Day: January 14, 2016

LFM Reviews The President @ The 2016 Iranian Film Festival DC

By Joe Bendel. He went from being the Great Dictator to the Little Tramp in a matter of hours. Still, it is hard to feel sorry for “His Majesty,” because he totally had it coming. His five year-old grandson is a different matter, especially when the revolution takes an inevitably ugly turn. Karma finally catches up with this Soviet-style hold-over in Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President, which screens during the 2016 Iranian Film Festival DC at the National Gallery of Art.

Young Dachi, or “His Royal Highness” as the servants call him, is about as entitled as it gets. He is in awe of his grandfather, the President of this fictionalized Eastern European-Transcaucasian nation. The President dotes on Dachi in return, especially since his parents were assassinated by rebels, an awkward truth the old man does not have the heart to share. That would seem to be an ill omen, but the President heedlessly continues his tyrannical ways. He probably could have gotten out while the getting was good with the rest of his family, but the President was convinced the sudden outbreak of riots and street fighting was a temporary setback.

Unfortunately, the indulgent grandfather allowed Dachi to stay behind with him. As the rebellion intensifies, the President’s officers and bodyguards turn on him to save themselves. Forced to disguise themselves as street musicians, the President and Dachi will rub unwashed shoulders with his formerly oppressed subjects. It will be an eye-opening experience for them both.

Many commentators have noted the uncanny resemblance the President and Dachi bear to Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and his uniform-sporting son. Even with different wardrobe choices, it is hard to imagine a film about the violent overthrow of despot in his neighborhood could otherwise carry the Lukashenko seal of approval.

PresidentIt is also hard to envision The President being well received in Makhmalbaf’s native Iran, either. After all, it is just as critical of the revolution that topples the old tyrant as it is of his iron-fisted misrule. Frankly, the film is downright Burkean in its revulsion for revolutionary excess. Of course, Makhmalbaf has seen it all first hand. Once an ardent supporter of the Iranian Revolution, he went into exile in protest of government censorship and has since evaded four assassination attempts.

Even though The President could be fairly described as an allegorical fable, it is unusually nuanced and ethically thorny. Misha Gomiashvili’s delicately modulated performance as the increasingly haggard President is a major reason why. In every scene it is hard to completely damn him, but also impossible to even partially forgive his ever so well-established sins.

Throughout The President, we are constantly reminded absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, Makhmalbaf just as vividly shows viewers the score-settling and opportunism that comes with revolution. He makes a profound distinction between the real deal dissidents, such as the tortured wretches His Majesty and Dachi temporarily fall in with, and the former flunkies of oppression now brutalizing the weak and vulnerable in the name of revolution. It might sound laborious, but Makhmalbaf maintains a high degree of tension and a vigorous pace from the first scene to the last.

Indeed, it is a bold, principled cinematic vision that deserves serious attention and study. Very highly recommended, The President (distributed by Corinth Films) screens this Sunday (1/17) at the National Gallery of Art, as part of the Iranian Film Festival DC and the following Thursday (1/21) and Sunday (1/24) at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Boston Festival of Films from Iran.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on January 14th, 2016 at 4:52pm.

LFM Reviews Intruders

By Joe Bendel. Anna Rook is so severely agoraphobic, she will not leave her home, even when home invaders break-in. Yet, why should she? Rook has greater home field advantage than the Green Bay Packers playing at Lambeau Field in the middle of a blizzard. Her house has a few special modifications that her uninvited guests will learn about the hard way in Adam Schindler’s Intruders (a.k.a. Shut-In), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Rook has long cared for her terminally-ill brother Conrad, out of sibling love and dark secrets that apparently tie them together. Their only visitors are Danny, a delivery guy from a Meals-on-Wheels-like service and Conrad’s lawyer Charlotte, who is trying to get Anna to face up to the inevitable. When her brother finally dies, Anna’s condition remains unremitting, prohibiting her from attending Conrad’s funeral.

Intruders3It turns out Danny told three of his thuggish pals about the considerable amount of cash she keeps in the house, but neglected to mention her agoraphobia. They duly break-in expecting her to be at the funeral. Of course, finding the grieving Anna will not dissuade the alpha dog JP or the psychotic Perry from their mission. However, the more passive Vance is definitely thrown by her presence. His instincts will soon be validated when Anna lures them into the specially modified basement. It is really more of a dungeon and interrogation chamber, where the Rook siblings apparently lured pedophiles, like their despised late father.

