Month: January 2015

LFM Reviews Reversal @ The 2015 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Don’t say payback is a you-know-what and whatever you do, don’t say it wasn’t personal. Eve is in no mood to hear it. After months of captivity, she has turned the tables on her sex fiend tormentor. However, her revenge gets a little more complicated when she gets a sense of the scope of his operation in José Manuel Cravioto’s Reversal, which screens during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

The odious Phil always said Eve was special, but he never knew how right he was. After cold cocking him with a loose brick, Eve fashions a choker-noose to keep him controllable, but at arm’s length. She nearly capped him right then and there, but held off once he revealed the existence of other women at various hiding places. Fueled by outrage, Eve forces the sexual predator to take her to each one of them, but every successive trip never turns out to be as simple as she hopes.

You have to give Cravioto credit for understanding the point of a vicarious revenge thriller. We don’t want to mention any names, like Eli Roth, but there are a number of frustrating films playing in Sundance in which we wait for the poor central characters to turn the tables on their tormentors, but the sadistic antagonists just keep batting them down at every turn. That’s just no fun to watch.

In contrast, Reversal starts with the table-turning and follows Eve’s efforts to maintain the upper hand going forward. Granted, it is a dark and disturbing milieu to wade through, but the resulting comeuppance is undeniably satisfying. Thankfully, Cravioto never cheapens the proceedings with a lecture on violence or a lame ironic ending.

From "Reversal."

Frankly, it is also rather meta-creepy that Richard Tyson, the star of Zalman King’s 1980s softcore sex dramas plays the thoroughly gross Phil, but he is effective in the part. Likewise, Tina Ivlev is pretty awesome as the empowered and embittered Eve. There are too many flashbacks mixed into the action and none of its third act reveals are remotely as surprising as screenwriters Rock Shaink, Jr. and Keith Kjornes think they are, but the film delivers what it promises.

Frankly, Reversal is exactly the sort of film the Zoë Bell vehicle Raze and the I Spit on Your Grave reboot should have been. Yes, it is a sleazy exploitation film, but it brings female victimization to an abrupt halt. If you want to see some payback, it has your payback right here. Recommended for fans of grindhouse vengeance, Reversal screens again tomorrow (1/27) and Thursday (1/29) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 26th, 2015 at 5:57pm.

LFM Reviews Above and Beyond

By Joe Bendel. Twice they answered the call to protect democracy, prevailing against the odds each time. In 1948, a number of former American WWII military pilots volunteered to fly for the fledgling state of Israel when it was under attack from nearly the entire Arab world. They were vastly outgunned and outnumbered, but their experience and sheer guts became game-changers. Director Roberta Grossman and producer Nancy Spielberg (sister of the other filmmaker named Spielberg) chronicle the birth of the Israeli Air Force in Above and Beyond, which opens this Friday in New York.

When the Arab nations launched the War of 1948, it looked pretty grim for Israel. The Israeli military did not have a single plane to its name, but the Egyptians had an extensive fleet. Rectifying the situation would be a tricky business. Although Pres. Truman supported the creation of Israel, his foreign policy advisors were much less enthusiastic. In fact, they pushed through an arms embargo, ostensibly for the entire region, but disproportionately falling on the almost entirely unarmed Israel.  It was not like there were not plenty of surplus fighter planes leftover from WWII. Fortunately, engineer Al Schwimmer (formerly with TWA and Lockheed) devised a plan to smuggle planes from America to Israel.

Of course, he also had to recruit pilots, such as Lou Lenart, whose Lindberg-like flight over the Mediterranean serves as the film’s gripping prologue. They were not just risking their lives, they were also risking their American citizenship and perhaps even their liberty for violating the Neutrality Act, but they had their reasons. While not necessarily ardent Zionists, most predominantly but not exclusively Jewish volunteers were determined to avoid a repeat of the Holocaust’s genocidal horrors. However, they were still military aviators, with all the swagger you would expect.

