Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. It is the drama that made Twitter explode in the UK. Fox has plans for an Americanized version for the 2014-15 season, but intrigued viewers only have to wait eight weeks to find out who did it. The ensuing investigation might just cost the investigating detective a sizable chunk of his soul. Nevertheless, all will eventually be revealed when the eight week Broadchurch airs on BBC America, beginning this Wednesday.

Young Danny Latimer has been murdered. His body was found dumped at the beach, but the Socos (CSI) quickly determine that this is not the original crime scene. Beth and Mark Latimer did not realize that their son is missing until it was too late, merely assuming he was off on his morning paper route. Dogged Detective Inspector Alec Hardy soon discovers other family secrets that kept certain Latimers preoccupied.

Hardy is either the best or the worst DI for this investigation. In his last posting, the detective worked an eerily similar case. Precise details will emerge over time, but it clearly ended badly. Hardy had come to the small Jurassic Coastal town of Broadchurch to escape the media spotlight and recuperate his ailing body and psyche. While fraught with career perils, the Latimer case represents possible redemption for the controversial copper. However, he will have to work it with the distinctly resentful Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller, who came back from her vacation to find Hardy in place of her anticipated promotion.

There will be no shortage of suspects in Broadchurch, including Danny’s father; his friend and colleague Nigel Carter; Jack Marshall, the local newsagent; the insomniac vicar Rev. Paul Coates, and a nasty late middle-aged woman living in mobile home not far from the crime scene. DS Miller’s own son Tom also acts rather oddly upon learning of his friend’s murder. Series creator Chris Chibnall will focus suspicion on just about everyone before the big finale, but Broadchurch is just as much about the grief and guilt resulting from the Latimer murder as it is a mystery procedural.

Broadchurch will be of particular interest to Doctor Who fans, starring former Doctor David Tennant as DI Hardy, former companion Arthur Darville as Rev. Coates, and guest star Olivia Colman as DS Miller. Frankly, Broadchurch might just eclipse the Doctor as Tennant’s career defining role. Again, he makes a convincingly intelligent screen presence, but where the dashing figure he supposedly cut in Spies of Warsaw was a bit of a stretch, he is darkly compelling as the haggard, sullen, world-weary, angst-ridden Hardy. Yet Colman also holds her own in their scenes together quite well as the increasingly disillusioned DS Miller.

To their credit, both Darville the actor and Chibnall the writer make Rev. Coates a legitimate suspect, while still avoiding all the easy clergy clichés. They even allow him some surprisingly powerful sermons that essentially function as the conscience of the series. Yet it is Jodie Whittaker who really personifies Broadchurch’s emotional devastation as the distraught Beth Latimer.

Broadchurch is grabby right from the start, but it is written with greater depth and psychological insight than conventional mystery series. Doctor Who alumni James Strong and Euros Lyn helm their installments with admirable sensitivity and the music of hardcore drummer-turned contemporary classical composer Ólafur Arnalds sets an unusually elegiac tone. Quality television in every way, Broadchurch is highly recommended for fans of ambitious mystery series, like The Killing, Twin Peaks, and Top of the Lake. It commences its American premiere this Wednesday (8/7) on BBC America.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on August 5th, 2013 at 11:37pm.

By Joe Bendel. Yue Feng’s specialty is facing down large gangs of lead pipe wielding toughs. He is so good at it, he has done time. There is a reason they used to call him “the Street Fighter.” He would like to put his old life behind him, but obviously that is not going to happen. Billed as China’s first mixed martial arts movie, writer/action director/lead actor/co-director/co-editor Yuen Song & co-director Zhong Lei bring it old school in The King of the Streets, which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA.

Yue Feng has just been released from prison, but the death of a rival gang member still troubles his conscience. Yes, the punk had it coming, but he is a sensitive street fighter. Resolving to go straight, he takes a job with a moving company. While delivering some donated equipment to a private orphanage, Yue Feng meets Li, an attractive volunteer. She has a few moves herself, but nothing like the Street Fighter. Soon he is volunteering regularly. At first, he is just helping out with the kids and lifting heavy things, but soon he is fighting off the hired muscle trying to run the orphanage off its prime piece of real estate.

King, the throwback throwdown, mixes generous helpings of no holds-barred street melee with old fashioned melodramatic angst. It is impossible to miss Yue’s themes of redemption and loyalty, but he sure can mix it up. To be fair, he also develops respectable romantic chemistry with Becki Li. Yue’s fellow professional fighters Hou Xu, Kang En, Yang Jianping, and the Chang Long Stunt Team also clearly know how to give and take a punch. Nobody was really hired for the acting chops (except maybe Li), but so be it.

