Category: Watch Movies!

By Joe Bendel. It is not just kiwis and hobbits in New Zealand. They also have hip hop. It speaks to working class Maori kids like Tu and his friends, who are looking for their place in society. They have all kinds of moves, but the national hip hop dance competition has long been dominated by Kane’s well-funded, widely-sponsored K-Crew. A grudge match is brewing between them in Tammy Davis’s Born to Dance, which screens during the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

If Tu does not figure his post-high school life out fast, his Sergeant father will enlist him in the army. He thinks he sees his opportunity when K-Crew, the reigning dance champions, invite him to audition. This is no mere cattle call. For weeks, Tu will travel to Auckland to participate in the long term process-of-elimination tryout. Naturally, he keeps it secret from his own crew, led by his lifelong platonic pal, Vonnie. Only his semi-delinquent buddy Benjy knows the truth.

Of course, Tu has the right stuff, but all the special attention he gets from Kane’s girlfriend Sasha could be a problem. Frankly, she knows he is pretty scummy, but her snobby, absentee parents only let her stay in New Zealand to dance as she wishes as long as she is still part of a winning squad. She therefore needs Kane.

BTD features a ridiculously charismatic cast in a total Arthur Murray dance-by-numbers screenplay. It is a lead pipe cinch Tu and Kane will eventually face each other. Yet, that hardly matters as long as Davis and choreographer Parris Goebel keeps the energy cranked up. There are some cool dance sequences distributed throughout BTD, but nothing tops the wildly inventive moves Tu’s crew uncorks during the first round of the nationals. On the other hand, it is hard to take K-Crew seriously, because most of their routines bring to mind Mike Myers doing Dieter on Sprockets.

Former So You Think You Can Dance contestant Kherington Payne shows more presence than you would expect from Sasha. In contrast, Tia-Taharoa Maipi is likably enough, but a bit of a dramatic lightweight as Tu. However, Stan Walker is the real breakout discovery, demonstrating considerable range and all kinds of dance floor cred as the sensitive bad boy Benjy.

Yes, there are some real moments, but Goebels’ choreography is still not as distinctive as Yako Miyamoto’s taiko drumming and dancing that so distinguished Make Your Move. Nevertheless, BTD has more fire and grit than an army of Step Up clones. The fact that Tu, Benjy, and Vonnie are Maori is very important to the narrative, but it is not belabored to the point of distraction. This is a dance film not a social issue drama. In fact, it is a rather enjoyable one, in an underdog-Horatio Alger-kids from Fame kind of way. Recommended for dance movie fans, Born to Dance screens again this Friday (9/18) as part of this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 15th, 2015 10:31pm.

By Joe Bendel. New Yorkers have a special awareness of the cruel realities of ALS, because of Lou Gehrig. For example, in pre-bucket-challenge days, the New York ALS chapter launched successful give-$4 drives, in honor of his retired number. Sadly, many champion boxers have also succumbed to the neurological disorder. Herbert Stamm was a serious contender during the dark days of the GDR, but he never raised a belt over his head. He took as many blows as any champ, but his massively bad karma will make matters even worse. Stamm faces a slow but inevitable final count in Thomas Stuber’s A Heavy Heart which screens during the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

Stamm has always relied on his brawn. Even in his less than golden years, he scrapes by gigging as loan collector and a bouncer. His only hope for the future is Eddy, the talented young fighter he trains. He even feels a bit like a surrogate father to the scrappy up-and-comer. Stamm has an actual genetically-verifiable daughter, but they have not had a relationship for years. He did not necessarily intend to abscond from Sandra’s life. Those prisons tattoos did not happen spontaneously, after all. Stamm was just too embarrassed or too self-absorbed to reconnect. He will soon regret that quite bitterly.

It starts with a simple slip in the shower and a bit of muscle cramping, but it is not long  before he gets the grimly fatal diagnosis. Suddenly, he cannot afford to push away the emotionally needy Marlene, whom he had been transparently using for drunken one night stands. He also dearly wishes to reconcile with Sandra, but her resentment runs deep. Soon, Stamm will only find comradery and respect from his old tattoo artist buddy, but their carousing becomes rather poignant.

So yeah, good times at the movies. Regardless, if you want to see a master class in precisely controlled screen acting, Peter Kurth’s lead performance delivers with quiet power. Kurth, who was rather charming as the down-to-earth but utterly befuddled title character in Schmitke, put considerable weight on his physical frame and his psyche. You can see both slowly disintegrate over the course of the film. It is excellent work that never gets too showy or Streepish. It is Kurth’s film, nearly to the exclusion of all others, but Edin Hasanovic and Udo Kroschwald add real grit and character as Eddy and Bodo the loan shark, respectively.