Above documents a truly desperate time in Israeli history, yet it is also hugely engaging, thanks to the boisterous reminiscences of the surviving volunteers. They all have great stories to tell, but Grossman and Spielberg were particularly blessed by the documentary gods when they sat down with Gideon Lichtman, who couldn’t tell a boring story if he tried.

Through its first-person interviews and supplemental commentaries, Above assembles a full portrait of Squadron 101’s early days that is chocked full of fascinating episodes. Shrewdly, it refrains from playing the conspiracy card with respects to the untimely death of legendary ace Canadian volunteer Buzz Beurling, but its straight reporting of the facts still makes you wonder.

This is a flat-out terrific film that is not ashamed to celebrate heroism and derring-do attitude. Indeed, it is truly inspiring (and often wickedly funny) to hear the volunteers recount their exploits. Grossman and company have crafted a fitting platform for their oral history, supplying solid historical context and some surprisingly cinematic visuals. Rigorously researched and wildly entertaining, Above and Beyond is very highly recommended (especially for students) when it opens this Friday (1/30) in New York, at the Village East.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 26th, 2015 at 5:57pm.

LFM Reviews The Go-Go Boys: the Inside Story of Cannon Films @ The 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Turning Superman into a bomb-banning peacenik was an idea destined to fail. Nobody should have understood that better than the men who brought the world the American Ninja franchise. Unfortunately, they got caught up in the deal and the predictable failure of Superman IV: the Quest for Peace spelled the beginning of the end for scrappy Cannon Films. The rise and fall of the self-made, 1980s defining moguls Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus are chronicled in Hilla Medalia’s The Go-Go Boys: the Inside Story of Cannon Films, which screens during the 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival.

While working in his native Israel, Menahem Golan attained a level of international respect for films that combined popular appeal with critical respectability, such as his Oscar nominated Operation Thunderbolt. His first English language productions were not so successful, but he kept trying until he found the right formula. Indeed, formula would be the right word. With his cousin, Yoram Globus, Golan acquired Cannon Films, turning it into the little studio that could, by releasing a series of cheaply produced but highly satisfying action movies.

With a regular stable of stars that included Chuck Norris (including the Delta Force and Missing in Action series), Charles Bronson (especially the Death Wish sequels), Michael Dudikoff (American Ninja), and a Belgian waiter named Jean-Claude Van Damme, Cannon became the action house of its era. Any guy who remembers the 1980s will have fond memories of Cannon. When Golan and Globus respected their competitive advantages, they were wildly profitable. In fact, Cannon became notoriously successful pre-selling films they had not yet made (a standard practice these days), largely on the strength of the stars they had signed and a bankable concept.

Even dabbling in art cinema did not doom the Cannon empire. The same team behind Ninja III: the Domination (a longstanding fan favorite) also scored an Academy Award for foreign language film for the Dutch WWII drama The Assault. In some cases, they even leveraged distribution for prestige pictures with their signature action movies. Unfortunately, when the more artistically ambitious Golan convinced the fundraiser-extraordinaire Globus to start bankrolling traditional studio level budgets, the box office results were disastrous.

Chuck Norris in Cannon's "Delta Force."

Anyone who loves martial arts films and B-movies will inhale Go-Go Boys. Medalia scored long in-depth sit-down interviews with the late Golan and the surviving Globus, even capturing their reunion after years of estrangement. She also talks to most of the principle supporting players, including a highly animated Van Damme and a more reflective Dudikoff. It is also nice to see Andrei Konchalovsky get his due as a Cannon artist (most notably for Runaway Train). However, the oversight of the late great cult action star Steve James, who played an important role in many iconic Cannon hits, is frankly inexcusable.

