Author: Joe Bendel

By Joe Bendel. Human life gets cheap in a hurry for those who treat people like cargo and charge by the head. For some considerable time, a trafficking ring has operated with de facto impunity ferrying desperate clients across Slovenia’s alpine border with Italy. Not all of their customers make it safely across. An honest Slovenian cop and an unknown subject with a grudge aim to stop the gang in Claudio Noce’s The Ice Forest, which screens as part of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2015.

As the early 1990s prologue makes clear, the human trafficking ring operating out of the high mountain power plant will ruthlessly kill to serve its interests. Another body has just turned up in the present day. Unfortunately, the powers that be are not especially concerned about a dead Libyan asylum seeker, so Lana, a Slovenia detective, only has a matter of days to conduct her undercover investigation, posing as a zoologist tracking bears. She is not the only stranger in town. Pietro “the Grease Monkey” has been dispatched to fix the town’s frequently malfunctioning generator.

Most of Pietro’s down time will be spent with the Brazil-obsessed Lorenzo, the brother of the intense looking Secondo, who clearly runs the hardscrabble community in an unofficial godfather kind of way. Lorenzo promises to take Lana up to the power station, so she can snoop around closer to the source. Unfortunately, he will not be able to keep their date, or any others, ever again.

It is easy to forget Italy and Slovenia share a border, since we rarely think of the former in a Balkan context. However, familiarity with the Balkan War and the subsequent uneasy peace will help the audience better understand some of the tragic events that unfold. The fact that some characters are Serbian and some are Bosnian is probably not accidental.

Of course, any thriller fan will appreciate the grandly cinematic Kolovrat Range. Unfortunately, Noce and co-screenwriters Francesca Manieri and Elisa Amoruso are not exactly the cleverest suspense plotters to come down the mountain. Astute viewers should be able to figure out the big reveal just by doing some quick math in their heads. However, the understated nature of the film’s twists and turns is somewhat distinctive. This is especially so of the big action centerpiece, in which Lana’s cable car is stranded in the middle of nowhere, so she matter-of-factly starts shimmying down an emergency cable, as you do.

Russian actress Kseniya Rappoport, looking world weary and appropriately wary is about as glamorous as Ice gets, which is not very. Regardless, she is easy to buy into as a resourceful and principled copper. Domenico Diele somewhat stands out as the only cast member not buried under a rat’s nest of facial hair, but he creates some real heat with Rappoport. Controversial Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica chews plenty of scenery as Secondo while Adriano Giannini gives the film a taste of eccentricity as the hard to pigeon-hole Lorenzo.

Technically, Ice is a first class noir that looks great and sounds somewhat unnerving thanks to Michele D’Attanasio’s strikingly severe cinematography and Ratchev & Carratello’s western-influenced score. Arguably, it is only really Noce who needs to work on his thriller mechanics. Notable for its immersive sense of place and keen awareness of recent history, Ice Forest screens this Thursday (6/4) and Sunday (6/7), at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s Opens Roads.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 2nd, 2015 at 1:04pm.

SuperBob teaser #1 from Grain Media on Vimeo.

By Joe Bendel. He is sort of like a British Ralph Hinkley (The Greatest American Hero), except Robert Kenner has a much better handle on his powers and much less of a life. Maybe, just maybe, he can have a reasonably grown-up date with a bombshell fan on his day off, if politics and international crises do not preempt him in Jon Drever’s SuperBob, which screens during the eighteenth Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

Kenner (a.k.a. SuperBob) is not really a superhero. He is a civil servant, supervised by a new division of the British defense ministry. Sure, he does superhero stuff, but he has to have everyone he saves fill out annoying paperwork afterward. His handler Theresa Ford keeps poor Kenner on a short leash, but it is not like the Peckham resident has much going on in his life. Just ask Dorris, his dismissive part-time Colombian housekeeper.

