Category: Film Review

Aloys (2016)

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1hour and 31 minutes, rated 6.4 by 1,853 cinematizens.

Genre: PI.

Verdict: Enticing.

Set in contemporary Switzerland with nary a cowbell in sight, the depressed, dreary, downcast, and dull Aloys goes about his business of spying on people.  Jealous wives hire him to videotape their husbands’ suspicious activities.  Worried parents put him onto adolescents who may be using drugs. Insurance companies wanted evidence of deceits about disabilities. Deans want dirt to lighten the payroll. (Well, they do.) The work sounds more interesting than it is.    

Aloys is robotic, though Robby had more personality than does he. His only friend, his father, just died, and he is now even more lonely, but, no, he does not vicariously live on his subjects. Indeed, he is strictly professional in his all his dealings. He is all but silent as he mopes around the tower residences where many of his subjects live, and where he himself lives when he is not riding buses through the Alpine mists.

He does catalogue and review his vast collection of surveillance tapes, and that seems to be his only pastime when not out filming more. He doesn’t enjoy it or do it for pleasure, but he does it obsessively, because there is nothing else to do. This is not a man looking for human contact, quite the reverse. In an elevator car at his residential tower Aloys pretends not to  be there, or shrinks in on himself, when someone else enters.  

This ordered, monotone world is interrupted with a suicide attempt by one of his neighbours, and then begins a game of telephone tag with a woman who is neither client nor subject.  

It doesn’t sound like much but it works.   

The actors are so ordinary, the set is so drab, the weather is so miserable that almost anything would be a relief.  Yet in a way it is uplifting and positive by the end.  I came across it by chance on SBS On-Demand when I was looking for, but not finding, Real Humans Season 2.  Films from Switzerland are scarce and I had just read a solid krimi set there so I was primed, and I liked the enigmatic summary, so I took a look. 

I found the four commercial breaks annoying, and they put me off further viewing on SBS On-Demand for a while. 

Real Humans (Äkta människor) (2012) Season One. 

IMDb meta-data is twenty episodes of 60m, each rated 7.9 by 6,067

Genre: Sy Fy

Verdict:  Cogent.

In a contemporary Sweden android Hubots are the norm for simple repetitive jobs, companions for the elderly, and counter staff to deal with the idiocracy.  The Hubots are very, and I mean very, life-like but their programming is limited, however, there are hackers who for a price can breach those limits. Got it?  Even the Asimov Laws can be hacked down!  

(Think of this marketing pitch: Get your own Hubot look-alike and program it to attend budget meetings with the dean, insufferable training courses on nuclear waste disposal and playground safety for professors, and Department boards dominated by the least productive individuals. Where do I get mine?!)

Some people ignore the Hubots, others object to them, and still others find them threatening, while most happily benefit from the services they provide without a second thought. In this world we meet several individuals and families who cope with and react in different ways to the Hubots they encounter. A warehouse store-man fears losing his job to a doll, an estranged wife finds a Hubot a better companion than her alcoholic and volatile husband, a career woman finds a Hubot has unlimited energy and patience in dealing with her children, a teenage boy wonders if the Hubot maid is fully functional, an elderly man finds the Hubot carer assigned to him is a nag about diet and medication and with which he cannot bargain, a pensioner grows so emotionally dependent on his old model Hubot that when it breaks down he grieves without end, a pastor sees them as another example of God’s children but her flock does not….  While others despise these PacMen and Women.   

We also meet, and we meet them first, a band of ferrel Hubots with their leader Leo, who judging by his Hollywood shadow, is a human.  We also encounter two police officers who specialise in recovering erratic Hubots, tracking down ferrel ones, and arresting illegal hackers who re-program legal Hubots to satisfy paying customers in a thriving blackmarket. There is not much of a problem and the police work is slow and methodical.   

The Real Humans are a loose group of anti-Hubots who stick decals on windows, shout slogans, wear red hats (oops just made that up!), and some arm themselves with rocket launchers and automatic rifles against the day when….?  Well, who knows, but it is always comforting to have a bazooka under the bed in case agents of the deep state come to haul one back to the looney bin.    

And all is not what it at first seemed to be.   

