Category: Film Review

Existir (2021) To Exist

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1h and 22m, rated 5.0 by 152 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy.

DNA: Argentina.

Verdict: Less can be enough.

Tagline: Only the Shadow knows.  

Seven diverse individuals from around the world are gathered, abducted, and….   Meanwhile in Buenos Aires, She and He, after some preliminaries, started following clues that appear on her telephone screen to find Third who disappeared a couple of years ago, driving off in a huff after a spat, never to reappear.  Third’s friends assume he has moved to another city to leave his disappointments behind and they get on with their lives, though what they do off camera remains unknown.

The clues lead them, after the necessary tropes, to a field (yes, of course there is a crop circle within), guarded by a geriatric and a stereotyped general with a Mad Scientist in tow. 

All expense was spared, and we soon realise the other couple we see through the looking glass living a perfectly normal life are the writer and his supportive wife.  Get it?

Meanwhile, in the story the hacker keeps sending clues to Her phone, and He and She keep on keeping on.  

***

The writer meets the written as the written meets the writer. Saw another version of this trope in Gosti iz galaksije (1982) Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy from Croatia last year.  But none equals Agnes Varda’s Les Creatures (1966).

Something comes from nothing, contrary to Lear, in this low budget production, making it a part of the story. Nicely done. Compare with John Sayles and Jean-Pierre Melville for cinematic alchemy to conjure something out of the air.

Black Box (2012) Boíte Noire

IMDb meta-data is 2h and 9m, rated 7.2 by 17,000 cinematizens.  

Genre: Mystery.

DNA: Gallic.

Verdict: Unusual.

Tagline:  ‘Ear that?’

Another French movie, another ear, this time on an acoustic analyst who works on the flight recorders from plane crashes, of which there seem to be many to keep him busy.  This hero is a super nerd, yet even so he has an attractive wife who seems to love him.  Strange.  Nerd boy is so introverted he folds up, the more so and often because of his acutely sensitive hearing that makes a reception excruciating, but it means he can hear a change of pitch in background engine noise on a flight recorder.  

I wrote an undergraduate thesis on regulatory capture, and that is what we have here.  The regulator works closely with the regulated, so closely that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.  His wife works for a manufacturer of airliners, and she is personally dynamic and socially adept as well as technically competent, unlike Nerd King who sits all day in a dark room listening to engine noises, she wheels and deals.  

The technical aspects are in the forefront, so unlike Hollywood, and these hold interest but as the aged and redoubtable André Dussollier (first credit 1970, and latest 2024) says, ‘with those toys you can make a recording say anything you want,’ and that seems to be what happened in the main event.  In reality André would have been pushed into retirement years ago in any public service. 

Of course, there is a deep and dark conspiracy that does not involve Boeing, but one thinks of 737MAX nonetheless, to approve a plane before it is foolproof.  And a fool proves it.  

The forensic detail certainly held my interest, though it was hard to take seriously the mismatched couple. Even harder to take was the disappearance of the chief acoustic technician, played superbly by Olivier Rabourdin, in the middle of the investigation and no one seems to notice or care, for some time.  

Good to know that greed, corruption, and stupidity are not limited to the Anglo-Saxon world, but sad to know that screen writers can only grasp bad will, and nothing more complicated. 

P.S. there are scores of films that use that title.  

Viking  (2022)  

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 44m, rated 6.8 by 892 cinematizens.

Gerne: SciFi, dramedy

DNA: Quebecois 

Verdict:  Low key, very.

Tagline: He’s Elizabeth.  

The milquetoast junior high school gym teacher gets an early morning phone call telling him, he’s a match. His answers to a stream of questions match those given by someone else.  Off he goes. It is so secret he cannot tell his wife, but she stands by her man.  

I cannot say much more without spoiling the plot and in this case the plot is all.  Suffice it to say that it is an absolutely deadpan comedy as role and player blur and combine.  

It’s Mars as you have never seen it before!  

Wolf’s call (2019) Le chant du loup.

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1h and 55, rated 6.9 by 22,000 cinematizens.

Genre: Thriller, Scifi elements.

DNA; Gallic.

Verdict: Well done, but why?

Tagline: here, hear.

The SciFi premise is that in the near future France is a superpower, and in the great tradition of such powers its armed forces go around the world shooting people and places up.  Hey, that sounds like reality.  

The action takes place on a super duper submarine where Hero is the sound-man.  No he doesn’t hoik amps. He is an acoustic warfare officer who listens to the waters.  There is a lot of technique in this that I liked.  Hero is good at this but he overthinks things and tries too hard to prove himself to skeptics and makes a mistake. Or so it seems.  I also liked the way the filing system played into this mistake.  Then there is the onboard computer that doesn’t work, because we’re over budget for operations. 

Things get tense and it is submarine against submarine.  It’s all about the nuclear option.  

There is a love interest for Hero who appears and then disappears.  Most of the players are adequate, but none outstanding, though I admit I found it hard to take seriously the popinjay admiral. 