The documentary film crew following Kenner will give her plenty of opportunities to dish on her socially awkward boss (but wisely, Drever is not slavishly faithful to the mockumentary format). However, as she helps Kenner prepare for his date with a librarian hottie who would be way out of his league if it were not for his flying and invulnerability, sparks will start to fly between them. Unfortunately, both potential romances will have to be put on hold when Kenner is summoned for a high powered summit with an American senator concerned about unregulated super-heroism.

SuperBob is endearingly amusing when it focuses on Bob’s romantic ineptitude and the things that plague him which we all can relate to, such as reams of government paperwork. However, it falls flat when it tries to score wider satirical points. Everyone knows Americans love superheroes, so the notion of a senator (who oh so coincidentally bears a strong resemblance to Pres. George W. Bush) trying to demonize SuperBob never rings remotely true. At its best, satire takes readily identifiable aspects of reality and twists them for comedic purposes. Arguably, the depiction of Sen. Jackson only really expresses the preconceptions and biases Drever and co-screenwriters William Bridges and Brett Goldstein have tried to project on their straw man.

The clunky political score settling is unfortunate, because it interrupts some rather endearing rom-com chemistry developed between Goldstein and Natlia Tena. After years of Marvel’s more everyman approach to super-heroics and William Katt’s comedic caped-crusading, viewers are well attuned to the private side of superheroes. Nevertheless, there is something decidedly charming about Kenner’s frustrated devotion to his mother, his shyness around girls, and his pride in his Peckham neighborhood. Frankly, it is a shame they didn’t have him around during the 2011 riots.

Featuring Doctor Who’s Catherine Tate as Ford and Laura Haddock from Da Vinci’s Demons as June the librarian, SuperBob should be able to count on heavy geek interest. In fact, it is quite enjoyable when it is not trying to make statements. Recommended for fans of slightly rough-around-the-edges superhero comedies, SuperBob screens tomorrow (6/3) as part DWF18.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on June 2nd, 2015 at 1:03pm.

By Joe Bendel. Let’s face it, the terrorists are way more unified than we are. When there is an opportunity to strike a blow against the ever-tolerant West, they will put aside doctrinal differences to make it happen. In contrast, our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are much more concerned about politics, turf management, and general career CYA-ing. At least that is the timely picture that emerges in James McTeigue’s Survivor, which opens today in New York.

Kate Abbott has only been stationed in London for five months or so, but it is clear the Foreign Service security specialist is really good at her job—too good, in fact. When she discovers Bill Talbot, the head of the visa department, has personally intervened to admit several dubious chemical specialists into the country, he quickly arranges to have her killed in a bombing, along with the rest of the visa section. Naturally fate dictates she will be away from the table at the critical moment. That means the assassin, a veteran terrorist known simply as “the Watchmaker” will have to finish her off personally, spy-versus-spy style.

Of course, suspicion immediately falls on Abbott, with the American ambassador and Inspector Paul Anderson, the Scotland Yard point man, being especially obtuse about it all. Only Sam Parker, the senior political officer, believes in her glaringly obvious innocence. Unfortunately, as the Yanks and the Brits chase Abbott, the Watchmaker and his allies have an open field to finish the last stages of their grand WMD conspiracy.

Having helmed the radical favorite V for Vendetta, it is rather odd to see McTeigue associated with a film that considers the mass murder of innocent civilians a bad thing—one to be avoided if at all possible. The credit is probably due to screenwriter Philip Shelby, who co-wrote the second novel in Robert Ludlum’s Covert One series. There are some flashes of inspiration to be found within, particularly with respects to the disturbing but seemingly unrelated prologue, but the film soon settles into a by-the-numbers “Wrong Man” style thriller. It is also disappointing to see Survivor wimping out in terms of the ultimate villains, who are mere schemers hoping to make a fortune selling short.

However, as Abbott, Milla Jovovich is a surprisingly credible presence. After ten or twelve Resident Evil films, we know she has action chops, but she is also convincing playing a smart, reserved character. A Lindsay Lohan or a Megan Fox just couldn’t carry it off. Strangely though, the film does not fully capitalize on her hardnosed potential, forcing her to be a little damsel-in-distress-y at times.

