Category: News/Opinion

After the Apocalypse: LFM Reviews In the Flesh; Premieres This Week on BBC America

By Joe Bendel. Here’s the good news: the zombie apocalypse is over and humanity won. Gracious in victory, we have developed something of a Marshall Plan for the undead. The proper term is now “Partially Deceased Syndrome.” With proper treatment, those afflicted can regain their consciousness and eventually be reintegrated into society. At least that is the theory. Reality is a lot trickier for one PDS teenager in series writer-creator Dominic Mitchell’s three part In the Flesh (promo here), which premieres this Thursday on BBC America.

The small town of Roarton suffered heavy losses during what is now called “the Rising.” The Human Volunteer Force (HVF) militias were first founded here and Roarton’s unit has yet to disband. It is the worst place a rehabilitated zombie to re-enter society, but it is where Kieren Walker’s family lives. His parents are walking on eggshells, determined to keep his homecoming a secret, but nonetheless overjoyed to have their son back. His younger sister Jem is a different story. Active in the local HVF, she now considers their militant leader Bill Macy a mentor. Kieren Walker already has some complicated history with the Macy family and it will soon get even thornier.

Following the lead of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Flesh employs zombies as a vehicle for social commentary. However, this approach is always limited by the nature of the genre. We see through Walker’s flashbacks the terrors he wreaked in his feral state. It was not his fault according to his doctors, but it still isn’t pretty. With rumors swirling of rehabbed PDS cases deliberately going off their meds, it is hard to blame the good citizens of Roarton for being slightly on edge. Nonetheless, Mitchell stacks the deck against them, casting the fire-and-brimstone Vicar and the unhinged Macy as paranoid demagogues.

From "In the Flesh."

Flesh works considerably better on the micro level when it focuses on Walker’s guilt for both his zombie atrocities and the circumstances that led to his initial death. There is also an interesting relationship that develops between him and Amy Dyer, a more free-spirited PDS teen.

Luke Newberry is adequately morose as Walker, but he is frequently upstaged by other Walker family members. Harriet Cains shows potential star power as the forceful Jem, but Steve Cooper really gets to lower the emotional boom as Kieren’s still reeling father. Unfortunately, Steve Evets (so engaging in Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric) and Kenneth Cranham largely portray Macy and the Vicar as crude caricatures. In contrast, lefty comic Ricky Tomlinson nicely humanizes anti-PDS activist Ken Burton, while Emily Bevan adds some energy to the dour milieu as Dyer.

Already renewed for a second season in the UK, In the Flesh ends its first outing with some intriguing avenues open for further exploration. Yet it faces an obvious dilemma. To satisfy genre fans, eventually the show must produce the shuffling hordes, but to do so would undercut their peace and tolerance soap-boxing. Notable as an original premise, imperfectly executed but showing promise for future development, the first season of In the Flesh airs this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (6/6-6/8) on BBC America.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on June 3rd, 2013 at 1:03pm.

Our Voyeuristic Future: LFM Reviews Channeling @ The 2013 Dances With Films

By Joe Bendel. In the very near future, about five minutes from now, people will become even more exhibitionistic. Personal internet reality shows are the thing, made possible by special contact lens cameras. ‘Channelers’ broadcast themselves snowboarding, booty calling, and navel gazing. Some also broadcast criminal activity, such as an Army sergeant’s estranged brother. When the punk winds up dead, his avenging sibling assumes control of his channel in Drew Thomas’s Channeling (see viral teaser above), which screens tomorrow during the 2013 edition of Dances With Films.

The Maddox family was always pretty dysfunctional. The death of Wyatt, the Fast & Furious wannabe, does not help much. Returning on a bereavement leave, Jonah soon starts nosing around with the help of Tara, his brother’s on-camera co-host, sidekick, or whatever. Essentially, this leaves all the responsible stuff to his younger sister, Ashleigh. She broadcasts her life too, in hopes of finding validation from voyeuristic netizens. That is really the wrong place to be looking.

It is always pretty obvious who the bad guys are in this film, but it is never clear why they had it in for the Brothers Maddox. Wyatt’s ratings were always pretty good by channeling standards, unlike the late Howard Beale in Network. Regardless, it offers Jonah an excuse to boost some fast cars.

From "Channeling."

Channeling is a serviceable enough b-movie, but it pales in comparison to Bertrand Tavernier’s thematically similar Death Watch, which remains an eerily prescient critique of our media-driven society even over thirty years after its initial release. It is also hard to compete with Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, and Romy Schneider.

