Category: Movie Reviews

From Studio Ghibli: LFM Reviews The Secret World of Arrietty

By Joe Bendel. The love for fantastical little people is pretty universal. Perhaps that is why Mary Norton award winning British YA novel The Borrowers transferred rather easily to Koganei, a Tokyo suburb that happens to be home to legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli. Following several well-received live action adaptations from the likes of Hallmark Hall of Fame and the BBC, Studio Ghibli produced an anime treatment helmed by their youngest feature director to-date and co-written by Miyazki himself. Set to become Disney’s most widely distributed Ghibli release on a reported 1,200 screens, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s The Secret World of Arrietty opens today nationwide.

The so-called Borrowers are tiny but proportional people who live in the cracks and crevices of country homes. They survive by “borrowing” supplies that will not be missed from the human household, like a sugar cube. Up until now, the borrowing has been the sole responsibility of Arrietty’s quietly protective father Pod, but having reached a certain age, it is time for her to learn how to survive as a borrower. As her high strung mother Homily anxiously awaits, she and her father venture into the big house. However, their foray leads to disaster when a recent arrival spies them.

Shō is a sickly human boy, trundled off to the secluded cottage to rest up for an upcoming operation. He instantly recognizes the borrowers from the family legends of the little people living under the floor boards. Even though the scale is problematic, he is also pretty psyched to talk to a girl. Unfortunately, Arrietty’s father is adamant: once borrowers have been seen, they must move on post-haste. Frankly, his concern is not misplaced. Though Shō means them no harm, Haru, the maid of the house, also suspects their presence and intends to treat them like any conventional infestation.

Aside from some CGI here and there, the mostly hand drawn Secret looks richly detailed and lushly evocative. Indeed, the verdant garden is particular suited to the Ghibli magic. The film has plenty of style, but beyond Ghibli’s considerable circle of admirers, it will largely skew towards younger viewers. Still, it is rather watchable for adults so inclined.Indeed, Arrietty is much more agreeably plucky than cloying. Likewise, Shō might be a bit of a sad sack, but at least he is not an energy drain on the film. Even the original songs by French pop-star Cécile Corbel are surprisingly graceful and distinctive.

The only real drawback is the American dubbing, including an over-the-top Carol Burnett as Haru, the bland Will Arnett as Pod, and several tweeners adults will not recognize. Somehow they just do not sound right. (In contrast, the British release features the voice talent of Mark Strong, Olivia Colman, and Saoirse Ronan, which certainly looks more interesting on paper.)

Secret looks great and parents can feel safe and confident taking their children. Although Haru’s maniacal streak seems a bit excessive (from a credibility standpoint), the overall film is quite gentle and charming. A solid B+ outing from Studio Ghibili, Secret opens today (2/17) in New York at Regal Union Square and AMC 34th Street and in San Francisco at the AMC Van Ness.

Posted on February 17th, 2012 at 9:52am.

A Neo-Communist Youth Movement: LFM Reviews Putin’s Kiss

By Joe Bendel. Perhaps nothing signified the all-encompassing totalitarianism of National Socialism better than the Hitler Youth. Likewise, the Komsomol, or Communist Union of Youth, was emblematic of Soviet oppression. According to independent observers, the names are different, but the Komsomol has risen again in the guise of Nashi, a Kremlin-backed youth group fiercely loyal to the current Russian Prime Minister. Though once a prominent spokesperson for the group, one young woman began to understand the realities of the regime she served. Lise Birk Pedersen documents her fascinating story in Putin’s Kiss, which opens this Friday in New York.

Masha Drokova was an ambitious student who believed the government’s propaganda. She joined Nashi, rocketing up the ranks after she famously kissed the titular Russian strongman on state television. She became a national media figure and dogged foe of Putin’s democratic critics. However, her interest in journalism brought her into contact with independent reporters, like Oleg Khasin.