It is uncompromising in presentation, so pay attention. Unlike painfully didactic Yankee television designed for the attention-deficit audience of Pox News, there are no internal summaries when one character explains to another what is happening, nor any labels of time and place, or title cards to focus, or recaps with each new episode.  Nor is there any of the sanctimonious preaching so predictable on Brit TV.  Little is explained as the narrative unfolds, but it seems that in due course all questions will be answered for those with the eyes to see.  

I have seen the ten episodes of season one but cannot lay hands on the next ten from season two with English subtitles.  Little help, please.  

This Time Away (2019)

IMDb meta-data is 13 minutes, rated 7.3 by 164 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy Fy

Verdict: Satisfying.  

Nigel is a grumpy old man and content to remain that.  My audience identification was immediate. The usual tropes follow but they are so well done that it works.  His closed shell opens a crack, and the patient robot enters…slowly.  Maybe I am a sucker for this motif since I liked Robot & Frank (2012), too, when so many did not. Though Robot in Robot & Frank did conspire in a bank robbery. It must the Isaac Asimov effect.  

Another short winner from DUST with the ever versatile Timothy Spall as the reclusive Nigel. It can be found on You Tube.  

Death of Pilgrim (2013)

IMDb meta-data is 3 hours and 53 minutes in four episodes, rated 7.0 by 866 cinematizens.  

Genre: Krimi.

Verdict: A slow burn. 

One of the most thoroughly investigated murders in history occurred at 11:20 pm on downtown street in Stockholm on the night of 28 February 1968.  While leaving a movie theatre with his wife, Olof Palme, incumbent prime minister of Sweden, was shot dead.  

In this film a senior police officer nearing retirement agrees with a cabinet minister in his last term to review the case decades later, and so begins the research into the files, parking tickets, the few photographs before smart phones, the endless and contradictory witness statements, thought experiments to re-act the crime, timing of comings and goings, sifting the thousands of reports seeking the reward, sorting out the reliable from the unreliable, testing witness chains, and the growing feeling that someone has obstructed the effort when…. (where did parking ticket receipt go?)  

 Layered over all that is another investigation into neo-Nazi influence in the police and security services though it evaporates from the story.  It is complicated, and yet it is also simple: Someone pulled the trigger.

It is full of references to unnatural practices with reindeers and Lapplanders to give it Swedish authenticity.  Viewer discretion is advised.     

In one marvellous scene a disagreeable police officer whose alcoholism has seen him relegated to manage a warehouse of lost property until he can be retired, realises the best place to hide something is….right there in the lion’s den. But will anyone listen to this slovenly sodden man?  That is capped by the last lingering camera shot at the end. Stay with it.  There is no padding in this production: every word, every look, every shot integrates into the story. 

By the way, ‘Pilgrim’ was a Security Service codename for Palme.  

In all it is brilliantly produced, directed, and acted, but sometimes hard to follow with the cross-cut timelines, and cryptic dialogue. Miss a title card with the date, and you are lost. Still such an uncompromising approach made this viewer pay attention. 

For those who must know, the solution is banal. No vast conspiracy. Just one angry man who latched onto a chance opportunity, and had the means to do so.   

By following a piece of string, I have been reading a lot about Sweden lately and was reminded that I had seen this series, so I went looking for it, thinking I could watch it again and get more out of it now that I know some of the context from the reading. I did and I did. 

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1984)

IMDb meta-data is runtime 1 hour and 45 minutes, rated 8.0 by 4727 cinematizens.  

Genre: Sherlockiana.

Verdict: Inert.

Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)  

IMDb mea-data is runtime 1 hour and 40 minutes, rated 6.6 by 1129 cinematizens.  

Genre: Sherlockiana.

Verdict: Foggy.

The Hound gets another workout in this misty production with little to remember from it. 

Ian Richardson as Holmes is condescending and superior.  Donald Churchill plays Watson as Nigel Bruce without the avuncular charm.  Brian Blessed injects some energy into a still life of a movie.  

The major characters of The Moor and The Hound are obscured by the fog machine run amok.   

But notice this, in Holmes’ study at Baker Street 221B there hangs on the wall near the door a picture that seems to be of a Turk in uniform.  A very similar picture is to be seen in many episodes of the Jeremy Brett productions, including that of the Hound of 1988.  I found myself more interested in this coincidence than in the narrative.  