Regardless, as a leading man, Dominic De Vore seems to have graduated from the Caspar Van Dien school of acting. He is adequately square-jawed in the action scenes, but that’s about all you get. However, Kate French (probably best known from The L Word and One Tree Hill) lends the film some style and presence riding shotgun as Tara, while Taylor Handley does a presentable James Dean impression as the ill-fated Wyatt.

Thomas and cinematographer Andrew Huebscher keep things looking slick and cool throughout. Cars will be wrecked and thugs will get their beatdowns. It’s all a cut above SyFy Channel original movies, but those primarily intrigued by the premise should checkout Tavernier’s underappreciated gem instead. For Kate French’s fans, it screens tomorrow night (6/2) as part of this year’s Dances With Films in Hollywood, CA.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on June 1st, 2013 at 1:02pm.

Post-Dystopia Depression: LFM Reviews A Better World @ The 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Think of this as what happens after the famous 1984 Apple commercial. Big Brother has fallen. Unfortunately, Henry Dremmel is no Winston Smith. Adjusting to a post-dystopian world will be difficult for him in Sacha Feiner’s short film A Better World, which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Dremmel the tool, works for the Domestic Denunciation Program. All day he monitors security cameras, reporting even the slightest deviations from the norm. One fateful night, Dremmel wakes to the sound of fireworks. The regime has fallen. Freedom has broken out, but the Denunciator cannot handle it. He prefers the structure of his drab, harshly regimented former existence.

Audiences are unlikely to see a film more explicitly associating the compulsive need for security with oppressive statism in a month of Sundays. What’s even more mind-blowing is that it hails from Belgium, the EU’s happy host nation. Regardless, writer-director Feiner really cuts to the heart of the matter. Dremmel is not an odious villain. A pathetic figure, he is the final victim of a de-humanizing collectivist system.

From "A Better World."

A Better World is also quite an impressive looking production. Olan Bowland’s bleak, washed-out cinematography and Julia Irribaria’s imposing sets create a perfectly Orwellian environment. Almost a prop himself, Vincent Kohler is appropriately cringey and clammy as Dremmel.

Despite its twenty-four minute running time, A Better World has more to say than most features. A genuinely challenging work (especially for Williamsburg hipsters), it is one of the best dystopian films of any length to hit the festival circuit. Very highly recommended, it screens this coming Monday (6/3) and Wednesday (6/5) as part of the 2013 Magnetic edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

Posted on May 31st, 2013 at 12:05pm.

LFM Reviews Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles @ The 2013 Dances With Films

By Joe Bendel. Maybe there’s still yet hope for Los Angeles: the city is home to a small but vibrant flamenco scene. Of course, nobody is making much money—quite the contrary. The musicians, vocalists, and dancers all simply share a passion for the music. Katina Dunn documents their musical camaraderie in Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles, which screens this afternoon during the “Sweet Sixteen” edition of Dances With Films.

Flamenco originated in the tightly knit Roma community of Seventeenth Century Spain. Musicians and dancers from other cultures have been drawn to the music, but according to one vocalist, only Spaniards can sing Flamenco with the right accent. (Yes, he happens to be a Spanish expat.) Regardless of authenticity issues, the Los Angeles Flamenco community is distinctly diverse. Many local Hispanic musicians have adopted the music as their own – including Joey Heredia, a professional drummer comfortable crossing stylistic lines, whose impressive credits include work with Tania Maria, Poncho Sanchez, and Diane Reeves.

From "Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles."

Japanese artists are also well represented in KFLA. Kyoto native Jose Tanaka is not just a leading guitarrista and composer, but clearly serves as a leader holding the community together. However, if one star truly emerges from the film, it would have to be Bailaora (dancer) Mizuho Sato. A striking performer with flawless technique, her sequences will hold viewers spellbound. She also provides real insight into the Flamenco aesthetic, especially when explaining how the demur nature of the presentation is part of what makes it all smolder.

Dunn nicely conveys the scene’s vibe and gives interested viewers an easy starting point to check out the assembled artists live—namely, the Fountain Theatre. Her selective but clever use of archival footage adds fitting context as well. She does right by the music, which is the most important thing.

While not reaching the lofty heights of Fernando Trueba’s Calle 54 (the true gold standard of music performance docs), KFLA is still quite a dynamic and engaging film. At just a whisker over an hour, it will leave most viewers wanting more. Appealing to the eyes and ears, Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles is recommended for general audiences when it screens this afternoon (5/31) as part of the 2013 edition of Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted May 31st, 2013 at 12:04pm.

