Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar follows the exploits of a donkey, Balthazar, as he is passed from owner to owner, some of which are kind, others cruel, all of which the donkey has absolutely no grasp of the motivations of his owners. Balthazar's life draws many parallels to his first owner, Marie, a young woman whose life hasn't exactly been anything but submissive. The donkey represents life, of sorts, and is really just there to help tell Marie's story. Marie is completely submissive to the world around her, much like Balthazar, and through this similarity she finds solace and an ability to grow. I do believe that Godard summed this film up perfectly when he said "Life in 1 hour and 30 minutes" because Au Hasard Balthazar uses this donkey to capture the essence of life, how all of us, no matter if we accept it or not, are along for the ride. Bresson does a brilliant job at stripping the characters of "performance". There is no great emotional performances just real, lifelike moments, aka what Bresson does better than anyone. Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar uses Balthazar and Marie to tell a story that envelopes life itself, delivering a moving story of purity and virtue.
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In the near future, the western world braces for all out war with superpower China. Vincent, a computer programmer works for the British government, hoping to design a new form of artificial intelligence. He brings in Ava, who has just developed a highly intelligent, self-aware program designed to help humanity, though the government has other plans. Caradog W. James' The Machine is an impressive science fiction film that by-and-large manages to deliver a unique spin on the man vs. machine subgenre. This film is very impressive from a visual standpoint, with great use of expressionistic lighting that only enhances the futuristic world the film is trying to create. Furthermore, the visual effects and production design are incredibly well-done, especially considering the budget. This film looks nearly as good as hollywood films that cost 10 times as much, blending use of CGI and practical effects extremely well. One of my favorite aspects of The Machine is that it doesn't take the simple, "we can't trust machines"approach that has been overdone for years, instead the film argues that just like a human being, the machine can be psychologically manipulated into homicidal tendencies. The film takes the more daring approach with a conscious machine, questioning at times who the real monsters are. The film does fall into some tropes of the genre, like an incredibly stereotypical villian whose war-mongering, bottom-dollar psyche has been seen countless times before. While The Machine is not a perfect film by any means, it's an impressive calling card for a young filmmaker that succeeds on delivering both style and substance. A couple with a terrorist past have been living on the run for the past 20 years. They share a 15 year old daughter, Jeanne, who has never had the privileged of a normal childhood. While living in Portugal, their money is stolen, forcing them to return to their native Germany. Unable to trust nearly anyone while constantly having to look over the shoulder at every turn, young Jeanne begins to buckle under the pressure of not being able to live a normal life. Christian Petzold's The State I Am In is an impressive character study of a young woman trapped in her surroundings. The thriller and mystery narrative of the film is compelling and engaging in its own right but where the film really excels is its dissection of Jeanne. Jeanne has been living a life on the run with her parents and Petzold focuses the story on how it has shaped Jeanne's development as a young woman. Petzold captures the youthful rebellion that Jeanne presents but it's only a piece of the true harm that her parents lifestyle has had. She is an adolescent who has never had the privilege of having a natural teenage development period, never capable of effectively discovering love, sex, and companionship due to her being constantly uprooted by her parents. It's not that the parents are cold individuals but fully occupied with staying ahead of the authorities. This frantic lifestyle blinds them almost completely from the fact that their daughter is not getting what she needs as a young teenager - love, affection, and some sort of consistency. Jeanne lives in a very isolated state with The State I Am In showing how the past transgressons of the parents slowly dissolves the family cell. The State I Am In is an effective film with many layers, further establishing that Christian Petzold is one of the more interesting contemporary filmmakers. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, The Blood of Heroes is the story of a group of futuristic gladiators, known as Juggers, who wander the desolate landscape, going from town to town where they compete for supplies and bragging rights to potentially play in "the League". Sallow, the leader of this group, used to fight in the league, but was thrown out due to challenging the leaders of the group. When Kidda, a young but ambitious peasant girl, convinces Sallow to let her join the team, she gives Sallow the push to challenge the League once again and fix the ghosts of his past. David Webb Peoples' The Blood of Heroes is a low-budget apocalyptic tale which uses its unique concept, 'Jugggers", to hide its lack of character development and narrative. The most notable aspect of this forgotten post-apocalyptic film is its cast, featuring Rutger Hauer, Delroy Lindo, and Vincent D'Onofrio. Unfortunately these talented actors have very little to do in The Blood of Heroes, as the narrative is void of nearly all character development and depth. Juggers (Jugging?) is a very brutal sport, and the film does a decent job of displaying the brutality and carnage in a sport where people play basically to survive. Many of the characters who compete in this barbaric sports are badly mutilated, with each match adding new scars and contusions. The Blood of Heroes is reminiscent of many post-apocalyptic films with its dusty, dirty setting, but the Juggers game gives the film enough creativity to make it worth a view, for anyone who is a fan of the sub-genre. Taking place directly after the events of the first film, Rama learns that the men in the building though formidable, were merely small fish in a much larger pond of the criminal underworld. With no other way to guarantee the safety of his wife and child, Rama goes undercover in an effort to infiltrate the criminal underworld, climbing up the ladder to root out the corrupt politicians and police officers making this widespread violence possible. Gareth Evan's The Raid 2 is a film of much greater ambitions than its predecessor. Featuring a 150 minute runtime, The Raid 2 is a sprawling and convoluted narrative which attempts to tell an epic crime saga that's far different than its stripped-down, lean predecessor. The thematic discussions which The Raid 2 wants to raise about the circular nature of crime and corruption feels muddled in an overly convoluted narrative that mistakes its messiness for being profound. These ideas are a plenty but they never come to the surface, never being explored enough to resonate with the viewer. The action in The Raid 2 is fantastic, with some unique action set-pieces that are incredibly visceral and exciting. The choreography is ballet like, and I mean that in a good way, with incredibly detailed fight sequences that one could only imagine are incredibly complex to create. As a visual storyteller, Gareth Evans latest is much more impressionistic, with some nice lighting and well thought out compositions that work for the most part, even though he pushes it a little too far sometimes. The Raid 2 is pretty much on par with its predecessor, giving the viewer a thoroughly enjoyable experience that works far greater as an action film than the political/social commentary it at times aspires too. Steve Rogers rehabilitation into modern society involves more than catchup up on the latest music, as his idealist mindset struggles to get onboard with the moral complexitites that drive S.H.I.E.L.D's war on international terrorism. When Shield Director Nick Funy is killed by a mysterious assassin, Rogers learns that the organization itself has been compromised by its enemies. Unable to trust anyone, Rogers is branded a traitor by the organization, intent on discovery the mystery behind shield with the help of Black Widow. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a strong addition to the Marvel film canon which brings a hefty dose of escapism with a side of intelligence. At its best Captain America is a film that wants to look at the moral complexities of war, examining the toll it has both on the innocent, and the soldiers themselves who fight in it. It doesn't shy away from capturing the post-9/11 world we live in where murky decisions and ugly-tradeoffs don't exactly gel with Captain America's idealist mindset. The narrative of this film is well-paced, and I like how it encapsulates some of the first films ideas, but the actually mystery behind who is responsible for the betrayal is incredibly obvious. This is the first movie in the marvel universe that actually develops Nick Fury as a character, freeing him to have dimension and depth as opposed to feeling like some tacked on addition in the other movies. Outside of a bombastic finale that began to give me a bit of whiplash, the action in Captain America: Winter Soldier is relatively small compared to the headache inducing action sequences of today's superhero films. Whether it be a plot detail that feels a little silly or an action sequence that uses some wonky physics, Captain America: The Winter Soldier does require the audience to suspend their disbelief at times, but given that this is a superhero movie after all, I didn't find it all that distracting. Nagisa Oshima's Violence at Noon is the story of a violent rapist, Eisuke, as seen through the eyes of his wife and one of his victims, Shino. The film begins with Eisuke encountering Shino, who works as a maid. There paths have crossed in the past, as Eisuke saved a coworker of Shino's who worked on a failed collective farm, only to rape her soon after. Eisuke is a serial rapist with a clear pattern of assaults, but the police have trouble identifying the man due to little cooperation from witnesses, including Shino. Instead of working with the police, Shino contacts Matsuko, the wife of Eisuke, in an effort to expose this man's true nature. Nagisa Oshima's Violence at Noon is a complex, frustrating film that raises more questions than answers. Oshima's film is a incendiary commentary on the porous