a welfare hotel. And speaking of Dallas, Jack Davis (a.k.a. Jock Ewing) turns up in a minor role as a member of the Martin’s boozy social circle. Nonetheless, Bottle’s depiction of the local Hispanic population (probably considered broadmindedly sympathetic at the time) is pretty cringy for contemporary viewers.

Cotten has the right look and presence for P.M. Martin, even if his ascot-looking bandanas are a wardrobe mistake. Van Johnson also stretches his chops quite notably as the sad sack brother. Surprisingly though, it is Ruth Roman who really stands out as the assertive but family-oriented Nora Martin, who is rather impressive holding P.M.’s feet to the fire. It is a smarter character and performance than one expect in what is essentially a “helper” role.

So Bottle might not be a good film, per se, but it is entertaining in its way. A late product of the old school studio system, it demonstrates both the merits and drawbacks of the era, cramming enough interesting stuff into a misconceived vehicle to maintain viewers’ attention the all the way through. It is definitely the ringer of AFA’s Cine-Simenon, but it still makes sense to include it, because when else could they show it. Those intrigued should definitely check it out when it screens tomorrow (8/13), Wednesday (8/15), and Sunday (8/18) at Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on August 12th, 2013 at 5:24pm.