Despite the setting, this one did not convey the cramped and compromised nature of the sardine can.  

Oh, and it is spoken (not dubbed) in English on the SBS version, which is interrupted by inane commercials.  

Day of Wrath (1985) Den gneva

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1h and 24m, rated 6.1 by 445 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy.

DNA: USSR.

Verdict:  Lugubrious. 

Tagline:  [Ask the bear]

An American journalist finally gets permission to enter a restricted area in the Appalachian Mountains, but before he sets out he is abducted and….  [Who knows.]  But he has little memory of this excursion.  It might have been a dream. Off he goes to meet many hillbilly stereotypes, including an idiot savant of mathematics destined to be an actuary.

There is a reference to genetic manipulation of bears to increase intelligence and that may have something to do with the restrictions.  Yes, brown bears.  

***

The A.I. subtitles were nearly unintelligible but amusing. I never did figure out the plot. Nor did the poor quality of the video help. 

Some Soviet filmmakers masked criticism of their own society by setting stories elsewhere, especially in science fiction, and this might an example of that.  By the way, this also occurred in the States, the examples being the Twilight Zone or Star Trek on themes no commercial sponsor would otherwise accept. 

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) Dorosute no hate de bokura

IMDb meta-data is 1h and 10m, rated 7.3 by 8,900 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy; Species: Time Travel (sorta).

DNA: Japan.

Verdict:  Fun while it lasts. 

Tagline:  What’s 2-minutes among friends?

The owner of a very small cafe is surprised, then stunned, when he turns on the computer screen to see a video message from himself! From the 2-minutes in the future! What to do?

Well, Present-He does what Future-He tells himself to do, and inevitably the secret gets out to his cronies who usually gather after-hours at the cafe.  Shenanigans ensue as they learn how to stretch that 2-minutes into ever more time. Ergo, it is not exactly time travel, because they are in the future and present at the same time. This duplication confuses both them and the viewer.   

The shenanigans includes intercepting a payoff to gangsters who come looking for the dosh.  All that excitement alerts the Time Police who also show up to put things right, but, well, by then things have gone pretty far…and some of the characters like it.

***

It zips along with high octane, leaving no time to question the origin of the first video and its follow-ups, which multiply from ever further in the future. Pedants need not apply.

Oh, and the reference to Droste cocoa powder governs proceedings. (Intriguing, no?)

There is lots of bumf in reviews about the technical aspects which left me cold, but the gist of it is that it was shot in a single take using  a cell phone camera.  

The End of the Lonely Island (2017) Gu day zhong joie

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 1m, rated 5.3 by 22 cinematizens.

Genre: SyFy.

DNA: People’s Republic of China.

Verdict: Huh?

Tagline: Windows 95 strikes again!

Chinese AI is the villain called TESS (aka Windows 95) which has unleashed a worldwide epidemic that kills all and for which there is no remedy. One response is to launch a deep space mission to find another planet to despoil and another is to wind back the clock somehow on the Lonely Island of the title where there is an abandoned research facility that might have a key, a cure, or an Act III.  Our heroine goes to the island while her beau rides the rockets. 

Now I may have muddled all that because I found it hard to follow, it being fast and cryptic, and short. 

The cinematography is superb, and likewise the acting.  I hardly recognised her from one emotional state to another.  The chap shows less in a stoic kind of way.  Plus I liked the street views of Shanghai. 

However, I never did figure out the plot, despite what seemed to be good subtitles by an AI program!  Sounds of irony off stage.  

The intel on IMDb says it is an independent production, a rarity from the PRC.  

Magare! Supûn (2009) Go Find a Psychic!

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1h and 46m, rated 6.5 by 610 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy.

DNA: Japan.

Verdict: Amusing. 

Tagline: Yes, Virginia.

A television program concerns the paranormal…real or fake!  Each week someone claiming paranormal abilities is the guest who demonstrates that ability.  Bring on the spoons! Two regulars offer comments, the believer and the skeptic who always prevails.  

It sounds as loopy as some of the (un)reality television I have seen here (from the bicycle seat at the gym).

As much fun as it is for the audience to ridicule failed contestants, the ratings are falling and the director is desperate for a boost.  Ergo he decides they need to do better than those who volunteer for the show. No, they have to go find some paranormal talent. To that end he dispatches his feckless assistant to get some real abnormals, as he says.  

Where to start such a quest?  A trip to Wellington (NZ) Paranormal is too expensive so, she settles for reading the National Inquirer, News of the World, Sydney Telegraph, and other credulous tabloids with stories of two-headed cows, UFOs among the garden gnomes in the Imperial Gardens, psychic cooks, miracle cures for stupidity, and the like.   

From this research she identifies places where the ley lines must be crossed, and sets out on the train with her roll-abroad kit.  

Among the viewers of this terrible television program is a group of genuine but secret paranormals who meet every Monday at showtime in an otherwise closed cafe run by one of their number to watch the latest debunking.  Each is sworn to secrecy about their powers and each other. One has X-Ray vision. Another has telekinetic powers.  A third can read minds. A fourth, despite appearances, has super strength … There are six of them.  