Stuber occasionally overindulges in unsubtle manipulations, but the gravitas of Kurth’s performance helps muscle the film through such sequences. It is an unusually unsentimental star turn in a film that compulsively discourages false hope. Recommended as a fine vehicle for an actor’s actor, A Heavy Heart screens again today (9/14) and Friday (9/18), as part of this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 15th, 2015 at 10:30pm.

By Joe Bendel. Frankly, this horny teen counselor would be better off if a slasher-killer were stalking his summer camp. It would give him more time to hook up. Unfortunately, fending off a horde of zombies with a collective conscience will demand his full attention. He understands this only too well because he was once part of the titular Borg-like group-mind of David Yarovesky’s The Hive, which The Nerdist presented this Monday as a special one-night Fathom Event screening, in advance of a later VOD release.

Adam is more notorious than he realizes for being the player of the camp. Katie is pointedly unimpressed with his attempts to impress her, especially when his clumsiness lands them both in the infirmary. However, a little time in close quarters warms her to the idea of a bit of fooling around. In a case of super-bad timing, they are interrupted by the crash of an apparent military aircraft. Foolishly setting out to investigate with Clark and Jess, another camp counseling couple, they find a really bad scene. Let’s just say there is a zombie-acting pilot and puddles of black goo. Of course, they bring that contagion back to camp.

Logically enough, the principle means of spreading the contamination is through projectile vomiting to the face. Before long, all four get tagged, even Adam. Yet, he seems to have somehow snapped out of it, judging from the film’s flashback structure. On the downside, he seems to have lost his memory, at least in a continuous narrative form. He gets flashes of the previous day, as well as bits and pieces that seem to be other people’s experiences.

Arguably, The Hive owes as much Cabin Fever as it does Night of the Living Dead, but Yarovesky and co-writer Will Honley still put an intriguing spin on the viral-mutant doomsday scenario. While completely apolitical, in contrast to Ladd Ehlinger Jr’s sly, under-appreciated, thematically related Hive Mind, the individual versus the collective motifs greatly enrich Yarovesky’s The Hive. Basically, it is like Adam is stuck at a Bernie Sanders rally, except there is slightly more black sludge vomiting, but only just slightly. In fact, the whole mechanism through which he disconnects from the Hive is well thought out and convincing. Still, it must be said, the staticky, rough-cut flash-forwards and backwards get a bit tiresome after a while.

Gabriel Basso and Kathryn Prescott are also surprisingly engaging as Adam and Katie. They actually develop legitimately tragic romantic chemistry, which is something you never expect to find in a teen zombie movie. The camp ground set also look totally authentic, as it should. According to the pre-screening infotainment slides, Yarovesk hired the facilities manager of his own childhood summer camp to recreate its look. For the Fathom Events screening, Nerdist also produced half an hour of special supplemental introductory matter, including a report from the Mr. Wizard Nerdist on the swarming behavior of birds and insects that provided some helpful context.

The Hive has plenty of dark humor and slimey grossness, but it also has heart and a bit of brains. That is a full bill, really. Cult film connoisseurs need to catch up with it, so hopefully Nerdist and Fathom will schedule an encore screening before its promised VOD release.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 15th, 2015 at 10:28pm.

By Joe Bendel. Seasoned Detective Seo Do-cheol served as a technical advisor to a TV cop show, but he is not about to go Hollywood. Frankly, he is too undisciplined for any sort of corruption. While he is no end of headaches for his frustrated wife and task force leader, he is the last cop any bad guy would want on his case. A coked-up sadistic corporate heir will learn that the hard way when he messes with a friendly acquaintance of Seo’s (Hell yes, that’s all it takes) in Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran, which opens this Friday in New York, after laying a smackdown on this year’s TIFF.

After busting a high-end car theft ring Det. Seo and team leader Oh are poised for national promotion. Of course, the car thieves did not give up without a fight, but that was A-OK with Seo. If he can keep quiet for next month or so, he’ll be moving on up. Unfortunately, he meets the reprehensible Jo Tae-oh at a party for the TV show he basically lent his name to. Watching his abusive behavior towards women rubs the cop the wrong way. When he subsequently learns the truck driver he contracted during the stolen car sting tried to commit suicide at the Sunjin Group, Jo’s perennially under-investigation conglomerate, Seo launches a personal investigation.