Cloak without Dagger (1956)

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1 hour and 9 minutes, rated 5.6 by 126 cinematizens.

Genre: Spy

Verdict: energetic

Post war a woman sees a man she encountered during the war and knows to be a spy.  Impetuously she sets out to tackle him with the subtlety of sledgehammer.  She is aided by a hotel house detective who is comic relief, well, comic anyway, and also a former boyfriend counter spy. The boyfriend is too good to be true, but is. 

The spy is after the plans — is it always plans? — of an atomic-powered tank, which mercifully we never see.  Ever reliable West Australian Allan Cuthbertson plays a by-the-book soldier toward the end. Cuthbertson had served the RAAF during the war in Air Sea Rescue in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns. After that playing solider must have been a lark.   

I rather hoped the title indicated a bit more wit than slapstick, but not to be.

Castle Sinister (1948)

IMDb meta-data is runtime the longest 49 minutes ever recorded, rated an astounding 3.6 by 137 monkeys at keyboards.

Genre:  Old Dark House.

Verdict: Fail.

In a remote, suitably gloomy Scots castle our cast gathers to read the script with growing disbelief.  Because most of the chaps are in uniform it must be wartime, but you’d hardly know from the dialogue.

Soon enough the number of guests at Castle Gloom decreases and the simple working class retainers blame the Phantom, which is never explained, but we do see someone lurking about in a robe and cowl with a skeleton mask waiting for Halloween.  

Danger Man is unavailable so this is a case for oxymoronic Army Intelligence. There is a confused and confusing love interest, an immature boy-soldier, a dour laird, an aloof and icy ladyship, and all those uniforms. With a touch of realism the AI investigator spends all his time in the local pub.  

Turns out one of the uniforms is a Nasty Spy who is – sit down and take a deep breath – the father of the youngest son. Wait, father!  How did that happen?  [In the usual way.]  And the son has in his possession secret plans for deep-fried Mars bars!  The Scots’ secret weapon!  

It gets worse. Much of the dialogue is spoken by the actors with their backs to the camera.  This is a technique that makes expensive synchronisation between audio and video unnecessary. When it is not used, it is apparent that the dialogue is indeed out of synchronisation. 

Released on 19 February 1948 with a thud, even as a quota quickie this must have been shelved.  None of the players is noted for anything else on the IMDb. Most of them have but a few credits and for several this is the only one.  Good career move. Quit.   

About half the run time is distance shots of the exterior of the heap and some murky interiors.  Dashed were my hopes for an Old Dark House with secret passages, cobwebs, sliding panels, spring loaded walls, and spy holes.  

Not to be mistaken for the lost 1932 film of the same title, though losing this one would be a service.

The Flight that Disappeared (1961)

IMDb meta-data is runtime of 1 hour and 11 minutes, rated 5.6 by 446 cinematizens

Genre; Sy Fy

Verdict: Zzzzzzzzz

The cast assembles on a wide-bodied trans-continental jet passenger plane, as per the movie poster, only to discover it has propeller-driven engines!  Gadzooks!  

The identity problem of the airplane is only the first of their problems.  

This is the Otranto Airlines Flight 000 from LA to DC with no stops at SL on the way.  Remember overhead bins without doors?  Well, I do and it was nostalgic seeing them again, waiting for the rain of hats and coats which never came.  This film is too high concept for that old chestnut.  

The passengers board; everyone smokes.  Beau sits next to Belle and he is astounded to discover she can add 2 + 2.  That mathematicians for you.  He on the other hand is an engineer, motors and such, but the only oil is in his manner not in his pores and he does not have the one long finger nail mechanics need to get at screw heads, or so I have been told.  His engineering is done on the drawing board: ‘That should work!’  

Silently enduring an attack of the piles with many a grimace is a bearded man with a deep voice.  He has to be a professor what with the way he cannot find his ticket.  

Then there is the salesman stereotype played by the ever reliably irritating Roy Engel (aka as Engle)  and a middle-aged blind woman with her attentive but not very bright husband.  Yes he is a proto-GOP specimen off the petri dish who raves about Reds among the dust bunnies under his seat.  

Nailed it, this is a Cold War …, well, ‘drama’ seems too strong a word, let’s just say, piece, and leave the ‘of what’ to the imagination. The intentions are the only thing good about it.