While remaining committed to Nashi, she found she enjoyed the open and robust debates with her new friends. Unfortunately, this did not bode well for her standing within the Putin Youth. When Khasin is brutally beaten thugs considered by everyone except the most willfully blind Nashi loyalists to be acting at the behest of the Kremlin or its allies, Drokova reaches a crossroads.

Only in her early twenties, Drokova is still at an age when peer pressure has very real consequences. To her credit, she stood by her injured friend, joining those demanding a proper inquiry, at no little risk to her well being. Yet she does not repudiate her time serving Putin’s interests. As real journalists say, this story is still developing. Shrewdly, Pedersen never tries to impose a preset narrative, scrupulously recording the messy ambiguities of Drokova’s circumstances instead. Indeed, that is what makes the film so fascinating. Rather than a neat and tidy epiphany, we watch her reservations and doubts begin to stir.

Frankly, Drokova is not yet a fully mature adult, which can lead to viewer frustration with her as their POV protagonist. However, it is important to remember this is exactly why Nashi recruited Drokova and those like her. Indeed, Pedersen conveys a frighteningly vivid sense of Nashi’s reach and influence. After watching Kiss, it is impossible to accept claims that the group is a nonpartisan service movement.

Kiss is an important film that shines an international spotlight on Putin’s youthful enforcers. Pedersen rakes a fair amount of muck, while capturing a very personal story with wider political implications. Mostly scary and only occasionally encouraging, it is highly recommended for viewers concerned and interested in the state of the world. It opens this Friday (2/17) in New York at the Cinema Village.

Posted on February 15th, 2012 at 10:35am.

Oscar Gets Juiced: LFM Reviews Bullhead

By Joe Bendel. It is hard to believe Belgium has any comparative advantage in the beef packing industry. Regardless, watching the Flemish bovine mafia ply their cattle with hormones will not inspire global consumer confidence. One angry breeder takes massive doses himself. Regrettably, he has a very good reason for such treatments, which viewers see in painful detail early in Michaël Roskam’s Bullhead, Belgium’s surprise best foreign language Oscar nominee, opening this Friday in New York.

Jacky Vanmarsenille resembles the bulls he sullenly tends (hence the title). He looks all man, but an incident in his childhood left him somewhat less so. To compensate, he has built up his body, but the constant cocktails of testosterone and steroids have exacerbated his anger issues. Poorly socialized, Vanmarsenille’s resentment metastasizes over time. When figures from his past suddenly reappear, his behavior becomes more erratic. Unfortunately, this leads his family to discount his warnings not to get involved with Marc De Kuyper, the duplicitous Godfather of growth hormones.

Bullhead is quite an unlikely Oscar contender. Indeed, Belgium raised many eyebrows when it submitted Roskam’s film instead of the Dardenne Brothers’ French language The Kid with a Bike, but they seem to have known what they were doing. This is a tough picture that is difficult to pigeon hole. As a character study, it broods in a class by itself. Indeed, there may be no protagonist that is as equally sympathetic and scary as Jacky Vanmarsenille. Yet, its gangster movie elements are not mere window dressing for the naturalistic morality play. Roksam’s screenplay also reflects Belgium’s Flemish-French divide in ways not especially flattering to the latter, adding a further layer of context for those who can pick up on it.

Without question though, the key to the film is Matthias Schoenaerts, who really is quite extraordinary as Vanmarsenille. His physical transformation into the hulking protagonist has been compared to De Niro’s bulking up for Raging Bull, but that is really the least of it. With little dialogue, he conveys volumes, keeping the audience fully invested in his character, even when he commits terrible deeds. This is ferociously intense work. Jeroen Percival provides an effective counterpoint as the nervous Diederik Maes, Vanmarsenille’s oily childhood friend and polar opposite physically, sexually, and temperamentally.

