Author: Joe Bendel

LFM Reviews Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington @ Sundance; Debuts on HBO April 18th

By Joe Bendel. Photographer-filmmaker Tim Hetherington never considered himself an artist. Nor could he be dubbed a partisan—his work was far too honest. The terms “photojournalist” and “war correspondent” sound insufficient, but they might have to do. It was in such a role Sebastian Junger met his late friend and collaborator, whom he profiles in Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, which screens during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Hetherington is best known for co-directing the Academy Award nominated Restrepo with Junger. Following a platoon’s fifteen month deployment to Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, Restrepo is widely considered by both critics and veterans to be the most accurate depiction of what war is like on a day-to-day basis. Yet Junger clearly suggests it was his time spent in Liberia that most shaped Hetherington’s professional approach. After his name-making series was published, Hetherington stayed in the West African nation for another two years. If anyone could be considered the opposite of drive-by journalism, it would have been Hetherington.

Hetherington and Junger showed similar commitment in Afghanistan, becoming perhaps the most deeply embedded journalists ever. Logically, the Korengal period factors prominently in Front Line, including footage and interviews with veterans of the platoon that will surely interest viewers familiar with Restrepo.

Junger also interviews Hetherington’s colleagues, parents, and the woman he was planning to start a family with. However, Junger saves the last word for himself and he makes it count. As a result, one can see Front Line as a tragically fitting sequel to Restrepo.

Sadly, Hetherington accepted one assignment too many, dying from shrapnel wounds during the Libyan Civil War. (Lest the State Department jump to conclusions again, it should be noted this happened over a year before the Innocence of Muslims protests.) It was a terrible loss, as viewers can judge from the ample selection of Hetherington’s photos illustrating his work. Despite his protestations, Hetherington’s work shows a remarkable sense of composition. He had an eye. Junger presents it well in a moving tribute to his friend and comrade. Highly recommended, Which Way is the Front Line from Here screens again tomorrow (1/23) and Friday (1/25) in Park City and Saturday (1/26) in Salt Lake during this year’s Sundance.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 22nd. 2012 at 11:58pm.

LFM Reviews Kill Your Darlings @ The 2013 Sundance Film Festival

From "Kill Your Darlings."

By Joe Bendel. In 1944, by a confluence of fate, the leading lights of the Beat movement assembled together around Columbia University, including Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Lucien Carr. There is a reason you might not recognize the latter name. Poetry and scandal mix freely in the Beat origin story dramatized in John Krokidas’s Kill Your Darlings, which screens during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Allen Ginsburg is certain that poetry is his calling. His certainty about sexuality is another matter. Arriving at Columbia, his Jewish background automatically sets him apart as an outsider. His resistance to aesthetic orthodoxy, however, establishes his credibility with Carr, the campus literary rebel. Soon Ginsburg is visiting jazz clubs, sampling Benzedrine with their mutual friend Burroughs, and pining for the androgynous Carr.

Ginsburg is not the only one carrying a torch for Carr. Former professor David Kammerer appears to exert some sort of malevolent emotional hold on his ambiguous friend, which Carr increasingly resents. Since Darlings starts in media res, viewers realize this will all end in tragedy.

Known to a scruffy handful of fans for a series of British films about boarding school students dabbling in the occult, Daniel Radcliffe is serviceably nebbish as Ginsburg. At least he looks like a confused kid. However, Ben Foster is almost worth the price of admission by himself, nailing not just the Burroughs drawl, but also his eccentric cadences and precise demeanor. Unfortunately, Jack Huston’s Kerouac is 100% meathead and 0% poet. Still, even though he looks like he stepped out of a fashion commercial, Dane DeHaan is convincingly dissolute as Carr.

From "Kill Your Darlings."

Darlings is a decent period production, featuring some swinging tracks from Vince Giordano. Frustratingly, music comes dead last in the closing credits, well after the caterers and the drivers, even though it contributes far more to the overall viewing experience. What would Ginsburg and Kerouac say about that? However, the colorless underscore is a truly baffling creative decision. David Amram is still at the top of his game and has considerable experience scoring films; had Darlings brought him onboard they would have had an apostolic connection to the Beat Generation. That’s his music in Pull My Daisy, after all. Instead, they opted for the light classical approach.

Indeed, Darlings represents a series of missed opportunities. Foster is terrific and the mid-1940’s New York vibe is appealing. It even has Sledgehammer!’s David Rasche as the Dean of Columbia. Nonetheless, the film’s lurid preoccupation with Carr’s sex life becomes tiresome. More music and more poetry would have made it a stronger work. Mostly of interest to earnest Ginsburg and Burroughs fans, Kill Your Darlings screens again today (1/22), tomorrow (1/23), and Friday (1/25) in Park City as part of this year’s Sundance.

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:57pm.

