Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. In a simple Chinese peasant’s world, no good deed goes unpunished. In the world of Chinese actor Chen Jianbin, a supporting cast-member’s drug bust can be used to cancel the release of his directorial debut. Arguably, their worlds are not as different as they might initially appear. However, one might well debate just who exactly is referred to in the title of Chen’s A Fool, which screens as an opening day selection of the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival, in advance of China Lion’s upcoming theatrical release.

Latiaozi is a salt-of-the-earth goat-herder, who is scrimping to get by after giving Li Datou, the village wheeler-dealer, a sizable bribe to facilitate his grown son’s release from prison. So far, Li’s lack of results makes things rather chilly for Latiaozi at home. The last thing he needs is an adult half-wit following him home like a stray dog. However, Latiaozi and his Muslim wife Jinzhizi are reluctant to turn him out into the cold, lest he freeze to death on their property.

As we might expect, the gruff couple warms to the idiot just about the time someone comes to claim him. For a while, Latiaozi takes satisfaction from his good deed until another group of self-proclaimed relations comes to claim the fool—and yet another. Each time the supposedly disappointed parties try to extort money from Latiaozi. It leaves the poor, unsophisticated rube in quite a state.

Chen’s A Fool arrives within the same festival season as Yuriy Bykov’s The Fool, exhibiting kinships beyond the similar title. While Bykov is more explicit in his criticism of Putin’s Russia, both films directly address the perils of being honest and guileless when living in the midst a corrupt system.

Pitiable Latiaozi does not stand a chance. Yet, his dogged earnestness exceeds all expectations. There is no question A Fool is a dark film, but it is not the proletarian passion play you might be expecting. Indeed, Chen is his own best asset. The standout from Doze Niu Chen-zer’s Paradise in Service and dozens of previous films, Chen plays Latiaozi as an achingly transparent everyman, incapable of deception and utterly overmatched by the wider world. Similarly earthy and direct, former television sex symbol Jiang Qinqin is shockingly glammed down and down-trodden looking as Jinzhizi. They completely feel like a husband and wife with a long shared history together (which, in fact, they are).

Unfortunately, Wang Xuebing’s drug-related incident was the pretext used to cancel A Fool’s Mainland theatrical distribution, but it is clear why Chen refused to reshoot his scenes with a different actor. Wang’s serpent-like charm and sarcastic edge are the X-factor that constantly kicks the film up yet another notch. Any other Li Datou would merely be a pale shadow of Wang.

The narrative of A Fool, based on Hu Xuewen’s novella, shares superficial commonalities with any number of propaganda tales about exploited peasants. Nevertheless, this is not didactic agitprop or a self-serving wallowing in the misery of others. This is a pointed yet pacey film that happens to hold a mirror up to reality while focusing on its rustic but sharply drawn characters. Highly recommended, especially for Chinese visitors to our fair city who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see it, A Fool screens this Friday (6/26) at the Walter Reade, kicking off this year’s NYAFF.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 24th, 2015 at 5:47pm.

By Joe Bendel. They say confession is good for the soul, but probably not in Lee Leung’s case. He has turned himself into the authorities after failing in his divinely inspired mission. His body count is carefully documented, but there might be more to his story than meets the eye in Daniel Chan’s Cross, which releases today on regular DVD and digital platforms from Well Go USA.

The fact that co-directors Steve Woo, Lau Kin Ping, and Hui Shu Ning are all credited with helping to complete Cross over a two year period does not inspire a boatload of confidence. On the plus side, it stars Simon Yam as Lee Leung. In fact, it is not the dreary anti-Catholic diatribe we might expect, even though Yam’s serial killer is most definitely devout. Reeling from his terminally ill wife’s suicide, Lee Leung starts to kill off members who post on an online suicide forum, at their own invitation, thereby saving them from mortal sin. They are supposed to pass peacefully, so when he botches his latest assignment, he remorsefully turns and surrenders to the police.

Professor Cheung, the police psychoanalyst, starts to investigate the case, at which point the film turns strangely sympathetic towards Lee Leung. It is clear his wife’s death deeply damaged his psyche. However, he may have been manipulated by an outside agency.

Unfortunately, just as the film builds up the mystery surrounding his murders, Chan (or whoever) blithely pulls out a Jenga block, making the entire tower collapse. There are also massive timeline issues with the ultimate truth, but at least there are some nice stylistic touches in how it is revealed.