Bullhead’s deliberate pacing and wince-inducing plot developments might discomfort less adventurous viewers, but under Roksam’s sure hand they become high tragedy. In truth, few films so directly address what it means to be both a man and a monster. On Oscar night, it will be the longest of long shots, but Bullhead can go toe to toe with any of its fellow nominees, including Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, considered the frontrunner amid a very strong foreign language field this year. Highly recommended, Bullhead opens tomorrow (2/17) in New York at the Angelika Film Center and AMC Empire and next Friday (2/24) in San Francisco at the Bridge Theatre.

Posted on February 16th, 2012 at 10:33am.

From Taipei to Beijing: LFM Reviews Love

By Joe Bendel. They are two cities so alike, but so far apart. Can a man from Taipei find love in Beijing? There are even greater obstacles facing eight interconnected individuals, but somehow love finds a way in Doze Niu Chen-Zer’s Love (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York, following a special Valentine’s sneak earlier this week.

Father of Ni and sugar daddy to the professional celebrity, Zoe Fang, “Uncle” Lu lives well in Taipei. Having just broken off an affair with the beautiful but needy Fang before it could really start, Lu’s business associate Mark leaves for Beijing hoping to buy property. Instead, he meets disastrously/meet-cutes the attractive but disorganized realtor Jin Xiao-ye.

Although Uncle Lu offers stability, Fang is drawn in spite of herself to Kuan, the stammering busboy older brother of Yi-jia, Ni’s best friend who is pregnant by Ni’s boyfriend, Kai. Feeling understandably betrayed, Ni breaks with both, leaving Kuan to look after his sister while his Notting Hill relationship with Fang slowly percolates.

Love clearly sounds like another Chinese-Taiwanese variation on multi-character rom-coms typified by Valentine’s Day and (Heaven forbid) New Year’s Eve. However, Doze Nui’s film and its thematic predecessors such as Wing Shya and Tony Chan’s Love in Space work so much better, perhaps because they are never afraid of a little emotion or melodrama. Unlike Gary Marshall schmaltz, one never gets the sense the cast-members are rolling their eyes off camera. On the contrary, everyone involved with Love seems to understand when you have deep feelings for someone that may not be reciprocal, it is a very serious matter.

Love also has the benefit of legitimate chemistry within its ridiculously attractive ensemble. Perhaps past familiarity helped. After pining for (Ivy) Chen Yi-han in Cheng Fen-fen’s Hear Me, (Eddie) Peng Yu-yan becomes the object of her unrequited affections this time around, as Kai. He makes a credible knucklehead again, while her turn as Yi-jia is just as sweet and vulnerable. Likewise, Amber Kuo is equally sympathetic and engaging as Ni.

However, the (somewhat) senior cast members really provide the romantic seasoning. Superstar Shu Qi is absolutely radiant, putting Julia Roberts to shame as Fang. She also convincingly expresses her character’s desire to find self worth through productive work, an appealing theme largely foreign to Hollywood and American indie productions (“Work? Huh, wha?”). As in his previous film Monga, Doze Niu provides himself a key assist in a supporting role. Although the comparative old timer, he brings far more charisma to Uncle Lu than can be dismissed as Woody Allen-style vanity casting. One could well imagine a single middle aged woman would be very interested in meeting him.

Aptly titled, Love is/was perfect Valentine’s Day fare, but not unrealistically so. It is pretty clear not every character will have a spot on a loveseat when the music stops. Yet, it is an impossible movie not to like. Recommended for all the secret sentimentalists out there who can safely go to foreign films without losing their cineaste street cred, Love officially opens this Friday (2/17) in New York at the AMC Empire and in San Francisco at the AMC Metreon, from China Lion Entertainment.

Posted on February 16th, 2012 at 10:29am.

LFM Reviews Shadow Dancer @ The Berlin/Sundance Film Festivals: A Timely Drama on the Dangers of Ideological Fanaticism

Andrea Riseborough in "Shadow Dancer."