Of course, Pierce Brosnan is no stranger to international intrigue, but he cruises through Survivor on auto-pilot. It is hard to forget how much better he was as a ruthless assassin opposite Michael Caine in The Fourth Protocol. Still, Robert Forster is reliable as ever humanizing the treasonous Talbot (he has his tragic reasons), but James D’Arcy’s unintuitive Inspector seems to be hinting at every repressed, twittish cliché about British public school civil servants.

To its credit, Shelby’s screenplay acknowledges some important realities, such as the events of September 11^th, which were Abbott’s motivation for her current line of work. Survivor makes a strong case Jovovich has been grossly underemployed by Hollywood, but as a big picture thriller, it is rather routine. Perhaps worth a look streaming or on cable, Survivor opens today (5/29) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: C

Posted on May 29th, 2015 at 9:25pm.

By Joe Bendel. This could be the Korean Rom-Com Sigmund Freud never had the chance to write. It’s all about dreams, suicide, and overbearing mothers. Yet, the vibe is feathery light and strangely sweet throughout Lee Kwang-kuk’s A Matter of Interpretation, which screens at the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival.

With not one single solitary ticket buyer ponying-up for the matinee performance, Choi Yeon-shin pulls a vintage diva move, storming out of the avant-garde play, after giving her fellow cast-members a good piece of her mind. Unable to convince her friends to come meet her, Choi starts pounding the Soju by herself, on a park bench. Detective Seo will start to roust her, but they wind up talking instead.

Not so good with CSI sort of stuff, Seo fancies himself an interpreter of dreams. Choi happened to have a rather baffling one the night before. Remember that crummy white compact car, because it will turn up in other people’s dreams and also in ostensibly real life, often carrying the implements used in the suicide Seo was investigating before meeting Choi.

Structurally, Interpretation is a time-warping, reality-problematizing Borgesian puzzle box of a film, with events in waking life repeating dreams, repeating life, repeating dreams. Lee’s film is a feat of reprise and variation, echoing line after line and incident after incident, but giving each new take its own sly twist. He addresses some dark subject matter (after all, somebody ended it all in the white car), but keeps the mood upbeat and playful.

As clever as Lee’s screenplay is, it is Shin Dong-mi who makes it sing. Even Det. Seo notices how well her Choi curses—with style and attitude rather than cheapness. It is a gutsy sort of part to play—the still attractive but past her professional prime actress struggling with life’s disappointments. She nails it will a dynamite performance that is sexy and sarcastic, yet kind of-sort of down-to-earth.

Yu Jun-sang nicely plays with and off her as the preternaturally unintuitive detective, while Kim Gang-hyeon is believably nebbish as her ex-boyfriend, Shin U-yeon. However, young Kim Dan-yool thoroughly upstages the latter in his brief but memorable scenes as the boy whose street art both Choi and Shin appreciate far more than his tiger mom.

Every scene in Interpretation rings with call-backs and foreshadowings, but it never feels forces or excessively gamesterish. In fact, it goes down quite smoothly, ambling along at its own pace—a healthy trot, really—representing a considerable step up (particularly in terms of tempo) from Lee’s already impressive feature directorial debut, Romance Joe. Highly recommended, A Matter of Interpretation screens this Thursday (5/28), Friday (5/29), and Sunday (5/31), as part of this year’s SIFF.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on May 29th, 2015 at 9:25pm.

By Joe Bendel. One of Johnny D’s greatest accomplishments as a night club promoter will be drumming up business on Tuesday nights. Funny, those of us who went to school in Ohio might just remember Tuesday as a traditional going out night, but evidently Manhattan hipsters needed more convincing. Viewers get a sanitized behind-the-scenes peak into the ins-and-outs of night club promotion, based on the real life experiences of co-star-co-screenwriter Danny “A.” Abeckaser in Fabrizio Conte’s Club Life, which opens today in New York.

Believe it or not, getting beautiful women to your club is a top priority for a veteran operator like Mark Cohen. If you comp enough models, the prospective sugar daddies and horn dogs will follow. It turns out “Johnny D,” as he will soon be known, has a talent for it. He could use the money, too. The independent limo driver’s father has had a massive stroke and the family has no insurance.