For the three outsiders and the late arriving Danny, it is sort of Rube Goldbergian nightmare. Frankly, it is a little hard to believe anyone could install a retractable staircase like that without attracting some sort of notice. Regardless of credibility, Schindler gives Anna plenty of remote-controlled doors and secret passageways, so he might as well let her take full advantage.

In one of the coolest bait-and-switches ever, what starts as a horror film instantly morphs into an unapologetic payback thriller. It also has the extra, added attraction of inflicting a whole lot of pain on Rory Culkin (as the quickly remorseful Danny). Frankly, Culkin’s presence is fittingly ironic, since Intruders could be considered an evil cousin to Home Alone. The character of Anna Rook is kind of all over the place, but Beth Riesgraf certainly conveys how messed up she is inside. Likewise, as JP and Perry, Jack Kesy and Martin Starr are electric live-wires of despicableness. Seeing the tables turned on them is awfully satisfying.

Intruders is not for the faint of heart or the pedantic. However, genre fans will definitely dig the way Schindler rolls up his sleeves and gets the job done. Recommended for those who appreciate its E.C. Comics-esque ethical convictions, Intruders opens tomorrow (1/15) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 14th, 2016 at 4:50pm.

LFM Reviews Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon @ The 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

GenghisKhanConquerstheMoonBy Joe Bendel. Genghis Khan conquered more territory than Alexander the Great and often topped “Man of the Millennium” polls. If you doubt his lasting influence on today’s world, go ask a Mongolian about it. It turns out, he was even the first man to set foot on the moon, but he has some rather magical-mystical help in Kerry Yang’s short film Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

In the twilight of his life, the great Khan had little left to conquer (just little pieces of China, here and there that would be left to his grandson, Kublai). Yet, he hears reports of a defiant alchemist, so he makes haste to assert his authority. Although outwardly subservient, the alchemist does not seem to be kowtowing on the inside. In fact, he knows what the great Khan needs and where he can find it. That would either be a new world ripe for conquest or tranquility, a whole sea of it, in fact.

How cool is it to see veteran Asian American actors Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and James Hong as co-leads in a film? Granted, neither is Mongolian, but so be it. Tagawa has all the right grit for the great Khan and Hong is as slyly charismatic as ever as the cerebral alchemist. Frankly, the film is far more spiritual and symbolic than typical genre films, which makes it pleasantly ambitious.

From "Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon."
From “Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon.”

However, the warmongering depiction of the Millennial Man is not entirely fair. After all, he abolished torture, established religious freedom and cut taxes on doctors, teachers, and clergy in the lands that fell under his control (at least according to the Rubin Museum and they ought to know).

Regardless, Yang and cinematographers Noah Kistler and Guan Xi compose some absolutely arresting images. Somehow they take us past the fantastical into the realm of the hyper-real. It is lovely to look at and quite a strange (in a welcome way) addition to the growing Genghis Khan film canon. (Keep in mind, Tagawa has now joined John Wayne in the elite company of actors who have played Temujin.) Recommended for those who appreciate science fiction with a mystical flavor, Genghis Khan Conquers the Moon screens as part of a short film block this Friday (1/15) at the Cinema Village, during this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 14th, 2016 at 4:50pm.

LFM Reviews Chatter The 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. We might have our misgivings, but the NSA and Department of Homeland Security will assure us their data collection is strictly for our protection. Therefore, a contractor is put in a rather tough spot when he uncovers a threat that is not national security related. Its apparently supernatural nature makes it even more awkward. That poor specialist is in for an eyeful in Matthew Solomon’s Chatter, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

Is it possible malevolent spirits can travel through Skype? Just watch the opening prologue featuring old school Battlestar Galactica’s Richard Hatch. He will not be returning, nor will his on-screen daughter. David and Laura Cole might be the next to learn this lesson. He has returned to Los Angeles to restart his film composing career, in the hopes she can soon join him from London. Being apart, they share a little “sexy time” via webcam, thereby attracting Martin Takagi’s clandestine interest. However, he periodically sees strange shapes and the like behind the musician that trouble him.

Plagued by eerie sobbing noises and a general sense of unease, David Cole gets little sleep and his disposition suffers. Soon his email files start to go astray and his Skype connects at odd hours of the night. Belatedly, he learns his apartment has had a revolving door for tenants and a reputation for being haunted by a young girl’s spirit. As first, Laura Cole fears he is losing it, but she eventually starts to experience the same ghostly phenomenon. Then the entity really starts to get nasty, which greatly alarms Takagi. However, the director clearly implies he should keep a lid on it.