By Govindini Murty. The internecine conflict in Northern Ireland has provided potent cinematic subject matter for decades. Shadow Dancer, starring Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, and Gillian Anderson, is the latest film to dramatize this fraught topic. Directed by James Marsh (Man on a Wire) and currently screening at the Berlin Film Festival, Shadow Dancer tells the story of a young woman torn between loyalty to her radical IRA family and her efforts to protect her young son by becoming a spy for the British.

What is so striking about Shadow Dancer is that it portrays the British government in a positive light as it attempts to negotiate peace with the IRA – while portraying the radical IRA cadres who oppose the British as unregenerate fanatics.

Andrea Riseborough & Clive Owen at The Berlin Film Festival.

When I recently saw the film at Sundance I asked director James Marsh and actress Andrea Riseborough if they intended the film to have a pro-British message. Marsh immediately assured me that the film was non-political and was intended purely as a drama examining the predicament of one particular IRA family. Riseborough differed from him, saying that she thought the film was sympathetic to the IRA.

This discrepancy suggests how hard it is to remain neutral in depicting political subject matter in the movies; one inevitably has to make choices about what to show or not show on-screen, and these choices in turn affect the perceived politics of a film.

As for the film’s meaning, it will be viewers ultimately who will be the ones to decide.

In Shadow Dancer, Andrea Riseborough (of Madonna’s W.E.) plays Colette McVeigh, a young single mother caught up in the terrorist activities of her staunchly IRA family in Belfast during the waning years of “the Troubles” in the early 1990s. Radicalized by the death of her little brother years before, Colette has been aiding her two IRA brothers, Gerry and Conor, in a series of bombings, shootings, and assassinations against the British and their loyalists. Unbeknownst to her family, Colette has been having second thoughts about the violence she is perpetuating – especially since she is now the mother of a small boy. When she half-heartedly drops off a bomb in a London subway without setting off the detonator, British intelligence picks her up.

British MI5 agent Mac (Clive Owen) persuades Colette it’s time to renounce her IRA terrorist ways and become a secret agent for the British. It’s either that or go to jail for twenty-five years and give up hope of raising her young son herself. Colette chooses to become a British agent, but her brothers’ continued terrorist activities, combined with the paranoia of a sadistic local IRA boss, place Colette in one moral quandary after another. Does she help the British and prevent further killings – but endanger the life of her family at the hands of the suspicious IRA? Or does she keep working for the IRA and take part in more assassinations, only to be arrested and locked away in jail by the British? A budding romance with Mac – her decent, well-intentioned MI5 handler – makes things even more complicated for Colette. Continue reading LFM Reviews Shadow Dancer @ The Berlin/Sundance Film Festivals: A Timely Drama on the Dangers of Ideological Fanaticism

LFM’s Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty at The Huffington Post and AOL-Moviefone: The Most Provocative Filmmaker in the World: A Conversation With Mads Brügger on The Ambassador

Filmmaker Mads Brügger, director of "The Ambassador" at the Sundance Film Festival.

[Editor’s Note: The post below appears today on the front page of The Huffington Post and AOL-Moviefone.]

By Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty. His documentaries have been among the most provocative films featured in the Sundance Film Festival over the past several years. Bolder even than Sacha Baron Cohen, he’s punk’d both the North Korean communist government and now, in his new film The Ambassador, the Central African Republic and the corrupt diplomatic culture that supports it.

He’s one of Europe’s funniest and most controversial filmmakers, although most Americans haven’t heard of him — yet.

The name of this lanky, cerebral enfant terrible is Mads Brügger.

In Brügger’s previous film The Red Chapel (read the Libertas Film Magazine review of the film here), winner of Sundance’s 2010 World Cinema jury prize for documentaries, the filmmaker pulled off one of the most dangerous and politically provocative stunts in cinema history by infiltrating North Korea as part of a fake socialist comedy group. Operating under the watchful (and vaguely confused) gaze of the North Korean government, Brügger’s cameras proceeded to document the bizarre, Orwellian nether-world of today’s Pyongyang and its frightening cult of the ‘Dear Leader.’