Clearly in retrospect, Cannon never should have never bothered with the middling middle ground. Their bread-and-butter action films like Avenging Force and Bloodsport still hold up to this day, while their art house releases, such as Norman Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance and Godard’s King Lear remain distinctive for their idiosyncrasies. For the most part, Medalia gives them their due in a breezily affectionate profile. Even though the absence of James will annoy fans, The Go-Go Boys is still recommended for cult film connoisseurs when it screens twice this Thursday (1/29) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 26th, 2015 at 5:56pm.

LFM Reviews Stereo @ The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco

By Joe Bendel. Film noir fans know when a tough motorcycle guy never talks about the past, there is usually a good reason. In truth, Erik is a little fuzzy on that score himself. Unfortunately, his past will catch up with him good and hard in Maximilian Erlenwein’s Stereo, which screens during the 19th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco.

Despite his “scoundrel” tattoo, Erik seems to have made a fresh start, opening a garage in a small, but welcoming provincial town. He has charmed his single mother girlfriend Julia and her adoring daughter Linda. Her cop father Wolfgang is considerably less impressed, but Erik can handle him. The man who will call himself Henry is another story.

The hooded mystery man appears alongside Gaspar, a suspicious looking type who seems to know Erik and some dangerous gangsters they supposedly did wrong. Gaspar has some sort of plan to finish them off, but Erik sends him packing. However, Henry refuses to leave, ever. It turns out he and Gaspar were not together. In fact, nobody can see him except the increasingly alarmed Erik. Eventually, the mechanic will seek non-traditional treatment, but he cannot shake off the antagonistic presence. As the underworld power struggle roughly invades Erik’s new life, Henry will reveal their secret connection. It will not be pretty.

Stereo is sort of a big twist movie, but the 800 pound shoe drops early in the third act, driving some bizarre dramatic dilemmas for Erik. It is fiendishly cleverly constructed by Erlenwein, who pulls off some brazen narrative sleight of hand right before our eyes. Yet, he is also patient enough to set the scene and establish his cast of sinister and straight characters. Erlenwein also gets a huge assist from Ngo The Chau’s carefully framed, visually hypnotic cinematography.

From "Stereo."

As Erik, Jürgen Vogel’s bald, beading head looks suitably intense through Ngo’s lens and he masterfully sells his wild ride of character development arc. Moritz Bleibtrau is more restrained as the ominous Henry, but he seems to relish the taunting and totally pulls the rug out from under the audience down the stretch. There are plenty of minor players orbiting them (Fabian Hinrichs as a young, not as dumb as he looks doctor scores considerable points in limited screen time), but it is the oppositional chemistry between Vogel and Bleibtrau that really makes the film tick.

It is hard to understand why a genre specialist like Magnet has not scooped up Stereo for distribution yet. It oozes noir style, while Erlenwein skillfully builds the tension organically, going from slow burn to fiery combustion. Highly recommended for fans of dark psychological thrillers, Stereo screens this Thursday (1/29) at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, as part of this year’s Berlin & Beyond.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 26th, 2015 at 5:55pm.

LFM Reviews Body @ The 2015 Slamdance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. It is sort of like an episode of Girls, but with Larry Fessenden. When three former high school friends break into a McMansion for some Christmas Eve partying, they wind up with some explaining to do in Dan Berk & Robert Olsen’s Body, which screens during the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival.

Home for the holidays and slightly stoned, Holly, Cali, and Mel are looking for something to do on a cold Christmas Eve. Cali suggests they kick up their heels in her rich uncle’s pad, because he doesn’t mind her having the run of the place. Holly and Mel agree, even though there is something funny about her story (they’re stoned, remember). After a little breaking and entering (seriously, he won’t mind), they start hit the rec room hard. Eventually, Holly has the sense to ask why there are so many pictures of an Asian family on the wall.

It turns out there is no rich uncle. Cali used to babysit for the owners years ago and knew they would be away for the holidays. As this uncomfortable truth sinks in, the girls are surprised by the creepy caretaker. Things get a bit confused, resulting in his apparently fatal accident. With no legal justification for their presence there, the three friends need to get their stories straight, but the circumstances and resulting moral dilemmas keep getting more complicated.

