Category: 4. Joe Bendel

China’s Top Grossing Film of All-Time: LFM Reviews Monster Hunt

MonsterHuntBy Joe Bendel. As the age of legends comes to a close, veterans of the Monster Hunt Bureau are facing some pretty severe structural unemployment. They have just been too good at their job, but when a civil war in the monster realms spills over into the human world, their skills will be needed again. However, choosing sides will be trickier than they imagine in Raman Hui’s CGI-live action Chinese blockbuster, Monster Hunt, which opens this Friday in New York with both subtitled and dubbed screenings.

Song Tianyin is not much, but his absentee palace swordsman father still set him up as the mayor of their provincial village. He is about to be swept up into the monster’s civil strife when junior monster hunter Huo Xiaolan tracks two monsters in disguise to Song’s inn. Zhugao and Fat Ying are desperately protecting the pregnant queen, whose unborn baby is some sort of prophesized Jedi-Matrix Chosen One. The evil monster rebels have followed her into the human lands to end their royal line—and they are really big.

Although Huo initially captures Zhugao and Fat Ying, they manage to wriggle away, but she knows they will not get far. Since the Monster Queen was able to transfer her unborn baby to Song, Huo knows they will always be close by. Huo convinces Song to carry the baby, despite his understandable gender-role confusion, so they can sell him to a dealer. Evidently, monster babies are quite a delicacy. Yet, when the little “radish” springs into the world, they inevitably cannot stop themselves from getting emotionally attached.

So why can’t humans and monsters live together Alan Yuen asks us with his heavy-handed script. Maybe because those big marauding beasts really seem pretty darned dangerous. Nevertheless, the little radish is rather cute. Hui, who co-directed Shrek the Third, gives the monsters a good deal of personality, specifically tailoring them for the Chinese-centric market. It is easy to see why little boys would flock to Monster Hunt, even though it is somewhat more bittersweet than most mainstream American animated films. Of course, some of that is necessitated by the set-up for the sequel already in production.

Bai Baihe’s freshly minted superstar status is largely due to her breakout work in Hunt. She is indeed slyly engaging as Huo, especially in her scenes with older rival Luo Gang, nicely played Jiang Wu, who manages to maintain his hardboiled gravitas amid all the chaos and cuteness. On the other hand, Jing Boran is an awkward combination of klutzy shtick and faceless blandness, but to be fair, he probably did not expect to be stepping into Song’s shoes. Well after production began, he replaced Kai Ko, when the Tiny Times actor was swept up in the Jaycee Chan business.

From "Monster Hunt."
From “Monster Hunt.”

Monster Hunt also features Tang Wei and Yao Chen in goofy, slightly macabre Tim Burton-esque cameos that bizarrely play down their glamour. Sandra Ng and Eric Tsang add further star power, fitting comfortably into the roles of bickering monsters Zhugao and Fat Ying, when they are wearing their human skins.

The monsters are quite impressive, which would be the most important part of a film called Monster Hunt. Nevertheless, the narrative is disappointingly familiar and much of the broad humor will fall flat with American audiences. Still, the film is a genuine phenomenon (controversies of box-office inflation notwithstanding). Hui does what he does best quite well, but he should apply more of his Hollywood experience during the script-development period. Interesting but not essential for animation fans, Monster Hunt opens in both formats this Friday (1/22) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 19th, 2016 at 8:34pm.

LFM Reviews How to Win Enemies @ The 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival

HowtoWinEnemiesBy Joe Bendel. Lucas Abadi might not look like much, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge of Argentine law and an intimate familiarity with Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels. When a femme fatale slips him a mickey to plunder his life savings, Abadi will use his hardboiled insights to track down the mystery culprit who put her up to the job in Gabriel Lichtmann’s How to Win Enemies, which screens during the 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Lucas Abadi has the brains, but he lacks his older brother Max’s charm and ambition. The caper in question will unfold as Max the beaming groom reads the wedding speech his visibly uncomfortable brother ghost-wrote for him. In retrospect, the woman calling herself “Barbara” was probably too good to be true: a sultry legal secretary who shared his passion for Highsmith and Agatha Christie. Their first date goes swimmingly until Abadi wakes up with a headache and his recent cash withdrawal missing.

His colleagues urge him to dismiss the incident as a random crime, but his instincts beg to differ. She knew exactly what she was looking for—and there are only four suspects who knew he was taking out money for a down-payment on a flat. Frankly, Barbara’s copy of American Friend is just too suspicious not to be an inside job.