Apparently, Bae Cheol-ho and his driver colleagues were fired by a Sunjin holding company for joining a union. Since said union is nowhere to be seen, it is safe to say Bae’s dues were not well spent. Regardless, when Bae crashes the corporate office seeking the wages owed him, Jo humiliates him, forcing him to box the thuggish manager Jeon, who pink-slipped him. Needless to say, the bout does not go well for Bae. In fact, he throws himself down the Sunjin stairwell, ending up in a coma rather than the morgue. Unfortunately, the case is not in Seo’s jurisdiction, but he is not about to let bureaucratic niceties dissuade him. Jo and his chief fixer, VP Choi Dae-ung play hardball, but they keep misunderestimating Seo’s obstinate tenacity.

Despite the somewhat clichéd class warfare themes (seriously, whatever happened to that disappearing union?), Veteran is a rock’em sock’em action film that benefits from its comparatively narrow scope and proletarian sensibility. Seo and Jo just really, really do not like each other. That builds mucho anticipation for their climatic face-off, which pays off nicely.

Hwang Jung-min is perfect as the rough-edged, slightly eccentric Seo, taking the maverick cop to a whole new level of unruliness. Yoo Ah-in is just okay as Jo, a standard issue villain whose likes we have often seen before, but Yu Hae-jin is terrific as his calculating right-hand Choi. Oh Dal-su largely keeps the shtick in check as the put-upon team leader, but Jin Kyung (his co-star in the even more awesome Assassination) really makes an impression in her brief but meaningful appearances as Seo’s less-than-amused wife Joo-yeon. Rather inexplicably, Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don Lee) also has a fleeting cameo as a stationary store owner, but he’s still pretty cool.

Although Veteran is not as smart and stylish as Ryoo’s The Berlin File, he still delivers plenty of satisfying action. Its grunginess and contempt for authority are both good things. Recommended for fans of hardnose cop movies, Veteran opens this Friday (9/18) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 15th, 2015 at 10:27pm.

By Joe Bendel. It turns out people do not know everybody’s business in small towns. After having visions of Hell Fire, Old Dutch set out to make amends with everyone he wronged, but his confessions have shocked the rural community. Apparently, this is particularly true of Ben’s Uncle John. Although we do not see how the fatal chain of events transpired, there is no question the titular carpenter is disposing of Dutch’s body in the opening scenes of Steven Piet’s Uncle John, which opens this Friday in New York.

He might be a murderer (manslaughter seems the more fitting charge), but John is not a bad sort, really. In fact, he is a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy according to Ben. As part of his pseudo-courtship of a new co-worker, the Chicago-based web designer explains how Uncle John raised him after his mother died and his father absconded.

As Ben hesitantly puts the moves on Kate, we see John scramble to cover his tracks and deflect the suspicions of Dutch’s delinquent younger brother Danny Miller. Fortunately, the sheriff does not share Miller’s line of thinking, but he keeps popping by at inopportune moments. However, Uncle John will really have to start tap-dancing when Ben brings Kate home for a spur-of-the-moment visit.

At first glance, Uncle John looks like two completely different films—Fargo in Wisconsin and About Last Night in Chicago—stuck together by a mere familial connection, yet somehow Piet makes it click. Partly that is because we get a powerful sense of how important the characters are to each other, even when living miles apart, but there is also a hard to define atmosphere of unease permeating the entire film. Whatever it is, it just works.

Of course, it is no secret how much John Ashton brings to the film as Uncle John. Best known as Sgt. Taggart in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Ashton has worked steadily in the industry for years, but with Uncle he finally gets a career-defining role. He flat-out knocks it out of the park with his quiet, slow-boiling performance. At times, you can practically see the steam rising from his head, as Uncle John struggles to keep it together. Alex Moffat and Jenna Lyng are also charismatic and develop convincing ambiguous chemistry together, but they would probably be the first to admit Ashton is leading this parade.

As strong as the cast is, they cannot do their thing in a vacuum. Fortunately, Piet has a pitch-perfect understanding of the upper Midwest as a geographical place and a state of mind. Frankly, Uncle John looks and feels more genuine than obvious comparative films like Fargo, Blood Simple, A Simple Plan, and A Single Shot. He also shows an unusual keen intuitive sense of how much to reveal and when. It is a strangely effective thriller precisely because it is not compulsively thrillerish. Highly recommended for fans of small town noirs, Uncle John opens this Friday (9/18) in New York, at the Village East.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on September 15th, 2015 at 10:26pm.