Category: 4. Joe Bendel

LFM Reviews Dear Pyongyang

By Joe Bendel. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Japan’s Korean population sharply divided into camps aligned with the North or the South. At the time, the DPRK-supporting Chongryun ran circles around their counterparts, convincing many Koreans in Japan to “return” to the North. As a co-founder of Chongryun, Yang Yonghi’s father encouraged many such “returnees,” including her three older brothers. In retrospect, this was a mistake. Yang examines the disconnect between the ideology she was born into and the reality of life for her North Korean family in Dear Pyongyang, which screens this Sunday as part of Extreme Private Ethos, the Asia Society’s latest film series surveying provocatively intimate Japanese documentaries.

Yang was truly a red diaper baby, raised by her ardently Marxist father to revere the “fatherland” and the “Great Leader.” Although she attended one of the DPRK funded “Korean” schools in Japan, she was also a young person coming of age in an open society. As a result, she had some context to help her question the propaganda she was steadily fed in class. However, her first class trip to Pyongyang and her brief reunion with her brothers clearly began her ideologically questioning in earnest. As the years passed, her parents would ship more and more provisions to their sons, simply to keep them alive. Yet they never backed down from their allegiance to the rogue state.

Without question, Yang is profoundly disturbed by her parents’ apparent self deception, but she is rather circumspect in pressing the issue on-camera, for obvious reasons. Indeed, it is fascinating to read between the lines in Dear Pyongyang. She implies quite a bit about the miserable conditions there, but leaves much unspoken. After all, she has family in the North. On a more personal level, she also worries her father will consider any criticism of the DPRK as a rebuke of his life’s work. Just the same, she cannot ignore what she sees with her own eyes on each trip to Pyongyang.

Evidently, Yang successfully walked her tightrope, since she was able to make a follow-up film focusing on her niece Sona, whom she identifies with for living the life she might very well have led, had her parents also “returned.” She also was able to get her father to seriously take stock of many fateful decisions he made, on camera, before his health issues put an end to such discussions late in the documentary.

Understandably, an atmosphere of regret hangs heavily over the entire film. While Korea remains divided by circumstances beyond their control, Yang’s family is divided by choices they made. To her credit, she examines their implications as forthrightly as was prudent, given the nature of the Communist regime. Deeply personal but also highly relevant, it is an intriguing, frustrating, and forgiving film.  Definitely a highlight of Extreme Private Ethos, the respectfully recommended Dear Pyongyang screens this Sunday afternoon (3/11) at the Asia Society in New York.

Posted on March 9th, 2012 at 8:42am.

An Indie Darling Turns Scream Queen: LFM Reviews Silent House

By Joe Bendel. The multiplex kids probably have never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (let alone Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark), so the supposed single continuous “real-time” tracking shot making up the latest indyish-genre outing from Open Water directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau might seem like a fresh gimmick to them. Remaking the recent Uruguayan horror movie (including the aforementioned uninterrupted take), they show fewer seams than Hitchcock but more distracting narrative issues come to the fore in their remake, Silent House, which opens this Friday in New York.

Sarah’s family had some good times in their lake house, but vandals and weather damage have taken a toll. Her father and Uncle Peter are trying to restore it, but their bickering makes the going slow. It looks peaceful outside, but with the windows boarded up and the power kaput, the house is pitch dark inside, even during high noon. It would be a scary place to be locked in with a psycho killer, which will be the case for Sarah. After she establishes the lack of phone lines and cell service with an old childhood chum she cannot remember, her menacing begins.

When it comes to the mechanics of skulking about the old dark house, Silent is more than competent. However, when it drops its clues, they clang like anvils. Frankly, anyone who isn’t on to the big twist by the half hour mark must be remarkably guileless, even if they have not seen the Uruguayan original. Unfortunately, this makes it devilishly difficult to buy into Silent as a funhouse ride. Instead, viewers will more likely feel as if they are watching the film play out the string.