Somehow Lichtmann strikes a rare tone with Enemies. He keeps things light, but still serious. Abadi is dealing with some profound issues of betrayal, but he is never in mortal peril, per se. It is therefore rather easy to watch him peel back layers of the onion, but there are always real stakes involved.

From "How to Win Enemies."
From “How to Win Enemies.”

It sort of takes a little time to warm to Martin Slipak’s nebbish portrayal of Abadi, but this is definitely a case where slow and steady wins the race. Ines Palombo’s “Barbara” certainly seems like all kinds of dangerous. Sagrado Sebakis notably brings some refreshingly off-kilter comic relief as “the Pelican,” the firm’s off-the-books “consultant” and Abadi’s prime suspect. As the librarian, Carla Quevedo also makes a strong impression with limited screen time, following in the tradition of Dorothy Malone as the bookseller in The Big Sleep.

Enemies is quite a smart and wry little film. It is doomed to be compared to Daniel Burman’s chronicles of upper middle class Jewish Argentines, but Lichtmann’s caper is less fussbudget-ish and has considerably more narrative drive. Its narrow scope and low key eccentricities could be lost on those who expect liberal helpings of either bombast and/or shtick, but it is really quite a lot of fun. Affectionately recommended, How to Win Enemies screens twice this Thursday (1/21) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 19th, 2016 at 8:33pm.

LFM Reviews 2 Rabbits

From "2 Rabbits."
From “2 Rabbits.”

By Joe Bendel. You’d think a schemer like Edgar would be more into RPGs than video games. Maybe he just got hooked on Grand Theft Auto during his two year cooling off period in Miami. He has returned to Sao Paulo with a plan to clean up the city’s worst element and redeem his past mistakes in Afonso Poyart’s 2 Rabbits, which releases today on VOD.

Edgar is a slacker, but he knows his micro-electronics. They will factor in his plan to bring down Sao Paulo’s worst drug lord, Maicon. For years, he has beaten every rap thanks to information supplied by the Assistant District Attorney, who happens to be married to his slimy defense attorney. However, someone has provided the DA a batch of mega-incriminating evidence.

This time, Maicon will need the personal intervention of crooked politician Jader Kerteis, but it will not come cheap, as Edgar knows. After all, it was Kerteis who pulled the strings to allow the slacker to wriggle out of jail time after he accidentally ran down a young mother and her daughter. Legally, he got off scot-free, but his conscience is a different matter, especially when he sees Walter, the still grieving husband and father, who now works for his restauranteur father.

2 Rabbits is one of those films that constantly rewinds, giving viewers flashbacks that suddenly illuminate whatever baffling bit of business it just began. These interludes are slyly executed with plenty of energy and black humor, but we keep waiting for the ones that will explain why Edgar has it in for Maicon and why a particular figure from his past has agreed to help him, but they never come. That leaves a couple Amazon-sized motivational holes right it the center of the film.

From "2 Rabbits."
From “2 Rabbits.”

If we do not get hung up on why anything happens, it is rather enjoyable to watch the pinballs bounce around. 2 Rabbits is all about style over substance—and Poyart’s approach is most decidedly kinetic. He also has a flair for dropping plot twists, even if, strictly speaking, they do not make a whole lot of sense.

Poyart creates enough good will through his choreographed madness to overcome any lingering pedantry. Basically, all his ensemble can do is hold on for dear life, with the exception of Caco Ciocler, who shows a bit of range as the anguished Walter. 2 Rabbits really is a film produced for gamers and it succeeds on that level. Recommended for its attitude and visual panache, 2 Rabbits releases today (1/19) on VOD platforms, including iTunes.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 19th, 2016 at 8:33pm.

LFM Reviews Cinema: a Public Affair @ The 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. The Moscow State Central Cinema Museum was not just a vitally important Russian cultural institution. It was also the canary in the coal mine. During late Perestroika and the early Yeltsin years, the Museum’s cinematheque became a catalyst for open debate and the free exchange of ideas. Those days ended with Putin’s rise to power. Evicted from their stately building, the Museum’s legendary director Naum Kleiman valiantly held the Museum’s staff and programming together until he was pushed out by the cultural ministry. Kleiman takes stock of his losing battles and the grim outlook for Russian civil society in Tatiana Brandrup’s Cinema: a Public Affair, which screens during the 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Kleiman really gets to the nub of the issue in the film’s opening seconds, arguing Russia has always lacked social institutions strong enough to counterbalance the perennially domineering state. In its own small way, the Moscow Film Museum was instituted to address this imbalance. Initially, Kleiman only reluctantly accepted the directorship, hoping to return soon to his position with the Sergei Eisenstein archive.

