Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. There is a debate whether sponsor-a-child programs are truly beneficial or counterproductive. This film is more likely to confuse the issue rather than clarify it. Be that as it may, viewers looking for a good cry will probably find it in Pauline Chan’s 33 Postcards, which opens this Friday in New York.

Mei Mei (“Little Sister”) never really knew the parents who abandoned her at the orphanage. While she watched as many other girls were adopted, she always remained. At least she had one thing going for her: the Australian sponsor covering her school tuition. When the Orphanage choir books an Australian tour, she is excited to finally meet Dean Randall. Yet, for some strange reason he never responds to arrange a meeting.

Playing hokey, Mei Mei eventually tracks Randall down—in prison. It seems he is not a park ranger after all. On the bright side, he is up for parole soon, assuming he survives the prison protection racket. Being a trusting sort, Mei Mei falls in with Carl, the son of Randall’s old boss. Actually, he is not such a bad kid, but trouble is inevitable in their world.

While one might argue Postcards presents both the pluses and minuses of sponsorship programs, it pretty unequivocally suggests that the Australian prison system is ridiculously mismanaged. Regardless, it is impossible to root against the pure-of-heart Mei Mei. There is something about her earnest innocence that harkens back to China’s propaganda films of yore. Yet, Zhu Lin’s performance has such sincerity and charisma she will keep even the most jaded viewers totally invested throughout the film. It is a breakout turn that deservedly won her the Rising Star Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Realizing there is no way he can outshine his young co-star, Guy Pearce doubles down on understated reserve. Nonetheless, they develop real chemistry together, even though their scenes together are largely confined to the prison visiting room. Unfortunately, as Randall’s public defender, Claudia Karvan (Padme’s elder sister in Revenge of the Sith) just stands around condescendingly, as if she is trying to decide if she really wants to be part of the movie or not. However, Lincoln Lewis (a great actor’s name) is kind of not bad as Carl.

Is 33 Postcards manipulative? Good gosh, yes, but the winning Zhu Lin carries it like a champion, while getting a quiet but effective assist from Pearce. Recommended for those who appreciate well executed sentimentality, 33 Postcards opens this Friday (5/17) in New York at the AMC Village 7 and is also available through Gravitas Ventures’ VOD platforms.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on May 15th, 2013 at 11:35am.

By Joe Bendel. Supposedly, Tito held Yugoslavia together as one big happy family. Nonetheless, a late 1970’s episode of ethnic-religious strife eventually causes unimaginable anguish for a Bosnian mother decades later. Her story, inspired by, but not directly based on a documented historical incident, vividly illustrates the painful legacy of war in Arsen Ostojić’s Halima’s Path, which screened last night as part of the narrative feature competition at the 2013 Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York.

Having lost her husband Salko and son Mirza during the war, Halima has been unable to complete the grieving process while their remains are still unaccounted for. However, a breakthrough appears to have been made. Her husband has been recovered. Perhaps her son will be, too. The international team just needs her DNA to match to her son, but she seems strangely reluctant to comply.

Flashing back to 1977, Safija is also in a very difficult position. She lives in a Muslim village and is pregnant with the child of Slavomir, a Christian boy from the nearest Serb village. Her father does not take the news well, beating her severely. After Slavomir violently intervenes, he is quickly dispatched to Germany, for fear of reprisals. He will return, though. Indeed, everyone’s lives will become knotted together in Halima’s bitter tale.

Given the wartime issues Path addresses, it is important to note that Ostojić is in fact a Croatian filmmaker, working with a Bosnian screenwriter, Fedja Isovic, and a Serbian co-producer. While most of the cast is either Croatian or Serbian, nearly all had family ties to Bosnia-Herzegovina (including Srpska, where the film has yet to screen, for obvious reasons). Yes, Isovic’s screenplay unambiguously depicts Bosnian-Serb war crimes. Yet ironically, during the first act, it is Serbian characters, most notably Slavomir’s father, who exemplify tolerance. Of course, war changes people and countries, as viewers see in dramatic terms.

It would be a mistake to dismiss Path as just another film about the war and its aftermath. While it is intimate in its focus, the substantial portion set in 1977 gives it a much wider historical scope. Nor does it rely on stock characters or simplistic moralizing. At its moments of reckoning, Path is most closely akin to classical tragedy in the Sophoclean tradition.

Perhaps more to the point, it also happens to be an excellent film, anchored by the devastating power of Alma Prica’s honest and dignified lead performance. It is remarkable, award caliber work. Sarajevo native Miraj Grbić (recognizable to some as Bogdan in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) also gives a finely nuanced performance as Halima’s brother-in-law, a character who suggests it is possible to become more humane with age, even after suffering the loss of loved ones.