Kung Fu in The New China: LFM Reviews Dragon Girls @ The 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Will one of these girls be the next Michelle Yeoh?  Possibly, but none of them seems to harbor such lofty aspirations. Regardless, they all train harder than most professional athletes in hopes of earning a better life for their families (shouldn’t that be the other way around?). Inigo Westmeier observes the rigorous routine of the Shaolin Tagu Kung Fu School’s students in Dragon Girls, which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

For these mostly poor provincial students, kung fu school can lead to better military and police jobs than might otherwise be available to them. Unfortunately, the seven day training regime does not leave much time for the kids to be kids. The Shaolin Tagu School accepts both boys and girls, but Westmeier devotes about ninety percent of his attention to the latter, focusing on three particular girls with complicated family circumstances.

Much like the apparently abusive Shanghai Circus School documented by Guo Jing & Ke Dingding, life at Shaolin Tagu does not look like a lot of fun. On the other hand, at least it offers the girls some camaraderie. Given the realities of life for poor rural girls (such as the protagonist of Wang Bing’s Three Sisters), things could arguably be worse for the students. Still, the sanctimonious headmaster is obviously cutting corners with respects to sanitation and nutrition. Yet the most trying aspect for most of the girls is the lingering sensation of abandonment. Clearly, the school functions as an alternative to an orphanage for many essentially absentee parents.

Westmeier captures his three primary POV figures at their most open and vulnerable moments. Frankly, it is often difficult watching them struggle physically and emotionally, because they are really just kids. The extent of the headmaster’s authoritarian indoctrination is nearly as disturbing, if not more so.

From "Dragon Girls."

Despite all the issues the film raises, seeing the collective student body of 35,000 in action is admittedly impressive. For an observational style doc, there is a heck of a lot of spectacle in Dragon Girls. These kids are good—but the monks in the Shaolin monastery next door are probably better. As one might expect, they are less dogmatic and far more Zen-like in their approach to martial arts. Westmeier tellingly contrasts the two so-close-yet-so-far-apart Shaolin institutions without belaboring the point.

Dragon Girls further testifies to the vast class divisions demarcating today’s China. It might be tough viewing, but it is an honest reflection of reality. The extent to which Westmeier melds the social issue documentary with martial arts cinema is also rather notable. Recommended for fans of both genres who can handle some unvarnished truth, Dragon Girls screens this Saturday (6/1) at Windmill Studios and the following Thursday (6/6) at IndeiScreen as part of the “Magnetic” 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on May 30th, 2013 at 4:27pm.

A Very Private Apocalypse: LFM Reviews The Wall

By Joe Bendel. When the television adaptation of Stephen King’s Under the Dome hits the airwaves, fans will duly wonder where he gets his ideas from. Hmm, maybe Christoffer Boe’s Allegro or Marlen Haushofer’s Die Wand. Of course, both predecessors are much more introspective in nature. Indeed, viewers witness a very private apocalypse in Julian Pölsler’s adaptation of Haushofer’s 1963 novel, The Wall, which opens this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.

A woman is holidaying with friends in an Austrian mountain lodge. Her hosts drive into town for supplies and never return. Venturing out the next morning she discovers an invisible barrier blocking the road. Scouting the mountainside, she discovers that the strange wall encircles her. She can see people on the other side, but they appear frozen in place. Time seems to only pass on her side of the wall, but it passes very slowly.

Told in flashbacks via the unnamed woman’s journal entries, The Wall consciously echoes Robinson Crusoe. With no Man Friday, the woman develops a close bond with the couple’s dog, Lynx. Indeed, it is largely her rapport with animals that keeps the woman engaged in her solitary world.

Obviously, The Wall implies much about man and our unbalanced relationship with nature. The English language voice-overs are often rather heavy-handed (and clash with the limited subtitled German dialogue) but the film’s vibe and rhythm are eerily evocative. Viewers will feel like they are getting a true taste of what it would be like to be the last sentient person on Earth.

Shot over the course of several seasons, Pölsler and his battery of cinematographers fully capitalize on the stunning scenic vistas that utterly dwarf the lone woman. Carrying the film almost single-handedly, Martina Gedeck (co-star of the modern classic The Lives of Others) gives a remarkably assured performance. Mixing depression and empowerment, it might be the purest cinematic portrayal of existential living. However, it is also worth noting Pölsler’s own dog Lynx is quite the performer in his own right.

The Wall may well be a rebuke of patriarchy and industrialization, but it still works rather well as a survivor’s story. Admittedly, it is deliberately paced (for obvious reasons), but the overall effect is hypnotic. Recommended for those who appreciate apocalyptic and allegorical cinema, The Wall opens this Friday (5/31) at the IFC Center.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on May 30th, 2013 at 4:26pm.