Cross definitely feels edited-together, but as usual, Yam is rock solid as Lee Leung. It largely confirms our unspoken theorem that every Simon Yam film is worth seeing. Kenny Wong Tak-bun is also terrific as Prof. Cheung, an obsessively empathetic character worthy of his own franchise treatment (which stands no chance of happening). It is also amusing to see Nick Cheung appear in a small role just as his career was igniting.

You can readily see how if circumstances had been different, Cross might have worked quite well. It is still considerably exceeds the expectations established by its reputation. While it should not be anyone’s introduction to Hong Kong cinema, Yam fans will find its consistent moodiness strangely watchable. Consider this a bemused defense more than a recommendation now that it is available from Well Go USA.

LFM GRADE: B-/C+

Posted on June 24th, 2015 at 5:46pm.

By Joe Bendel. It is by far Shakespeare’s most genre friendly play, chocked full of fairies and magical spells. It is the comedy that inspired Czech animator Jiri Trnka’s adaptation 1959. Subsequently, both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have riffed on in their signature fantasy worlds, so it should be the Shakespeare play contemporary movie goers can most easily relate to. Now they have no excuse, because Julie Taymor will give them the spectacle they crave in her filmed version of her own dynamic staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which screens nationwide this coming Monday for one night only.

To inaugurate the opening of their first permanent home, Theatre for a New Audience turned to Taymor, who put her distinctive stylistic stamp on Midsummer, in collaboration with composer Elliot Goldenthal. Not only was the production a hit, it also translates well to the big screen (and the bigger the better). Yet, the best surprise is how deftly Taymor and her cast turn the play’s comedic business, getting big laughs everywhere Shakespeare intended them. Many previous productions have been fatally caught up in the dream motifs, resulting in a snoozy atmosphere. In contrast, Taymor’s Midsummer is unusually energetic and pacey.

Of course, it is still Midsummer. That means Hermia and Lysander are still forbidden to marry, they once again abscond to the forest outside Athens, inadvertently blundering into the Fairy Realm. The prospective suitors they rejected, Demetrius and Helena follow after them. Hoping to even out the situation, Oberon the King of the Fairies, orders Robin “Puck” Goodfellow to bewitch Demetrius with Helena, but his trickster servant casts the spell upon the wrong mortal. Meanwhile, a group of roughhewn tradesmen are rehearsing the play they hope to put on as part of the ruling Duke’s impending wedding. This time Puck gets it right, magically morphing the blowhard Nick Bottom into a Donkey-headed beast and enchanting Oberon’s disobedient Queen Titania with the braying prole.

Into this familiar, archetype-rich narrative, Taymor incorporates some incredible wire-work (at least she got something out of the Spiderman experience), the rich yet suggestive costuming (often reminiscent of her Lion King), her trademark billowing fabrics, sparingly effective use of video projections, and pillow fights. Believe it or not, almost all of it looks great on the screen.

However, the incontestable star of Taymor’s Shakespeare’s Midsummer is Kathryn Hunter, playing Puck in the Mary Martin tradition, but with a mischievous glean in her eye worthy of Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister. Taymor whips her around the stage like Spidey, yet she still totally nails the “if we shadows have offended” epilogue.

There are no weak links per se, but David Harewood’s physical presence as Oberon is pretty darned awesome. Likewise, Roger Clark plays the Duke with gravitas and good humor befitting a nobleman. To an extent, as Demetrius and Helena, Zach Appelman and Mandi Masden somewhat outshine a comparably blander Hermia and Lysander, but it hardly matters.

Filmed theater often looks a little flat, but Taymor makes it an immersive and kinetic cinematic experience. This will be a tough Midsummer to top, so it is great to have it so well preserved. Frankly, it easily ranks within the top tier of Shakespearean comedies for the big screen, up there with Trevor Nunn’s Twelfth Night and Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing. Very highly recommended, Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream screens this Monday (6/22) as a special Fathom Events presentation at theaters nationwide, including the AMC Empire in New York.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 19th, 2015 at 12:13pm.