Almost entirely staged in abandoned warehouses and back alleys, Yue’s film has a Spartan vibe and a dramatic simplicity that is frankly rather aesthetically appealing. Co-cinematographers Liu Zhangmu and Li You earn style points with the black-and-white flashback interludes, while consistently maintaining an icy slick look.

While not exactly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, King’s gritty action and earnest, straight forward delivery is likely to make it a sentimental favorite for genre fans. Kind of awesome in a low budget, rough around the edges, doggedly striving sort of way, The King of the Street is recommended for meatheads with heart. It is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on August 5th, 2013 at 11:36pm.

By Joe Bendel. For too long, only mad scientists in the Dr. Frankenstein tradition have been bold enough to challenge death. Finally, two respectably under-achieving grad students will strive to cure mortality. The initial signs are promising in Anthony Dixon’s moody Canadian indie, The Dead Experiment, which screens tomorrow during the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Woozily staggering home, Chris looks like death warmed over—and well he should. According to his hysterical fiancée, Maddie, he has been dead for two weeks. This is difficult news to accept. Yet, his reincarnated presence makes a certain amount of sense. After being cut from his post-grad program for general dodginess, he and his childhood friend Jacob started developing a radical procedure to rejuvenate cells. It seems to have worked. However, as Chris and Jacob start documenting his cure, complications arise.

By genre standards, Experiment is unusually idea-driven. There is some really smart stuff in Dixon’s script and he blindsides viewers with one massive, game-changing twist. Unfortunately, his cast really doesn’t do his concepts justice. At best, they are kind of/sort of okay. Jamie Abrams is the class of the field as the ethically “pragmatic” Jacob. (That leaves an obvious implication regarding the rest of the small ensemble.)

Indeed, independent filmmaking is always an adventure. Nonetheless, Experiment earns points for its fresh take on the reanimation motif. What is typically grist for horror and gore, Dixon essentially re-purposes into chamber science fiction. He and cinematographer Fraser Brown also maintain the nocturnal atmosphere and mounting claustrophobia quite effectively.

While Experiment’s shortcomings are what they are, it is exactly the sort of inventive Canadian genre production Fantasia takes pride in supporting. Based on its merits, Dixon ought to have a shot at bigger budgeted projects. An intriguing indie, The Dead Experiment screens today (8/1) at the J.A. De Seve Theatre as part of this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on August 2nd, 2013 at 4:14pm.

By Joe Bendel. This will either be private space exploration’s finest moment or its greatest tragedy. For the six intrepid astronauts in question, it will either be first contact or bust in Sebastián Cordero’s Europa Report, which opens this Friday in New York.

It is in fact theoretically possible Europa’s subterranean oceans could sustain microscopic life. With that fact in mind, a private foundation sends forth a manned expedition to survey and report. Unfortunately, communications were lost en route to Jupiter, until a sudden transmission was received out of the blue. Of course, that will be our movie.

Initially, it seems the Europa mission is merely beset by a series of technical problems and human mistakes. Clearly, there is no margin for error in the cold vacuum of space. Yet, Cordero manages to subtly suggest there might be some other factor at play. Despite damage to the ship and fatalities to the crew, the survivors resolve to continue on, because mankind may never get this far again.

Arguably, most of Report is much more closely akin to Apollo 13 than Ridley Scott’s Alien and its subsequent imitators. However, Philip Gelatt’s screenplay pushes in all its genre chips in the jaw-dropping closing seconds that will resonate profoundly with readers of a certain American author of the weird and fantastic.

Essentially, Report operates on the premise that all scientific pursuit is heroic, even when it is also strange and scary. Cordero and Gelatt seriously address themes of courage and sacrifice, which adds surprising substance to the film, like a Roddenberry script written amid a bout of depression. Cordero also nicely exploits the austere, claustrophobic setting for maximum audience unease.

As is frequently the case with found footage films, there is not a lot of opportunity for old fashioned character development in Report. Nonetheless, the Europa crew look and act like convincing astronauts. HK movie-star Daniel Wu has a suitably authoritative presence as the mission commander William Xu, while accomplished Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca (probably best known for 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days) projects a natural sensitivity and perceptiveness as Rosa Dasque, the co-pilot and archivist. However, Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Nyqvist lays on the Slavic accent with conspicuous thickness as engineer Andrei Blok.

To its credit, Europa Report is visually far more impressive than one would expect, given its budget constraints and found footage conceit. In fact, it is a surprisingly effective hybrid of science fiction sub-genres. Recommended for fans of hard science based SF and Wu, Europa Report opens this Friday (8/2) in New York at the Cinema Village.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 30th, 2013 at 11:23am.

