Author: Joe Bendel

By Joe Bendel. What Julia Shames really needs is some firearms training from an old school vigilante like Death Wish’s Paul Kersey. Instead, the rape victim is recruited by a vaguely satanic, crypto-feminist cult. Sexual politics take a sinister turn, possibly even trumping revenge in Matthew A. Brown’s Julia, which opens today in select cities.

This Julia should absolutely not be mistaken for the 1977 Lillian Hellman film, although she might approve of the later film’s sentiments. Mousy Shames (how’s that for a heavy-handed name?) is brutally raped and left for dead by a former co-worker and his three thuggish friends. However, she survives because the reluctant one feels a last minute pang of conscience. Walking through Brooklyn in a daze, she is quickly identified and recruited by Dr. Sgundud’s cult-like organization.

He promises empowerment and revenge against the testosterone-driven rape culture, but his rules are rigid. First and foremost, she must forgo personal vengeance, in favor of waging a broader campaign against aggressive and entitled men. During her probationary period, the mysterious Sadie will be her coach and minder. Soon, they are also lovers. However, Shames is about to break Sgundud’s cardinal rule, because what’s the point of revenge, if it isn’t personal?

By genre standards Julia is unusually stylish, particularly Frank Hall’s electro-minimalist score. Unfortunately, the film is an absolute traffic jam of half-baked revelations and awkwardly didactic plot points. Rather than thrilling or scaring, the most applicable adjective-verb is “frustrating.”

Right from the start, Brown makes it clear there will be no vicarious satisfaction allowed from Shames’ vengeance-taking, which is problematic for a revenge thriller (Reversal, now known as Bound to Vengeance is an example of how this is done right). Instead, there are horror movie trappings mixed with a hallucinatory psychological drama, overlaid by a lesbian co-dependent morality tale. Even more distracting, Brown opens a huge can of worms with Sgundud’s big reveal, without ever really dealing with the implications.

Frankly, this film often feels like it is at war with itself, which is a shame, because Human Centipede’s Ashley C. Williams really is quite good as Shames. Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson’s eerie urban cinematography is also quite effectively disorienting, like prime David Lynch or Fabrice du Welz’s Alleluia. Yet, Brown keeps pulling the audience out of the action, making a point of showing us exactly what Julia is not. Not really recommended despite its technical merit, Julia opens today (10/23) at the AMC Burbank Town Center 8.

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:36pm.

By Joe Bendel. The sleazy Byun Ho-sung is not exactly Rumpole, but the lack of a corpse is the sort of loose end he masterfully exploits. However, at times it is unclear whether his client really wants to beat the rap. A rather complicated case unfolds both inside and outside the courtroom in Heo Jong-ho’s The Advocate: a Missing Body, which opens this Friday in New Jersey.

After winning a spectacular product liability victory for a big pharma company, Byun is personally requested by the charismatic CEO Moon Ji-hoon for an apparently hopeless charity case. His former driver Kim Man-suk is accused of killing the woman he was allegedly stalking. He was arrested in the dead woman’s apartment with blood on his shirt and his prints on the supposed murder weapon. There was a lethal amount of blood splattered, but the body is absent.

Yet, just as Byun starts to make hay over other crime scene irregularities, Kim up and confesses in open court. Obviously, Byun smells a fix. With the assistance of his long suffering office manager, Mr. Park, Byun starts to follow the trail of clues back to Moon. Unfortunately, the shady company will push back hard.

Frankly, it is sort of a shame The Advocate eventually evolves into a conspiratorial legal-medical thriller, because it starts out as a refreshingly intriguing old fashioned murder mystery. Still, even though it is ostensibly a breezy comedy-thriller, Heo is not afraid to go dark for an extended period of time, which is cool. In fact, there is no way you can come out of the film with a higher regard for lawyers. Unfortunately, the dastardly Moon and his corporate crimes are predictably shopworn elements by now.