LFM Reviews What Isn’t There (Ang Nawawala) @ The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Alt-pop music used to be great at expressing young amour and heartsick yearning. Evidently, it still does in the Philippines. Some remarkably catchy tunes perfectly accompany a damaged teen’s first significant love in Marie Jamora’s What Isn’t There, which screens again today as part of the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

Gibson Bonifacio stopped speaking. He could if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. He blames himself for his twin brother’s death and assumes everyone else does, too. His mother’s overbearing behavior does not exactly help bring him out of his shell, either. Unfortunately, his beloved little sister Promise bears the brunt of her control freak parenting. Bonifacio’s only solace comes from his brother’s ghost conjured from his imagination and his vintage music, until he happens to meet Enid del Mundo.

Much to his surprise, del Mundo does not seem to mind his silent ways. She is also a vinyl collector, whose tastes include British New Wave and traditional Harana ballads. She is cute, too. Viewers can hardly blame Bonifacio for getting hung up on her, even though we know by now young love almost never runs smoothly.

You can dog WIT for being sentimental, but it takes its characters and situations refreshingly seriously. Jamora and co-writer Ramon De Veyra clearly think getting dumped is a pretty rotten thing to happen to a sensitive teenager, which indeed it is. She also has an ear for hummable and thematically appropriate pop songs and Haranas.

Dominic Roco’s Bonifacio is supposed to be introverted, but there are times when he seems to literally shrink on camera. In contrast, Annicka Dolonius lights up the screen as del Mundo. While the large supporting ensemble all looks right, Boboy Garovillo and Sabrina Man both add a memorable sense of earnest down-to-earth-ness as Bonifacio’s father and younger sister, respectively.

WIT is a lot like a Filipino John Hughes movie, but with less comedy. Those who like bittersweet teen dramas will really dig this one. Recommended accordingly, What Isn’t There screens again this afternoon (1/22) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:55pm.

Snow White in the Bull Ring: LFM Reviews Blancanieves

By Joe Bendel. It often seems like the Academy’s rules for the best foreign language category are obscure and arbitrarily applied. Frankly, the only language spoken in Spain’s official submission is body language. Yet Pablo Berger’s silent film qualified. In fairness, it is about as Spanish as it gets, earning eighteen Goya nominations for combining the Snow White fairy tale with the rich tradition of bullfighting. Unfortunately, Blancanieves will not repeat The Artist’s Oscar success, failing to even reach the foreign language shortlist. However, it should still find considerable arthouse love when it opens this Friday in New York.

Antonio Villalta was a great matador, but one day he faced one bull too many. As the paralyzed Villalta lies upon the operating table, his beloved sadly dies in child birth. Recognizing a ticket to the easy life, the cold, calculating nurse Encarna sets her sites on the weakened widower. Yes, you could say she is an evil stepmother to young Carmen. Initially raised by her grandmother, Carmen is forced to become a servant on the Villalta estate after the kindly old woman’s death. Though forbidden to see her father, she starts paying furtive visits to the equally miserable Villalta. Even confined to his wheelchair, Villalta teaches her everything about the family business. It will be a useful skill when things come to a head with Encarna.

Suffering from amnesia, Carmen falls in with an itinerant company of diminutive novelty bullfighters. When her innate talent and extensive training are revealed, the troupe is quickly redubbed “Blancanieves and the Seven Dwarfs.” They seem to be one dwarf short, but they are never sticklers for details in Spain. Obviously, the act is a hit, which perturbs Encarna and you know what that means.

Blancanieves is the third Snow White adaptation in about a year’s time and by far the best. Yet it will draw far more comparisons to Michel Hazanavicius’s Artist than to Kristen Stewart’s home-wrecking Huntsman. Without question, Berger is a much richer visual stylist than the Oscar winning director. On the other hand Hazanavicius’s elegantly light touch, flair for physical comedy, and old fashioned romanticism are ultimately a tad more satisfying. Nonetheless, Berger frames some stunningly expressionistic tableaux and his transitions are a show unto themselves. However, he embraces all of the tragic heaviness of the Brothers Grimm and almost none of their macabre fantasy.

The cast is also quite strong (but again The Artist’s ensemble would narrowly take the honors in a face-off). Daniel Giménez Cacho’s work as Villalta is particularly poignant and the dwarfs stand head-and-shoulders above their more famous counterparts in Huntsman. Sofía Oria is also quite touching as young Carmen (while Macarena García’s older incarnation is somewhat less so).

Watching Blancanieves, one is struck by the painstaking composition of each shot and the care taken to perfectly match every note of Alfonso de Vilallonga’s score (featuring both sweeping orchestral pieces and some infectious flamenco-inspired songs). Furthermore, the lack of award season recognition for Kiko de la Rica’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography is nothing less than a crime. A work of true cinematic artistry, Blancanieves is recommended for all real movie lovers when it opens this Friday (1/25) in New York.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 22nd, 2012 at 11:54pm.