By Joe Bendel. Toramaru is like the Anthony Bourdain of martial arts. Before challenging a rival, he first eats what they eat. There is some wisdom to that approach, but there is considerably more mayhem to be found in Takanori Tsujimoto’s Bushido Man, which screens tomorrow during the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Gensai, the sensei of the Cosmic Way school of holistic martial arts, has sent his number one student forth into the world to challenge seven specialized masters and hopefully claim their ancient scrolls of secret wisdom. Things must have gone relatively well, since Toramaru has returned to tell his tales to his appreciative teacher. Based on the details of his prep meal, Gensai is able to guess the identity of the master to be challenged.

While Bushido probably cost less to produce than dinner for one at Nobu, action director Kensuke Sonomura stages some epic mano-a-mano showdowns. Sonomura himself starts things off briskly as Yuan Jian, the Chinese kung fu master and Kazuki Tsujimoto makes quite a memorable Zatōichi surrogate as the blind swordsman Muso. Yet the honor-stoked adrenaline reaches its purest, highest point when Masanori Mimoto appears as Eiji Mimoto, the Yakuza dagger master. To his credit, Tsujimoto also has a good sense of fair play, allowing Miki Mizuno to rack up an impressive body count as the pragmatic arms-dealing femme fatale, M.

Bushido is all about fighting, periodically taking timeout for some goofball humor. If you’re looking for narrative logic here, just don’t. In one scene, Toramaru strolls through the sunny streets of contemporary Tokyo, yet the next moment he is trudging through the scarred wasteland of a post-apocalyptic Yokohama. It does really matter, though. Everything in Bushido is there to facilitate the food and fighting.

Held together by Mitsuki Koga’s action cred and straight man persona, Bushido Man delivers the goods for martial arts-samurai-yakuza movie fans. It nicely demonstrates how a scrappy low budget action production can overcome its budget constraints with energy and a clever concept. Recommended for established genre fans, it screens tomorrow (7/27) at the Imperial Theatre as part of this year’s Fantasia Festival in Montreal.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 26th, 2013 at 12:41pm.

By Joe Bendel. James Park ought to know [in]famous undercover detectives never just retire, especially when their biggest case holds some decidedly ugly secrets. The cop-turned-professor will have to revert to his old ways when his young son is kidnapped by a mystery man with revenge on his unhinged mind in DJ Holloway & Sun W. Kim’s Innocent Blood, which screens this Saturday during the 2013 Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Park knows crime, but with his limited academic credentials he can only land a community college teaching gig. He plans to go back for the right degrees, once his wife Susan finishes law school. It has been hard on their son Cody, who does not see his mother nearly as much as they both would like. As a result, when her husband’s nemesis abducts the young boy, she suffers from an acute attack of guilt.

Prohibited from contacting the authorities, Park will have to figure out just what the kidnapper wants on his own. It all seems to revolve around Brad Lee, a human trafficker framed for a crime he technically did not exactly commit. Park’s first clue will be the trail of dead bodies he cannot explain to Carl Grierr and Jim Collins, the odd couple detectives doggedly tailing him.

While the harsh realities of human trafficking remain off-camera throughout Blood, it is an issue the filmmakers feel strongly about. Like the T.O.M. Film Festival co-founded by screenwriter-co-director Kim, Blood was envisioned as a vehicle to raise funds and awareness. It is well intentioned, but the on-screen business does not always withstand the common sense test. (Park really drops his son off on the very urban looking street around the corner from his school, without watching to see if he makes it inside okay?)

Still, Jun-seong Kim’s not-quite-retired James Kim is a genuinely compellingly angst-ridden everyman. Alexandra Chun is also entirely believable and sympathetic as the distraught mother. Although still a relatively young thesp, Lance Lim makes a strong return appearance at AAIFF, following up his solid turn in Il Cho’s accomplished short Jin with his engaging work as Cody Park.

However, for most genre fans, the main attraction in Blood will be Doug Jones (the Silver Surfer, etc), somewhat playing against type as Grierr, the acerbic but honest copper. He earns a fair number of sarcastic chuckles, which are truly appreciated, considering the film’s grim and gritty tone. In contrast, C.S. Lee’s villain is rather problematically bland.

Blood tackles some big themes, like sacrifice and redemption, while exhibiting a wider social conscience. However, Sun W. Kim’s screenplay is not good about sharing information, while keeping its cast of characters severely blinkered. Yet the film it effectively taps into some very real emotions that will keep most viewers fully vested in the outcome. Recommended for fans of Jones and dark crime dramas, Innocent Blood screens Saturday afternoon (7/26) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of this year’s AAIFF.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on July 25th, 2013 at 1:06pm.