By Joe Bendel. There is an ongoing fan debate whether zombies should be fast or slow. A recent Australian film manages to have it both ways. Its zombies are slow during the day, but fast at night. Why? During the day they exhale highly combustible zombie breath, but at night they retain it as super-charging zombie fuel. If you’re wondering how this works biologically, don’t ask me. I’m not the Mr. Wizard of zombies. Just accept it. After all, the zombie apocalypse survivors have to deal with it in Kiah & Tristan Roache-Turner’s Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, which opens this weekend as part of Sinister Cinema at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas up north.

One night, most of the world just up and turned into zombies. Only those with the right blood type live to experience the horrors. For some reason, fossil fuels like gasoline also stopped igniting, making getaways even trickier. Brooke manages to phone her brother Barry to warn him, but alas, he still has to cap his beloved wife and child. The despondent Barry will take refuge with Benny, an easy-going Aboriginal dude, a resourceful old-timer named Frank, and another dude you shouldn’t get too attached to.

Despite the horrific circumstances of his bereavement, Barry is still in a better position than Brooke, who is kidnapped by a sadistic hazmat-suited emergency research team. As a result of the disco-crazed mad scientist’s experiments, Brooke gains telepathic control over zombiekind. Things look bad for her nonetheless, but Barry and his fox-hole partners will head out on the highway looking for her, once they figure out how to harness the power of zombie breath.

Wyrmwood has some truly wacky ideas, but that is a good thing. Arguably, their zombie physiology is truly innovative within the shuffling dead canon. However, the ridiculously cruel scientist and his paramilitary associates are a bit of a tired cliché. Aren’t movie people supposed to be “pro-science?” Yet, they constantly invite us to cheer for the Luddite troglodytes whenever they bash scientists’ big, arrogant brains in with a tire-iron.

Regardless, the zombie mayhem is executed with high energy and the survivors’ bickering rapport somehow lures viewers into an emotional investment. The hat-tipping to the Mad Max and Living Dead franchises is also wryly amusing. Even though she has the more problematic narrative arc, Bianca Bradey is poised for geek superstardom with an outside chance of mainstream breakout potential after her action-oriented, screen-commanding turn as Brooke. She is nobody’s victim, that’s for sure.

Shot over several years, Wyrmwood is the sort of scrappy micro-budget underdog you have to root for. Suitably gory and just tongue-in-cheek enough to lighten the post-apocalyptic mood without getting excessive goofy, it serves up the sort of red meat fans crave. A heck of a calling card, it should be the start of something big for the Roache-Turner Brothers. Recommended for Zombie fans, Wyrmwood opens today (6/19) as a Sinister Cinema presentation at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 19th, 2015 at 12:12pm.

By Joe Bendel. Brothers Beckett and Samuel Emerson have very different ideas when it comes to supporting their dysfunctional family. The former has launched a counterfeit currency operation, while the latter performs Shakespeare on the streets of Santa Monica. You would think they might try something in between, like working retail. One thing’s for sure, their father’s compulsive gambling and binge drinking is not going to pay the bills. In fact, his debts are the start of all the trouble in Antonia Bogdanovich’s Phantom Halo, which opens today in New York.

There was a time when Warren Emerson was the most promising Shakespearean actor in the West End. Now he is just a drunken, abusive shell of a man. He taught Samuel to recite Shakespeare and little else. Each night, he tries to appropriate what little money his sons might have earned, stopping to berate Samuel when he catches him reading the Phantom Halo comic book. Beckett has already had a belly full of his father, even before his old London loan shark lays a beating on him as a warning to Warren.

Logically, Beckett proceeds to jumpstart a counterfeiting operation with a former reform school classmate. Frankly, Emerson never really liked the obnoxious Little Larry, but he thinks his mom, Ms. Rose, is hot. Perhaps buying a Bentley with their first batch is a bad idea, especially if they do not want to attract the attention of Little Larry’s former employer, who also happens to be his mother’s sugar daddy.

Whenever we hear Sebastian Roché reciting the Bard, we invariably think how much nicer it would be to see him in a proper Shakespeare production. He can make the classical language sing, but there’s not much he can do with Bogdanovich’s screenplay (co-written with Anne Heffron). It also seems like the severity of his abusiveness constantly vacillates from the sad drunk inadvertently hurting to ones he loves to a vicious emotional sadist. Either way, it is not a heck of a lot of fun spending time with him. Bizarrely, Bogdanovich tries to layer a low-rent Tarantino-esque crime caper over this bleak domestic horror story, adding a dash of Summer of ’42 for further tonal confusion.