Ostojić is best known for the black-and-white neo-noir A Wonderful Night in Split (co-starring Coolio), but with Path he drastically cranks down the auterist impulse, subordinating style to character and narrative. As a result, Path is visually lean and spare, communicating directly to receptive viewers. More commercial than film scouts have heretofore recognized, Halima’s Path has picked up numerous audience awards thus far. Strongly recommended, it was one of the clear highlights of this year’s Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York.

LFM GRADE: A

[Editor’s Note: Halima’s Path won the Golden Apple Audience Award at the festival.]

Posted on May 13th, 2013 at 11:32am.

By Joe Bendel. For the CIA, no good deed goes unpunished. When they finally take on a Hollywood-approved villain, it causes the violent destruction of their Belgian station. A former agency operative and his estranged daughter will have to figure out why in Philipp Stölz’s Erased, which opens this Friday in New York.

Ben Logan is a security consultant doing contract work for Halgate, a soulless multinational corporation. Unfortunately, he is too good at his job. After inadvertently uncovering something incriminating, Logan suddenly finds his office has been emptied, his bank account and email wiped clean, and his recent coworkers lying in the morgue as John Does. Only a timely bit of bad parenting saves Hogan and his daughter, Amy, sending them to the emergency room during that fateful night, instead of to their flat.

Logan does not know his daughter very well. He only assumed custody after the death of his ex-wife. Perhaps life on the run will help bring them together. However, he knows Anna Brandt only too well. He used to report directly to the corrupt CIA official—and he wasn’t working as a security analyst. He has “special” skills. That is why she will have to take charge of the manhunt personally.

Despite Brandt’s betrayal, Erased depicts the CIA in a reasonably positive light. As a policy, the agency is conscientiously working against the bad guys, rather than with them. Sure, Logan obviously worked for some kind of CIA hit squad, but based on the events that unfold, the agency seems to have a legit need for such specialists. Even Brandt has her moments down the stretch.

The fact that Brandt is played by Olga Kurylenko does not hurt, either. Smart and chic, she is more of a super-spy than a femme fatale, but she is always a worthy antagonist. Indeed, this might be Kurylenko’s year, following-up her starring role in Malick’s To the Wonder with a nice villainous turn. Some enterprising distributor ought to pick-up her powerful Chernobyl drama Land of Oblivion.

For his part, Aaron Eckhart makes a credible square-jawed hard-nose, carrying off his action scenes pretty well. As Amy, Liana Liberato is slightly less grating than she was in the clumsy Nic Cage vehicle Trespass. At least that constitutes progress. Unfortunately, Stars War alumnus Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter, sans moustache) largely phones it in as bland corporate baddy, James Halgate.

Erased (a.k.a. The Expatriate, a much cooler title) is indeed a bit of a departure from Stölz’s previous German language historical dramas, the so-so Young Goethe in Love and the superior North Face, but he shows surprising affinity for the material. Granted, screenwriter Arash Amel never cooks up anything truly new and different, but Stölz’s execution is polished and pacey. Not bad by B-movie standards, Erased opens this Friday (5/17) at the Village East and is already available through Radius-TWC’s VOD platforms.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on May 13th, 2013 at 11:30am.

By Joe Bendel. War is not conducive to stronger family values. It is not great for the economy, either. One Bosnian woman will struggle with both aspects of the war’s trying aftermath in Aida Begić’s Children of Sarajevo, which opens the 2013 Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York tonight at the Tribeca Cinemas.

Rahima and her younger brother Nehim are war orphans. Although they spent the better part of the war in separate orphanages, she has temporarily assumed custody. However, busy-body social workers constantly torment her with their condescending intrusions. Working semi-off the books in the kitchen of a mobbed-up restaurant, she is in a difficult position, made more difficult by Nehim’s behavioral issues. Things only get worse when he gets into a fight with a politician’s son.

Begić clearly establishes exactly how Rahima’s tribulations are fundamentally rooted in the recent war, without ever belaboring the point. Slowly, we learn that Nehim only started acting out in response to the mockery he faced at school when she began wearing the headscarf that she adopted as a source of solace. Similarly, we gradually come to understand the severity of Rahima’s post-traumatic stress as she goes about her daily routine.

“Routine” is the correct word. Children is a quiet, intimately observed drama that fully captures the monotony of Rahima’s struggle. We revisit the same stretch of her decaying urban environment, time and again. This might peel off some antsier viewers, but Begić fully captures the realities of life for marginalized survivors like Rahima.

As Rahima, Marija Pikić subtly conveys multitudes of anger and desperation, often relying solely on body language or a fleeting glance. When late in the third act when Rahima privately removes her headscarf, viewers will realize the truly chameleon-like nature of the striking Pikić’s performance. Ismar Gagula certainly makes a convincingly petulant teenager, but Nikola Đuričko leaves a more lasting impression as Tarik, Rahima’s would be suitor of ambiguous character.