Then by a mischance a seventh appears…and confusion follows, just as the television journalist stumbles into the cafe, exhausted and frustrated from her own recent encounters with individuals who claim such powers but don’t have them. She would be happy for a cup of tea and snack, and she is hard to resist, so the cafe owner obliges. 

While the paranormals try not reveal themselves to her for what they are, they would also like to — you know — get closer to her.  Hint, hint.  That is complicated by the seventh interloper. The original six are so used to concealing their true selves from other people, they just don’t know how to talk to anyone, let alone a good looking young woman with media connections.     

There follows a comedy of errors which is good humoured but stretched thin, and it has a denouement that was from a shelved Disney movie. Did I mention it was Christmas eve?

The OA (2016-2019)

IMDb meta-data is 16 episodes of 1h each, rated 7.8 by 119,000 cinematizens

Genre: Sy Fy

DNA: USA

Verdict: All trip, but what a trip. 

Tagline: The Living Dead.

She went out to get a bottle of milk, and disappeared for seven years.  Not quite, but something like that.  Then she came back.

But is it she?  The returnee is different yet undeniably her.  Where had she been?  What did she do in those years?  Why is she different?

That is the kick off and flashbacks unravel her story. 

There are things to like about it. The pace is slow and the telling is convoluted. Some of that is a gimmick to keep the viewer coming back episode by episode and not necessary to the plot or character. Still it is in no hurry unlike to many breathless presentations that go nowhere fast. I also like the gathering a multi-generation group. Because several of them are young, we also see the mental and moral growth of a couple of them as they participate in the quest for meaning. After all, what does ‘OA’ mean? I think I got it but….

I was less enamoured of the mad scientist and his elaborate set up. The actor is great at it but why is he there at all.

My track record with television series is poor. I usually give up after three episodes of so when the attenuated trivia and clichés become too great, e.g. For All Mankind, Mars, Beacon 23, War of the Worlds, Infiniti, and others now forgotten down the memory hole are instances of this viewer’s fatigue. 

I chose this one because I have seen other films from this duo, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, starting with Another Earth (2011) and The Sound of My Voice (2012). Two of the most original and arresting films I have seen. Their kinship to The OA is palpable but the connective tissue is stretched very thin.   

Attraction (2017)

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 2h and 12m, rated 5.6 by 14,121 cinematizens. 

Genre: SyFy; Species: First Contact.

DNA: Russia. 

Verdict: Thoughtful.

Tagline: Oops!  

The aliens may have superior technology but when a fuse blows, well it blows, and the next thing you know a gigantic space ship is cartwheeling down the street in central Moscow, leaving a path of death and destruction behind.  Was the pilot under the influence of vodka?  What now? Indeed, a good question.  

As per the script of It Came from Outer Space (1953), and we even see the name of lead from that film on a poster early on, the aliens just want to change the fuse and go home in time for the big game. Problem is, no fuses.  Inspired by Qantas, UFO management has decreed no spare parts be carried to cut costs.  

How do the locals react? That is the main focus of the film.  Of course, the army is much in evidence, and politicians posture – at a far safer distance than the troops.  But stop right there. The usual stereotypes from The Arrival (1996) or Arrival (2016) have the week off.

The army officer is cautious and the troops are disciplined, and he advises patience, after all we shot it down.* While one politician pontificates for the camera, the minister is no hurry to make a mistake. Putin is too busy grooming Trump, so he delegates a minister to deal with the aliens to ensure deniability.    

No doubt the reluctance immediately to launch into shoot ‘em up has put off many raters. (There is a sequel where this thirst is quenched.)

We see reactions among students, soldiers, citizens whose family and friends were killed in the crash, and more, but no churchman.  Of all the unscrupulous charlatans, you’d think they would be well represented, but no.  

The cinematography is superb, as are the effects and CGI, as is the acting, especially from the the thirty-year-olds playing high school students.  No irony intended, because they do it well.  Best of all, no brilliant geniuses, that lazy cliché of far too many screenwriters who project their own wishful thinking in that trope.

Nonetheless, several of my well-worn complaints apply. It is far too long. The similarity of the lover boy and alien is confusing.  Why does the alien sport designer face fuzz, after all, and why did he shed the impenetrable armour? Early on not quite sure how the armour clad alien communicated with the colonel. What was the point about water?  Why didn’t the alien(s) remain in the indestructible ship? Nor how Pauline escaped from the peril of the crumbling apartment building.  How did they get into the hospital?  The transfusion, well….  Loose ends, there are many.  

Still far more intelligent and insightful than the Hollywood block busters of this ilk.  Right up to the explosion of violence in the last 30-minutes when it descends to the arrested development of La La Land.  

*The blown fuse took out the stealth cloak, and once revealed, the Red Air Force shot the indestructible (?) UFO down and it crashed in middle of Moscow, but no where near the Kremlin.  Too bad.