Still the toast of the indie circuit for her work in Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen handles her scream queen duties rather capably. There is actually more to Sarah than the typical teens chased through slasher movies, which Olsen evokes quite convincingly. However, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens are just glaringly miscast as Papa John and Uncle Peter respectively, looking more like aging hipsters on a photo shoot for Restoration Hardware than adults with any kind of connection to the real world.

Ironically, the one take device is the least distracting aspect of the film. Indeed, the filmmakers should avoid the game of poker, because they display all kinds of “tells.” As a result, the creepy vibe and some nice work from Olsen, duly framed to maximize viewer leering, largely go to waste. For the curious, Silent House opens today nationwide.

LFM GRADE: D

Posted on March 9th, 2012 at 8:41am.

Israel’s Oscar Entry: LFM Reviews Footnote

By Joe Bendel. Eliezer Shkolnik might not look like a national treasure. According to his colleagues, the standoffish Talmudic scholar has a rather thin resume of accomplishments. Yet Shkolnik is about to learn that he will be awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s highest honor for scholarship. However, the circumstances surrounding his belated recognition are rather complicated in Joseph Cedar’s Oscar nominated Footnote, which opens this Friday in New York.

As Footnote commences, the senior Shkolnik must squirm in ill-concealed discomfort as his son Uriel receives another honor long denied to him. Eliezer Shkolnik is openly contemptuous of his son’s trendy work. He might regard it as rubbish, but Uriel Shkolnik publishes an awful lot of it. The same cannot be said of the father, whose life’s project was undermined by archaeological discoveries and the manipulations of a bitter academic rival. Every year, the elder Shkolnik is nominated for the Israel Prize – but to no avail, until now.

Unfortunately, Uriel Shkolnik has an awkward truth dumped on him by the Prize committee, including his father’s lifelong nemesis. That call was meant for him, not his father. Convinced the public humiliation would destroy what is left of his father’s psyche, the younger Shkolnik desperately negotiates to maintain the honors list as is, just as his father begins to vent his opinions about Uriel’s brand of scholarship in the media.

Though there is no violence on-screen, Cedar’s razor-sharp screenplay draws real blood. All the pettiness and jealousy of academia is on full display throughout Footnote, while the father-son contentions take on the dimensions of classical tragedy. Indeed, their research might only be of interest to a rarified circle of scholars, but they fight over it like a strategic hill on a blood-soaked battlefield.

Lior Ashkenazi (an Israeli Film Academy Award winner, whose credits include Israel’s first slasher film, Rabies) convincingly portrays the conflicted son, while Shlomo Bar Aba is maddeningly but effectively inscrutable as the reserved and rather squirrely father. Yet Israeli theater director Micah Lewesohn really makes it all crackle and spark as the senior (and eventually junior) Shkolnik’s foil, the Moriarty-like Prof. Yehuda Grossman.

Visually, Footnote is surprisingly dynamic, especially given the esoteric concerns of its characters. Cedar employs montages, sly captions, and rapid edits for shrewd comedic effect, in ways that support rather than overwhelm the central drama. Indeed, cinematographer Yaron Scharf and editor Einat Glaser-Zarhin were clearly key collaborators in stylishly rendering Footnote’s sophisticated look and acerbic vibe.

Part of a very strong field of foreign language Oscar nominees this year, Footnote was a worthy contender. Ironically, despite facing criticism from Islamist hardliners, the state media has trumpeted Asghar Farhadi’s Academy Award for A Separation as an Iranian triumph over Israel, cheapening his moment on the world stage as a result. In fact, while in no way a political film per se, the constant security checks Cedar’s characters go through serve as a grim reminder of the homicidal hatred average Israelis must defy just by going about their everyday lives. Intelligently written and executed, Footnote is highly recommended when it opens this Friday (3/9) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:31pm.

French Rendezvous 2012: LFM Reviews Paris By Night

Sara Forestier in "Paris by Night."