You can’t get much more Soviet than “Eysen,” as they call him, but for Kleiman and several museum staffers, the notoriously banned Ivan the Terrible Part 2 is his true touchstone film. Frankly, it is a minor miracle Putin’s flunkies have not renewed Stalin’s prohibition. After all, they have forbidden the public exhibition of films with cursing.

From "Cinema: a Public Affair."
From “Cinema: a Public Affair.”

Clearly, nobody understands the erosion of Russian freedoms of thought and expression as keenly as Kleiman, yet he remains a reasonably happy warrior. His enthusiasm for cinema remains infectious and undiminished. For obvious reasons, he is the focal point of Brandrup’s documentary, but he never gets dull. He often relates to films under discussion on multiple levels, simultaneously. The precise details of how the Museum was dispossessed remain murky, apparently as the parties involved intended. However, Brandrup and the Museum partisans openly identify one particularly duplicitous figure, besides Putin. That would be Nikita Mikhalkov, the chairman of the directors’ union.

Somehow Public Affair manages to be rapturously heady when addressing the transformational virtues of cinema and bracingly candid (if not downright depressing) when illuminating the state of Russian personal liberties (or the lack thereof). Arguably, Kleiman is lucky to be alive. If you doubt it, just ask Boris Nemtsov or Anna Politkovskaya. By turns charming, compelling, and deeply galling, Cinema: a Public Affair is the can’t-miss high point of this year’s NYJFF. Very highly recommended, it screens this coming Tuesday night (1/19) and Wednesday afternoon (1/20), at the Walter Reade Theater.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 15th, 2016 at 8:52am.

LFM Reviews Remember You

By Joe Bendel. Amnesiac attorney Yeon Suk-won has lost the last ten years of his memory. Actually, it is more like thirty years according to the record of his billable hours. Pain and suffering have been his stock and trade, but his own trauma caused a deep psychological fissure. Yeon will try to fit together stray puzzle pieces of his memory in Lee Yoon-jung’s Remember You, which opens today in Los Angeles.

The immediate cause of Yeon’s memory loss was an auto accident, but something else happened in his past that nobody around him wants to talk about. Frankly, there are not a lot of potential volunteers. Nobody comes looking for Yeon as he re-enters society after extensive in-patient therapy, except his law partner Oh Kwon-ho. He is eager for him to resume work on Kim Yeong-hee’s murder trial, but Yeon is no longer the legal shark she retained. There is something a little fishy about her—and she thinks Yeon ought to know why, but he is clueless.

In addition to the generally disorienting effects of his localized amnesia, Yeon is also distracted by the mysterious Kim Jin-yeong, whom he constantly crosses paths with. Obviously, she also has her issues and the resulting meds, but Kim seems to know more about him than she lets on. Regardless, they quickly commence a passionate, slightly dysfunctional affair. Yet, just when things start getting good, flashes from Yeon’s past threaten to destabilize their relationship.

Lee plays intriguingly odd tonal games throughout Remember You in a mostly distinctive kind of way. Several times it flirts with Hitchcockian suspense, only to revert back to melodrama in each case. Still, it is very much a mystery and often rather atmospheric. Lee’s screenplay (a fix-up of her 2010 short film) also manages to end on a note that should satisfy romance fans, but is not the least bit sentimental or overly pat, which is a neat trick to pull off.

From "Remember You."
From “Remember You.”

Korean superstars Jung Woo-sung and Kim Ha-nel develop some wonderfully potent yet thorny chemistry as the romantic leads. Kim is particularly poignant as Kim Jin-yeong. Rather than let loose with cheap theatrics, we very directly see and feel how desperately she is trying to contain herself. As Oh, Bae Sung-woo (so effective in Hong Won-chan’s Office) memorably takes the clichéd best friend role and takes it in sleazier direction. However, Jang Young-nam basically upstages everyone as the potential black widow femme fatale.

Even though it is not a thriller per se, Lee Yoon-jung keeps the audience guessing right up to the third act revelation (perhaps a little too much, since the many flashback sequences are not always clearly delineated). The attractive co-leads and the small but accomplished cast of supporting players are also key to maintaining our intrigued focus. Frankly, it is one of the better psychological dramas you will see that opts more for tragedy than suspense. Recommended pretty enthusiastically, Remember Me opens today (1/15) in Los Angeles at the CGV Cinemas and next Friday (1/22) in Dallas at the Cine Oasis.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 15th, 2016 at 8:51am.

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.