Author: Joe Bendel

By Joe Bendel. Okay, it’s a little creepy, but animating dead bodies has obvious military advantages. The National Socialists would be just the sort to develop such technology. In fact, the grandson of a certain controversial scientist has apparently cobbled together quite a monstrous division of soldiers in Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army, a midnight selection of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Dimitri is a graduate of Soviet film school filming a small recon squad in the field. Less than thrilled to be shepherding the would-be documentarian and his nebbish assistant, the commanding officer busts their chops every chance he gets. Everyone is on edge since radio contact with headquarters was cut-off. Suddenly, a mysterious distress call lures them to a remote monastery, whose occupants were gruesomely murdered by a mysterious force. You can probably guess where things are headed from here, even if the Commies can’t.

The potential midnight movie appeal of Nazis vs. re-animated freaks needs no explanation, but Frankenstein’s Army is poorly served by its found footage structure. That it is in color frankly makes no sense. Hardcore cineastes will also be disappointed that Dimitri, the Soviet Tarantino, never nods towards the work of Eisenstein or Vertov that should supposedly have inspired him, not that this will be foremost in the minds of late night patrons. However, they will notice when he “cheats” with the conceit.

On the other hand, Raaphorst is on pretty solid ground in the manner he depicts the Red Army. Hardly liberators, they are more like marauders, committing war crimes against the local peasantry that the commander not so discretely censors. Likewise, it becomes clear that their Soviet masters do not care about the soldiers’ safety. In fact, they have a secret agenda in the whole horrific affair.

The Frankenstein monsters are also quite inventive in a ghoulish way, looking like a rogue’s gallery of Silent Hill creatures decked out in Nazi regalia. While Karel Roden has plenty of genre cred, his mad doctor’s character is sadly underdeveloped. There is an intriguing hint of a backstory involving the Frankenstein family’s complicated relationship with the German state, but Raaphorst never fully capitalizes on the Frankenstein legacy (after all, if he is the grandson, then Basil Rathbone’s Baron Wolf von Frankenstein must be his father, right?).

Army’s gory effects and make-up are definitely first-rate.  Cult movies fans looking for a few grisly thrills should find it adequate, but those hoping for more given its historical context will probably be disappointed. Earning points for its realistic portrayal of the Soviet war machine, Frankenstein’s Army is recommended for Silent Hill franchise fans (which it so resembles) when it screens again tonight (4/20) during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on April 20th, 2013 at 2:44pm.

By Joe Bendel. Prepare to go back to the 1980’s to get your Bret Easton Ellis on again. The privileged kids of a New England prep school consume conspicuously and do mountains of blow. They even do a spot of smuggling, which predictably leads to trouble in Mo Ogrodnik’s Deep Powder, a Viewpoints selection of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Eight years ago the Deep Powder secret society was formed on campus by the elite of the elite. Ostensibly a ski club, every Christmas vacation a member is chosen to score a load of cocaine in Paraguay for the group to distribute over the coming year. Reckless senior Natasha Tabor conspires to take the place of her risk-averse middle class roommate because she just doesn’t care. Or at least she didn’t until she met the dirt-poor brooding ski-lift operator Danny.

A promising high school hockey player, his college career was derailed by an accident. However, a Division I coach has promised him a three year scholarship if he can cover the first year. Has anyone ever heard of a college making this kind of an offer, because it smells like a clumsy plot contrivance from here, but maybe that’s how NCAA Hockey rolls. Regardless, he needs money and his girlfriend just so happens to be making a drug run.

The good news is that Deep Powder is possibly the funniest movie screening at Tribeca this year. The bad news is that it probably isn’t supposed to be. The word “comedy” never appears in the film’s description, but if it was intended as a parody of overwrought indies, Ogrodnik nails it.

Unfortunately, the design team is rather wide of the mark in recreating the 1980’s. Aside from a nostalgic appearance of a handheld video game, everything feels wrong here, including the wardrobe and figures of speech. In one scene, Danny Ski Lift woos Tabor with a vintage soul 45 that sounds very cool, but is totally era inappropriate. Still, Deep Powder captures the vibe of cheesy 1980’s melodramas. Throughout the film, audiences will constantly expect a John Parr video to erupt. Perhaps “hope” is a more accurate term than “expect.”

In truth, St. Elmo’s Fire seems to be the standard on which the cast based their performances, getting about the same tepid results. Still, Haley Bennett brings an interesting presence to the film. It might not be a great star turn, but we certainly believe she is a messed up kid.

One can imagine the pitch for this film as Donna Tartt with a pinch of Miami Vice. If only that were on the screen. Instead, Deep Powder offers a surfeit of unintentional comedy. It is hard to recommend a film on that basis, but sometimes we have to take our entertainment where we find it. For those who are strangely intrigued, it screens again tomorrow (4/21), Monday (4/22), and Friday (4/26) as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on April 20th, 2013 at 2:43pm.