By Joe Bendel. Simon Weiss knows a side of Paris few tourists see. Well, some do. In fact, the clubs the vice captain polices might be the ultimate purpose of many visits. Whether high-end or low-rent, there is definitely something brewing in the city’s nightspots during the fateful night chronicled in Philippe Lefebvre’s wickedly stylish Paris By Night (trailer here), which screens tonight as part of the 2012 Rendezvous with French Cinema in New York.

The ambiguously corrupt Weiss knows someone is trying to jam him up with internal affairs. He intends to find out whom as he makes his nocturnal rounds. As he explains to Officer Laurence Deray, he must engage in a different sort of policing. She will be his driver tonight. It is considered a difficult assignment no cop wants to do twice. She will soon learn why. Indeed, it will be an eye-opening night for them both.

Granted, much of the film consists of Zem’s Weiss strutting through the red light district like a shark, smacking around punks as if they are little girls. Of course, that is also why it so seductively entertaining. Yet Lefebvre steadily raises the stakes, slyly revealing details of the frame-up job Weiss is trying to slip out of.

Frankly, Weiss is the sort of role Roschdy Zem was born to play. Easily the baddest hard-nose making films today, Zem already has mucho street cred for his manly turns in films like Point Blank, 36th Precinct, and Outside the Law, but he kicks it up to a whole new level in PBN. This is not Eastwood coolness, this is McQueen coolness. While he could carry the film on his own, Zem still gets a head-turning assist from Sara Forestier as the somewhat incredulous but impressively poised Deray. Together they are quite a dynamic pair.

True to its title, PBN gives viewers a memorable tour of after-hours Paris, whilst unfolding its surprisingly cerebral crime story. Cinematographer Jérôme Alméras vividly captures the glitz and grime, conveying the late night vibe in spades.

While the French-Moroccan Zem is already a major star in France, he is overdue for widespread acclaim in America. PBN is the sort of vehicle that could get the job done. It is a perfect showcase for his stone cold flintiness. Slick, taut, and brooding, PBN is one of the clear highlights of this year’s French Rendezvous. Highly recommended, it screens again tonight (3/6) at the IFC Center.

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:30pm.

NYICFF 2012: LFM Reviews Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Down Below

From "Children Who Chase Lost Voices."

By Joe Bendel. Maybe Edward Bulwer-Lytton and the hollow Earthers were not so wrong after all. There certainly seem to be mystical forces intruding up into the surface world around the Japanese countryside. One shy school girl discovers the fabled subterranean world of Agartha in Makoto Shinkai’s anime epic Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Down Below (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Asuna Watase is a bright student, who works equally hard around the house, as well. After her father’s untimely death, her mother must put in long hours at the hospital to support them. In her mountainside refuge, Watase tunes the crystal radio her father left behind. One day she picks up an otherworldly melody, achingly sad and beautiful in equal measure. Soon thereafter, she is saved from a bizarre Gamera-esque monster by Shun, a mysterious boy roughly her age. He makes quite an impression, but it seems a tragic fate soon lies in store for him.

Though she only briefly knew him, Watase grieves him deeply. As a result, she finds particular resonance in her substitute teacher’s story of Izanago and Izanami, the Japanese variant on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Likewise, Mr. Morisaki is very interested in her when he realizes she has made contact with the world beneath. It turns out he has been working with the Arch Angels, a group of “empty-headed Gnostics” outfitted like S.H.I.E.L.D., who have sought the legendary power of Agartha. Unconcerned with such matters, Morisaki seeks to resurrect his late wife. Stranded on the other side with her fanatical sub, Watase accompanies him on his quest, for reasons that are not yet clear to her.

From "Children Who Chase Lost Voices."

There is a heck of a lot that transpires in Agartha, involving big time mythological archetypes. Highly literate by anime and wider animation standards, Chase is packed with allusions, including periodic nods to the grand old man himself, Hayao Miyazaki. Of course, the diverse mystical fantasyscapes play to Shinkai’s strength. His breathtaking vistas and richly detailed nature studies arguably surpass the recent Studio Ghibli productions.