Starting with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend and her hot friends and quickly graduating to bored junior models living in agency apartments, Johnny D brings a steady stream of investment banker bait to the club Cohen promotes. However, Johnny D (or is that D Train) grows tired of lining the pockets of the sleazy owner. With Cohen, he launches “Tuesday, Baby, Tuesday,” taking over a club on the dead night by guaranteeing a minimum dollar volume at the bar. Of course, it is only a matter of time before someone as ambitious as Johnny D clashes with someone as territorial as Cohen.

Frankly, Club Life should have been way more hedonistic than it turned out to be. For some reason, Conte is just as interested in Johnny D’s strained relationship with his judgmental mother as he is in the sausage making of the night club business. While it might imply Cohen’s boss is a bit of a shady character, organized crime plays no appreciable role in the film, which will probably strike seasoned New Yorkers as rather Pollyannaish.

Despite the risk of accentuating the negative, a little more gangsterism could have worked wonders for Club Land. After all, the best aspect of the film is the attitude delivered by Abeckaser as Cohen and Robert Davi as his demanding client. Listening to them sneer and jeer is a lot of fun. On the other hand, Tovah Feldshuhh is routinely great on stage, but she is a real wet blanket as the charmless Mother D. Still, Entourage’s Jerry Ferrara makes a believable enough hustler, but the film has him spinning his wheels in too many tractionless scenes.

There is enough New Yorkiness in Club Land to keep it watchable, but it is hard to shake the suspicion Conte, Abeckaser, and company have watered-down the real story, for someone’s benefit. No match for Last Days of Disco or 54 (theatrical or director’s cut) Club Land might eventually be worth a stream when people start getting nostalgic for the late-aughts club scene. It opens today (5/29) in New York, at the AMC Empire (and launches on iTunes).

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on May 29th, 2015 at 9:24pm.

By Joe Bendel. Iran might have an Islamist government, but notwithstanding the revolution, average Iranians have never been generally inclined towards fundamentalist orthodoxy. This disconnect will deeply confuse a young devout Muslim woman in Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Parisa Barani’s short Ablution, which screens during the eighteenth Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

Neda Enezari’s mother Afsenah makes no secret she was a “mistake,” whereas the pious twenty-something regards Afsenah’s second marriage as a sin. Neda’s brother Omid reluctantly serves as a buffer between them. He is also much more modern in his thinking, but he respects his sister’s religious devotion. Tensions are already high, with the Iran-Iraq War rudely interrupting everyday life on a regular basis. Resenting her unhappiness, particularly since she represents the Islamic Revolutionary ideal better than nearly everyone around her, Enezari will start to make a series of unfortunate decisions.

It should be clearly noted Ablution portrays the fundamentalist Enezari in profoundly respectful terms. It also finds considerable value in religious observance. However, it is hard to think the ruling theocrats would consider the film to be good for business. Rightly or wrongly, Enezari’s ardent faith is isolating and alienating in practice. The symbolic interludes inspired by Sufism probably would not sit well with the Shia powers-that-be, either. Although not a primary focus of the film, Barani and her co-writer-co-stars Melissa Recalde and Amin El Gamal also give viewers a sense of the intrusive fear and paranoia begot by the state and its feared Basij morality militia.

Recalde plays Enezari with admirable restraint and sensitivity, but it is Amin El Gamal who probably earns the “breakout” honors as the conflicted Omid Enezari. More than just a nice guy (always a tricky role to play) or an audience entry point, he really embodies the heart of the film’s religious and social anxieties.

Barani’s short offers an intimate look inside a middle class Iranian home, challenging some preconceptions and confirming others. Indeed, it is provocative in ways we can only obliquely hint at here. Highly recommended for those who appreciate Iranian cinema and Persian culture, Ablution screens this Saturday (5/30) as part of Competition Shorts: Group 3, at DWF18.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on May 29th, 2015 at 9:24pm.