By Joe Bendel. Judging solely on the American drive-by media’s coverage, one would assume Japan was nothing but a glowing wasteland after the March 11th earthquake and subsequent nuclear emergency. In contrast, the Japanese media was evidently restrained to a fault, leaving a vacuum for rumor, fear, and denial to run rampant. Rather than the all too familiar images of devastation, Nobuteru Uchida focuses on the messy uncertainties of the aftermath in Odayaka, which screens during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

When the quake hit, Saeko’s husband Noboru was typically nowhere to be found. When he finally shows up, it is only to announce he is abandoning her and their daughter Kiyomi. Next door, Yukako’s husband Tatsuya also arrives well after the fact, having been toiling in his office, as per usual. Despite the government’s unconvincing assurances, both women become deeply concerned about Fukushima’s radiation. As neighbors and acquaintances belittle their worries, Saeko and Yukako agitation steadily increases. Saeko’s stress is understandably amplified by her husband’s desertion. Likewise, a recent painful episode Yukako and Tatsuya never properly dealt with acerbates her anxiety.

Filmed in a deliberately lo-fi, no frills style, Odayaka’s “you are there” vibe is often a genuinely uncomfortable to experience. This is no canned, made-for-TV movie building to a cheap triumph over adversity. Uchida portrays the emotional damage done to his characters in a relentlessly intimate fashion.Odayaka is a quiet film, but it stings.

Nonetheless, along with Chen’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Odayaka lends this year’s festival some major star power. It might be hard to believe anyone could walk out on Kiki Sugino, the darling of Japanese indie cinema (often dubbed Japan’s Parker Posey), but she is truly devastating as Saeko. Always convincing and never overly showy, her portrayal of a mother coming apart at the seams is absolutely harrowing.

Likewise, Yukiko Shinohara plums some dark places as the distressed Yukako. In a way, it is a much more off-putting part. However, she truly lowers the film’s dramatic boom in key sequences down the stretch. Ami Watanabe’s Kiyoshi is also remarkably affecting and natural in scenes that might well be confusing for a young child. Indeed, Odayaka boasts a strong supporting cast from stem to stern, especially Makiko Watanabe, who becomes the face of rigid Japanese social conformity as the queen bee mother at Kiyoshi’s nursery school.

Odayaka is packed with scenes that resonate acutely. When Uchida holds up a mirror to Japanese society, it is not always pretty. Yet, Odayaka is a profoundly humanistic film, anchored by Sugino’s unforgettable work. Recommended for those who appreciate a tough human drama, Odayaka screens today (4/18), this Saturday (4/20), Wednesday (4/24), and next Saturday (4/27) as a Viewpoints selection of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on April 18th, 2013 at 11:28am.

By Joe Bendel. Compared to its neighbors, Taiwan is quite tolerant of its GLTB citizens. Communist China not so much. Nonetheless, the gay marriage debate has yet to reach Taipei. To start a family, one middle-aged man went back into the closet, yet events cause him to question that decision in Arvin Chen’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, which screens during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

It is hard to imagine Weichung hitting the club scene. The straight-laced optometrist is almost painfully reserved. He is a good father, though, and a dutiful husband. He thought he had buried his past, but much to his surprise, Stephen, one of his flamboyant former club buddies, is his sister Mandy’s wedding photographer. At least, he was supposed to be. During the rehearsal dinner, Mandy kind of loses it, calling off the wedding soon thereafter. Having reawakened Weichung’s memories of his younger, freer days, Stephen starts counseling Mandy’s nebbish jilted fiancé, while Weichung starts a tentative flirtation with a flight attendant customer.

Weichung might be finding himself, but he still has a wife likely to consider his actions a deep emotional betrayal. In fact, the relationship between him and Feng constitutes the guts of the film. To his credit, Chen does not take any easy outs. Feng is no shrew. In fact, she is played by Mavis Fan and happens to be a good mother and responsible bread-winner. All of which make things complicated both for the characters and viewers’ emotional responses.

Fan, the Taiwanese popstar successfully transitioning to the big screen, will be most familiar to American audiences from Tsui Hark’s all kinds of cool Flying Swords of Dragon Gate. She still has a cute screen presence, but the acute sensitivity and down-to-earth sensibilities she brings to bear as Feng are quite impressive. Johnnie To regular Richie Jen will also surprise viewers as the convincingly conflicted Weichung. Unfortunately, Lawrence Ko’s Stephen and his cronies are mostly shticky caricatures.

This is not a didactic message movie. Chen resists the Glee-like temptation to lecture his audience on tolerance, but he understandably spotlights Fan in a karaoke number, thereby boosting Tomorrow’s domestic commercial appeal. Like most of the film, it is actually quite well staged. While a few more broadly comic scenes fall flat, the film and its characters are surprisingly endearing, getting a nice assist from Hsu Wen’s lush, unabashedly sentimental score. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is not a towering cinematic experience, but it is extremely likable. Recommended for fans of Eat Drink Man Woman, it screens tomorrow (4/19), Saturday (4/20), Sunday (4/21), and next Thursday (4/25) during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on April 18th, 2013 at 11:27am.