There have already been a number of skype-surveillance found footage horror films, like Ratter and Joe Swanberg’s installment of the original V/H/S, but Solomon develops a fresh take on the sub-sub-genre. Chatter is certainly informed by the NSA’s controversial data recording and collection programs (the agency and DHS are ironically thanked in the acknowledgements), but the film is not stridently political. In terms of tone, it is more in the tradition of Blumhouse’s supernatural horror than contemporary cyberpunk, but that is not a bad thing.

From "Chatter."
From “Chatter.”

If you did not already know it is Hatch in the opening sequence, you would probably not recognize him. Regardless, he and Alison Haislip hook us in pretty much from the start. Sarena Khan’s presence really commands the [split] screen as Laura Cole. Conversely, Brady Smith’s whiny demeanor gets tiresome, but the role reversal of victimized husband and doubting wife further distinguishes Chatter from the genre field.

Chatter was obviously shot on a shoestring, even by found footage standards, but Solomon largely overcomes his severe budget constraints. He throws the audience a few twists that are adequately established but not glaringly obvious and keeps the tension nicely amped up. Viewers should also be advised there is a stinger that holds narrative significance. Altogether, it is really scary in multiple ways. Recommended for Blumhouse and Rand Paul fans, Chatter screens this Saturday (1/16) at the Cinema Village, as part of this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 14th, 2016 at 4:49pm.

LFM Reviews This Is What It Is @ First Look 2016

From "This Is What It Is."
From “This Is What It Is.”

By Joe Bendel. They want to reclaim the term “revolution” from those who have misappropriated it. Of course, the Cuban government knows that means them. However, the Havana based hip hop duo Los Aldeanos is reluctant to be cast as a symbol of anti-government resistance. They walk a fine line as they build their street level fanbase despite heavy Communist censorship. Léa Rinaldi documents their rise and growing pains in This Is What It Is, which screens during the 2016 edition of First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.

For years, the French Rinaldi followed Aldo Roberto Rodríguez Baquero (“El Aldeano”) and Bian Oscar Rodríguez Gala (“El B”), returning frequently as a supposed tourist. Ironically, a tourist with camera is given free rein in hard-currency starved Cuba, but any sort of journalist will be tightly regulated and monitored. In fact, the extent to which the supposedly egalitarian society has sold its soul to European tourists is a frequent theme in Los Aldeanos’s raps.

Without question, many of their tracks take square aim at the Castro regime, but they also harshly criticize the gangster mentality and lack of personal responsibility that have contributed to the social pathologies surrounding them. Clearly, Los Aldeanos have engaged in a balancing act, talking truth to power without coming across as overtly partisan.

This has often left them in a bizarre legal no man’s land. Early in Rinaldi’s film, the duo attends the opening of another documentary about them, noting the odd paradox that the film was not censored but their music is still prohibited. Likewise, they really do not see the logic when the government grants Los Aldeanos visas to perform internationally as part of their new-fangled cultural exchange overtures to the West, but still denies them the right to hold concerts in Cuba.

Obviously, the government is using them to some extent, but Rinaldi and Los Aldeanos are more concerned about the Miami expatriate community’s eagerness to embrace them as artistic dissenters. Not surprisingly, when they make a show of rejecting that role, many in the Cuban-American community turn on them, but what did they expect?

Frankly, it is hard to fully gather what sort of takeaway Rinaldi intended, but it is dashed difficult to maintain any illusions about the quality of life in Cuban from what she captures. Poverty is deep and widespread, while Euro tourism is problematically, perhaps even predatorily, exploitative. It is also fascinating to see the underground distribution network Los Aldeanos has developed. The film might just be more honest than Rinaldi expected, recording state censorship in action just when she was hoping to film their moment of triumph.

The English title is rather fitting. The censorship and poverty that make their way into Rinaldi frame are very much what Castro’s Cuba is all about. Los Aldeanos’s dark lyrics directly and evocatively reflect that reality. Unfortunately, they are not always the most charismatic screen presences, particularly El B, who often seems to dissolve into the background. It is impossible to secretly film this much of Cuba’s oppressed underclass and come away with a dull film, but Rinaldi frequently seems to be looking for irony in the wrong places. Flawed but still worth viewing with a critical eye, This Is What It Is screens Friday (1/15), as part of this year’s First Look at MoMI.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 14th, 2016 at 4:49pm.