Periodically, Begić eerily incorporates archival footage of the Siege of Sarajevo, underscoring the lingering influence of the war. Implying much, she relies on viewers to fill in considerable gaps, yet she methodically leads us into some very dark places. Although Children unquestionably qualifies as “art cinema,” it showcases some powerful work from Pikić and Begić. Recommended for adult attention spans, Children of Sarajevo screens as the feature part of Program 1, launching the 2013 BHFF tonight (5/9) in New York.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on May 9th, 2013 at 1:27pm.

By Joe Bendel. Cultural Exchange is a beautiful thing. A Muslim police officer will teach a mysterious American to wear a Batik to formal Indonesian affairs. He will return the favor by indoctrinating his reluctant by-the-book ally in the finer points of American buddy-action movies. Get ready to learn what’s good for you in Conor Allyn’s Java Heat, which screens ‘round about midnight this weekend at the IFC Center.

The Sultana was poised to succeed her father the Sultan as one of Java’s most influential and respected leaders. Unfortunately, she is killed by a suicide bomber. As viewers learn during Lt. Hashim’s interrogation, American Jake Travers was suspiciously close to the action—and he was not wearing his Batik. Hashim scolds the suspect that he ought to know better as a visiting Southeast Asian Studies scholar. “Art history,” Travers counters. Do not be surprised if this exchange is repeated maybe once or twice.

Of course, Travers is not really an academic and the terrorists are absolutely, positively not Muslims. Instead, the bad guy is Mickey Rourke, sporting the most bizarre, ethnically ambiguous accent you will ever want to hear. Give him credit, though – he maintains its impenetrable consistency.

Java is not what you would call subtle cinema. Father and son co-writer-co-producers Rob and Conor Allyn could have easily titled it “Muslims are not Terrorists: featuring Kellan Lutz’s abs.” Before long the term “doth protest too much” should echo through most viewers’ heads.

Still, there is stuff that works here. Ario Bayu totally delivers the intense cop-on-the-edge goods as Hashim. Likewise, Atiqah Hasiholan’s Sultana lends the film some classy charisma. Always a dependable spectacle, Rourke is truly a three-ring circus of villainy as the unclassifiable Malik. Even Lutz soldiers through relatively competently, exceeding expectations for a Twilight franchise alumnus.

Cinematographer Shane Daly gives it all a suitably mysterious sheen, particularly the climax at the great Borobudur temple. In general, the action sequences are credibly produced, if somewhat conventional. Frankly, Java Heat would be an impressively scrappy genre programmer if only it were not so determined to interrupt the flow with teaching moments. Recommended mostly for Rourke’s loyal fans (and God bless them), Java Heat begins a week of screenings tomorrow (5/10) at the IFC Center and is also available via IFC Midnight’s VOD platforms.

LFM GRADE: C

Posted on May 9th, 2013 at 1:26pm.

By Joe Bendel. Chris is the Charles Kuralt from Hell. He is determined to show his new girlfriend the British roadside attractions he adores, like the Keswick Pencil Museum—and woe unto those who despoil their tourist experience. They will pay dearly in Ben Wheatley’s macabre comedy Sightseers, which opens this Friday in New York.

The British call redheads like Chris “gingers.” Think of him as a Ginger Baker, except slightly more stable. This road trip together will be an important step for Tina’s efforts to break away from her mother’s domination. She is also mourning her recently deceased little yapping dog. Chris wants everything to be just right for her, so the loutish behavior of a fellow tram museum visitor brings out the worst in him.

Chris plays off his first murder as an innocent accident. However, Tina soon becomes an active accomplice in his killing spree. Before long, things are completely out of hand. It all adds quite the new wrinkle to their relationship.

Sightseers could safely be described as a dark comedy. If you are totally fine with the desensitizing violence of Nicolás López’s Aftershock, but would prefer a more cartoonish presentation, this film is in your power zone. Based on the comedy act developed by co-writer-co-leads Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, Sightseers is not shy about mining laughs from grisly terrain. In fact, the tone is much lighter than Wheatley previous film, Kill List, despite the superior body count. Nonetheless, the murderous everyday banality of Chris and Tina is in keeping with the themes and vibe of his prior work.

As Chris and Tina, Oram and Lowe offer an object lesson in comedy as psychological therapy. Oram deftly plays off serial killer archetypes while also showing a facility for physical comedy. Yet, it is Lowe who really taps into deep, disturbing places. They are funny, but you have to wonder about their childhoods.

Essentially, Sightseers is Two for the Road remade with Misery’s Annie Wilkes and a far less dapper Hannibal Lector. To their credit, Oram and Lowe keep one-upping the madness, so it never feels like the same gruesome joke repeats over and over again. Gleefully misanthropic, Sightseers definitely delivers the cult movie goods. Recommended accordingly, it opens tomorrow (5/10) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on May 9th, 2013 at 1:25pm.