living conditions in Japan, arguing that these conditions are just as responsible for this man's sexual assaults as Eisuke himself. A study of a serial killer's perversions of sex and violence that's certainly fascinating, though it never quite achieves the greatness of some of his other work. The editing and shot compositions are the high point of the film, using an array of editing techniques that jar the viewer and create a truly unique atmosphere. While I can't even pretend to grasp everything Oshima was trying to say, Violence at Noon is a fascinating study of the relationship between sex and violence, but personally I can't say it reaches the same level of clarity and resolve as some of his other films. Burt Lancaster plays Ned, a wealthy, middle-aged advertising executive, who sets out in only his swim trunks to embark on a journey through suburban Connecticut. He travels from house to house, swimming pool to swimming pool, with each stop giving insight into Ned's past. Frank Perry's The Swimmer is a fascinating character study that slowly and methodically strips away the layers of its main protagonist. As Ned goes form house to house, he meets old friends and acquaintances with the film slowly peeling away Ned's self-protective veneer, exposing a more disillusioned man whose ideal lifestyle may be more facade than fact. The screenplay of The Swimmer is quite masterful, introducing a character whose incredibly charming, happy, handsome and likeable, while slowly revealing the type of man he truly is under this facade of happiness. The Swimmer is a somewhat seering deconstruction of the suburban lifestyle, stripping away the paradise-like facade of white-picket fences and swimming pools, presenting it as a place that breeds loneliness and isolation. The film comes to a masterful conclusion when Ned has a confrontation with his ex-mistress Janice, which leaves him feeling defeated and banished. This alone would have been a worthy conclusion to Ned's story but the real treat lies right around the corner as Ned heads home defeated, desperately needing the love and care of his wife and daughters. I won't spoil the ending, as it's definitely memorable, but lets just say the conclusion perfectly wraps up this deconstruction of Ned. Sean Donnelly's I Think We're Alone Now follows two obsessed fans, a 50 year old Asperger's sufferer Jeff Turner, and a 35-year-old intersex individual Kelly McCormick who both claim to be very much in love with 80's pop sensation Tiffany. With a nice mix of humor and sympathy, the film chronicles these two individuals' lonely lives, who have been classified as stalkers by the average joe. Make no mistake, both Jeff and Kelly are have some deeply unsettling psychological issues with real mental anguish but the film never treats them as violent individuals, rather as two people whose severe loneliness has left them desperate for someone or something to connect too. As the film progresses, Sean Donnelly shows how Tiffany is just an idol these two individuals can look up too and confide in, with no malice whatsoever in their hearts. Equal parts heartbreak and eeriness, I Think We're Alone Now shows how a life totally devoid of compassion or affection can push someone with psychological issues closer to madness and obsession. I Think We'are Alone Now is a film that's a little unnerving at first, but as the film progresses, the viewer begins to feel compassion for these two lonely individuals, totally invested in their abnormal lives. Having just been released from prison, Eddie Taylor struggles to fit in on the outside world. He marries Joan, a secretary to the public defender, who believes Eddie to be a good-natured person whose had a series of bad breaks. With Eddie struggling to find a job, he finds himself framed for a murder rap, placing him back in prison where he awaits execution. Being innocent, and growing more desperate, Eddie attempts an escape which leaves a man murdered, condemning Eddie and his wife, Joan, to a life on the run from the law. Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once is a precursor to other love-on-the-run films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, and They Live By Night, with Lang creating a clear indictment of the law system as a whole. Much of the film takes place before the love-on-the-run ensues, focusing on the attempted rehabilitation of Eddie into society. The way he is treated for his past transgressions is disgraceful, with Eddie having little to no options outside of the life that put him into prison in the first place. Lang argues that it's the system that is broken, not the man, and I personally find it a little terrifying how true this notion still rings true today. Eddie and Joan are two characters in love, it's all they have, in a cold, judgmental world. Visually, You Only Live Once is classic Lang, with lots of impressionistic lighting and shadows that only make the film better. The prison escape sequence is engrossing, with Lang using a dense fog and dark shadows to visually represent Eddie departure to the point of no return. Featuring stellar performances from Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda, You Only Live Once is an underrated film in Fritz Lang's film canon which should not be missed. |
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June 2023
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