As if the film were not odd enough, it features Rebecca Romijn as the Mrs. Robinson character. Still, it is sort of impressive that she took the part, since one would expect former models to try to play younger rather than older. Regardless, she is not the problem here. When the girl next door comes over at her father’s behest to extract Shylockian retribution for Samuel’s shoplifting, you know Bogdanovich (yes, the daughter of Peter, who signed on as executive producer) is trying way too hard to be hip or edgy. One can only imagine the valiant young actress asking “Seriously, I’m supposed to do what?”

Roché’s voiceovers are rich and sonorous and at least Romijn and Luke Kleintank are better together as Ms. Rose and Beckett than you might assume. It is also somewhat amusing to see Tobin Bell (Jigsaw in the Saw franchise) pop up as a gangster named Smashmouth (another colorful name for his resume). However, the narrative is a messy rat’s nest of flawed motivations and logical shortcomings, while the execution is painfully self-defeating. Not recommended but hard to hate on for its earnest clumsiness, Phantom Halo opens today (6/19) in New York at the Village 7.

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on June 19th, 2015 at 12:11pm.

By Joe Bendel. It must be a weird full circle experience for an East German defector like Sylvester Groth to now play a Stasi agent, but it is a role he would understand better than most. Groth’s Walter Schweppenstette is in fact the sort of spymaster who can dislodge poor Martin Rauch’s finger with perfect casualness. As a result, the shocked East German will now have an excuse for avoiding the piano while impersonating a West German General’s new aide-de-camp. Rauch did not ask for this assignment, but he will obey as best he can during the course of Deutschland ‘83, which premieres this Wednesday on SundanceTV.

Rauch was a loyal Communist border guard serving on the Wall that President Reagan will soon challenge Gorbachev to tear down. His aunt Lenora is a high-ranking Stasi strategist, who is pretty freaked out by Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech and his decision to deploy Pershing missiles in West Germany. Rather cold-bloodedly, she picks her nephew to impersonate Moritz Stamm, an orphaned junior officer loner who will soon report for duty under Gen. Wolfgang Edel, a prominent NATO liaison. Of course, Rauch is reluctant to leave his almost-fiancée Annett and his ailing mother Ingrid, but Lenora promises to arrange a transplant for her if he agrees, not that he has a choice.

The first two episodes of D83 screened at the Berlin Film Festival and they hang together as an initial arc pretty well. We can see perhaps hints of doubt being sown when Rauch, the ardent Marxist, first encounters a western supermarket. His superiors and colleagues are not exactly the reassuring types either, especially Aunt Lenora. However, it might be the freedom exercised by young West Germans that ultimately shakes Rauch’s convictions. After all, the peacenik chart-topper “99 Luftballoons” is a constant presence throughout the first two episodes.

As Lenora Rauch, Maria Schrader could well surpass Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood for stone cold Machiavellian villainy. Right from the start, she makes the show. Jonas Nay also shows promise as Rauch/Stamm, convincingly portraying his early overwhelmed naivety, while hinting at the resourcefulness and moral confliction to come. As Schweppenstette, Groth (best known for playing Goebbels not once, but twice in Inglorious Basterds and My Fuhrer) appropriately exudes malevolence and Ulrich Noethen quickly establishes Gen. Edel’s contradictory human dimensions. Unfortunately, Errol Trotman-Harewood seems to be trying for the cringiest ugly American stereotypes as blustery Gen. Arnold Jackson.

The period details of D83 are spot on, extending far beyond the music. Even in the early going, helmer Edward Berger keeps it tight and tense. The limited series also boasts a wealth of memorable performances from smaller but key supporting players, such as Lena Lauzemis as Rauch’s shadowy hotel contact. However, it is unclear how writer-co-creator Anna Winger will ultimately treat President Reagan. There do seem to be indications we are supposed to sympathize with the resistance to his Pershing deployment. Still, there is no denying he shook things up.

Overall, Deutschland ’83 shows considerable potential judging from the first two episodes. It must be the first German programming to air directly in America since the History Channel broadcast Dresden so it is nice to see SundanceTV taking chances. Espionage fans should be advised, it commences this Wednesday (6/17) on SundanceTV.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 15th, 2015 at 10:12pm.