Half the run time is assembling the cast.  The only drama is handled by the supporting actors in the cockpit and they do it well, when those prop wannabe jet engines take on a life of their own.  The pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and cabin staff up front play out a drama within the play in the few minutes they have the camera.  

Turns out Prof, Belle, and Beau are the brains of a new super-duper weapon that will vaporise THEM and they are travelling to DC to sign the death warrant for civilisation.  

After Husband jumps out of the back door, they realise that a higher force has rid them of that nuisance so that it can judge them for their about to be sins. Remember, it made sense to the screenplay writer.   

The plane is suspended at an impossible height and they exit through the same door — very gingerly — to meet a silent, youthful jury and a judge who lectures them on their destructive weapon while in the mist the jurors mutter. It is all allegorical or metaphysical or hermeneutical or something.  Scientists are held responsible, not the politicians and soldiers who might use such a weapon. Does that compute?  

STOP!

It has the seriousness, the sincerity, the drivel of a play written by a high school student.  If we changed the weapon to pollution and the scientists to moguls I might suspect an acned Al Gore!  It is that wooden, pompous, and vacuous.  

The dialogue is lifeless and there is no action.  Most of the players are more intent on finding their floor marks than projecting. Odd that since most are sitting down. Though there is a corker of a review on IMDb written by a full bo[o]r(e) GOPer.  Check it out.  It is easy to spot with its 10-point rating and incoherent spouting.  At least Husband had the grace to exit. He must have known what was coming.    

Once Sunday School is out, the three scientists get a reprieve to eat their notes instead of the airline food, which at the time was probably a better culinary choice. There will be no Yankee super weapon.  Kind of makes you wonder what THEM will do though. (Guilty, I had the volume so low it is possible that the lecturer covered that and I missed it.  Maybe he has a sibling lecturing away in Russian.)

The clue that it was a fantasy was that the airplane is so wide-bodied that three people could walk past each other in the aisle!   

Not even Aristotle could figure out why the jumping husband was there in the first place and why the wife had to be blind. After he jumped she was written out.

The IMDb entry gives a release data of September 1961, but no further details. A cynic might suspect it was released into the wild and no one took it. No premiere location is given contrary to the general practice.  

The Candidate (2010)

IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 19 minutes, rated 7.8 by 868 cinematizens.

Genre: Sy fy

Verdict: Corker.

The greasy pole of sales representatives in the corporate world looks just that: greasy.  Protagonist is slick, sleek, smug, and sure, but he is saddled with a bumbling, inept, ill-kempt Partner who holds him back. Partner is always late, cannot find the right room, PowerPoint remains a mystery to him, slovenly, confused, and a dead weight.

But the greater mystery which silently infuriates Protagonist is that Partner is well thought of in the firm despite his obvious ineptitude.  There is no justice in this world!  (Hands up everyone who has thought that sometime!)

All the while, Protagonist gets a string of texts, emails, letters, calls from Nobody who wants an appointment.  Protagonist has no time for appointments with nobodies and rejects these requests, until one day Nobody walks into his office and makes his pitch.  As a salesman himself, Protagonist is amused by this persistent, if diffident, approach of Nobody and condescends to spare him five-minutes.

Nobody then explains the procedure by which a person can be willed to death!  He has answers for all of Protagonist’s objections, what-ifs, and questions. All that is required a one-time fee of $50.   

SPOILER coming.  

Thinking of bumbling Partner, Protagonist has nothing to lose but a measly  $50 and says he will join up.  After all $50 is small change for him.  

But no, he has misunderstood the pitch…., Nobody explains.

Protagonist is the intended victim whose death is now willed and will occur. This was but a courtesy call so that he can get his affairs in order.  ‘Good afternoon,’ Nobody says, as he takes his leave.

In the last minutes Protagonist sees his world in a new light, and the sight transformations of the loyal receptionist, Partner, and others is sharp but subtle. Deft film-making indeed.   

It is a gem with plenty of the commotion of a big firm in the background, and Robert Picardo (aka Dr Hologram) as Nobody is perfect.  While in the cast there is also a princess royal answering the telephone in the outer office. (Figure it out.) Protagonist is reptilian and memorable for it.  

I came across it on DUST and I wanted to write it up so as to remember it.  Move over O’Henry.