Nevertheless, the high stakes intrigue offers a perfect showcase for the hardnosed and rubber-faced Lee Sun-kyun. Arguably, The Advocate could be considered the “Order” follow-up to the “Law” of his breakout hit A Hard Day. He takes a similar licking here and keeps on grimacing. A chameleon-like Kim Go-eun stands her ground against him as the principled prosecutor Jin Sun-mi, who is still hung up on Byun, her former senior at school. Jang Hyun-sung’s Moon is an adequate but not inspired villain. However, Hong Song-duk really anchors the film as the mysterious and troubled accused.

There are enough clever twists and turns unleashed at regular intervals to maintain the suspense and a good sense of fun. Although it is not as super-charged or wickedly sly as A Hard Day, The Advocate is slick and professional, just like the sort of mouthpiece you would want to litigate on your behalf. Entertaining in a swaggering with attitude kind of way, The Advocate: a Missing Body is recommended for thriller fans when it opens this Friday (10/23) at the Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in New Jersey.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:31pm.

By Joe Bendel. It is the post-apocalyptic story of a boy and his drone. A few years ago, drones were a cause for concern among civil liberties activists, but they have apparently moved to more media-friendly causes. As a result, the field has been cleared for drone enthusiasts to rehabilitate the image of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Thanks to the active collaboration of the drone community, UAVs will have their post-apocalyptic day in Rotor DR1, which just released on DVD from Cinema Libre.

In the future, apes will evolve from men, but before that, a catastrophic virus will wipe out most of the human population. It is a bleak world, where drones have more to fear from humans than vice versa. That is because the rag tag survivors covet the drones’ power source. Those uber-batteries are the only real currency left. Kitch (once known as Mitchell Scott, Jr.) survives by harvesting power cores and selling them to Hashtag, a dodgy intermediary working for 4C, who runs the only remotely organized outfit in the area.

One fateful day, Kitch captures a drone unlike any he has seen before. That would be DR1, a next generation prototype. Out of curiosity, Kitch starts to patch it up, leading to the stunning discover that it just might hold clues to the whereabouts of Kitch’s missing and presumed dead father, Dr. Mitchell Scott. The senior Kitch was the CEO of Medix, a company that specialized in medical delivery drones and infectious disease drones. Rightly or wrongly, many survivors blame Dr. Scott for the lousy state of the world. However, Kitch is determined to track down his old man, with the help of DR1 and 4C’s rebellious niece, Maya.

Although originally produced as a web-series, DR1 hangs together quite cogently as a feature. Apparently, the collective judgement of the drone community is usually pretty sound. There are a few plot holes big enough to drive a tractor-trailer through, but the aerial shots of the drones flying are impressive (frankly, the drone race is way cooler than Phantom Menace’s pod race) and the post-industrial, post-apocalyptic locales (Northeastern Ohio) truly look like a scarred wasteland. However, it seems the drone community likes its portentous narration, because there sure is a lot of it.

Even though he was stuck with excessive voiceover work, Christian Kapper’s turn as Kitch is impressively complex and understated. Tom E. Nicholson also makes a strong impression as 4C—sort of like a mature, less shticky Kevin Smith, while David Windestål scores points with his “guest appearance” as the drone scientist turned drone hunter. However, it should be noted the quartet of credited screenwriters never try to invest DR1 with a personality (a la Number 5 in Short Circuit). The implications of that are admirably realistic, but not particularly cinematic.

Regardless, it is nice to see a pro-science science fiction movie, especially one that falls within the post-apocalyptic subgenre. This might be the first film of the decade that does not demonize pharmaceutical companies, which certainly distinguishes it from the field. In many ways, it is an intriguing speculation on the future of UAV and AI technology. Recommended for fans of apocalyptic science fiction and the drone pilot reading over your shoulder, Rotor DR1 is now available on DVD and Blu-ray, from Cinema Libre.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:31pm.