In his new film The Ambassador (read the Libertas Film Magazine review of the film here), which recently screened at Sundance, Brügger now attempts an even more complex and daring stunt by purchasing a Liberian diplomatic title and infiltrating one of the most dangerous places on Earth — the Central African Republic (CAR) — as an ersatz Ambassador. His purpose? To expose the illegal blood diamond trade — and the corrupt world of CAR officials, bogus businessmen and shady European and Asian diplomats that it benefits.

Like a tragicomic version of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, The Ambassador takes viewers into a rarely-seen world of European influence-peddlers who exploit the African continent — and the amoral retinue of African officials, petty businessmen and hangers-on who are complicit in the exploitation.

Along the way Brügger and his hidden cameras have close encounters with everything from an obese ex-French Legionnaire heading the CAR’s state security (who is assassinated shortly after talking to Brügger), to armed militias in the middle of Africa’s ‘Triangle of Death,’ to a diamond smuggler with a secret child bride and potential terrorist ties, to a tribe of inebriated pygmies organized by Brügger to staff a match factory.

Mads Brügger talks with Jason Apuzzo at Sundance.

It all makes for a potent, carnivalesque and politically incorrect experience — and one that exposes the mutual racism (of Europeans toward Africans, and Africans toward Europeans) that makes central Africa such a hotbed of corruption and violence.

In the midst of all this is Brügger himself — a tall, soft-spoken Danish journalist (and son of two Danish newspaper editors) with an ironic sense of humor and an uncanny ability to transform himself into the kind of diffident European grandee that African officials are accustomed to exploiting — and being exploited by — well into the 21st century.

Along with my Libertas Film Magazine co-editor Govindini Murty, I sat down with Brügger at the Sundance Film Festival to talk about his funny, horrifying and highly controversial new film. With a shaved head, and wearing a skull ring from DC Comics’ The Phantom, Brügger arrived looking very much the part of an experimental European director.

Apuzzo: What got you interested in [corruption in the Central African Republic] as subject matter for a film?

Brügger: I like doing films that divert from their own genre. I wanted to do an Africa documentary without all the usual semiotics and codes of the generic Africa documentary. You know — NGO people, child soldiers, HIV patients, and so on. But also I wanted a film where you would meet all the people you usually don’t get to see – you know, the kingpins, the players, the ministers who live a very secure and comfortable life away from the scrutiny of the media. So I thought that if I could purchase a diplomatic title, I could gain access to this very closed realm of African state affairs and politics. It’s pretty much a ‘let’s-see-what-happens’ project. Once we set off to do this, who will we meet? What kind of people will I run into?

Mads Brügger talks with Govindini Murty at Sundance.

Apuzzo: How did you prepare to become a corrupt European diplomat?

Brügger: [Laughs.] I prepared for almost three years, because I wanted to really go into detail with my persona. I would go to receptions, embassies in Copenhagen, especially the Belgian embassy because they have a lot of African diplomats coming there. I noticed all the telltale signs, the do’s and don’ts of how diplomats behave and carry themselves. For instance, when they’re having cocktails they like to fold their napkin into a triangle and then wrap it around the glass. I think it’s because they don’t want to leave fingerprints, but I don’t know for sure. [Laughs.]

The most popular cigarette amongst African diplomats are red Dunhills. The most popular liquor is Johnny Walker Black Label. You know, things of that order. At the same time, I also wanted my ‘character’ to be packed with various archetypes, and characters from comic books: Dr. Müller in Tintin, Bernard Prince (a Belgian comic book hero), even the Man with The Yellow Hat from Curious George. Continue reading LFM’s Jason Apuzzo & Govindini Murty at The Huffington Post and AOL-Moviefone: The Most Provocative Filmmaker in the World: A Conversation With Mads Brügger on The Ambassador