NYICFF cautions parents that there are several potentially nightmare-inducing scenes in Chase, which is rather good news for grown-up anime fans. True to their billing, Shinkai has created some pretty creepy wraith-like shadow-dwelling creatures, as well as an ancient entity that looks as if it shambled out of a Salvador Dali painting. He also keeps the tension ratcheted up, preying on viewer emotions rather ruthlessly. Indeed, more than just another plucky kid who saves the world, there is something quite touching about the spiritually resilient Watase.

Chase is definitely high-end animation, in both visual and narrative terms. It largely skews towards older kids and general fantasy audiences, but should pay-off handsomely for both groups. Highly recommended, it screens again Saturday (3/10) and the following Sunday (3/18) at the IFC Center, as well as next Saturday (3/24) at the Asia Society, as this year’s NYCIFF continues at venues around the City.

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:29pm.

Cinequest 2012: LFM Reviews The Ghastly Love of Johnny X

By Joe Bendel. Supposedly, 1950’s America was an era of stultifying conformity. Yet it represents a breath of freedom for a group of galactic delinquents “sentenced to Earth.” They can only return when their leader commits a truly selfless act. However, one or two have rather mixed feelings about leaving their new world in Paul Bunnell’s mash-up The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (trailer here), which has its world premiere this Saturday at the 2012 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose (and hey look, free posters for the first 100 audience members).

Johnny Xavier is a bad kid, but when the stern Grand Inquisitor pronounces his banishment, it temporarily breaks his hardened tough guy exterior. He seems to acclimate just fine on Earth, though, leading his gang of Ghastlys as they rumble about dusty southwestern burgs. Gone are the Liberace outfits of their home planet. It is now strictly a Fonzy wardrobe for Xavier, a.k.a. Johnny X, with one exception. He is dead set on reclaiming a powerful telekinesis suit stolen by his ex-girlfriend, Bliss. Things get complicated as their quarrels sweep up a smitten soda-jerk (who will hear the “jerk” part emphasized many times over the course of the film) and an aging (or somewhat dead) rockabilly star.

There are also musical numbers that are necessarily goofy, but considerably better than one might expect from an aesthetic standpoint. Clearly, Bunnell and everyone else he convinced to appear in Ghastly have a real love for the B-movie alien invasion genre. Arguably most significant to fans is the final screen appearance of Kevin McCarthy (fondly remembered as the protagonist of the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Sadly, McCarthy passed away soon after completing his work as the Grand Inquisitor, but his commanding presence is undiminished in Ghastly. Clearly in on the joke, he plays it to the hilt, which is cool.

Frankly, Ghastly has a far more notable cast than viewers might expect. As local late night talk show host Cousin Quilty, Paul Williams is rather funny, while also proving he is indeed still alive. Creed Bratton of the Grass Roots (the band) and The Office (the television show) also gets to ham it up as the late but still rocking Mickey O’Flynn. On the other hand, Ghastly’s proper leads are not especially charismatic, but they can dance and carry a tune well enough.

Ghastly looks great, lovingly shot by cinematography Francisco Bulgarelli on the last surviving stock of Kodak Plus-X black-and-white film. The design team also nicely captures the appropriate ambiance of B-movie cheese for the sci-fi scenes, as well as the right frothy teeny-bopper look for the musical numbers.

Bunnell helms the retro goofiness with brisk clarity, but perhaps he has too much affection for the films he is sending up, treating his characters and their situations rather gently. Still, there is plenty of room for viewers to insert their own jokes, which may be the whole point. A nostalgic valentine to early Roger Corman and his contemporaries rendered with greater style than thematically related films like R.W. Goodwin’s Alien Trespass or Madeleine Olnek’s Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Ghastly should find an appreciative genre audience when it premieres this Saturday (3/3) at the California Theatre. It also subsequently screens at the San Jose Repertory Theatre on Tuesday (3/6) and Saturday (3/10) as part of this year’s Cinequest Film Festival.

Posted on March 1st, 2012 at 3:31pm.