LFM Reviews S-VHS @ The 2013 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Have you ever watched something so disturbing that you wish you could un-see it? Like maybe A Serbian Film or Barbra Streisand’s Guilt Trip? That is sort of the premise behind the follow-up to last year’s horror anthology V/H/S. While S-VHS is very definitely a film for horror diehards, it is not a similarly soul-shredding experience. In fact, it should be a heck of a fan-pleaser during its midnight screenings at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The only place S-VHS repeats V/H/S is during Simon Barrett’s interstitial framing arc, Tape 47. Once again, strangers have broken into a sketchy looking house, finding a mysterious assortment of VHS tapes. This time around, a detective and his assistant, Ayesha, are looking for a missing college student, who evidently became obsessed with his collection of macabre found footage. It seems he believed the cumulative effect of watching certain tapes consecutively would have a transformative effect on the viewer. Naturally, Ayesha does exactly that, utilizing the monitors conveniently provided.

Adam Wingard’s Clinical Trials might be the most conventional of the four tapes the intruders watch, but it still delivers plenty of creeps and jolts. After an accident, a man has received a bionic optical implant to replace a lost eye. The experimental treatment is free, but his initial experiences will be recorded for analysis. (How such advanced technology was transferred to an obsolete VHS tape is not a question worth asking.) With his artificially boosted vision, the man starts seeing things he never could before, like the dead people haunting his home.

In a bit of a departure, Edúardo Sanchez & Gregg Hale’s A Ride in the Park aims more for gross-outs than edge-of-the-seat scares, but it delivers accordingly. Recorded through the protagonist’s bike helmet-cam, it could be described as the “zombie vomit” installment. What more do you need to know?

Not surprisingly, the strongest constituent film comes from Gareth Huw Evans, who helmed the spectacular martial arts shoot-out The Raid. Also set in Indonesia (a refreshing change of pace for the franchise), Safe Haven, co-directed with Timo Tjahjanto, consists of the footage shot by a documentary film crew visiting the compound of a reputed cult leader. Initially, the well-spoken guru cooperates in the apparent hope of counteracting some of his bad PR. However, their presence seems to ignite something evil.

Evans and Tjahjanto sure understand how to pace a film. Steadily escalating the degree of wtf-ness, they throw in just about everything but the kitchen sink, culminating with one of the best composed closing shots you could ever hope to see in a genre film. The ensemble cast is also first rate, from top to bottom.

While not quite as inspired as Haven, Jason Eisener’s Alien Abduction Slumber Party still ends S-VHS on a high note. This is truly a descriptive title. However, the dialogue and relationship dynamics are cleverly written, without sounding like an attempted Scream rip-off. It is also a good example of how brief, blurry images seen out of the corner of one’s eye can be far more unsettling than front-and-center special effects shots.

Like its predecessor, S-VHS is pretty scary stuff, but by offering more humor and gleeful gore, it happens to be more fun. A rare case of a sequel surpassing the original, S-VHS is enthusiastically recommended for midnight movie veterans (perhaps exclusively). It screens again Tuesday (1/22) and Thursday (1/24) in Park City and Sunday (1/26) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 9:57pm.

LFM Reviews The Look of Love @ The 2013 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Paul Raymond was like the British Hefner, except he was significantly richer. It turns out that real estate and dirty magazines were a highly profitable combination. Who knew? Yet, despite the money and the parties, Raymond’s story is rather sad, at least according to Michael Winterbottom’s big screen treatment, The Look of Love, which screens during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

Initially a burlesque impresario, Raymond’s first foray into publishing was a failure. The timing was better for Men Only in the early 1970’s. Much like Hefner, Raymond planned to turn control of his companies over to his daughter, Debbie. Unfortunately, as the audience quickly understands from the flashback structure, this will not come to pass.

Matt Greenhalgh’s screenplay unambiguously argues that doing coke with your daughter does not constitute good parenting. Actually, Look’s inclination to pass moral judgment is rather refreshing. Yet it clearly wants to have its cheesecake and eat it too. There are plenty of scenes of Raymond’s naughty stage shows and photo-shoots. However, the real estate side of his empire gets decidedly short shrift. It might not be as cinematic, but it is important. At the height of his family tragedy, Raymond was declared the wealthiest man in the UK, but Look never really explores his considerable business acumen.

Reuniting with Winterbottom again (following the thoroughly entertaining Trip), Steve Coogan is quite masterful in the dramedic lead, vividly portraying Raymond’s recklessness and remorse. Unlike obvious comparison films (such as Boogie Nights), Look boasts several strong women characters, including Raymond’s first wife Jean and his longtime lover, Fiona Richmond, both of whom were once involved in the risqué side of his business. One might even go so far as to say that Tamsin Egerton projects empowered confidence as Richmond, the sex symbol who eventually has enough. As Ms. Raymond #1, Anna Friel’s mature, self-possessed sexuality also works quite well on-screen. Conversely, Imogen Poots’ lost little rich party girl persona becomes rather exhausting.

It is hard not to enjoy Raymond’s breezy first act success story, but since we know more or less how it ends, the third act plays out like a grim end-game. As a period production, Look gets the groovy details right and if you dig David and Bacharach, you will have plenty to hum along with here. Look is a fascinating morality tale, but it just could have used a bit more pep down the stretch. Recommended reservedly for Coogan fans and those obsessed with the early adult smut industry, The Look of Love screens again Wednesday (1/23) in Salt Lake, Thursday (1/24) in Sundance Resort, and Saturday (1/26) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 9:54pm.