From "Body."

The good news for Larry Fessenden fans is that he has a new genre film at Slamdance. The bad news is that he spends nearly the entire film flat on his back. Still, let’s just say he has his moments. Nevertheless, the relationship between the three twentysomething women really forms the heart of the film. Berk & Olsen take a fair amount of time to establish their complicated relationships somewhere along the continuum between friends and frienemies. Viewers get the sense they have long histories together and are used to being around each other, even if their feelings are a bit ambiguous. There is also something vicariously enjoyable about watching them run amok in that swanky pad.

Inevitably, matters take a dark turn and get progressively darker, but Body is more closely akin to a claustrophobic stage-thriller than a horror movie. Helen Rogers anchors the film quite effectively as Holly, who passes for the film’s voice of reason and the closest thing it has to a conscience, whereas on the other hand, Alexandra Turshen clearly enjoys getting the film’s best opportunities for scenery chewing and most pointed lines as the mildly sociopathic Cali (hey, nobody’s perfect).

Oddly, Body feels a bit restrained, especially with Fessenden along for the ride, but it vividly captures the weird vibe of being somewhere rather isolated during a time of collective celebration, like the holidays. It is a clever and aesthetically economical dark thriller, recommended for genre fans when it screens again this Thursday (1/29) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 26th, 2015 at 5:55pm.

LFM Reviews It Follows @ The 2015 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Benel. Finally, the abstinence education movement has the horror film it has always needed. When a suburban neighborhood bombshell finally sleeps with her newest boyfriend, she would have been much more fortunate to be infected with an STD. Instead, she picks up some sort of supernatural stalker. She can run or she can try to pass it on to someone else, but there will be no hiding from the malevolent entity in David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, which screens during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Everyone on the block is devoted to Jay, including her less glamorous younger sister, her dweebish elementary school boyfriend Paul, and Greg, the high school bad boy living next door to him. Ill-advisedly, she has decided to take the plunge in the mysterious Hugh’s back seat. At first, it is all lovey dovey, but after a spot of chloroform, she wakes up bound to a wheelchair. At this point, he gives her the bad news, pointing it out, in the spectral flesh.

An uncanny entity will now stalk her. It can take the form of any person, but only she and the formerly infected can see it. It can only walk and it is suspensefully slow, but it never stops until it catches it prey. Hugh does not want that to happen to her, because it would then follow the chain back to him again. Naturally, Jay and her friends assume it was all part of some sick game devised by the jerk calling himself Hugh, but a few unsettling incidents soon convince them otherwise.

It Follows is a distinctly creepy film due to the nature of its bogeyman, who often impersonates close family members, just to be cruel. Other times it assumes some truly ghoulish guises, but it could be anyone purposefully walking towards Jay. Yet, Mitchell also takes the time to develop his characters and establish their relationships. Even the location of their respective houses is important to his narrative.

Granted, Adam Wingard’s The Guest went south about halfway through, but it and It Follows really herald Maika Monroe as the up-and-coming “It-Girl” of genre cinema. She does the scream queen stuff well enough, but also forges believable chemistry with her assorted costars. Keir Gilchrist (a bit of a cold fish in Dark Summer) is particularly effective in this respect as the torch-carrying Paul.

Okay, so their big third act plan does not make much sense, but the movie essentially acknowledges as much, by having it go spectacularly awry. You would hardly expect it from his previous film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, but Mitchell’s horror film mechanics are unfailingly sure-footed, while Mike Gioulakis’ massively moody cinematography and the eerie electronic soundtrack concocted by Richard Vreeland, a.k.a. Disasterpiece, give it the look and ambiance of vintage 1980 horror, in the best sense. Highly recommended for genre fans, It Follows screens again today (1/25) and Friday (1/30) in Park City and Saturday (1/31) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 25th, 2-15 at 2:58pm.